Fuhrman, Isabelle

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    ‘Orphan: First Kill’ Review: Still Slashing After All These Years

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    Isabelle Fuhrman, who in “Orphan” had to be convincing as a child of age 9, reprises her role 13 years later in this prequel set two years earlier.While no classic, “Orphan” (2009), starring Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard as parents to a homicidal adoptee, deserves a place in the pantheon of bad-seed thrillers, both for Farmiga’s commitment to the assignment and one jolt so outrageously fatuous it somehow plays as brilliant.Now there is “Orphan: First Kill,” a belated prequel with a different director (the flat-footed William Brent Bell instead of the first movie’s Jaume Collet-Serra). Looking like it was shot on a cheap video format, it lacks the original’s scares and suavity, apart from an early escape set piece designed to resemble a fluid take. But the sheer derangement of its plot and a bizarre casting gambit make it more interesting than standard straight-to-streaming schlock.Start with the casting: How could Isabelle Fuhrman, who 13 years ago had to be convincing as a child of age 9, reprise the role in her 20s, on the heels of her acclaimed turn as a monomaniacal college rower in “The Novice”? Through a combination of doubles, stagecraft and sly tricks with framing and optics — Fuhrman’s face and feet are almost never clearly seen in the same shot — the filmmakers have metamorphosed her within license.The actress’s resurrection of her murderous character — who here sometimes edges into camp, playing piano with bloody hands or swigging vodka in an airplane lavatory — may be the movie’s most grounded aspect. The plot, set in 2007, follows Leena (as her real name turned out to be) as she worms her way from Estonia to Connecticut, where she impersonates the missing child of an affluent couple (Julia Stiles and Rossif Sutherland).If “Orphan” was an unlikely showcase for Farmiga, “Orphan: First Kill” gives red meat to Stiles, who plays a protective mother with surprising gusto.Orphan: First KillRated R. Kills, none of them Leena’s first. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. Watch on Paramount+. More

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      ‘The Last Thing Mary Saw’ Review: God Is Always Watching

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      In this thriller set in a Calvinist household in 1843, two women in love struggle against both patriarchal and supernatural forces to be together.“The Last Thing Mary Saw,” as a name, might lead viewers to believe that the titular character has seen some unspeakable horror just before her death. In fact — and this is no spoiler — she has seen such terrors just before having her eyes gouged out. Such is the beguiling, nasty nature of this first feature from the writer-director Edoardo Vitaletti, set at a Calvinist household in 1843.Mary (Stefanie Scott) is the black sheep of her strict, upper-class family. She has fallen in love with their maid, Eleanor (Isabelle Fuhrman), and seems barely interested in hiding it. As Mary’s parents turn to the family’s eerie matriarch (Judith Roberts) for guidance, Mary and Isabelle plan their escape with the help of the downtrodden family guard, Theodore (P.J. Sosko). This main narrative is apparently a retelling, introduced during an interrogation between Mary — now blindfolded, with blood dripping from her eye sockets — and the town constable.Though this is a slow, at times plodding film, it holds more intricacies than that plot summary alone can convey. Each member of Mary’s family has a distinct role in her persecution, and she and Eleanor try to evade them several times before a grisly climax. As a result, “The Last Thing Mary Saw” is as surprising as it is frustrating. Art house horror fans may delight in its supernatural twists and pitch-dark ending, but these mechanisms only serve to muddy the story. In act two, a funeral goes awry and an anonymous villain (Rory Culkin) wreaks havoc, but it is completely unclear how or why any of these agitating events ensue. At best, the film may offer a criticism of a vengeful Christian god — at worst, it paints its lesbian protagonist as a contemptible sinner who was always destined for punishment.The Last Thing Mary SawNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. Watch on Shudder. More

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      ‘The Novice’ Review: A Freshman Effort Worthy of Varsity

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      The obsessive ambitions of a college rower are masterfully orchestrated in a debut feature by the writer-director Lauren Hadaway.In “The Novice,” the impressive debut feature from the writer-director Lauren Hadaway, Alex (Isabelle Fuhrman) is a college freshman who finds purpose in the masochistic ecstasy of team rowing.Alex isn’t suited to the demands of her sport. She’s not as strong as her crew mates, and she’s not as team-oriented as they are either. But she becomes obsessed with rowing, driven to achieve her goal of making the school’s varsity squad, even if her incessant efforts alienate her peers and coaches. Not even Alex’s first queer romance with Dani (Dilone), a confident teaching assistant, can draw Alex out of her fixation. She begins her season as a novice, and threatens to end it as a zealot.Hadaway has crafted a film that thematically and visually resembles Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash,” for which she served as a sound editor. But where Chazelle’s film followed a protagonist with world-class aspirations, the modest scale of Alex’s ambitions keeps “The Novice” more grounded as a character study, and helps the film steer clear of overblown statements about success. The protagonist merely wishes to be the worst rower on her team’s best boat.Without the pressure of narrative grandeur, Hadaway is free to go big in her filmmaking style. She uses maximalist techniques like slow motion, rapid editing and deep space staging to create dreamlike sequences of Alex’s isolation. Fuhrman’s performance matches the filmmaking for its intensity. The movie achieves a surreal allure — at times, it’s hard to pay attention to the dialogue because the images and the sound design are already communicating so much. If the story’s hero can only aspire to the middle of the pack, the beginner behind the camera shows no such limitations.The NoviceRated R for intense sequences of distress, language, brief nudity, and some sexual content. Running time: 1 hours 34 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More