Slice draws from a very specific style of 80s B-movie that I haven’t seen in a very long time. I could easily imagine this movie coming out in the mid-80s, and you’d find the VHS sitting on the shelf alongside films like Repo Man, Miracle Mile, and The Return of the Living Dead. The sort of scrappy midnight picture full of imagination, a vivid sense of place, and an eye for the zeitgeist. The only real difference between Slice and those other films is its very modern sense of humor, which also happens to be its greatest asset. Not bad for writer/director, Austin Vesely, who makes his feature length debut here.
The film follows several different characters whose stories intertwine throughout. One involves Astrid (Zazie Beetz), a woman who goes out to find the truth behind the murder of her pizza delivery boyfriend. Another involves a reporter, Sadie (Rae Gray), who digs into the investigation, trying to figure out whether things are as simple as the police make it seem, or if there is some political foul play involved. We also get a look at the struggles of Jack (Paul Scheer), who owns the infamous pizza place from which delivery drivers keep getting murdered.
There are more characters and plot threads in the film, but this is a film that is best experienced with little knowledge going in. Not in that the surprise itself is that great, some of the big reveals are fairly obvious, but it’s the experience of the whole thing that makes it such a wild ride. Everything about the film, from its bizarro world where ghosts and werewolves and witches exist, to tiny details about the characters, is so perplexing in their choice, yet it has more than enough gonzo energy to sell the material. Why do the bumbling detectives drive around in a car that looks like it was stolen from the set of a 30s gangster flick when other details make it seem like it takes place in present day? Hell if I know, but the design of this world, even at its most haphazard, is pulled off with style and an assured eye.
Plus, it helps that the film is hilarious from start to finish. There are so many wonderful lines that are sure to become some kind of in-joke for the cult crowd this will undoubtedly gather. And I have to admire and applaud any film that is able to use the phrase “ghost conspiracy” multiple times with a straight face. I don’t know how the cast were able to stay in character for some of these moments, but it’s a hell of a feat that they did. They are the ones, after all, tasked to sell the absurdity, and it’s a group of actors who could easily pull this kind of idiosyncrasy off; with folks like Zazie Beetz, Paul Scheer, Joe Keery (who plays an awkward photographer), Chris Parnell (the town’s sketchy mayor), Y’lan Noel (who makes a brief, but memorable turn as the drugdealer, Big Cheese), and many other supporting players. I’m also not completely familiar with Chance the Rapper, but I found him charming and compelling in his limited screentime.
It’s a film that definitely won’t work for everyone. It rides on a very strange wavelength that I doubt most audiences will be able to jump on, but for the crowd that enjoys these types of movies, they will eat this up. However, it is admittedly a bit scatterbrained. It’s not the most polished production, there are some wonky effects in the third act. The film also has some strange editing that makes it feel like the end of a TV episode roughly every 30 minutes. It’s not too distracting, but it’s noticeable enough to make me wonder if the film was ever conceived or developed as a show during production. It would also explain the characters being very broad and lacking in certain nuances to flesh them out a bit more. If those pose a problem, then it might not be your thing, but for the right audience, its scrappy quality is more of a feature than a flaw.
I had a blast with Slice. It’s plays almost like the perfect stoner Halloween movie, with it being full of surreal imagery, absurdist dialogue, and oddball sense of humor. It also hits a particular nostalgic vibe, and one that hasn’t already been mined to death by our current 80s obsession (which reminds me to give a shout out the score by composers, Nathan Matthew David and Ludwig Göransson, which is delightfully synthy). The movie may not be the most fine-tuned, but it’s got gusto and plenty of zaniness to spare. I can easily imagine this building a small, but devoted audience overtime. In the meantime, I’m curious to see what else Austin Vesely has under his sleeve.