Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
After being exiled to a fenced-off wasteland, Arlen is kidnapped by a group of cannibals and goes on a journey to reunite a missing girl with her father.
The Bad Batch is a visually striking but narratively thin desert dystopia. Ana Lily Amirpour crafts gorgeous, sun-scorched imagery that recalls Jodorowsky and Mad Max, with Lyle Vincent's cinematography being the film's clear standout. The cast — Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey — deliver serviceable to decent work, though characterization is sparse. The plot meanders significantly after a gripping opening act, and the film mistakes languid pacing for profundity. The ending lands with a whimper rather than resonance, feeling unresolved without earning its ambiguity. Novelty is moderate — the film has a distinctive aesthetic but the cannibal-wasteland premise and its art-house pretensions feel somewhat familiar in the post-apocalyptic genre space.