The Bad Batch is a movie you might not have heard about until recently. Most people are discovering it thanks to this picture of Keanu Reeves that has a lot of folks scratching their heads:
Some people believed that Reeves was actually playing the iconic drug lord Pablo Escobar. Not the case. His character’s name is “The Dream” and.. well, why don’t you watch the trailer and see if that helps out at all?
…What?
Still confused? Okay, let’s see if we can make this a little more digestible. Actually, that might be a poor choice of words since The Bad Batch is described as a post-apocalyptic cannibal love story. Written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), this is a star-studded affair that also brings together Jason Momoa, Jim Carrey, Diego Luna, and Giovanni Ribisi.
What we know of the plot is this: in a post-apocalyptic Mexico, it’s every person for themselves. And with food in short supply, cannibalism has become an acceptable form of survival. In the midst of this is a cult led by Reeves’s character who goes by the name “The Dream.” His visual style certainly echoes that of Pablo Escobar, but it’s nothing more than a clever visual inspiration. He seems to have carved out a little slice of paradise in the middle of Hell. The lead character Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) looks like she’ll have to fend off a cannibal collective led by Jason Momoa’s Miami Man in order to get to this refuge. But I’m betting that this oasis is not all it’s cracked up to be. And it looks like she’ll lose a few body parts to the dinner table before it’s all over.
The Bad Batch looks like it’s going to make fans of Nicolas Winding Refn and other outsider genre cinema very happy. You probably won’t want to sit the whole family down for this one. But, if weirdo cinema is your fandom, The Bad Batch is not going to be one to miss.
The Bad Batch will open on June 23.
