Solo

The camerawork is absolutely stunning and vivid, creating a genuinely chaotic and natural experience. I also appreciated the fact that this film used many real locations instead of heavy CGI and studio sets.

But then the awful structuring of the narrative ruins all sense of tension and unease. The film begins in medias res for absolutely no reason and while it might seem cool at first, it feels laughably dumb afterward. The contrived romance was not only disruptive but also painfully pretentious. It strives for greater importance in the story and characters when there really isn't anything there to begin with.

The survival story isn't even that exciting or unique. It's been done before and certainly far better. 127 Hours immediately comes to mind, but even The Revenant has a few individual scenes that surpass everything this film tries to accomplish with masterful technique and stunning beauty. It's commendable for being a true story and for having stunning cinematography, but what's the point of adapting this man's story into a film when it doesn't bring anything necessary or unique to cinema?

Bad acting, slow, idle, bad and boring story, too many flashbacks filled with surf scenes sprinkled with short scenes of mediocre acting w by unknown rookie actors. Most of his acting consisted of dragging himself across a small beach with his arms. Being a fan of Spaniard cinema, I think this movie is an insult to theater, or a fart emulating nothingness. On the bright side, the underwater photography (2% of the movie) was beautiful. Would strongly recommend skipping this movie altogether if you don't want to finish it and want to punch yourself in the face for wasting that hour and a half on this absolute piece of garbage.

When surfing in Encinitas, CA in 1990, I experienced being swept against the rocks, unable to resist the surges, but luckily found a purchase and crawled up on dry land. These scenes are horrendously reminiscent of that terrifying event in my life.

It passed the time one evening. It's a story of survival infilled with dreams and regrets.

This sounds like a tense survival movie but turns out to be a slow movie with retropectives & dreams filling the gaps in the first half of the film. Gets a bit better in the second half.