Borderline (2023)

Episode 456, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: This week we are doing a brand new movie that came out in March of this year called Borderline starring Samara Weaving Ray Nicholson, who is Jack Nicholson’s son. Ah, written and directed by Jimmy Warden. Did you not realize that?

No. But now that you say it, it. Total sense. Super obvious, right? Like the guy Uhhuh, he was also in Smile, wasn’t he? Or Smile? Two, one of the two. Uh, one of them I think. Yeah. He was like perfect for that. He 

Craig: kind looks like his dad. Oh, he totally looks like his dad, in fact. And he’s kind of got that wild look about him.

That makes so I did not know that. And it makes so much. Sense. He’s 

Todd: pretty wild in this movie. He plays, uh, a guy named Paul Dorson, who is basically a stalker for a celebrity and this whole movie when you go Crazy person. Yeah, yeah. Crazy dude. Which makes the whole movie crazy. And I guess this is loosely based on a Madonna stalking in 1996.

Right. Hence the title. Borderline. Yeah. Yeah. Is that like a reference to her song? Yeah. Oh, it all, they play the song in the movie. It’s all coming back to me now. It’s, it’s a cover, another song they play in the 

Craig: movie. Oh, that’s a great song. That’s one of my favorite scenes. Don’t spoil it. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Todd: Yeah. In that case, I think there was a guy who confronted her body card and was going to, uh, said that he was going to slit her throat if she didn’t marry him. And then escaped a mental hospital later. Mm-hmm. But was, was caught again, so, uh, not, not too far off from, yeah. Quickly subject to this movie here, and I guess I didn’t realize this, but, uh, the writer director, Jimmy Warden, is married to Samara Weaving in real life.

Did you know that? Yeah. Yeah. 

Craig: I only because of this movie and because of researching it, I didn’t know that either. And I don’t know if they met on. The babysitter. 

Todd: Mm. 

Craig: But they both worked on that movie. Seems like it. And that was a movie we’ve done and we loved it. I loved that movie. I thought it was so good.

And that’s when I fell in love with Samara Weaving. And I am still desperately in love with her. Like I just think that she is stunningly gorgeous and a really unique. Cool way. She’s girl next door, but she’s also like a kick ass chick and uh, I just think she’s so cool. And yeah, they’re married. I think this is his directorial debut, at least with a feature length film, but he wrote.

Cocaine bear. Mm-hmm. Which I saw, and I really honest, I don’t remember a whole lot about it, but I do remember thinking that it was very funny. Like I was shocked at how good it was. I enjoyed it. Yeah. I, yeah, that was one of those, 

Todd: it’s one of those movies that feels like it. It’s a big joke. And so I didn’t really hold out a lot of hope for it, and then when I watched it I was like, oh my God.

Movie is hilarious. Yeah, I, I really enjoyed it. He does have a nice comic sensibility to him. The babysitter was just darkly comedic, almost disturbingly, so, and I thought, mm-hmm. Um, cocaine bear the same way. It’s just shocking. And then this movie really in the same vein in a way, although I felt like this movie was for me overall, felt a little slower.

At first, I was really on board with the pace and the speed of it, and then as it went on, I, I found myself kind of watching my, watching the clock a little bit. 

Craig: I think that’s kind of the general sentiment. I think response to it has been kind of middle of the road like. Some people like it, some people don’t.

Like you said, a common criticism is that it’s too slow. I, I honestly think that I just like this style and sense of humor so much, and I like Samara weaving so much that anytime she’s on. Screen, I am engaged. It wasn’t even an effort for me to overlook some of the slower parts. Well, I guess what I’m trying to get at is mm-hmm.

I’ve read the criticisms and I understand them and, and I think that people who are criticized that make valid points. Mm. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed it. It is one, one thing can just go ahead. I wanted to address really quick. Yeah. I, I mentioned this, uh, movie in our chat for our book club. Uh huh And a, a, a couple of people chimed in that this was a little bit dated in its approach to that whole crazy people.

Are the villains trope, oh, in so much as maybe it’s. Insensitive about mental illness or struggles with mental health, and frankly, I had never really thought of that because portrayals of people who are crazy in these movies are so over the top and cartoonish to me that it never occurs to me that we would associate that with.

Anything real. It’s right. It’s, yeah. So anyway, I just wanted to put it out there. I’m going to call this guy a crazy guy. I’m sorry. I hope that that doesn’t seem insensitive to anybody, and I don’t, I do understand the serious nature of people who struggle with their mental health, so I in no way mean any disrespect in that way, but I’m gonna call him crazy.

Todd: Yeah. I mean, okay, that’s all. It’s a horror movie. I think it’s, it’s a well made horror movie with a lot of art behind it. So obviously like it has high, it has higher pretensions and so I maybe that leads people to examine that with a closer lens. Yeah. But honestly, when you look back at all the horror movies that we do, most of the protagonists or crazy right?

Like, you know, but they’re co right. It’s all right. Right. 

Craig: Yeah. It’s part and parcel of the, of the genre. I think the concern is that it stigmatizes people with mental health struggles. Sure. And I just, I understand that concern. I just don’t see it that way. I don’t think the portrayals that we see, we have talked about this many, many times of like.

Mental institutions or whatever, that