The Toxic Avenger Review: Peter Dinklage Is the Perfect Toxie

What's up everyone? Perri Nemiroff here with... I'm Jon Algetz. We are in Austin, Texas at Fantastic Fest, and we just saw our very first movie of the festival, one that is highly anticipated, Toxic Avenger, directed by Macon Blair. Just in case you don't know about the movie, it is a new version of the 1984 classic trauma film, and it stars Peter Dinklage as the title character, and I'll tell you, I was utterly delighted by this movie. There is a quality to trauma films that ooze the love of cinema, make it feel like human beings really made those movies, and I feel like it's hard to both replicate that, but also make a new modern version that feels like it was done with high quality technology, and it's made by a studio too, and Macon Blair manages to do both with this, which I found very impressive and very effective. Yeah, and you were talking about trauma and how they're known for their sort of guerrilla filmmaking kind of thing, and their very low budget feel, but this movie does not feel low budget, like at all. It feels like exactly what it is, what happens when trauma is given like a big studio budget. It feels, and it has that hands-on quality too, because there's such a heavy emphasis on practical effects, and the practical effects look good. Toxie looks good. Yeah, Toxie is amazing looking in this film. The entire time, every single time that he was on screen, I was just like, I almost wasn't watching the movie. I was just marveling at the makeup effects that were on him. I don't blame you. It was just, it was so perfect. The effects look good, but then of course, you need an actor in that role who can carry it, and even before he was in all of that prosthetic work, Peter Dinklage was absolutely perfect in that role. You could not have better casting than him. No, not at all. Here's the thing about Peter Dinklage. I think that you could cast Peter Dinklage in any role, and he'd crush it. I believe that. You could cast him as Queen Elizabeth, and he'd probably win an Oscar. He would just kill it. He's so good in every single role. He has yet to disappoint me, and he definitely doesn't here. Yeah, he doesn't, and neither does the ensemble overall. It is just such a blast watching Kevin Bacon go big, and also they've released images online of Elijah Wood, and everyone got very excited seeing him channel the penguin, but he is an actor that's so talented that it makes a character like that purely his own, and I appreciated that. My one thing about Elijah Wood is that I wish they went a little bit harder on his relationship with Kevin Bacon. There was a little bit of a beginning there of something that could have been a real strong character conflict, and I don't feel like they hit it quite as hard as I would have wanted to. But he did a great job for what he was given, and I want to see more of his character. If they do a sequel, I hope that he gets to pop up again, just because he's such a character. I feel bad being this greedy when we only first saw this movie, but it is the type of film where I would like to see a sequel, just because I got so attached to the characters. That's another big highlight of this version of the Toxic Avenger, is that it is batshit crazy, it's wild, it's bloody, there's a lot of gross-out comedy. It also has a massive heart and a main ensemble of characters with strong relationships who care for and fight for each other, and that kind of dedication to one another is infectious and is really key to keeping you invested from start to finish. The relationship between Dinklage and Jacob Tremblay, it's just so good, and you believe him as this stepfather who's just struggling so hard to do right by this kid, and Toxie's a little bit of a screw-up, just as a person, that's who he is. But he tries, and it's so genuine, and as you said, it has great heart. And then we're missing one other key member of this group here, it's Taylor Page's character. You might remember her from Zola and many other things, but I thought she was phenomenal, and it's not easy to go toe-to-toe with Peter Dinklage, period, but also Peter Dinklage in this particular role, and she just had this electric energy that would always draw your eye, even when she's side-by-side with him. And also, she delivers some lines of dialogue that shouldn't work, where the timing is so spot-on, and the delivery is so pitch-perfect that, really, she has some of the most hilarious lines in the whole film. Everybody in this movie just absolutely dominates. Everyone crushes. We were talking a little bit before this about Kevin Bacon, and I really enjoyed Kevin Bacon's performance. I wish that he went a little harder. I feel like he could've gone bigger. I feel like he could've gone bigger and handled it. I think my big thing, and this is part of the reason why I really appreciated this version of Toxic Avenger, it's because, you know, trauma movies aren't for everybody. The original Toxic Avenger does have a very powerful cult following, but I can understand if someone watches that movie and says it's not for me. The brilliant thing about this movie is it does capture the spirit of that original, but while not, I guess, over-swinging to alienate people who maybe can't tolerate that kind of humor, and rather need a grounded backbone to really center them in this wild scenario. And it goes back to what I was saying at the very beginning of the review. Macon Blair is just a pro at balancing those two things and respecting both of them. I mean, don't get us wrong, there is plenty of that classic trauma comedy in this. There are some just absolutely absurd moments, and there's so much just background chatter from characters that you don't even see, that are just off-screen, that, you know, the entire theater was just chuckling constantly at something. It's one of those movies that does have a very steady stream of laugh-out-loud worthy moments, and it's one of those things where, I don't know, I just like, I had like a shit-eating grin on my face the entire time. I could not stop smiling. Which is why I'm going to give Macon Blair's The Toxic Avenger, I think I'm going as high as 8 out of 10. This movie just made me, this movie made me happy in so many respects, but again, going back to that like hands-on, humans-made-this-movie quality, as someone who loves this art form, this craft so, so much, seeing something like that and being able to feel the artistry and the passion behind that artistry really, like it means a lot to me, in addition to just getting lost in the story and enjoying the ride. So, that one-two punch there is really what gets at my heart as a movie lover. And you know, Perrie, I'm going to agree with you 100%. This is an 8 out of 10 for me, solidly. When you were like, hey, you know, what's your score out of 10? Like we were talking a little bit about this review and how we were going to structure it. And I was like, immediately, 8 out of 10 was just what jumped into my head. I knew it. And like, this is a great movie. If you get a chance to watch it, absolutely watch it. Check it out. Honestly, I might go see it a second time. Oh, I will happily watch this again. It does feel like it's got those rewatchable vibes that I hope will make it better and better with every watch. I certainly cannot wait to see if that happens. And I will be testing that theory. This will even be one that I will go so far as to make sure that I own it physically. Ooh, okay. Which, if anybody knows me, knows that I only do that with movies that I absolutely love. Just because I live in an apartment. I've got limited room. I feel like with some of the artwork in this movie, you're going to wind up with some really nice box art. And it's going to be well worth an addition to the collection. All right. Those are our thoughts on Macon Blair's The Toxic Avenger. Are you looking forward to the movie? Hit the comments below and tell us all about it. Also, stay tuned. We will have so much more coming your way from Fantastic Fest 2023 very, very soon.