infernoguyrules

I think for some folks this movie will land perfectly, Its got great acting, the cinematography is great, the actors are likable, and I had at least one really big laugh... but thats kind of where the cracks start to show.

I was 2/3 of the way through this movie when its humour first really connected with me beyond a chuckle. I'd connected emotionally with the main character early on, and the side characters are all affable and carry a scene, but I guess I'll skip anymore meandering and say that you can only put so much lettuce in a sandwich, and I'm a lover of lettuce.

This movie makes a point of its slowness, and its a bold move, it wants to connect you to the main characters malaise and dissociation from the world. It tries a few tricks to make that tolerable, and for a while it succeeds. It uses beautifully colored and shot still life on one hand, and plodding but well delivered background office banter on the other, to justify its long stretches of near-silence.

Its punctuates these meandering sequences with another variety of beautiful surreal still life that show the main characters inner world, or occasionally with sudden outbursts of odd behavior, and these moments stuck out the most.

Overall, its hard to give this a 6 because its obviously a work of passion, and I think some people will love it, but for me if a movie is only an hour and thirty minutes long and i feel actively irritated by the pacing, theres a problem, or its just not for me. I felt at least 20 minutes could have gone, easily, while i also felt the movie ended earlier than it needed to. Right as I finally felt it was picking up and there might be a few more peaks in its ending, it petered out.

If you loved the trailer and you love slow dramas, ignore my rating and check this out, if i could give it a 6.5 i would, but I can't give it a 7.

I go through phases where i take in a lot of one type of media, and vice versa, and I've been back on films. Usually when i enter a phase like this it because i have some new outlook, and the thought thats really been guiding me along this time is that "I think I like a public 6 more than a public 7" (funny enough i always rate them 8 XD)

My last 2 movie phases were "I want to find my absolute favorite films of all time" and i did, and "Maybe popular movies are not bad" and i was wrong, they are. So i looked back at all my favorites, including childhood ones I'd somewhat abandoned, and i realized i really movies that fall in the mid-6's.

A lot of these movies use well-tested setups but take risks with them, and i think thats what i like. They tend to be well made indie films with great casts and low budgets that are very heartfelt. My favorite movies ever are certainly great, but the upper 6's are what get me through life, something that everyone needs. If they tried to be 9s or 10s, they'd probably be 4s or less. Rather than trying to change your life they just reflect it, and there'll be a few moments you always remember and you can share with others, like its your special movie.

I didn't talk about the movie at all hahahaha. The leads are fantastic, its a movie about people talking, people changing. Its got some piercing dark moments that really touch home, and a ton of funny scenarios. Its best you go in without me coloring your view of the thing. Watch the trailer for the movie, if it interests you in any way, put it on, it might make a really important memory.

Its hard to really go very in depth here, its the most classic generic sci-fi experiment plot, with the most paper thin characters, and edited down 'til the bones show. Things get mentioned for no reason other than to serve as a mystery mcguffin later, like a bad scooby doo episode. The main character, maybe even more than any other character, just has nothing to her, shes just someone who enters rooms so we can hear dialogue.

It feels a bit like a video game with all the gameplay taken out, in the way that shes a nearly silent protagonist, with her dialogue only serving to show that she was listening.

I wish i could say anything better about this, the acting is at least servicable most of the time, theres no major borked lines, and i think any scenes that were lacking were usually a script problem, a directorial problem, or simply a problem of time.

Of the 4 stars provided, 1 is for effort, 2 are for competent acting, and 1 is for reasonably good use of a small set. This could have been something if the writing was there, if the characters felt real, etc. I'm all for taking risks, and low budget sci-fi is always a risk, but i just cant say it paid off here.