Synopsis:
A father (Paul Rudd) and daughter (Jenna Ortega) accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat, where his billionaire boss (Richard E. Grant) seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties.
What We Thought:
As of late March, Death of a Unicorn is my favorite film of 2025. It is a return to form to A24’s early, weird-fun filmography like Swiss Army Man. It’s a fantastic dark comedy and is secretly a remake of Aliens as well. I can easily see it remaining a favorite until the end of the year.
The only thing I knew about the movie before the screening was that Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega were in it. Like everyone else, I love Paul Rudd so I was down for it. Someone I follow on X mentioned Will Poulter and Anthony Carrigan being in it and that surprised me, but I enjoy both of them. I knew nothing about the plot or anything to do with the actual movie.
So I watched it and man did I have fun with it. Poulter steals every scene he’s in with some fantastic one liners. Carrigan (the brilliant NoHo Hank character in Barry) barely has dialogue, but his facial expressions and physical comedy are tremendous. Rudd playing a father to a college student (Ortega) seems weird at first because he still looks 30, but he and Ortega have great chemistry together. Add in Tea Leoni and Richard E. Grant and it’s a great ensemble cast delivering big laughs in a bizarre movie.
Oh yeah, it’s also a remake of the Alien franchise. Ortega’s character is named Ridley ala Ridley Scott the director of Alien and Sigourney Weaver played Ripley in the franchise. Grant’s billionaire character decides he wants to use the creature to cure himself like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. Poulter plays his son and is always looking out for the company ala Paul Reiser in Aliens. When a hunting party goes out looking for the unicorns they use pinging tracking devices just like the Xenomorph trackers in the Alien flicks. The unicorns move like Xenomorphs and there’s a scene with one and its teeth opposite Ortega’s Ridley just like the iconic scene with Ripley and a Xenomorph in Alien 3. There are many more connections and references, but you get the picture.
I sat in the back of the theater and howled throughout Death of a Unicorn. I don’t know how many people picked up on the Alien stuff as quickly as I did because I didn’t hear too many others losing their minds over it. Poulter and Carrigan are just brilliant in it and Rudd and Ortega are believable as father and daughter. Grant and Leoni are solid as well as is the rest of the supporting cast. The director was clearly inspired by Edgar Wright because there are shots you see straight out of Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy. So much of it is made for people like me that I’ll be talking about it throughout the year and I can’t wait to revisit it. Nothing else to say besides..
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
The Nerds Templar 