Death of a Unicorn
Death of a Unicorn
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If they were to give an Oscar this year for casting directors—and they really should—I would get behind an FYC campaign for Avy Kaufman, a legend in the business who completely nails every role in the fun and gruesome “Death of a Unicorn.” Writer/director Alex Scharfman’s script is clever, but this truly feels like the kind of project that collapses with the wrong people in it. Every member of this film’s ensemble understood the assignment, elevating this unique creature feature from just another disposable “Jurassic Park” riff into something memorable through their comic timing and group chemistry. From Téa Leoni’s ability to hit a punchline to Richard E. Grant’s remarkable exuberance to what Anthony Carrigan can do with just a glance, there’s great joy in just watching this group of performers do their thing in “Death of a Unicorn,” a movie that recalls monster flicks from the ‘70s and ‘80s with brutal quality kills placed in a tapestry of social commentary and funny characters.
As the film opens, Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) is off to a massive estate in the Rockies to become a legal liaison for a pharmaceutical company head named Odell Leopold (Grant), whose cancer appears to be in its final stages. Kintner will help with the final days of a billionaire, someone whose name is on the massive wilderness retreat that he drives through with his daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega). As they discuss how their issues have been exacerbated by the recent loss of Ridley’s mother to disease, Elliot battles his seasonal allergies. The heated discussion and a vicious sneeze lead to a collision with a creature crossing the road that turns out to be … a unicorn.
At first, Elliot thinks they can hide the incident from the Leopolds, first braining the creature with a tire iron to put it out of its misery and then putting it in their car. He’ll bury it after their meeting with the Leopolds. But even he notices that the purple unicorn blood did something unusual, fixing Elliot’s sinus issues and clearing Ridley’s acne. When the Leopolds discover what’s going on, they move quickly to utilize the dead animal’s blood and horn for its curative properties, eliminating Odell’s cancer. Small problem? Not only is the creature not entirely dead, but it has some family members looking for it, and they’re really mad.
“Death of a Unicorn” was clearly inspired by “Jurassic Park”—I swear there’s even a music cue nod late in the film during a sequence that recalls the raptor attack—in both its structure and theme. It’s a story that Michael Crichton would have dug, one about the wealthy ignoring not only the signs in front of them but the history and the mythology of this world. When things go haywire, Ridley is the one who researches tales of unicorns to discover that they were often considered more T. Rex than My Little Pony. Scharfman’s script develops into a clever battle of incongruous goals, with Ridley trying to correct the error of that inciting incident while the Leopolds seek to profit off it at any cost. There’s a slightly undercooked commentary here about how the wealthy view everything, even what others consider impossible, as a means to profit, but it’s there if you look deep enough.
Back to the casting. Rudd is basically the straight man to the larger personalities around him, but he’s strong in selling the immediacy of the chaos from moment to moment. Grant is typically great, and it’s truly fun to see Leoni given a chance to remind viewers of her timing, but the standout for most viewers is likely to be Will Poulter as the obnoxious heir to the Leopold throne. He’s the kind of rich kid who owns a compound bow (that you just know he has used to illegally hunt) and jumps at the chance to get as high as possible on the unicorn supply. He’s a model of the selfish elite that sees something unimaginable and asks what it can do for them, an opportunist with unlimited opportunities. High praise also to “Barry” star Carrigan, who plays the servant Griff with such wonderful world-weariness that he gets a laugh every time he’s on screen.
“Death of a Unicorn” doesn’t connect all its thematic dots. Most of all, some of the material involving Ridley and Elliot’s grief feels shallow, a way to inject emotion into a flick that could have been a pure survival tale between the haves and the have-nots. Even worse, the CGI is so janky in the first half that I wondered if the film was even complete at its SXSW premiere. It feels like they saved much of the VFX budget for the final act when the unicorns look more tactile and are less like animated visions. It’s kind of insane to consider how the industry move to CGI has resulted in a creature feature that doesn’t look as realistic as “Jurassic Park” did over three decades ago. Part of the wonder of that masterpiece is the love and care put into the creatures in it—I wished I felt the same way about the unicorns here.
