Tag Archives: Peter Dinklage

EIFF 2025 – The Toxic Avenger

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More from this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival:

EIFF 2025 – The Toxic Avenger,
Directed by Macon Blair
Staring Peter Dinklage, Kevin Bacon, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Luisa Guerrero, David Yow, Annette Badland Elijah Wood, Julia Davis

We live in an age of constant reboots – or “it’s not a reboot, it’s a re-imagining!” – but I must admit I was very surprised when I first heard that a new version of 1980s schlock classic The Toxic Avenger was in the works. Like many of you reading this, I suspect, I grew up raiding the video rental store at the weekend (ah, the pre-internet, pre-streaming days!), and my chums and I delighted in the “so bad it’s good style of film”. Indeed something I still delight in (see my recent review of the Japanese flick Hot Spring Shark Attack here!).

So I have history with Troma’s oeuvre, and Lloyd Kaufman is up there for me as an even schlockier (in the good way!) Roger Corman. But much as I loved Toxie, I was still surprised – this didn’t strike me as the usual IP to plunder for a reboot. And then I heard it was starring Peter Dinklage, Kevin Bacon and Elijah Wood among others, and I found myself intrigued. I strongly suspected those actors too had fond memories of watching the originals on VHS back in the day, and so when the film cropped up in the final Midnight Madness screening of this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, well of course I was going.

In the broadest strokes, this pretty much follows the simple formula from the 1980s: mild-mannered, put-upon everyman, now a janitor, Winston Gooze (Dinklage, using his hangdog expression perfectly here) has been dealt a series of bows, one after the other. He lies in St Romaville (the letters on the sign are faded so mostly the “T” and “ROMA” are visible, Geddit?), a rough, urban wasteland, run-down, polluted (by the very company he works for), run by corrupt politicians and gangsters in cahoots. He lost his wife,partner a year before, is now stepfather to a young boy with mental health difficulties, who doesn’t connect with him, despite him trying his best to look after him, then he discovers he has an inoperable brain condition, with only months to live.

But hey, fear not, there is a new experimental medicine! And his polluting company’s health insurance will totally cover it, right? Right?? Ah, no. An almost comical-tragical attempt to beg for help from the CEO (Kevin Bacon, clearly having fun here as a thoroughly despicable and preening villain) sees yet more rejection and disappointment, forcing him into a desperate attempt to break into his own workplace to steal money from the vault for his treatment.

Which of course goes wrong – he intersects with Taylor Paige’s environmentalist, J.J., who has been working with a crusading journalist to expose all the pollution and illnesses caused by the company, while Bob Harbinger (Bacon) has his minions, a metal group of psychopathic killers, commanded by his brother Fritz, a superbly creepy Elijah Wood chasing her. When their paths cross, she gets away, he is shot in the head and dumped into a tank of Toxic waste and… Well, I think most of you know what happens next!

Since most folks who are going to be interested in this new version are more than likely existing fans of the earlier films, comics and other media, I’m not going to rehash the plot here, you pretty much know what it is going to be: dunked in chemicals, mutations, new powers, coming to terms with it, using those powers to defend the town (with Luisa Guerrero donning the suit, having worked closely with Dinklage to match his mannerisms through the latex). The important question is, with modern resources and better budget than dear old Troma could ever have managed, does this still feel like a Toxie flick?

Well, of course it is a bit different, but overall this plays a lot of the familiar beats you both expect and want. Gags, puerile sexual references, ridiculously OTT splatter-gore (arms will be ripped off, heads removed by the glowing, Toxic mop, acidic pee will be deployed, toilet bowls are weapons!). It’s Grand Guignol, it’s messy, but it is also delightfully, knowingly silly, and all that violence and gore is so cartoonish that it is funny rather than horrifying. Kaufman himself makes a cameo, and according to a recent interview is delighted with the result.

The Toxic Avenger goes on general release at the end of August, and it is the sort of film best seen with a group of friends. Grab some drinks, some popcorn and sit in a group and laugh and cheer, and just enjoy some OTT fun (with an environmental message!).

This review was originally penned for Live For Films

Reviews: American Dreamer

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American Dreamer,
Directed by Paul Dektor,
Starring Peter Dinklage, Shirley MacLaine, Matt Dillon, Danny Glover, Kimberley Quinn, Michelle Mylett

I’ll be honest – I mostly agreed to look at this film solely on the fact that it paired Peter Dinklage (always great in any film), and Shirley MacLaine (come on, a bona-fide Hollywood legend). Loosely based on a true (ish) story from NPR’s This American Life, Dinklage plays Phil Loder, a non-tenured professor in economics at a small, East Coast college. Single and borderline misanthropic, and despite teaching his students about the reality behind the American Dream (specifically of having your own property as the pinnacle of success and happiness). Phil spends much of his free time dreaming not only of owning his own home, but of owning one which is ridiculously outside both his needs and any likely financial reality.

This leads him to attending open house days at the invitation of his real estate agent and sort-of friend, Dell (Matt Dillon), touring vast mansions which are likely to sell for several million dollars, when he knows that, really, he would struggle to get a mortgage for a one bedroom condo. And while there’s nothing wrong with a little hopeful ambition, it is clear Phil has wilfully blinded himself to his actual reality, and that, and that he has convinced himself that obtaining ownership of such a place would fix all his problems and leave him happy. Add in delusional daydreams of a wife (and her sister) who would be in that perfect home with him, and it is obvious that Phil has more than just monetary problems.

It is into this scenario that he sees and advert for one of these palatial mansions, in its own grounds, complete with a coastal view. And it is going for a remarkably lower sum, only a few hundred thousand dollars, not the millions it is really worth. Naturally there is a catch – Astrid (MacLaine), is the current owner; elderly, in declining health and with no children, she is offering a deal for someone to pay her the lower fee, live in a wing of the house while she retains the main, luxurious dwelling space, picking up maintenance costs and the like, with the goal of inheriting the entire property upon her passing.

We all know the old adage that if something seems too good to be true, it usually is, and it is shortly after Phil sinks every last cent he has into obtaining enough money to make this deal, that wrinkles start to appear. For starter, Astrid seems pretty lively and healthy, not a lady sitting in Death’s waiting room at all, and then there are the younger people who appear, who she refers to as “her kids”, including lawyer Maggie (Kimberley Quinn), who is less than happy that Astrid has made such a deal without consulting her for legal advice, and who is determined to oust Phil.

Phil’s long-desired dream is collapsing almost from the moment he moves in, and Dinklage essays both his adeptness at physical comedy (as Phil ignores Dell’s advice “not to do anything stupid”, getting himself into a series of silly scrapes and accidents), and the more emotional entanglements, as he can’t seem to help himself from making a mess of relationships. It wont be surprising to find that getting what you think will make you happy and solve all of life’s problems turns out to be something else entirely.

It’s a gently-paced but engaging story, and while you can likely guess some of the places it is going to lead you (you just know that Phil and Astrid are going to warm to one another over time, for instance), it doesn’t really matter, because you have those two leads, not to mention a terrific supporting cast like Dillon, and Danny Glover.

There are times where I think the film could have done with pruning a little of the practical comedy and the side-narratives to focus more on the scenes between Dinklage and MacLaine, because that’s the heart of of the story (and I suspect the main reason most of us would be watching), and I would have preferred more of that than we actually get, but what we do get is rather lovely, and it is a pleasure to watch Dinklage and MacLaine in those scenes.

American Dreamer is released by Plaion Pictures across digital platform from March 17th

This review was originally penned for Live For Films