Basement

So, here's the thing about these standard "bunch of idiots trapped together" movies. First of all, there always has to be an antagonist; there always has to be an added crisis, in this case, a pregnant woman; there always has to be an element of tension, in this case, racial tension, but more than anything, all the characters involved have to be complete and utter IDIOTS... and fair enough... Otherwise, it's just a movie about a bunch of moderately intelligent neighbors playing cards, and getting along, for no other reason than the baseline reason of mutual survival.

Why EVER would they be smart? If you ever end up in a nuclear apocalypse, your NUMBER ONE priority has to be obsessing over who you voted for, what culture your neighbors come from, and a long drawn out pontification about race relations, as it relates to the destroyed world that you left behind when you entered this post apocalyptic bunker, as well a longwinded diatribe about how we can all behave more equitably to one another... because THAT'S what matters to people in dire situations, and dire times... RIGHT? If you're a silver spoon twit, I'm sure you think so.

Anyway, going into a film like this which is ranked low, is always a little fun, because you're immediately playing sleuth, looking to understand why the public rejected it. The story kicks off by introducing us to the daughter who's KIND OF annoying, as a petulant tween girl, but not annoying enough to ruin a film, because she does at least seem like a realistic enough embodiment of what you expect from a modern upper class silver spoon brat (Jordana Rosenberg is actually the director's daughter. She's best friends with Lily Aster Gottfried, daughter of Gilbert Gottfriend, and they go to a posh Jewish school, so the ultimate criticism here couldn't be more fair). I will at least say that for a girl who's never acted before, she's not bad, even though sadly for her, this is daddy's pet project, and he happens to have the intellectual sophistication of a Hallmark birthday card.

As the "guests" of the bunker slowly arrive one by one, the tension seems to build mostly around race, with the old stock gun-waving brass tax style New Yorker being the main antagonist. Initially, a lot of this tension seems forced, and you don't know exactly where they're going with it all, but you're willing to let it breathe, because even though the character's motives and actions/reactions come across as forced and wooden, you appreciate the fact that it's an independent production, and while it might not be an Oscar worthy film, you're willing to appreciate it at least as a fun rollercoaster ride, which still overall lies within the realm of plausibility.

The problem is, this is NOT a fun film. It's not INTENDED to be fun. Around the 50 minute mark is where it's made absolutely crystal clear that this director has a SERIOUS message about race relations that he wants us all to hear, and he really thinks we will all benefit from... Yuck... It's a racebait film... It's SOLE purpose is to racebait over some very contrived notions revolved around how people interact with each other. The whole conversation around the 50 minute mark is one of the cringiest things I've ever seen on camera.

Here, you have the Muslim character crying to the bunker owner about how he's treated differently, and how the owner never reached out to him socially.... hah... HAAH... Listen... That's not a conversation that would EVER happen. I don't want to make it all about me, but my mom is 5th generation Canadian, and my dad is an immigrant from a Muslim country. Whenever these conversations come up, I find myself uniquely placed to be an arbiter of reason.

In the early 2000s, I was deeply involved with the Muslim community in Vancouver. The very idea that you think they give a damn about being invited to your parties is HILARIOUS to me. Muslims are very close knit people, and they're self reliant, and frankly they're not that different than pretty much everyone else in this regard. People stick to their own NATURALLY; everyone has a church, and everyone has a community, and I think most sane people accept that for what it is. A Christian doesn't RESENT a Muslim for not inviting them to their mosque, and vice versa, at least not for more than what it is. Only someone with white savior complex, could write that scene. The Director of the film happens to be Jewish. You really think a New York Jew is going to cry about the fact that he doesn't have enough Christian friends? Like he has no community to turn to? What PLANET are you from?

Even IF you did feel that someone was deliberately avoiding you, it's not something you complain about openly, ESPECIALLY from a Muslim perspective. Doing so would be absolutely unbecoming. The idea that a Muslim would be crying and painting himself as a victim, as a result of someone literally not going so far as to BEND OVER BACKWARDS to include him, is as absurd as it is insulting, in typical white savior fashion. YOURS is the cult of victimhood. No really, you don't understand... It's DISGUSTING; it's self ABHORING to paint yourself as a victim like that, in some cultures, especially when in this case, you're really not a victim. Pure ICK, is what this film is, in the absolute pomposity of this writer/director.