Having said that, when “Death of a Unicorn” basically becomes a John Carpenter slasher flick with unicorns instead of Michael Myers, I didn’t really care about its visual flaws. It’s silly fun at a time when it feels like we could all use an escape. And maybe a reminder to not mess with things we don’t completel
If they were to give an Oscar this year for casting directors—and they really should—I would get behind an FYC campaign for Avy Kaufman, a legend in the business who completely nails every role in the fun and gruesome “Death of a Unicorn.” Writer/director Alex Scharfman’s script is clever, but this truly feels like the kind of project that collapses with the wrong people in it. Every member of this film’s ensemble understood the assignment, elevating this unique creature feature from just another disposable “Jurassic Park” riff into something memorable through their comic timing and group chemistry. From Téa Leoni’s ability to hit a punchline to Richard E. Grant’s remarkable exuberance to what Anthony Carrigan can do with just a glance, there’s great joy in just watching this group of performers do their thing in “Death of a Unicorn,” a movie that recalls monster flicks from the ‘70s and ‘80s with brutal quality kills placed in a tapestry of social commentary and funny characters.
As the film opens, Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) is off to a massive estate in the Rockies to become a legal liaison for a pharmaceutical company head named Odell Leopold (Grant), whose cancer appears to be in its final stages. Kintner will help with the final days of a billionaire, someone whose name is on the massive wilderness retreat that he drives through with his daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega). As they discuss how their issues have been exacerbated by the recent loss of Ridley’s mother to disease, Elliot battles his seasonal allergies. The heated discussion and a vicious sneeze lead to a collision with a creature crossing the road that turns out to be … a unicorn.
At first, Elliot thinks they can hide the incident from the Leopolds, first braining the creature with a tire iron to put it out of its misery and then putting it in their car. He’ll bury it after their meeting with the Leopolds. But even he notices that the purple unicorn blood did something unusual, fixing Elliot’s sinus issues and clearing Ridley’s acne. When the Leopolds discover what’s going on, they move quickly to utilize the dead animal’s blood and horn for its curative properties, eliminating Odell’s cancer. Small problem? Not only is the creature not entirely dead, but it has some family members looking for it, and they’re really mad.
“Death of a Unicorn” was clearly inspired by “Jurassic Park”—I swear there’s even a music cue nod late in the film during a sequence that recalls the raptor attack—in both its structure and theme. It’s a story that Michael Crichton would have dug, one about the wealthy ignoring not only the signs in front of them but the history and the mythology of this world. When things go haywire, Ridley is the one who researches tales of unicorns to discover that they were often considered more T. Rex than My Little Pony. Scharfman’s script develops into a clever battle of incongruous goals, with Ridley trying to correct the error of that inciting incident while the Leopolds seek to profit off it at any cost. There’s a slightly undercooked commentary here about how the wealthy view everything, even what others consider impossible, as a means to profit, but it’s there if you look deep enough.
Back to the casting. Rudd is basically the straight man to the larger personalities around him, but he’s strong in selling the immediacy of the chaos from moment to moment. Grant is typically great, and it’s truly fun to see Leoni given a chance to remind viewers of her timing, but the standout for most viewers is likely to be Will Poulter as the obnoxious heir to the Leopold throne. He’s the kind of rich kid who owns a compound bow (that you just know he has used to illegally hunt) and jumps at the chance to get as high as possible on the unicorn supply. He’s a model of the selfish elite that sees something unimaginable and asks what it can do for them, an opportunist with unlimited opportunities. High praise also to “Barry” star Carrigan, who plays the servant Griff with such wonderful world-weariness that he gets a laugh every time he’s on screen.
“Death of a Unicorn” doesn’t connect all its thematic dots. Most of all, some of the material involving Ridley and Elliot’s grief feels shallow, a way to inject emotion into a flick that could have been a pure survival tale between the haves and the have-nots. Even worse, the CGI is so janky in the first half that I wondered if the film was even complete at its SXSW premiere. It feels like they saved much of the VFX budget for the final act when the unicorns look more tactile and are less like animated visions. It’s kind of insane to consider how the industry move to CGI has resulted in a creature feature that doesn’t look as realistic as “Jurassic Park” did over three decades ago. Part of the wonder of that masterpiece is the love and care put into the creatures in it—I wished I felt the same way about the unicorns here.
Having said that, when “Death of a Unicorn” basically becomes a John Carpenter slasher flick with unicorns instead of Michael Myers, I didn’t really care about its visual flaws. It’s silly fun at a time when it feels like we could all use an escape. And maybe a reminder to not mess with things we don’t completely understand.
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