[Tribeca 2023] HE WENT THAT WAY -- Tonal Shifts Distract in Unimpressive Crime Thriller

Review by Sean Boelman

One would be hard-pressed to find a film with as bizarre of a story this year as He Went That Way — both in terms of its inspiration and as the victim of a troubled production. Despite showing promise, the jarring tonal shifts and unfocused script prevent the movie from being particularly effective.

The film follows two drifters — an entertainer transporting his trained chimpanzee and a murderer — who find themselves paired together in an unlikely journey across America. If this sounds like a strange story, fret not, because it is absolutely true (albeit dramatized for cinematic effect, of course).

There are several different directions that this movie could have taken, and it seems that they chose to go with them all. It is worth noting that director Jeffrey Darling passed away in an accident during production, so some of this inconsistency can likely be forgiven due to the undeniably scrambled nature of the post-production process. However, a finger can also be pointed at writer Evan M. Wiener.

It’s also really hard to tell precisely what the film is trying to say. The characters get into far too many comedic antics for this to be a cautionary tale, but it’s also too dark for it to be some jovial adventure. The result is a movie that’s not quite nihilistic but certainly not optimistic, and just off-putting as a whole.

Even the cast’s performances feel wildly uneven. There is hardly a better word to describe Jacob Elordi’s performance than “unhinged,” but this isn’t always effective. Even when the film calls for him to be a bit more subtle, he’s dialed up to 11, feeling like an exaggerated version of a Thunderbird from Grease. As for Zachary Quinto, he’s playing the same type of character he has been recently — a quirky loner with straight-faced delivery.

The character development in the movie is not very good either. Of course, we open the film by seeing Elordi’s character torture and murder a (seemingly) innocent man, so we immediately are not rooting for him. And Quinto’s character frequently comes across as a whiny coward, so it’s hard to care much about him too. 

The movie does thankfully boast some amazing cinematography from Sean Bagley, although that should be a given for any road movie. That said, the style of the film could have done a better job of periodizing the movie. It’s clear that this is set in the past, but the production design is vague in a way that doesn’t totally imply when.

He Went That Way is not a terrible film, but it's certainly off-putting in all its tonal inconsistencies. There’s definitely a good movie in here with another edit and perhaps some reshoots, but the product as-is is kinda confusingly bad.

He Went That Way screens at the 2023 Tribeca Festival, which runs June 7-18 in NYC and June 19 through July 2 online.

Rating: 2.5/5