the Perfect HostAppearances can be deceiving. Commonly accepted perceptions of a bank robber include someone who has no empathy for those he steals from, someone low and potentially violent; a villain. That's the impression we get about John Taylor (Clayne Crawford) from the onset of The Perfect Host, injured in a heist that should have been perfect, until he discovers his name is broadcast over the radio as the culprit. Then take a look at Warwick Wilson (David Hyde Pierce): He's affable, cultured, dresses in a suit for a pending dinner party. This is a man whose wholesome company we should expect to enjoy. But what do we know about appearances?
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Over the course of the roughly hour-and-a-half movie, The Perfect Host is fundamentally divided into three "acts". The first act concerns itself with the escape from authority for John, someone who appears to have a plan and is dangerous. He abandons a disguise and a getaway bike with his take in a drop site to be collected later. It's never made clear, but somehow John hurt his foot, and uses this to try to seek refuge in an affluent neighborhood following his vehicle being "made". Although John's girlfriend, Simone (Megahn Perry), observes in a flashback that he has done time for a bank robbery before, there is the sense that John has not learned his lessons in so many ways. He's making the attempt again, knowing full well the risks of incarceration, but he is caught in a version of Los Angeles where crime is a part of life. He misses his chance to procure disinfectant for his foot due to an impromptu armed robbery at a convenience store, and fails to catch a crucial detail when he pretends to be a Jehovah's witness to seek admission into a house for safety. Even when he believes he has cleverly deduced information about Warwick's spouse, "Julia", from a postcard--leveraging this to get off of the street--he assumes more than he actually knows about his apparently genteel new acquaintance. John and Warwick seem to get along swimmingly, and Warwick even offers for John to stay for a party he is preparing, offering him red wine and the chance to put his feet up. It is surprising when John suddenly reveals himself following a surprising broadcast over the radio--surprising to John--that a bank teller identified him regardless of his disguise, turning the deception into a hostage situation. But even this scenario gets upended in short order, when John discovers he has been drugged and is bound to a chair by his own hostage. And this is the first taking of pieces in what is to become an elaborate "chess match" between these two opponents.
Warwick's personality shifts dramatically at this juncture, and he is revealed to be not only crazy like a fox, but more importantly, crazy. Although John presumably had Warwick cancel his dinner party, Warwick's "guests" appear in his mind, with seats set, dinners placed, and even a conga line. Warwick threatens John with pictures of others like him who have fallen prey to his deception, and John desperately tries to escape from his captor in the three-piece suit. Much of the appeal of The Perfect Host is in the guessing game of who can top who in this battle of wills, and watching Warwick's insanity escalate, including such bizarre additions to his residence as monster movie masks and other props. Warwick carries on real conversations with his imaginary guests, and even more disturbing is that we frequently witness his madness from his point of view, so that we might--for a moment--be compelled to sympathize with Warwick's lunacy. In between bouts of being drugged by Warwick, John flashes back to the reasons he decided to risk the bank robbery, which serves to widen the gulf between his lifestyle and Warwick's, and underscores the smarminess of Warwick's comment following John's reveal as the bank robber that if he needed money, why didn't he just go out and "earn it". The class struggle between John and Warwick is also a core theme of The Perfect Host. Warwick underestimates John because he believes him to be beneath him, a common criminal from a common background in his delusional mind. John has disdain for Warwick's snobbery, his elitist attitude, and his superiority complex. John and Warwick parry and thrust as they attempt to outdo the other to their respective ends, in a dynamic reminiscent of Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Sleuth. The Perfect Host throws plenty of curveballs at us over the span of the film, which frequently keeps us on our toes, as expectations are subverted, with new courses introduced...not unlike the actions of the host at a party. Just hope the other guests are as real as you are.
Recommended for: Fans of a darkly comic romp that alters from mere cops-and-robbers hostage stuff into something strange and also very funny, with lots of twists and turns throughout.
Warwick's personality shifts dramatically at this juncture, and he is revealed to be not only crazy like a fox, but more importantly, crazy. Although John presumably had Warwick cancel his dinner party, Warwick's "guests" appear in his mind, with seats set, dinners placed, and even a conga line. Warwick threatens John with pictures of others like him who have fallen prey to his deception, and John desperately tries to escape from his captor in the three-piece suit. Much of the appeal of The Perfect Host is in the guessing game of who can top who in this battle of wills, and watching Warwick's insanity escalate, including such bizarre additions to his residence as monster movie masks and other props. Warwick carries on real conversations with his imaginary guests, and even more disturbing is that we frequently witness his madness from his point of view, so that we might--for a moment--be compelled to sympathize with Warwick's lunacy. In between bouts of being drugged by Warwick, John flashes back to the reasons he decided to risk the bank robbery, which serves to widen the gulf between his lifestyle and Warwick's, and underscores the smarminess of Warwick's comment following John's reveal as the bank robber that if he needed money, why didn't he just go out and "earn it". The class struggle between John and Warwick is also a core theme of The Perfect Host. Warwick underestimates John because he believes him to be beneath him, a common criminal from a common background in his delusional mind. John has disdain for Warwick's snobbery, his elitist attitude, and his superiority complex. John and Warwick parry and thrust as they attempt to outdo the other to their respective ends, in a dynamic reminiscent of Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Sleuth. The Perfect Host throws plenty of curveballs at us over the span of the film, which frequently keeps us on our toes, as expectations are subverted, with new courses introduced...not unlike the actions of the host at a party. Just hope the other guests are as real as you are.
Recommended for: Fans of a darkly comic romp that alters from mere cops-and-robbers hostage stuff into something strange and also very funny, with lots of twists and turns throughout.