Better Never Than Late on "Them That Follow"

Today will be the third day in a row I’m writing about a movie, but hey, I have the time, the channels and there have been a ton of movies I wanted to see and I’m catching up now.

The one I most recently watched is an indie called “Them That Follow”. I remember seeing the trailer when I went to see “Uncut Gems”, and it stayed with me. I never got to the theater, but it was on cable right after quarantine started, and I recorded it. I just got around to watching it recently, and I was underwhelmed.

Now, the cast in this movie is impeccable. Kaitlyn Dever, Walton Goggins, Jim Gaffigan, Olivia Colman, Thomas Mann and Lewis Pullman are all in this. That’s an Oscar winner, a great stand up comedian branching out and doing drama, one of the funniest and most wild actors that crushes western roles and a super funny, young actor. This should have worked with this cast. The story was also interesting, or had the elements to be. The movie is about a religious cult that uses snakes to show faith. That in and of itself, with that cast, sounds super interesting. Add in the fact that the daughter of the preacher is pregnant with a defector from the church’s baby. And, when he decides to come back to church, pushed by his parents, he gets a horrific snakebite they almost kills him.

Again, this movie should’ve worked. It’s should’ve been good. It should’ve been something I thought about for days. But, after finishing it, I found myself shrugging and kind of bored. I mean no disrespect, the movie just didn’t work for me. Gaffigan barely gets any lines or screen time. He’s just there. Olivia Colman was underused and, when she was given the moment, the monologue was poorly written. Pullman plays your typical weird cult religious guy they drinks too much and is abusive. His character was derivative. Dever’s character could have been much more fleshed out, but she only seemed to be there to unintentionally stir the pot. Thomas Mann, as the defector, was too over the top, and I did not care for his southern accent. But I had the highest hopes for Goggins, and his role just fell flat. He was menacing, but never too menacing. He was religious, but never too religious. He was weird, but never weird enough. It felt like he was restrained, and that’s a bummer. If they let him really go for it, this could’ve been an iconic role. Unfortunately, it is not.

I really wanted to like this movie, but it was just a little too boring for my liking. This movie had promise, but it just missed the mark. Maybe next time.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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