Living With B

This is your warning that this review may contain spoilers… Read at your own risk.

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‘Death of a Unicorn‘ directed by Alex Scharfman is about when Elliot and Ridley accidently hit and kill a unicorn with their car and his boss tries to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties — with horrific results.

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first thoughts

I loved the idea of this! Ugly unicorns, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, AND Paul Rudd? Take my money, A24! Take. My. Money! I found the trailer interesting but knew that last year was full of flops (in my opinion) for A24, so I went in with low expectations but was still excited to watch this!

main characters

Elliott

Elliot, portrayed by Paul Rudd, is a single father who is also an attorney. He is trying to care for his daughter while also ensuring they have enough money to live. The character is not horrible, and I found that he was trying his best to connect with his grieving daughter. But it felt like someone was trying to make Rudd funny instead of just letting him be funny. I enjoy Rudd and I do think he is a funny guy, but I didn’t find this character to be anything other than a Walmart version of Rudd.

Ridley

Ridley, portrayed by Jenna Ortega, is a daughter and college student. There isn’t much to say about her, and this isn’t due to Ortega. In the beginning, it felt like they developed the stereotypical liberal college student who has parental problems. As the movie went on, it felt like she was a bit more fleshed out but there was still something left to be desired with the character.

Odell

Odell, portrayed by Richard E. Grant, is a rich man who is sicker than a dog. He is unlikeable and greedy beyond belief. I enjoyed Grant’s portrayal but don’t have much to say about him other than the fact that he is a greedy, greedy man.

Belinda

Belinda, played by Tea Leoni, is the wife of Odell and a key partner in their pharmaceutical empire. She is also greedy and unlikeable but is funny at times.

Shepard

Shepard, played by Will Poulter, is the adult child of Odell and Belinda and is a snobby rich kid with too much time and money on his hands. He is impossibly dumb (but also kind of smart), but extremely funny thanks to Poulter. I love seeing him in movies and films alike, and was ecstatic that he portrayed this character who is honestly, quite hard to like.

Dr. Bhatia & Dr. Song

Dr. Bhatia, played by Sunita Mani, and Dr. Song, played by Steve Park, are two live-in doctors for Odell and Belinda. There’s not much to say about them, but they’re just there to do the job they were hired to do. We don’t get a long time with them, but they are seemingly rememberable.

Griff

Griff, played by Anthony Carrigan, is a part of the staff at Odell and Belinda’s home. He is the highlight of the movie for me. I enjoy watching Carrigan in movies and his timing is unmatched for me.

final thoughts

This was a fun film that I would watch again. It is not a good movie, per se, but I don’t think it’s a bad movie either. The gore was fun, the characters were funny, and the movie did what it was set to do: to have a fun time. It did seem to drag at times and it didn’t seem like they truly knew what arcs they wanted to have, but I still enjoyed it!

do i recommend this movie?

Sure! If you want a silly movie that you don’t have to pay attention to 100% of the time, this is good! It’s fun, with a fresh plot, and overall fun dynamics.

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