By DEIRDRE CRIMMINS
Starring Hal Baum, Jiana Nicole and Jack Dunphy
Written and directed by Alex Phillips
Reel Suspects
Writer/director Alex Phillips has made quite an impression after just two feature films. His first, ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS, was an absurdist yet joyful look at male friendship and, well, worms. In the hands of another filmmaker, it might have felt too precious or too fractured, but Phillips steered it into a singular experience with impressive will. His follow-up movie ANYTHING THAT MOVES, a world premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, is a continuation of that voice and style, with much more focus and a few more penes.
ANYTHING THAT MOVES builds on Phillips’ obvious love for handheld 16mm film. He uses an abundance of tight shots, a swiftly moving camera and an occasional disinterest in a focused, static frame. The movie starts out with a near avant-garde scene of sex in the great outdoors. The disarming style establishes that Phillips will not be following any commercial or overly polished guardrails. The fact that the scene centers on female pleasure, including a bright warm light and fairy-tale jingle to signal the climax, only further establishes this as a film creating its own rules.
The central character is Liam (Hal Baum), a bicycling food courier who happens to deliver orgasms along with sandwiches ordered on the SNAXX app. Liam seems like a pretty happy guy: He rides all over Chicago, brings people what they want on multiple levels and is off to the next gig. He is patient and non-judgmental, and seems to completely respect his clients. So where is the horror in all this? Soon into the film, Liam’s clients start dying. They are violently killed, each with a wide hole bored into their skulls, and each with a clue left behind in their meaty cranium. Liam allegedly is the last to see these people alive, and the cops are hot on his trail.
The cops are played and shot as heightened and dramatic gumshoes straight out of any 1970s Italian giallo. The colorful lighting and aggressive manners are clear homage to the beloved horror subgenre and mix well with the serial-killer storyline; none of this feels out of place. Phillips’ nostalgia for older cinematic styles complements this retro story, rather than fighting it.
Even with this affection for older modes of filmmaking, ANYTHING THAT MOVES feels quite modern. The murder-mystery plot creates intrigue and a bit of suspense, and the terrific score by Cue Shop spans a multitude of approaches and tempos, adapting and elevating each scene. But perhaps most impressive of all is the film’s sex-positive message. ANYTHING THAT MOVES never shames or even judges the characters for enjoying carnal acts, and celebrates each encounter for the joy it brings to those involved. Though there might be characters within the narrative who do not share that view, they are the outliers with their anti-pleasure views.
ANYTHING THAT MOVES is a prime example of a filmmaker beginning to settle into their own voice in his sophomore film. Phillips builds on his visual style and storytelling skills and delivers a film more accessible, more polished and more naked (literally) than before.
