The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)

Film: The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
Stars: Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Kyle MacLachlan, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Sunny Suljic, Colleen Camp
Director: Eli Roth
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars (though more 3.5 than if I did halves-this is better than you think it'd be)

With the advent of things like the Disney Channel and Freeform, family-friendly movies that were once a 90's staple in theaters have largely migrated into the world of cable television.  For all of the nostalgia of movies like Hocus Pocus or The Sandlot, by-and-large it frequently feels like movies that are completely focused on just kids, family-friendly fare that doesn't have gigantic winks to the grownups in the audience in mind, are a thing of the past.  Perhaps that's why The House with a Clock in Its Walls began not with trailers, but with a nod to the past (a 3-D viewing of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video, which was delightful and I realized while catching it that I'd never seen the film in its entirety).  I'm a bit behind on this review, but color me pleasantly surprised by director Eli Roth's insistence on having such a throwback to an earnest, more-fun-than-you'd-think little picture.

(Spoilers Ahead) Based on the novel by John Bellairs, The House with a Clock in its Walls feels antiquated in its story approach, but never in a way that feels dated.  We see Lewis (Vaccaro), a precocious ten-year-old who is forced to live with his Uncle Jonathan (Black) after his parents die. He knows little of Jonathan, and they essentially meet at a bus stop (that looks like it was straight out of The Shape of Water, a movie I have to imagine Roth loved even if this was released too soon after the film to be a proper homage).  Uncle Jonathan's best friend is his neighbor Florence (Blanchett) and they have a quick banter that feels like it's headed for romance but thankfully never does, and we soon learn why they are such chums-they're both magic, a warlock-and-witch next door.  Lewis wants to learn the ways of these two, but accidentally unleashes an evil wizard named Isaac Izard (MacLachlan) in the process.  Madness and mistaken identities ensue, with Colleen Camp joining the fun as a nosy neighbor with a secret, but by-and-large it's just playful, gaudy fun.

Roth, most noted for his grotesque horror films like Hostel, weirdly feels right at home in the PG-rated world of The House..., to the point where I hope this becomes a side business for him similar to Wes Anderson and animation.  Though he occasionally indulges his ridiculously bloody makeup work (look at the final scene where Kyle MacLachlan is watching his face disappear), overall he finds a strong channel through a well-cast Vaccaro, who serves as Roth's surrogate here, endlessly curious about the world his Uncle Jonathan has created.

The film also gains a lot from Black and Blanchett's splendid chemistry.  Blanchett is world-renowned as one of the great working actors, so even in a film like this it's not surprising to hear she's living up to the challenge, but I've always had something of a soft spot for Jack Black, and am so pleased that he was given yet another opportunity to shine, showing off his inner-child.  Black is in a weird area of his career, where he isn't getting the star vehicles he once did opposite Will Ferrell or Ben Stiller, but he's still got great comic sensibilities, and I hope that he continues to be able to invest them in little movies like The House with a Clock in Its Walls, which could have been forgettable but is instead an unlikely gem.