June 9

Death of a Unicorn was in theaters earlier this year and it was one that I wanted to go to see. I never got around to seeing it. Anytime I had a chance, there were other films that were ahead of it and it never fit into my schedule. Then, a rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes kept me away from it. With the June Swoon 4 adding a film a day from 2025, this worked out well to finally see it off Fandango at Home.

According to IMDB, “A father and daughter accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat, where his billionaire boss seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties.“

Surprisingly, I found Death of a Unicorn to be a fairly entertaining movie, featuring unicorns in manners that you do not usually see them. Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega are wonderful together as father and daughter and they give us a pair to root for among the group of generally unlikable people.

The talented cast included Richard E. Grant, Tea Leoni, Will Poulter, Steve Park, Sunita Mani, Anthony Carrigan and Jessica Hynes.

The film has a message of greed and selfishness, hidden behind the guise of helpfulness. You could easily make an allegory of this movie and the pharmaceutical industry. It also does a good job of taking what is usually seen as a magical creature and turning them into a fearful force.

Admittedly, some of the characters were lacking much depth and the CGI had some moments that were not outstanding. Still, I found most of the drawbacks to the film to be less important and not take away from the overall presentation.

I thought this was much better than I expected and I was pleased with the opportunity to have watched this.

3.75 stars