Next Exit

While it may be a mediocre existential drama it has almost nothing to do with sci-fi or mystery.

They say the journey is more important than the destination, yet in this case the journey was slow burning and boring just as the destination.

I was hoping this movie would be more in the realm of McDowell's "The Discovery". But it was not. This theme has already been exploited in many movies and TV shows so why they chose the sci-fi platform to tell a simple story that contained no exceptional emotional charge or identification with the protagonists is beyond me.

This is not a bad fim (drama), but also not a good one. For some reason I expected far more.

... which is never make a promise to the audience that you can't deliver on. The first 3 minutes of this film sets up a premise so outrageously compelling that it would not surprise me if another film-maker grabs it and makes a proper movie about it down the road. However, and this is the point, Mali Elfman, the first-time Director of Next Exit, does nothing with it. Just sort of leaves it hanging, a constant reminder for the audience of what this movie could have been. That said, this is a not-bad road movie, and a so-so rom-com, but any attempt to call this science fiction is stretching it. The kind of film where, if you were flying NY to London, you might get hooked somewhere over the Atlantic. Maybe. And, oh yeah. Elfman has this really weird talent for repeatedly miscasting former model Karen Gillan (of Dr Who fame). Elfman produced THE PARTY IS JUST BEGINNING, 2018, where Gillan was so off-character it seemed as though she was deliberately trying to implode her own career. In this film, she is barely recognizable. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

Interesting premise that I can't recall being done before. Being a person who had wanted to "exit" a good portion of my earlier life, I liked how this was approached and the main character's point of view. Believable. But that's not all. There's other layers to this story and I will be watching this movie again to focus more on those.

It brought in some interesting elements/concepts. Acting was excellent, again believable. This could have gone in a couple other directions and I kind of wish it did, but all in all it was satisfying and so was the ending.

Required minimum characters is 600. Why so many? Ok, I was expecting something different from the opening scenes and was hoping it was going in that direction but it didn't.

No pun intended - yes the two main actors played key roles in a Mike Flannigan show. Actually the male lead was also quite impactful in Midnight Mass - and will be in the next show of Flannigan too. So no surprise he got thanked in the credits.

Maybe because the two seem very comfortable with each other. And when I say that, I don't mean they hit it off as characters, but their chemistry is really something to behold. A road movie can get boring or stall at some point. I never felt that there was a chance of that happening here.

And that is a testament to the movie, script, director but also the actors of course. There are episodes on the road and there is the goal they want to reach. The goal that includes Karen Gillian - another collaborator from Flannigans past (Oculus, highly recommended), though you may know her from the MCU as Nebula.

But again the main focus is the duo and their journey. The dialog feels fresh and real - the characters while flawed and on a self destructive trip do connect with the viewer. Really well made and while it may not really answer questions about after life (or maybe it does for you?), it is more than worth a watch.

I really liked this film. It's mis marketed and they didn't need to drum up some crazy sci fi angle at all. The acting and character development was enough for me.

I notice a lot of movies like "Smile" deal with trauma based subject matter and the deep parts of the mind that are affected by it. But they have to hook you with gimmicks instead. They didn't need that here.

The acting is really good, the ghost aspect is confusing but I think that should have been the premise not the sci-go angle. Either way it's a good film. I really was into it at the end and I've personally dealt with similar problems so it impacts me more.

Either way go into it not with sci-fi lens, but instead a humanist drama. Enjoy! 7/10.