He Went That Way

Bizarre subplots and thin performances blunt the impact...

Few things in this laboriously quirky picture mesh at all.

Consistently goes the wrong way.

If nothing else, “He Went That Way” deserves credit for being the most serious effort at reviving the monkey hijinks genre that the festival circuit has seen in years.

This wins points for its menacing atmosphere and for the enigmatic performances of its leads, Quinto especially, as misfits facing down very different demons.

He Went That Way looks like a cinematographer’s movie. Every scene, even the ones without Elordi, looks like a million bucks, with that smoky, creamy look of a thousand retro motels.

What an odd, dumb, dull, strange, violent, nonsensical villainous road trip movie this is.

Darling injects some visual style into He Went That Way, but the script by Evan M. Wiener feels made up of spare parts from the Coen Brothers’ films (despite this project being based on a true story and a book).

He Went That Way is a farrago that never settles on what it wants or needs to be. It isn’t a satire because it genuinely attempts sincerity. The black comedy elements are too poorly handled to register. The buddy comedy road trip doesn’t work.

Detractors may mock it and call it Touched by a Serial Killer, but if a shirtless Elordi cannot get you to watch a movie with surreal, oneiric notes, then society is doomed.