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‘Wake Up’ Review: An Eco-Protest in an Ikea-Style Showroom Gives New Meaning to ‘Direct Action’
Half a dozen vandals attack an environmentally irresponsible corporation, not counting on the berserk security guard keeping watch in RKSS' 'Wake Up'
Conceived and executed by what remains of RKSS — the Canadian filmmaking collective behind “Turbo Kid” and “Summer of 84” — the wicked English-language thriller is much bloodier (and a lot less pretentious) than Bertrand Bonello’s “Nocturama,” the 2016 art film in which a crew of militant Parisian hipsters hid out in a posh department store after planting bombs around town. Wearing brightly colored animal masks, Yasmin (Jacqueline Moré) and Grace (Alessia Yoko Fontana) tag the walls with spray paint, while Ethan (Benny O. Arthur) and new recruit Karim (Thomas Gould) hit the bathroom department, smearing the shower, mirror and commode with pig’s blood. It all seems like a fun prank for most of the first act, during which the directors simultaneously introduce the two security guards, alcoholic Jack (Aidan O’Hare) and his clearly unhinged colleague, Kevin (Turlough Convery), a “primitive hunting” enthusiast who rigs gnarly rat traps that clobber the unsuspecting vermin full of nails when triggered.
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