Oxygen

Director: Alexandre Aja
Starring: Mélanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, Malik Zidi
Running Time: 101 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★) 

Given its single location, Oxygen attempts to do a lot, to the point that even if this wasn't a film that took place within such a confined setting, audiences would still be taken aback by its ambition. Crawl director Alexandre Aja's French language thriller operates on overdrive, preemptively addressing any potential criticisms of its seemingly sparse scenario. Considerably better than anticipated, it features a downright amazing performance from Mélanie Laurent, while moving at a far brisker pace than we're used to in this growing sub-genre, keeping us engaged and visually stimulated as its many puzzle pieces slide into place. Even when they don't always fit perfectly together and Aja's reach exceeds the script's grasp, it's an emotional, tension-filled experience that stands more than a step or two above similar efforts. 

What's been true since 2010's Buried and even far before, are how many devices are used to limit the action to its closed confines, keeping the viewer distracted enough not to think about the fact everything's taking place entirely in a coffin, elevator, phone booth, ski lift, ATM, under a boulder or even in an enclosed swimming pool. If these methods become a lifeline for both the writer and their trapped protagonist, the skill at which they're incorporated determine just how much slack discerning audiences are willing to allow. 

Christie LeBlanc's screenplay takes huge gambles by going all out, encasing the main character in a predicament where an overwhelming number of options strangely make it less survivable. First part mystery, second part survival tale, it also reaches outside its O2 depleting tomb, looking toward a world that at least feels partially inspired by the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Interstellar, and most surprisingly, Contagion.

Sometime in the future, Dr. Elizabeth Hansen (Laurent) awakens in a cryogenic chamber with no recollection of who she is or how she became trapped inside. An advanced computer assistance program named M.I.L.O. (voiced by Mathieu Amalric) guides her, but initially provides little help other than informing her she's not cleared to obtain the necessary authorization code in order to get out. With her oxygen level rapidly decreasing and just over an hour left until depletion, she attempts to jog her memory while using M.I.L.O. as a resource for clues about her past and who could have done this. Experiencing hallucinations while desperately trying to contact anyone on the outside, Liz is haunted by flashbacks that give glimpses into a life she's not sure can be trusted. With oxygen in short supply, the one thing she doesn't have is time, as this claustrophobic cryo unit will quickly become her final resting place if she doesn't find a way out.    

Much of the first half-hour is reserved for setting up this elaborate mystery, which isn't to say the narrative loses any momentum once more information is slowly revealed. It's just the opposite, as Liz uses every piece of information at her disposal to have a shot at escape. Was she abducted? Part of a scientific experiment? Did she do it to herself? All these possibilities are on the table, as cryogenic chambers have apparently come a long way, with this one fully loaded with access to the internet, touch screens and a HAL-like AI providing guidance and medical monitoring. 

The whole thing's a bit more cerebral than you'd expect despite all the tools at Liz's disposal, or even sometimes because of them. Beyond the survival element and milking the oxygen counter for maximum suspense, the scenario has to be mentally navigated, with her frequently asking questions and breaking clues down into their simplest terms. Obtaining the serial number and name of the pod is only a start until the realization kicks in that she still has a long way to go before being able to alert anyone on the "outside," wherever that undisclosed location may be.

Gasping for air and frantically searching for solutions, Laurent (in her best role since Inglourious Basterds) is really challenged here, carrying the entirety of the proceedings as its sole actor while the camera remains fixed on her sweaty, exhausted face for over 90 minutes. Dealing with the devastating emotional and physical blows as they come, the actress has to ride this giant wave, and whatever you think of how it all comes together from a logical standpoint, her performance holds up to the closest scrutiny, never feeling less than completely believable. 

Everything comes down to the reveal and while the eventual explanation requires a certain suspension of disbelief, Oxygen mostly holds together, which given its premise, may be reason enough it stands out as an anomaly in the genre. One timely aspect is especially affecting, conveying a very immediate sense of loneliness and isolation in way that will hit uncomfortably close to home for many at the moment.  If prompted to really pick this plot apart, you easily could, but the script rarely strays from own self-imposed rules, tackling far bigger themes than its small scale implies. Even when it flirts with going overboard, it's hard not to be taken in, curbing anyone's worst expectations that this would join Netflix's growing scrap heap of anonymously interchangeable sci-fi and horror titles.  

