My Movie Review of 2017's "It"

Movie Review: It (2017)

I must confess that I didn’t have particularly high-minded ambitions for this film as I had been (and still am) an avid watcher of the iconic 1990 mini-series with a stellar performance by the great Tim Curry as the demonic clown, Pennywise. Embarrassingly, this deeply disturbing interpretation of Stephen King’s novel character is one whose face often intruded in my nightmares growing up.

It seems that this 2017 redux helmed by the up-and coming Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise could eclipse the seemingly insurmountable effort of 1990.

The film starts with the familiar yet wonderfully revivified scene of little Georgie Denbrough (played by Jackson Robert Scott) chasing his paper boat down the street of an indiscriminate suburban town (my fellow “It” enthusiasts invariably know this town to be Derry, Maine) which articulation of the street circumnavigates into the sewer.

It is here where the only somewhat dormant nightmares of my youth burst through the previously-locked door from my subconscious to my most immediate preoccupation.

Skarsgard’s Pennywise rears its clownish façade and beckons Georgie forward to get his boat back. The sanguinary scene that follows is short and yet eternal in the minds of any viewer.

We are also introduced to Georgie’s older brother and stuttering aficionado Bill (Jaeden Liberher). Bill, guilt-ridden for having built Georgie that boat, resolves to band together with 6 other adolescents of similarly unfortunate social standing, whom collectively form the loving and ironically-named “Loser’s club”, to set out to mount a response to the demonic Pennywise who has perpetually terrorized Derry over untold epochs.

While the path is admittedly familiar, it is by no means worn.  In my viewing of the film, there was a surprising sense of unfamiliarity that stole over me when that boat fell into the sewer and lasted through the length of the film. In that vein, I was particularly surprised at my grapple with the unfamiliar when I watched the scene involving the sole Y-chromosome possessing “loser”, Beverly Marsh (played by Sophia Lillis) and her conflict with a blood-spewing sink in her bathroom. I suspect that avid watchers of the mini-series will be keenly familiar.

There is also a disarming plethora of humor and wit scattered about the film, owed in large part to Bill’s bespectacled and loudmouthed friend, Richard Tozier (played by Stranger Things star Finn Woldhard who appears here in wonderful form), aptly nicknamed “Trashmouth Tozier”. I heartily declare, unironically, that I spent a wonderfully odd and inordinate amount of time laughing.

The most splendid moment of unexpected laughter I experienced concerns a dementedly wonderful and mordant dance Pennywise does. So as not to trespass on the experience for anyone else, I will not elaborate as I am supremely confident that virgin viewers (watching the film for the first time) of the film will immediately identify the moment I enigmatically dote upon.

As I hope is evident to the reader, I am being careful, I daresay scrupulous in avoiding giving too much away while also giving you a sense of the “spirit” of the film.  Anyone who has seen the miniseries will be aware that there are two parts to this story, the first involving the loser’s club as kids and the second involving them as adults.

I feel that I can be relatively uncontroversial and yet somewhat bold in saying that the film ends with the loser’s club swearing a blood oath to return to Derry should Pennywise emerge in 27 years and lay him down to sleep once and for all.

This is a great film that masterfully tows the line between the iconic and the contemporary and the viewer will likely feel as I did, a juxtaposed combination of déjà vu and modernity.

Go see It. It was awesome.