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Molly Review
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Julia Batelaan– Molly
Joost Bolt– Deacon
Emma de Paauw– Bailey
Annelies Appelhof– Kimmy
Arnost Kraus– Earl
Cyriel Guds– Simon
Shilton Chelius– The Thruth
Fransje Christiaans– Bailey’s Mom
Daan Colijn– Bailey’s Dad
Directed by Colinda Bongers and Thijs Meuwese
Screenplay by Thijs Meuwese
Distributed by Artsploitation Films
Rated PG-13 for violence, language, and brief nudity
Runtime– 91 minutes
Buy it here
Molly, co-directed by Colinda Bongers and Thijs Meuwese (Meuwese also wrote the screenplay), is a new low budget post-apocalyptic sci-fi action flick from the Netherlands, something you just don’t see every day. It’s also one of the few post-apocalyptic movies that doesn’t take place in a vast desert wasteland, which is cool to see. I’m assuming that it’s the start of a potential franchise of some sort, something that I can get behind if and when it happens.
The movie stars Julia Batelaan as Molly, a mysterious badass loner who finds herself targeted by a group of psychos led by a guy named Deacon (Joost Bolt). Deacon operates a death match scheme that people bet on and that always needs new competitors/participants and Molly is seen as someone that Deacon can exploit for massive gain. Molly is difficult to capture, though, and Deacon doesn’t seem to have the necessary henchmen at the ready to do the job. When word gets out that Molly also has what amounts to super powers, Deacon doesn’t know what to do. Deacon’s main henchman, a woman named Kimmy (Annelies Appelhof), desperately wants to track Molly down and capture her. Kimmy isn’t afraid of Molly’s powers, whatever they happen to be. Molly is weak, and Kimmy knows how to take advantage of an opponent’s weakness. Molly may have taken out Simon’s crew (Simon is played by Cyriel Guds), but Kimmy is not Simon. Kimmy knows what to do.
Now, after she takes out Simon’s crew and a slew of other marauding psychos, Molly meets Bailey (Emma de Paauw), a little girl left alone in the wilderness. Bailey believes that her parents will be back one day, something Molly doubts big time. Molly has been out in the new world and has had to fight off countless people trying to kill her. If Bailey’s parents haven’t come back by now, odds are they’re dead. Molly decides to hang out in Bailey’s home, stitching up a stomach wound and keeping an eye on the little one. When Kimmy’s crew shows up and burns Bailey’s house down, Molly decides to take Bailey with her and watch out for her.
In the midst of all of the fighting and dying and whatnot, Molly has recurring nightmares to a past where she was apparently some sort of medical experiment. Molly also has the ability to, in a way, communicate with a hawk (or maybe it’s a falcon. I can’t tell the difference), a situation that comes in handy when there are approaching enemies and the hawk can warn her.
So after some more fighting and whatnot, Kimmy kills Molly’s hawk and kidnaps Bailey, two things that piss Molly off. Molly gathers herself together, weapons herself up, and makes a beeline for Deacon’s headquarters, which are metal buildings on stilts in the ocean. It’s there that Molly intends to make her last stand.
While all of that is going on, Earl (Arnost Kraus) is looking to take down Deacon’s death match scheme from the inside. See, Earl showed up at a big fight with a fighter named Bob (I have no idea who plays him) and took out Deacon’s champion The Thruth (Shilton Chelius), and when that happened Deacon got pissed, decided to keep Bob for his own uses, and imprisoned Earl with the intention of using him as a future opponent for Bob. Earl eventually rallies his fellow prisoners, breaks out of his cell, and leads an internal assault on Deacon’s operation. With Molly on her way, too, will Deacon and his crew survive?
Molly is filled with plenty of fighting and gunplay, some of it well done and some of it just plain bizarre. Just about everyone in this movie has a tendency to trip and fall during each fight scene, which I’m guessing gives the movie a “real world authenticity” since people get tired while fighting. It’s an interesting scheme to go with, but sometimes it’s just annoying. It’s also difficult to believe, at times, that Molly is killing the bad guys with her sword because it looks like she’s barely touching them. When the fight scenes do work, though, they’re quite thrilling and entertaining.
As for the gunplay, some people have modern guns, like Molly’s revolver and the occasional Desert Eagle or machine gun that shows up, and some people have futuristic pulse weapons. The regular guns make sense, but where the hell did the pulse weapons come from?
The non-desert locations are lush and scary, especially the forest that has Molly cleaning herself by a stream and then fending off an attacker while almost naked. The closest thing the movie has to a desert is the beach that we see at the very beginning of the movie and towards the end. There’s sand, but there’s also water there, too, so none of this is stuff we’ve necessarily seen before. Deacon’s metal building is pretty cool looking and nasty enough to offer up a real sense of potential doom when people have to fight in there.
Molly’s siege on Deacon’s HQ is an amazing “single take” sequence that the people who bother to see the movie will definitely be talking about. I doubt that it’s a real deal single take, but it’s fun to watch chaos unfold and escalate without being able to look away. Will people more technically savvy break the sequence down and figure out when the cuts actually happen? I bet someone out there is working on it.