Crawl (2019)

Director: Alexandre Aja

Starring: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper, Ross Anderson, Anson Boon, Jose Palma, Morfydd Clark

Running Time: 87 min.

Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

Anyone familiar with that memorably hilarious and gasp-inducing scene in 1997's Anaconda when Jon Voight's certifiable snake hunter Paul Serone is eaten whole before his winking corpse is regurgitated might soon get flashbacks. It's a spectacular moment in a less-than-amazing, but ridiculously fun film that's best enjoyed in the presence of a game audience in a packed theater. And it's hard not to think of it while watching horror maestro Alexandre Aja's Crawl and assume it had to be somewhere in the back of the director's mind as he crafted a horror disaster entry many assumed would veer closer to Sharknado, but with killer crocs. Instead, it is still somewhat funny and ridiculous, but in the best way possible, and also much better made than those aforementioned titles it seemed destined to resemble in quality. Quentin Tarantino going so far as to name this his favorite film of 2019 might come as a surprise to no one given his eclectic tastes, but he's on to something in that genre movies this well executed are too frequently dismissed out of hand on their premise alone. While I wouldn't rank it nearly that high (or maybe even at all), it's at least easier to appreciate that praise when final product does undeniably deliver a good time. 

After a disappointing practice, University of Florida swimmer Haley Keller (Kaya Scodelario) gets a call from her older sister Beth (Morfydd Clark) from Boston warning her that Category 5 Hurricane Wendy is about to make landfall in Florida and that she should evacuate. But when it occurs to Haley that she should check on her estranged father, Dave (Barry Pepper), she discovers he isn't at his condo, but their old Coral Lake family home she thought he sold when her parents divorced. After deceiving a police officer Beth used to date, she's able to get into the quickly flooding area to find him unconscious and trapped in the crawl space under the house, seriously injured from an alligator attack.

While attempting to drag her dad out, Haley realizes they have more company than anticipated, as multiple alligators have managed to sneak through the storm drain and have them trapped. With a rapidly intensifying storm and flood waters rising, Haley and Dave must fight injury and hungry gators to swim out of the basement to safety. But what's waiting for them outside isn't much of an improvement.

At first glance, it may not be obvious just how effective a thriller this is because so many like it are dumped into theaters each week before disappearing, often justifiably. If the set-up doesn't inspire confidence that we're in for something dramatically different, that's mostly because we're not. And that's okay since Michael and Shawn Rasmussen's straightforward script leaves so little room for missteps, allowing enough leeway for Aja to do what he's done "best" in some of his previous horror entries, frequently to the point of overkill. Usually, dabbling in more mainstream, accessible fare like this would seem to be the kiss of death for a director  synonymous with the disparaging "torture porn" label, but this time around he's considerably more focused on ratcheting up the tension. 

If alligators dining on humans is a major component, the survival story still takes center stage, with some of the best scenes and sequences revolving around this father-daughter tandem putting their heads together while working on their own personal baggage. The gator attack scenes are spectacular, as Aja takes a page out of the Spielberg playbook in resisting the temptation to overexpose them, making their well-timed appearances count. Doing a superior job to most in avoiding to break the rules of the world he's created, the CGI gators aren't some kind of hybrid reptilian mutants gifted with incredible speed, but instead moving how real ones would, and unexpectedly faster if necessary. This leads to many exciting scenes with Haley trying to outswim them as the always underrated Barry Pepper fights for his daughter and powers through the pain to concoct a plan.

Most recently seen as a bi-polar figure skater in Netflix's unfairly cancelled Spinning Out, Kaya Scodelario again makes you wonder how she isn't already a major star, physically and emotionally putting herself through the ringer as an athlete whose grit and credibility ground even the most questionable circumstances in a harsh reality. It's also easy to endorse a thriller that seems so invested in the fate of a dog, with hardly a moment going by where we're not at least made aware of the female terrier's whereabouts. I fully expected to only see the pet once or twice before they decided audiences just wouldn't care or think to remember, only to be thankfully proven wrong.

A young woman trying to save her father from alligators invading a basement during a hurricane explains all that's necessary in determining whether you're up for the ride. And yet that doesn't quite do Crawl justice. For what it is, it's kind of perfect. Strong, resourceful characters, a tight, no-nonsense script, a brisk running time and an impressive lead performance equals escapism done well. With a knowing, self-referential wink, it channels the spirit those cheesy 90's adventure thrillers while successfully managing to top more than a few of them.