The Tribe

For me The Tribe was one of those pick and mix movies, therefore I went in with no expectations at all.

It tells the story of three sisters who live out in the desert, it's set in a post apocalyptic world that was hit by a pandemic and they are fighting to stay alive.

A core rule they have is not to let anyone in should they appear and when they break that rule it changes everything.

With a fantastic leading lady, great setting and interesting premise The Tribe had me gripped and is anything but predictible. Trouble is the ending both makes and breaks the movie in that it is merciless, open ended and totally out of left field.

I enjoyed the Tribe but certainly wanted to have liked it more, the ending just left me with a bad taste in my mouth and I'm honestly not sure what the creators were going with there.

Well cast, interesting but flawed.

The Good:

Great leading lady

Interesting ideas

Unpredictible

The Bad:

Ending is questionable

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I spent half the movie trying to work out if that was Melissa Benoist

Danika is one of the weirdest looking kids I've ever seen

Three sisters have survived a pandemic that has devastated humanity . Living in their remote outpost their lives change when a young man looking for sanctuary turns up

With a synopsis like this I was reminded of the Don Siegel/Clint Eastwood 1971 movie THE BEGUILED . It is something of a Western that could take place in a 19th Century homestead rather than a post apocalypse scenario in the 21st Century . Unfortunately the screenplay constantly misses opportunities or more specifically can't make up its mind what it wants to be . The sexual tension created by the character dynamics is explored but quickly forgotten when the plot takes a swift turn . At this point I was expecting the very real female fear of sexual assault seen earlier in Boyle's 28 DAYS LATER to take centre stage but again this isn't really followed up

All this is a pity because it's an independent feature which is impressive from a technical point of few with the main aspect being the striking cinematography . It's a great looking low budget film but goes to prove cinema is visual storytelling and if the story isn't focused it makes for an unsatisfying film

...invitation to take a nap.

I kept hoping for an interesting spin in this poorly written snoozefest of a movie...still waiting.

I say it was well acted by the young cast and can see where they made the most of the minimal cardboard dialogue.

Directing and cinematography are well done considering that nothing interesting actually happens.

Production values are decent for an indy but they should have spent some money on a rewrite of the script or chosen a better one to start with.

Minor twists on the Z for Zachariah plot line, but nowhere near as interesting as that young adult book was half a century ago.

Don't recommend wasting your time on this one...but again the young cast did well with what they had to work with, so your call.

I had the pleasure of viewing this film at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto back in June. There was much to be impressed about in this first feature. From the choice of frame to the clarity of the performances all the elements were orchestrated to draw the audience along into the inevitability of the situation without ever becoming predictable. The director utilized her (albeit limited) resources to optimum effect to create a feature that stands firmly on its feet with no apologies and which delivers a punch, the impact of which belies its modest budget. The audience left the screening replete after this slow burning thriller, visually and intellectually satisfied. I have the feeling we will be seeing a lot more from promising director Ms. Roxy Shih.

It's like they were trying to make it bad. It's stupid but not the funny kind of stupid. Just really bad in every way. Looks like the apocalypse has plenty of lip gloss and hair care products. And also a muzzle loader that works like a repeating riffle for some reason. Just dumb. No excuse. Also I can't spoil this because it was already rotten.