As far as the resident racist F. Head goes, it's hard to imagine how a guy like this, a family man no less, would act this way, and it's all supposed to be subconscious racism, just bubbling bellow the surface. "Ayyy, whadaya mean? I'm not a racist. I'm just looking out for my family!" Nah, if you were THIS over the top, you would KNOW what you are: dropping every racial stereotype/epithet in the book; stigmatizing and profiling everyone around you who's not like you, people who you KNOW, people who are your neighbors: that's white supremacist level stuff. The bunker owner saying to him "What happened to you man? We used to be happy-go-lucky; you never used to be like that." Yeah, because he's not a real person. NO ONE like this exists. This isn't how you naturally become "jaded" over time. This isn't the type of character that has a redemption story, but that's how he was written.

Everything about the writing in this film is just SO overwrought, and this is another one of those conversations that happens because it HAD to happen. EVERYTHING has to be overstated, and everything has to be ALL laid out on the table, and why? Well, cause this is a racebait film, doncha know? Again, a lot of disaster movies like this deal with a forced level of racism to create tension, which is totally fine in the context of a rollercoaster ride, but very few of them do it ALL for the longwinded diatribe, and heavy-handed moral lesson. We're not children. That shouldn't be your endgame as a writer. You're not a deep thinker, or "socially relevant" by handing the issue to us in this way. In that respect, this film is EVEN worse than the 2004 racebait film "Crash," a film dealing with a lot of examples of racism, which were at least appropriately contextual, and dealt with subliminal examples that could in some respects be tied to real life behavior, however forced they may have been too.

Frankly, all the characters kind of suck, some more than others. Most of them are stereotypes meant to push forth some ridiculous DEI inclusivity narrative. This movie is a lot like a cinematic version of Gal Gadot's "Imagine" cover, with all her little Hollywood friends, coming together, to give us little plebs a touching come to Jesus moment, so to speak.

Speaking of stereotypes, the Hispanic lady... Ok so... she's FROM New York, born and raised, but she speaks in this dumb broken English where she throws in random Spanish words every so often, and then she's OUTRAGED that someone would just assume that she's not from the U. S. "So, the other day I was hanging out in my living room with mi familia," That's how she talks... Buddy... I'm a dual citizen... My dad spoke French to me about half the time. The very idea that I would just go around peppering random French words into my daily prose with people who don't speak French, is beyond absurd to me. I'd feel like such an A. Hole. NOBODY does that, not a native born English speaker, at least not without a touch of irony and self-deprecation. It's the type of thing you would do as a joke, so no, if you speak like a total A. Hole, no it's not "racist" for people to assume that you're a foreigner.

Yeah, this film was just plain annoying... The type of annoying that gnaws on you over time, like a canker sore. Functionally, it's a slow burn of annoying, but if I were to rewatch it again, the annoyance factor would be set to 100, right off the bat. Kind of a bit like the movie "The Room," which I was lucky enough to get to see the first time, without knowing what it was. You don't realize it's a joke until about 30 minutes into it. With this film, it takes you a bit longer than that to realize that it's just another stereotypical insult to the viewer about race relations. No thanks, Gal Gadot. Keep your silver spoon.

Believe it or not, most of us plebs have figured out that these contrived points of contention really don't matter, especially in times of crisis. Seriously man. Get real. Go live a day in the real world where people have real problems. I dare you. DEI is gonna be the last thing on your mind when you're all trying to survive and you're all looking out for each other. That one line said by the Muslim character, as he's about to patch up the guy's head. "Are you ok with being treated by a sand monkey?" Why? WHYYY? Especially when no one even used the term "sand monkey" up until that point. It's just the most ANNOYING hamfisted writer's stamp, politically motivated garbage.