BODIES BODIES BODIES: A Review Of The Gen Z Murder Mystery

Introduction

In this latest entry in the A24 canon, a weekend of wild partying gives way to a night of hijinks and murder. Cinema Scholars presents its review of the new film Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, directed by Halina Reijn and starring Rachel Sennott, Maria Bakalova, and Pete Davidson.

Plot

Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) brings along her new girlfriend, Bee (Maria Bakalova) to a weekend getaway at the home of her childhood best friend David (Pete Davidson). There, a group of old friends is hosting a “hurricane party” at the secluded mansion, planning to drink their way through the impending storm. Tensions are subtle but immediate.

Bee, who is a working-class immigrant, finds herself out of place with Sophie’s rich friends and, by extension, Sophie herself. These friends include the passive-aggressive Jordan (Myha’la Herrold), David’s sweet-but-vapid girlfriend Emma (Chase Sui Wonders), and fledgling podcaster Alice (Rachel Sennott), and Alice’s latest boyfriend Greg (Lee Pace), a Gen X hanger-on who raises some serious red flags.

As the booze-and-coke-fueled festivities rage on into the night, the group decides to play their favorite slumber party game “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” a role-playing murder mystery. Everyone draws cards, one among them randomly chosen to be the killer. The power goes out, fights ensue, and before long the gang has a real dead body on their hands, but no idea who the killer could be, other than it must be one of them.

Analysis

While the tension over who-killed-who never relents, Bodies Bodies Bodies seems less interested in the whodunnit mystery than in just enjoying the chaos as it plays out in real-time. There is a vicious satirizing of Gen Z culture, though notably, and thankfully, less to do with youth dependence on technology than one would think. Not that the films shy away from these critiques. While cyber-stalking the kids she’s about to spend the weekend with, Bee is assured by Sophie that “they’re not as nihilistic as they look on the internet.” Social media itself plays an important role in the story’s final act.

However, the film is essentially a booze-and-drug-fueled comedy of errors, albeit one with ample bloodshed, which is a fairly timeless tale. However, at the heart of its scathing satire, rather, is not the social barrier of modern technology or contemporary youth hedonism, but the specter of intra-class conflict. One particularly incisive sequence involves two characters arguing over whether one is, in fact, upper-middle class. The fact that they are arguing these semantics while literally covered in blood is not lost on the audience.

Cast & Crew

The cast excels, with Rachel Sennott as a particular standout. She had her breakout in Shiva Baby (2020), and her knack for comedy is once again on display. Halina Reijn also proves to be a competent director in her English-language debut. She has a strong visual eye, which is bolstered by a screenplay from Sarah DeLappe and Kristen Roupenian. It will be interesting to see what future work may come from all of them.

Conclusion

Bodies Bodies Bodies is funny, and it’s mean, packing a real punch that other films that attempt satire lack the bite to. There are definitely other films it borrows from. These range from the obvious like Clue (1985), to the more obscure, such as The Exterminating Angel (1962), directed by Luis Buñuel, a fellow lifelong critic of the bourgeoisie. Bodies Bodies Bodies is fun and irreverent, but it’s less Mean Girls (2004) than American Psycho (2000).

Bodies Bodies Bodies premiered at the South by Southwest festival on March 14, 2022, and was released in the United States on August 5, 2022, by A24. The film is not yet available for streaming.

More from Cinema Scholars:

MARRY ME – A Review of the New Romantic Comedy

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