Tomorrow Before After

This is a saga and, I can definitely see this chapter as a Love it or hate it one. It is not everyone who would have the set of mind of sitting down to watch just a couple of characters interact and specially, watching one of them while she loses her mind due to bizarre yet, understandable situations.

I took this movie as an empathetic path of walking the characters' journey with her; as a human, as a woman, as a mother. Also, it is a game of wondering since you must keep your mind open to not getting all the answers.

We are used to all too fast, too full and, sometimes, too obvious content. This movie definitely has a different angle.

I can also appreciate a movie of this technical level being brought to Colombia with so much love. I had the privilege of listening first hand, at the Cartagena 62nd Film Festival, how this movie was shot during the pandemic and under quite extreme circumstances.

If you are looking for excitement, don't look here. This well made apocalyptic film is very slow moving as life probably would be if you were the last person alive on Earth and that is what this film is about. I truly expected this to be a piece of junk, but it is more than that, though there are quite a few issues. Through near constant narration we learn we are told that first there was a pandemic that killed billions followed by a war that killed the rest. Later we hear about what sounds like an alien invasion. Perhaps that is who the war was with?! It is never made clear. The narration itself could also be a bit better, but cinematography is quite good and the acting by the lead, Natalia Reyes, is very strong much of the time. It's a hard role to pull off being the only person on screen, though later joined by a German Shepard. It's about a solitary life among the ruins leaving us with just her and the dog. There is an enormous question hanging over this that is never answered. Why only her? What makes her so special? I did really like the last scene which implies that this is the beginning of a new world.

I think this movie explores very well a character that discovered that she is alone in this world after an apocalypse. The decadence and the madness of the character show us that the human mind can be very fragile but at the same time can be very strong.

Natalia Reyes and the director Alfonso made a great job convincing us that world destruction can be possible and that after all is the only thing we need to care about.

The cinematography sometimes give us the sensation that we are in horror movie and I think it would have been better to have more static shots of Natalia and maybe more intimate shots so we can be with her more time and understand her more.

The direction and the acting is grate and I can tell that there was a hard job behind all this master piece.

I gave the lengthy (what I thought was going to be a prelude to a plot and/or action) beginning of the film the benefit of the doubt. That was because I am a fan of the genre, and because the actress performed well with what she was given.

Unfortunately, her performance was the only plus. Well, I added a third star because I love dogs, and her co-star helped rescue the movie from utter oblivion.

Few actors can carry a film that's essentially a monologue, especially one with a politically correct theme. She did decently with that enormous challenge, but the plot never proved convincing, and the ending simply didn't deliver.

Sad... I really did want to like it.

...what... I watched Alfonso Quijada's first movie The Whisper of Silence a couple of days ago and I had to watch his next movie! And... what? Is this guy for real? Where does he gets his ideas? Both films are rare... unique but as I get to know Quijada I see that he is either smoking some serious stuff or he is from another planet. I love this film. Natalia Reyes sure steps up as a solo actress, a long way from the generic Tim Miller Terminators ... no, this is another leve of performace. The art direction is impressive and I need to see more from the art director, Colombian Hernan Garcia! A film that requieres indulging its thought provoking agenda. Yes, agenda... for there way more behind that one can persive.