SXSW Review: Death of a Unicorn
All you have to do is mention the studio A24 and cinephiles shudder with excitement. Ever since Everything Everywhere All at Once won the Best Picture Oscar following its 2022 release, the studio has churned out well-received movie after well-received movie and it’s no coincidence. When things are going well, it obviously gives off the illusion that things are going well, and then the perfect cycle morphs into something like “Barbie Land”. To A24’s credit, they take chances on wild concepts and risky narratives, and perhaps none have been more bonkers than Alex Scharfman’s Death of a Unicorn.
Following the loss of their family’s matriarch to cancer, Elliot (played by Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) have had trouble connecting. Meanwhile, Elliot has consumed himself with work and his company’s wealthy owner, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), has invited him and his daughter to visit their lavish estate. En route to the mogul’s remote mansion, Elliot and Ridley hit a unicorn and discover the immensely profitable healing properties of the dead mythical creature’s body.
If the premise sounds insane, that’s because it is. Writer and director, Alex Schwarfman, transforms everything we thought we knew and loved about unicorns into an unfathomable horror comedy that blends elements of creepy folklore with copious amounts of gore and brutality. Death of a Unicorn’s most redeeming quality is it’s brash sarcastic and dark humor. The script is relentless with its jokes, most notably at the hands of Will Poulter’s committedly over-the-top performance and inherent knack for generating laughs, but it’s just as unwavering with its outrageously graphic unicorn murder scenes. This bizarre concoction of ingredients makes for an undoubtedly unique but also uneven ride.
Death of a Unicorn also masquerades as a sharp piece of social commentary calling out corporate greed and economic puppet mastery. However, these thematic elements merely serve as a contextual backdrop rather than insightful ideas for Schwarfman to explore in greater detail. As a result, Death of a Unicorn stands as nothing more than mindlessly fun entertainment that welcomes brutal death sequences at the expense of wealthy socialite characterizations with whom the audience inherently desires to root against. It’s such low hanging fruit and it’s troublesome to think that A24 would even welcome such fluff. It’s as if A24 decided to produce a Sharknado film. There’s only so much a studio can do.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge Death of a Unicorn’s CGI. When you’re given a movie about a mythical beast nowadays, the most effective and realistic way to bring them to the bring screen is through visual effects. While the unicorns admittedly look pretty good, the heavy dose of CGI needed in the film does grow more noticeable as the minutes mount. Needless to say, there are some movies that make us laugh, ones that can bring us to tears, and others are simply made to entertain. It’s hard to pinpoint why exactly this film came into existence. Outside of some cheap laughs and the greatest unicorn murder scenes ever put to screen (is there an Oscar for that???), Death of a Unicorn takes a supremely talented cast and allows them to waste away behind one of the most ridiculous and unnecessary scripts I’ve ever encountered.
Grade: 2 stars out of 5
