Think grown-up Home Alone meets Promising Young Woman, but actually good.
What it's about
An altercation pits 16-year-old orphan Becky (Lulu Wilson) against a violent right-wing group known as the Noble Men. The result? A bloodbath for the ages.
The take
There’s not much to analyze in The Wrath of Becky, which might sound like a jab, but for grindhouse thrillers such as this, it comes as a compliment. The story is lean, the action is on point, and the dialogue is whipsmart. There is little to distract from the main attraction, which is the creatively gruesome ways in which everyone tries to kill each other.
It’s so simple, in fact, that you’d be forgiven for thinking this is a standalone film, instead of a sequel to an earlier movie, simply titled Becky. Efficiently, parts of the first installment appear as flashbacks here, but they’re hardly needed to convince us of Becky’s ferocious might. Wilson already does an excellent job with minimal but evocative gestures. Seann William Scott, too, is surprisingly terrifying as the head of the Neo-Nazi group out to get Becky. It’s easy enough to paint the incel as a villain, but to portray him with such palpable terror is a challenge that Scott steps up to.
What stands out
That ending. What a perfect way to expand what seemed like a self-contained world into a bigger, more exciting future. Marvel take note! This is how you set up sequels.