The ending is very “Paul W.S. Anderson/Resident Evil,” which, again, makes me think that there’s a potential franchise coming. There’s enough mystery left at the end of the movie that a sequel could explore, like what the hell caused the apocalypse in the first place. And where the hell did Molly’s special powers come from? Was she born that way or was she enhanced through science?
Julia Batelaan does a great job as Molly. She has an innate charisma that makes her watchable from beginning to end, plus she looks decent in the movie’s fight scenes. I don’t think she’s a martial artist, but she looks convincing most of the time. I do wish she didn’t fall down all of the time, though. As I said, that’s just ridiculous. Batelaan does sell Molly’s superpowers well, though. It will be interesting to see if this movie leads to more action work for her.
Joost Bolt is quite the douchebag as Deacon. He’s a ruthless killer who rules with an iron fist but he also tries to make jokes while doing it. It rarely ever works, but people are too afraid of him to tell him he’s a piece of garbage. His line readings come off as a bit jumbled at times, but then you don’t have to know what he’s saying to know that he’s an awful person. I would like to know, though, what the hell he uses to inject his fighters with to make them fighters.
Annelies Appelhof is awesome as Kimmy, Deacon’s main henchman. She may actually be more ruthless than Deacon, a character trait that helps her do her job out in the field. She’s wicked with her robotic arm, but when that gets disarmed (ha!) she’s still incredibly dangerous. She could have a decent career in the action movie world, too, if she pursued one.
Emma de Paauw is adorable as Bailey. You feel for her because of the situation she finds herself in (we know what happens to her parents, played by Franje Christiaans and Daan Colijn. It ain’t pleasant). If and when a sequel is made will she appear in it, too? Will Bailey become Molly’s little sister?
Arnost Kraus gets the short end of the plot as his Earl really isn’t in the movie all that much. He’s a bastard, though, and he gets what’s coming to him eventually. Good job, Kraus.
I liked Molly quite a bit. It’s a little too bizarre sometimes for its own good, but it’s entertaining more often than not, and that’s what’s most important. And bring on the Molly franchise. I want to see where this story goes next.
See Molly. See it, see it, see it.
So what do we have here?
Dead bodies: At least 30 onscreen. Untold billions off screen.
Explosions: One big one.
Nudity?: Yes, but it’s not appealing at all.
Doobage: A nuclear explosion (maybe) off in the distance, serious gut and face stabbing, revolver hooey, multiple neck injections, vomiting, bow and arrow hooey, picking stuff from dead bodies, a total lack of water, plastic jug kicking, dead branches, a death match, bullet bets, a wicked gorilla press slam, body throwing, a leg scissors that leads to an impromptu neck snap, bed bondage, head drilling, wrist guards hooey, bird killing, bird eating, feathers for an arrow, attempted body washing, attempted strangulation via clothes, ear biting, gut slicing, a hanging skeleton, a very gross up close surgery scene, canned food, tent sleeping, arrow attack, a 4-on-1 brawl, spitting, serious throat slitting, kid chasing, face slashing, some sort of robotic arm, hook burning, a colored gas gun, an arrow with a string attached to it, a dinosaur costume, Taser hooey, exploding internal organs, suiting up, boat using, electrocution, more neck snapping, zombie attack, sword breaking, shelving unit attack, attempted strangulation via plastic tubing, more body throwing, dead bodies everywhere, a brutal upside down fight, more Taser hooey, a room full of zombies going insane, more stabbing, attempted use of a flag as a weapon, face punching, choking, leg scissors, eye gouging, multiple kicks to the side, multiple brutal head-butts to the neck, three shots to the head, a mercy killing, and a man in a business suit.
Kim Richards?: Attempted.
Gratuitous: Post-apocalyptic future, a Frisbee, a Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome reference, a giant guy named “The Thruth,” people falling down while fighting, threading a needle, up close self-surgery that’s gross as fuck, hot food, unexplained superpowers, a woman with a robotic arm, Taser hooey, a final siege that appears to be one long continuous take, and a potential franchise.
Best lines: “It’s you! You’re the girl! The one from the stories!,” “So, what’s up with you two?,” “Simon isn’t back yet,” “I should eat you,” “The scavenger had a gun,” “Just give me a needle and a thread and I’ll be gone!,” “This place has everything. Does it have a Jacuzzi in the back?,” “Know what I miss the most? Milk. A glass of milk,” “Careful. It’s hot,” “Bob isn’t a supplicant name. It’s the name of an uncle who doesn’t give you a fiver on your birthday. Remember when we had birthdays?,” “What, you ran into a big herd of werewolves out there?,” “Supplicant this one,” “The hunt is one,” “I hate kids,” “She’s real! She’s coming! Get out now!,” “Bullets! Bullets! Bullets!,” “Let’s tear this place down!,” “That was right down the hall!,” “There she is! The girl with all of the gifts!,” and “You are going to make me very, very rich.”
