Ever watched a movie that you expected to be a character-driven art-house drama and it ended up being a trashy horror romance? Meet Apple TV+’s latest offering, The Gorge, starring acting heavyweights Miles Teller of the Whiplash fame and Anya Taylor-Joy, who was a delight in The Queen’s Gambit.
The A-list acting talent pool of Taylor-Joy and Teller, who play two seasoned but sexy and campy elite snipers Drasa and Levi Kane, respectively, go against one of the famous-veteran-movie-star-who-now-plays-token-bad-boss, who assigns them to a super secret location for a year-long mission to guard a gorge that may or may not be "the door to hell".
This time in Hollywood, it was Sigourney Weaver’s turn to be the big baddie. The Lithuanian (Drasa) and the American (Levi) guard two opposite watchtowers to the gorge.
Their mission—do not let anything come out of the gorge, which is kept secret by a coalition of nations of the world through conveniently made world-class cloaking technology. And they have to do it under two conditions: do not communicate with one another; do not go into the gorge. Simple.
Sigourney Weaver in ‘The Gorge’ | Apple TV+
Taylor-Joy and Teller are always a delight to watch—they keep the audience hooked with their attractive antics and wonderful acting. Yet, Drasa and Levi do exactly what they are not meant to do.
They start seeing each other—the throes of romance and passion gripping them, the gorge in between notwithstanding. All thanks to conveniently available customised RPG launchers and grappling wires.
A still from ‘The Gorge’ | Apple TV+
And then, in a convenient set of events for the audience, both of them find themselves in the gorge, where they have to fight to survive.
If you think this movie is going anywhere else with this premise, you are severely mistaken. Weaver has less screen time than the token predecessor, J.D., played by Sope Dirisu (of Gangs of London fame) who carries most of the pre-action exposition by—wait for it—just talking to Teller before he assumes the change of guard.
Zach Dean’s story—toeing the line of his other works, The Tomorrow War and Fast X, has all the makings of a B-grade romance drama. The frames, under the watchful eye of director Scott Derrickson (who did Doctor Strange), do bring a certain element of class to this otherwise campy outing with superlative frames.
Both Dean and Derrickson seemed to have fun with the making of this film, and this is evident from the background score—especially the "oh, here comes the steamy chemistry" ones whenever Teller and Taylor-Joy come face to face. And to drive the point home, they both bond over drums and chess across the gorge—almost as if they were crying out "see what we did there" to the audience familiar with Whiplash and The Queen’s Gambit.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller in ‘The Gorge’ | Apple TV+
All of this begs you to not take this movie seriously, at all. In that light, I am happy it went straight to Apple TV+ and not to the big screens. For that would have been a colossal disaster. Give it a watch if you like campy romance with a tinge of horror drama. But if you are the ones who love substance in every frame you watch, pass this and watch Severance instead, with its second season streaming on Apple TV+.
Film: The Gorge
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver, Sope Dirisu
Rating: 2/5 | ★★☆☆☆
