Review: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF BECKY

by Patrick Bromley

Fuck Nazis.

When Becky was first released in 2020, it had a great hook -- angry young girl fights and violently kills a bunch of neo Nazis -- but seemed an unlikely candidate for a sequel, much less a trilogy. The movie's violent action was driven by 12-year old Becky's youthful rage over the untimely death of her mom (from cancer) and her parents divorce, and the central joke of the film was that skinheads shouldn't fuck with a kid with anger issues: Home Alone with higher stakes and some brutally comic gore. It never felt that it could be sustained beyond that movie's runtime, particularly because star Lulu Wilson would grow up and Becky would have to grow up along with her. It becomes less transgressive and the barb at the end of that particular hook would likely dull, right?

Here we are in 2026, though, and the third movie in the franchise, the excellently-titled The Last Temptation of Becky, is hitting theaters. Picking up right where 2023's The Wrath of Becky left off -- Becky has been recruited by CIA agent Kate Montana (Kate Siegel) to become the youngest member of the organization ever -- Last Temptation finds our favorite Angry Teenager traveling to Poland to take out the Fourth Reich, a group of Nazis bent on world domination led by General Wilhelm Reuss, played Neil Patrick Harris and the latest in a line of comedy actors playing racist shitbag villains in the franchise, a tradition that previously included Kevin James and Seann William Scott. Reuss, his family, and his Nazi soldiers are conducting secret blood experiments involving the key from the first film (that movie's McGuffin) to bring back...well, I won't say, but anyone with a working knowledge of exploitation and mad scientist movies probably won't be too far off.

Calling the shots this time around is Jenn Wexler, a filmmaker who get her start as a producer at Larry Fessenden's Glass Eye Pix before making her feature directing debut with the 2018 punks-versus-psycho slasher The Ranger. Her participation in The Last Temptation of Becky is what had me most excited for the film, because I knew she could carry over some of The Ranger's anarchic spirit and bubbling rage -- the franchise is, after all, a direct response to the last 10 years of American politics, and Wexler isn't shy about taking things to their logical extreme. She mostly picks up where Wrath of Becky filmmakers Suzanne Coote and Matt Angel left off, infusing a more cartoonish, comic book style into the proceedings than the grittier first installment.

Using some of the same devices as the last film -- Becky VO, scribbled title cards -- Wexler gives her outing slightly more edge and attitude by openly acknowledging Becky as a blunt instrument of vengeful rage from the outset. There doesn't need to be an inciting incident or a kidnapped dog for her to spring into action. She acts because she hates Nazis and wants to fuck them up. That this is the first film in the Becky franchise with only one director at the helm -- a woman, no less -- is not lost on me. Last Temptation doesn't do much to get into Becky's psychology, and yet it does more to communicate her headspace and worldview than the first two entries. 

Having watched and/or rewatched all three Becky movies in the span of a week, I'm comfortable saying that they live or die on few things. First, the villains. Taking a page from the Indiana Jones playbook, the filmmakers have always been clever in making the bad guys in the series racist, hateful pieces of shit. Watching them brutally taken out is so much more enjoyable that way. Sure, Neil Patrick Harris is stunt casting as the American-born leader of the Fourth Reich, but he clearly relishes making Reuss a sniveling, cartoonishly evil monster whose loyalty to the "cause" supersedes even that of his own family. If anything, Harris doesn't get enough screen time. There are simply too many Nazis to kill.

 Second is the violence, as there is something joyously cathartic about watching evil racists get splattered around like bags of blood at the hands of a teenage girl. Because Wexler's background is in horror, she knows how to stage a gore gag for maximum impact, sometimes even letting it go longer than our movie clocks might dictate in order to really drive home a satisfying kill.

Lastly, and most importantly, is the performance of Lulu Wilson as the titular Becky. While the title of the film and its premise suggest this is Wilson's No Time to Die, it's neither a mournful elegy nor victory lap. Yes, the scale and scope are considerably bigger and Last Temptation builds on everything that came before -- those entering the franchise with the third installment may find themselves lost when it comes to certain plot or character details -- but it's really another opportunity to watch Wilson absolutely eat up the chance to be an angry action hero. Becky may be the role with which we most associate Wilson for a long time to come, such is her commitment to the character. In short, she rules. I was nervous that having Becky join the CIA would neuter her, sanding off her rough edges (she's all rough edges), but Wexler and Wilson wisely wield the character's new position as a means of better access, not conformity. She can simply go after bigger and badder villains now, usually by way of Plan C.

I can't recommend The Last Temptation of Becky as an entry point into the unlikely Becky franchise, but if you've been a fan of these movies as I have, there's lots to love in this third and latest installment. Critics may complain that it offers more of the same, while fans of the series like myself will champion the fact that it offers more of the same. Lulu Wilson hasn't missed a step as America's favorite Homicidal Teen and Jenn Wexler fits right into the franchise, demonstrating she can do bigger and bloodier action than she's previously done on screen. If this truly is the last Becky movie, it's a fitting conclusion. If there are more to be made, I'll be there opening day.