ReSet

Surprisingly I liked this low budget independent film. In spite of the actors all being unknowns, I thought they were all slightly above average. The main characters, the antagonist and protagonist did a very good job.

I never got bored, which is rare whenever I watch a movie with just two characters in it in the same location throughout. The story highlighted the incel phenomenon, which by the way I confess I Googled to find out the meaning since I had never heard of the word before. Basically it is a term closely associated with an online subculture of people who define themselves as unable to get a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one.

One other thing which really impressed me about this movie was the some of the actors were very much involved in the production too, from catering to script supervisor to makeup and a few more categories.

I was very much impressed by Alyssa Corella who was in the lead role. Her IMDb shows that she has done many shorts. I am quite keen to see more from her in movies, be they indies or mainstream.

I recommend this although it might not be to everyone's taste.

The movie started out, very promising, and I did like the main character. I felt like a lot of his backstory was missing of why he was the way he was. For a while, you feel for the guy because he seems so traumatized and injured, at the same time that doesn't give him the right to project that onto others. I don't like to do spoilers so... Like I said, in the title, it started off very promising. It gets right to the point, but then midway through there is a lot of flashbacks and back-and-forth dreams that seemed to be confusing... In fact, I found myself rewinding the movie more than once, to see if I missed anything. There's also a scene with a drink and a roofie, but it doesn't show how it got there, again it makes you rewind the movie to make sure you didn't miss anything. I really liked the main male actor and I would love to see him in other films. This movie is good for a one time watch.

It does the Groundhog Day thing. She keeps dying and reliving the same day exactly like Happy Death Day, but this is not a comedy.

In that movie she's trying to figure out what's happening but this is not a mystery. You know everything right off the jump.

Those other movies work because they're clever. They have fun with the concept and make you laugh. Having to relive the same day makes that day different every time, they go different places, see different people, ask different questions, deal with situations that couldn't possibly happen otherwise.

Point being there's a lot that can be done with this and this does none of that.

The main character here simply tries and fails to get out until eventually in concludes. It has a few flashbacks, all to the night before though and with very little dialogue.

If the movie was inventive about it or funny it maybe could've been fun but nope. Her methods and his kills are blander than white bread and she is not smart. They even give her a "help step bro I'm stuck!" Moment before any real scheme or interest beyond the obvious.

There's painfully little character development for her, you know very little about her prior life and again she's not the most likable or competent at all.

And the villain is the biggest caricature of a person you could imagine. He's got no motivation and his bad acting makes him not creepy either. He's like a drunk, local theatre version of the villain from Megamind. Just uncomfortable to watch in all the unintentional ways.

Absolute waste of time and the Heavenly subplot being thrown in to further eliminate any belief or faith or time in character development or writing dies painfully.