Tuesday, July 25, 2023

A Second Look: Elysian

 

Welcome back for another edition of A Second Look with Jeff Stockton! In this segment I will take a "second look" at a past LRF release with a fresh set of eyes.

Desert Dreams is the 11th collaboration between writers John Malone and Jimmy Ellis, so I thought now might be a good time to take a second look at their first film together... Elysian. 

Released back in Season 13, Elysian was a critical darling and decent box office success. The story is about a young scientist played by Alden Ehrenreich who uses his smarts to create a time machine to travel back in time a short period of time to stop his sister from dying in a mass cult suicide... but all is not as it seems with the cult. The film is anchored by a trio of strong leading performances from Ehrenreich as the young scientist, Shailene Woodley as his sister and Dan Stevens as the charismatic cult leader. 

Upon taking a second look at Elysian, the film is more or less as good as I remembered. Some of the time travel stuff is a bit clunkier than I remembered, but the performances and the emotional weight of the story help make up for this.

Original Grade: A-

New Grade: A-


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