Random Acts of Violence – A Frustratingly Tedious Experience

Being a big fan of Jay Baruchel, his voice is what Hollywood needs. When it comes to his latest film, Random Acts of Violence, he gives the film a neat atmosphere. Baruchel has talent in creating genuinely unsettling sequences through his use of images. Meanwhile, the film features a nice color palette. The grading gives it a comic book feel which in turn acted as a sort of meta commentary. Unfortunately, what hold it back is a good script. Its meta commentary certainly had the potential to be a lot of fun but in the end, it comes off more obnoxious than endearing. It’s a film that reeks of pretension, considering itself to be clever when at the end of the day, its derivative tropes are hardly subversive as the film makes no attempt to bring anything new to the table whatsoever.

Random Acts of Violence follows a comic book writer named Todd Walkley (Williams) and his publisher Ezra (Baruchel) who create a very disturbing and horrific comic series that would inspire a series of murders. This presented the opportunity for an unsettling depiction of how art can corrupt the mind. Is it the creators’ responsibility for putting ideas in the mind of their audiences thank to their art or is it the audiences’ responsibility for not understanding the meaning and concepts behind said art. While the film flirts with these concepts, it mostly focuses on the meta aspects of comic books. However, the film is so painfully predictable with its plot and messaging. The dialogue also feels forced and clunky. It tries to sound smart without ever being daring or new. Meanwhile. the characters feature little to no development. All of these combine to make an experience that will surely be difficult for many to engage with on a deeper level, something that is needed for films like these.

As a whole, Random Acts of Violence is a film that arguablly tries way too hard. Once audiences inevitably figure out all it has to offer, the overall tension drops significantly, leading to a onenote climax. There’s absolutely no nuance to be had here. The best scene in the film also highlights Baruchel’s skills as a director. A random group of teenagers a part of event with the character inspired Todd and Ezra’s comic series. This scene is absolutely eerie and gut wrenching to watch while the teens are already more relatable than the main characters in the film.

Random Acts of Violence is simply a frustrating watch that felt so pointless because the film is also too short (clocking in at a running time of 80 minutes) to do anything remotely noteworthy with that time. It’s a film that acknowledges comics and their impact on society before eventually wallowing in unearned excess. Ultimately, when it comes to films with meta commentary and interesting stylistic choices, they should come with a good screenplay and sadly this is what the film lacks.

still courtesy of Elevation Pictures

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Brett Schutt

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