The Wrath of Becky

Two years after escaping a violent attack by Neo-Nazis that killed her family, where she was forced to kill all of the attackers herself, 16-year-old Becky has since bounced around the foster care system, and is now attempting to rebuild her life in the care of an older woman, a kindred spirit named Elena. But when a new group of violent bigots, known as the Noble Men, break into her home, attack her, and take her beloved dog, Becky must return to her old ways as a bad ass Nazi-killer to get her dog back.

Apparently, The Wrath of Becky is the sequel to a 2020 revenge fantasy film that is just called “Becky” that was the first time that viewers were introduced to the character, and the events of that film are referenced in this film. I never saw that one, but after seeing this one, I can assure you there’s no need for you to see that one before seeing this one, as this one does a good job of catching you up. The fact that there was a previous film also explains why The Wrath of Becky leans so hard into plot lines that don’t get resolved in this one… it’s aiming for a trilogy.

I’m sure it will happen eventually.

The Wrath of Becky is yet another story about a pet owner reacting in a completely reasonable and understandable way when some asshole hurts their beloved animal. It’s fair to call it a lesser John Wick, lesser because it obviously doesn’t have as much money behind it, but also lesser because it’s a not as good.

So, like in the first film, the evil bad guys in question are White Nazi Christian Bigots who belong to a “Men’s group” like the Proud Boys. They aren’t related to the White Nazi Christian Bigot bad guys of the first film, they aren’t after Becky for any kind of revenge related to the first film, they’re just representative of the common as the sunrise reality of life in modern day White America… There’s a lot of fucking Nazis out there, and sooner or later, more likely than not, you’re going to run across them—especially if you’re from White America and have family dinners on occasion. Everything else aside, I appreciate the fact that this film acknowledges something that every actually good person out there knows to be true… The only good Nazis, especially the modern day ones from White America, are dead Nazis.

The movie hinges on two things… assholes are going to be assholes, and a chance encounter leads these assholes to attacking Becky and her friend, and taking their dog (because they’re assholes), which sends Becky on a killing spree to get the dog back. Now, a rational person—especially one who is planning to do something that they don’t want the cops or the FBI to know about, which the Head Nazi is doing, who wasn’t involved in the dog-napping, was—would just say: “Give her the dog back.” There’s a couple more complications on top of that, but bottom lime, this would be the reaction that would make the most sense, except for one little fly in the ointment. During her beginning sneaking around shenanigans, as she is probing the nest of Nazis, Becky steals the main Nazi’s thumb drive, which has a master email list of all of his White American Nazis buddies, which is mostly made up of the type of small business owners, community leaders, people of power, all of whom who are the type who like to be considered as “upstanding citizens” and “good Christians.”

So, because of all that, things get bloody.

My one big nerd complaint: I find it hard to believe that the head Nazi’s house wouldn’t have better security, and by “better” security, I’m talking about basic-ass cameras and/or alarms on the windows and doors that go off if they’re opened. Obviously, if this had been the case, Becky wouldn’t have been able to break in as easily and cause problems, which would hurt the film, but recognizing this and presenting a better answer is the difference between a “good” script and a “meh” script.

My actual complaint: Films like this too often want to have their cake and eat it too. They like to have their Middle American Nazi bad guys, because no one actually likes those guys (at least, that’s what they claim), but they never want to truly acknowledge the reality of who these guys are. They’re always portrayed as hicks or losers or loners or creepy dudes, or sometimes the occasional weird rich dude on the fringes of society who is usually a lunatic ex-soldier of some kind, or more likely actually related to Nazis from WW2. They are never shown as who they truly are, which is all neighbors, family members, coaches, cops, soccer moms, restaurant managers, and car salesmen who were arrested for January 6th. Trump Voters. GOP voters. White Christians with good jobs and some college education, all mostly from the small towns and suburbs, people predominately from one specific racial demographic, but from all economic demographics. Pop Culture in general basically refuses to directly name the rancid evil that has rotted the shriveled remains of the soul of White America, which is pretty disappointing, because until we all start doing that, until we (White America) all start cleaning up our own houses, until we start confronting the actual roots of the problem, we have no hope of ever truly overcoming it.

And where the film takes a really weird and kind of shitty turn is when you realize that Becky basically has no beef whatsoever with the Nazis bad guys for being Nazis. Like, literally none at all. She’s only mad at them for taking her dog and/or hurting her loved ones. She’s willing to expose them all to the public, sure, because she recognizes that the bad guys don’t want that, because it will hurt them in their lives, but she’s only using it as leverage to get her dog back, her personal bits of retribution aside. Revenge is always self-serving, but in this context, it feels… well, it feels like an accurate, albeit unintended metaphor for most of White America.

Which sucks.

So, that is what it is, maybe you won’t care about that all all. Either way, the one thing that really hurts this film is that it feels too short. 90 minutes is just not enough time for the film to truly revel in the promised mayhem of its bloody premise. It definitely has a few moments, but in the end, it just felt too quick, too restrained, too sedate. If you’re not going to go big with an idea like this, then you need to go home, because otherwise, what’s the point?

I will check out the sequel though, especially if it involves more Nazi killing.