was white knuckling hard during this one. same feeling leaving the theater as i had after warfare and uncut gems — intensity 100
a quick aside — this is nominated for best international film at the oscars this year, and i discovered it through our new oscars page that will be released soon!
(i dont think it’ll win, but it’s my personal favorite in the category honestly by quite a lot!)
i went in blind, and as always would recommend that for everyone — if you’re in sf this is still showing in amc theaters!
but for the readers, and future me, here goes —
this thing is an audio-visual masterpiece
reminds me of mulholland drive in its alienness in framing, crossfades, and panning, but with the setting-assist of drugged up ravers in the harsh saharan desert. boy is that a visually unique combo. irl mad max is a decent shout here, visually
and sound wise? this is maybe the most interesting movie i’ve seen, ever
you’re assaulted by throbbingly harsh darkside-y music on frame 1, and by minute 10 of the same barely-evolving loop you’ll be wondering whether you’ll ever hear the characters voices, or if you’ll just be watching them pantomime
again, the word i would use is assaulting. if you watch this in theaters, you will feel relief every time the characters walk away from the speakers. and i actually LIKE this kind of music. the music is imposing — it’s an indispensable part of the movie, not a tool used to pin down the setting
so that’s unique as hell, to say the least, but beyond the scenes at the rave the music is actually banger as hell — i really like the techno stuff they pulled out, and there’s an alien (using that word again in this review, i know) OPN/daniel lopatin-esque synth refrain they reuse several times near the end of the film that’s really haunting
haunting is a very apt word, actually, one which i’ll revisit in a moment here
i have to mention that the sound effects are also really well done — there’s one key moment when they need to convey information via sound and credit to them for unambiguously mixing that moment. volume mix was perfect for the theater — which is to say the loud moments were deafeningly, frighteningly loud, as you’ll know they needed to be if you’ve seen this film — and the mix of languages in this film (spanish, french, arabic, english, to my count) is kinda beautiful
so again — from a video and audio standpoint this movie is really really cool
and story wise? please tap out here if you are going to see this movie and haven’t
story wise? it’s mostly whatever, but the shocking moments absolutely shock the fuck out of you — they rug pull you TWICE in this movie, HARD, and you don’t see either coming even though the first shocker is misdirectingly hinted at very heavily
so that, combined with how i physically felt while watching this movie, leads me to call this a horror movie, pretty solidly! if you are not watching through your fingertips by the end, you’re a stronger viewer than i
and by experimental horror standards, this thing slaps!!!
alright — that’s it. it’s abrasive. it felt like it was an away game. but man is it cool that someone made this, and that’s a lot of the joy for me
was white knuckling hard during this one. same feeling leaving the theater as i had after warfare and uncut gems — intensity 100
a quick aside — this is nominated for best international film at the oscars this year, and i discovered it through our new oscars page that will be released soon!
(i dont think it’ll win, but it’s my personal favorite in the category honestly by quite a lot!)
i went in blind, and as always would recommend that for everyone — if you’re in sf this is still showing in amc theaters!
but for the readers, and future me, here goes —
this thing is an audio-visual masterpiece
reminds me of mulholland drive in its alienness in framing, crossfades, and panning, but with the setting-assist of drugged up ravers in the harsh saharan desert. boy is that a visually unique combo. irl mad max is a decent shout here, visually
and sound wise? this is maybe the most interesting movie i’ve seen, ever
you’re assaulted by throbbingly harsh darkside-y music on frame 1, and by minute 10 of the same barely-evolving loop you’ll be wondering whether you’ll ever hear the characters voices, or if you’ll just be watching them pantomime
again, the word i would use is assaulting. if you watch this in theaters, you will feel relief every time the characters walk away from the speakers. and i actually LIKE this kind of music. the music is imposing — it’s an indispensable part of the movie, not a tool used to pin down the setting
so that’s unique as hell, to say the least, but beyond the scenes at the rave the music is actually banger as hell — i really like the techno stuff they pulled out, and there’s an alien (using that word again in this review, i know) OPN/daniel lopatin-esque synth refrain they reuse several times near the end of the film that’s really haunting
haunting is a very apt word, actually, one which i’ll revisit in a moment here
i have to mention that the sound effects are also really well done — there’s one key moment when they need to convey information via sound and credit to them for unambiguously mixing that moment. volume mix was perfect for the theater — which is to say the loud moments were deafeningly, frighteningly loud, as you’ll know they needed to be if you’ve seen this film — and the mix of languages in this film (spanish, french, arabic, english, to my count) is kinda beautiful
so again — from a video and audio standpoint this movie is really really cool
and story wise? please tap out here if you are going to see this movie and haven’t
story wise? it’s mostly whatever, but the shocking moments absolutely shock the fuck out of you — they rug pull you TWICE in this movie, HARD, and you don’t see either coming even though the first shocker is misdirectingly hinted at very heavily
so that, combined with how i physically felt while watching this movie, leads me to call this a horror movie, pretty solidly! if you are not watching through your fingertips by the end, you’re a stronger viewer than i
and by experimental horror standards, this thing slaps!!!
alright — that’s it. it’s abrasive. it felt like it was an away game. but man is it cool that someone made this, and that’s a lot of the joy for me
