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| Slice (2018) |
In case you didn't know, A24 is one of the great purveyors of modern cinema. Since 2013, the studio has found a way to innovate independent cinema by turning each release into an event. As a result, A24 A-to-Z will be an ongoing series that looks at every release from the studio by analyzing its production history, release, criticisms, and any awards attention that it might've received. Join me on a quest to explore the modern heroes of cinema by exploring every hit and miss that comes with that magnificent logo. They may not all be great, but they more than make A24 what it is and what it will hopefully continue to be for years to come.
Released: September 11, 2018
Release Number: 73
Directed By: Austin Vesely
Starring: Zazie Beetz, Chance the Rapper, Rae Gray
Plot: When a pizza delivery driver is murdered on the job, the city searches for someone to blame: Ghosts? Drug dealers? A disgraced werewolf?
Following the real-life horror story of being locked away in a prison in A Prayer Before Dawn, A24 transitions to a more palatable style of scares. In this case, it's about Middle America and the supernatural. Director Austin Vesely's Slice had a lot of promising angles going for it, including the noteworthy premise of having a pizza delivery boy who uncovered dark and twisted secrets. There was also the inclusion of Veseley's longtime collaborator in the world of music, Chance the Rapper, who would be billed in the film as Chance Bennett. It would be the famed musician's first film and there was the promise of seeing if he had the capabilities of making it in the industry, especially in the hands of a studio known for giving actors some of the most interesting turns of their careers imaginable. While there hasn't been much time to process the legacy of Slice yet, the idea of Bennett adding "The Actor" to his moniker doesn't seem likely, even if the film is at best destined for cult status.
The story begins with Vesely coming up with the bare structure of the idea: pizza delivery man and werewolves. Considering his relationship with Chance the Rapper, he began to write the part for him. The story was initially pitched as a TV series, starting with a short that was going to borrow inspiration from the realism often seen in Edgar Wright movies. The spec script would even have images posted online, believing that it was going to get somewhere. After all, Vesely and Bennett had worked together for years on music videos and the musician's rise in popularity in recent years suggested that it would be easier to get the project off the ground. As it developed into the final script, it was looking more like its own beast, free of realism. Vesely believed that he could make something more interesting by having the idea of ghosts bothering people in the parking lots of Middle America, which is an environment that he had grown up in and wanted to pay tribute to.
Bennett was the easiest person to get on board. Once everyone else was on board, they began shooting around August 2016 in Joliet, Illinois. Vesely would claim that everyone was a lot friendlier than he would have expected. If he wanted to borrow a car for a scene, the residents were more than willing to be supportive. Many issues arose throughout the filming of the scene, including the death of a close relative to actor Paul Scheer. Because of this, production would be shut down for roughly a week. However, some scenes were shot prior to his absence over the course of a day. Scheer would suggest that what made first time director Vesely such a great director was his willingness to collaborate and bring everything to the film and make it as great of a story as possible. The area was also close to Bennett, who grew up in Chicago and gave the city a shoutout when he claimed that one of his deliveries were in the area code "312," which would've been downtown Chicago.
There was anticipation around Bennett's premiere as an actor, and A24 tried to play into it. Once the film was completed, the marking campaign began almost immediately. Since the film took place largely at a pizza shop, they decided to do parodies of famous American chains all getting brutally "sliced" into violent pieces. Along with an official trailer, teaser posters were released that parodied such companies as Little Caesar's, Dominos, and Pizza Hut:
There was a small contingent who was worried that the film would never be released given its long delay between scripting, shooting, and releasing. Some argued that it was in development hell. There was so much mystery around the film that it quickly became one of A24's most anticipated movies when it was confirmed for a late-2018 release. Even then, the trajectory of the film wasn't consistent and soon the film found itself fading into obscurity. By that point A24 had no choice but to make their big Halloween season release into a limited, one night only release. Not even the fact that it had Deadpool 2's Zazie Beetz in a supporting role or the future Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Goransson doing the music could help it. By the end, it was released through video on demand the day after its screening on September 10, 2018, proving just how much it wasn't going to be Bennett's runaway success story.
The results weren't terrible for the film. Slice would go on to receive a 55% on critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Despite its low score, it wasn't the worst-rated from A24. Katie Rife of AV Club leads the criticism of the film's endless series of plots by claiming "With so many elements in play, the effect is like putting a dozen toppings onto a pizza." Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting furthered the debate when suggesting "An 83-minute film that somehow feels stretched out longer than it should be, both because of pacing issues and because there's zero mystery behind the central narrative mystery. A puerile comedy with bursts of greatness." Still, it wasn't without its supporters, such as Richard Roeper of Chicago-Sun Times who said that "The insanely zany storyline and the energetic performances, and yes, Chance eventually transforming into a werewolf - all of it kept me entertained throughout, and bless this movie's black little heart for that." Adding to the defense was Rotten Tomatoes' later column called "Rotten Movies We Loved from 2018," which had the film in second place and defended it by saying that "The film is definitely a pizza with way too many toppings – Werewolves! Witches! Mozzarella! – but sometimes (say, late at night, when the munchies kick in), that’s exactly what you crave."
