Boy Kills World (2023) review

Once a year, an event called "The Culling" takes place in which the Van Der Koy dynasty, with Hilda (Famke Janssen) as their leader, executes their "enemies" in front of a crowd supposedly to maintain order, so when Mina (Quinn Copeland), the beloved sister of deaf-mute Boy (Bill Skarsgård) is killed, he retreats to the woods where he's trained by the Shaman (Yayan Ruhian) with one goal: retribution.  The premise comes across like someone read a synopsis, but not the entirety, of Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery and decided to "dazzle" it up with slo-mo video game aesthetics, except there are multiple structural problems: I appreciate H. Jon Benjamin as a voice actor but he seems to be the wrong choice for Boy's "inner thoughts," having a main character not able to speak and only furl his brow creates a distancing effect and it leans too hard on the "connection" between Boy and Mina for "emotional resonance."  The "major reveals" in the last act are mildly entertaining despite not making a lot of sense: Hilda gets an axe jammed in her forehead, super soldier "June 27" (Jessica Rothe) turns out to be an ally, and though plenty of people perish (or have broken limbs), most of the world remains intact.  Also: Skarsgård should be mainly worried about the Swedish authorities, who busted him in February of 2024 for a few grams of jazz tobacco.  Let the guy relax, you know?