For what it's worth, Slice was neither a runaway success nor an outright failure. It was another movie that at best failed to capture the market in spite of one of A24's more inspired marketing campaigns in 2018. In this case, trying to launch Chance the Rapper into the acting category proved to be the biggest problem of all, in part because of the story but also maybe because he didn't have enough charisma to lead the crew. The movie is fine, likely to gain a cult audience as the years go on. Up next is yet another shift for A24 in tone. Whereas Slice was a film full of cheap thrills, The Children Act was fighting to be the studio's biggest chance at Oscar glory with a serious drama based on a novel by Atonement author Ian McEwan. Much like Slice, neither quite met their target, though not without fascinating results.
Up Next: The Children Act (2018)
Following the real-life horror story of being locked away in a prison in A Prayer Before Dawn, A24 transitions to a more palatable style of scares. In this case, it's about Middle America and the supernatural. Director Austin Vesely's Slice had a lot of promising angles going for it, including the noteworthy premise of having a pizza delivery boy who uncovered dark and twisted secrets. There was also the inclusion of Veseley's longtime collaborator in the world of music, Chance the Rapper, who would be billed in the film as Chance Bennett. It would be the famed musician's first film and there was the promise of seeing if he had the capabilities of making it in the industry, especially in the hands of a studio known for giving actors some of the most interesting turns of their careers imaginable. While there hasn't been much time to process the legacy of Slice yet, the idea of Bennett adding "The Actor" to his moniker doesn't seem likely, even if the film is at best destined for cult status.
The story begins with Vesely coming up with the bare structure of the idea: pizza delivery man and werewolves. Considering his relationship with Chance the Rapper, he began to write the part for him. The story was initially pitched as a TV series, starting with a short that was going to borrow inspiration from the realism often seen in Edgar Wright movies. The spec script would even have images posted online, believing that it was going to get somewhere. After all, Vesely and Bennett had worked together for years on music videos and the musician's rise in popularity in recent years suggested that it would be easier to get the project off the ground. As it developed into the final script, it was looking more like its own beast, free of realism. Vesely believed that he could make something more interesting by having the idea of ghosts bothering people in the parking lots of Middle America, which is an environment that he had grown up in and wanted to pay tribute to.
Bennett was the easiest person to get on board. Once everyone else was on board, they began shooting around August 2016 in Joliet, Illinois. Vesely would claim that everyone was a lot friendlier than he would have expected. If he wanted to borrow a car for a scene, the residents were more than willing to be supportive. Many issues arose throughout the filming of the scene, including the death of a close relative to actor Paul Scheer. Because of this, production would be shut down for roughly a week. However, some scenes were shot prior to his absence over the course of a day. Scheer would suggest that what made first time director Vesely such a great director was his willingness to collaborate and bring everything to the film and make it as great of a story as possible. The area was also close to Bennett, who grew up in Chicago and gave the city a shoutout when he claimed that one of his deliveries were in the area code "312," which would've been downtown Chicago.
There was anticipation around Bennett's premiere as an actor, and A24 tried to play into it. Once the film was completed, the marking campaign began almost immediately. Since the film took place largely at a pizza shop, they decided to do parodies of famous American chains all getting brutally "sliced" into violent pieces. Along with an official trailer, teaser posters were released that parodied such companies as Little Caesar's, Dominos, and Pizza Hut:
The results weren't terrible for the film. Slice would go on to receive a 55% on critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Despite its low score, it wasn't the worst-rated from A24. Katie Rife of AV Club leads the criticism of the film's endless series of plots by claiming "With so many elements in play, the effect is like putting a dozen toppings onto a pizza." Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting furthered the debate when suggesting "An 83-minute film that somehow feels stretched out longer than it should be, both because of pacing issues and because there's zero mystery behind the central narrative mystery. A puerile comedy with bursts of greatness." Still, it wasn't without its supporters, such as Richard Roeper of Chicago-Sun Times who said that "The insanely zany storyline and the energetic performances, and yes, Chance eventually transforming into a werewolf - all of it kept me entertained throughout, and bless this movie's black little heart for that." Adding to the defense was Rotten Tomatoes' later column called "Rotten Movies We Loved from 2018," which had the film in second place and defended it by saying that "The film is definitely a pizza with way too many toppings – Werewolves! Witches! Mozzarella! – but sometimes (say, late at night, when the munchies kick in), that’s exactly what you crave."
For what it's worth, Slice was neither a runaway success nor an outright failure. It was another movie that at best failed to capture the market in spite of one of A24's more inspired marketing campaigns in 2018. In this case, trying to launch Chance the Rapper into the acting category proved to be the biggest problem of all, in part because of the story but also maybe because he didn't have enough charisma to lead the crew. The movie is fine, likely to gain a cult audience as the years go on. Up next is yet another shift for A24 in tone. Whereas Slice was a film full of cheap thrills, The Children Act was fighting to be the studio's biggest chance at Oscar glory with a serious drama based on a novel by Atonement author Ian McEwan. Much like Slice, neither quite met their target, though not without fascinating results.
Up Next: The Children Act (2018)
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