Osgood Perkins goes back to his art house roots.
So this is exactly what you would expect from art house horror, a lack of cohesive narrative, dressed up as surrealism, things randomly happening without any prior set up, presented as shocks or scares, deeply unlikeable characters, explained no doubt to represent the human amorality, very obvious themes once again masquerading as ‘oh what does he mean’.
The thing is this should not be a shock, Perkins’ first two films were all of these things in spades, however, his more straightforward turns with Long Legs and The Monkey made one think maybe he had left behind his pseudo-intellectual need to be seen as an artist. Yet clearly that is not the case.
A weird thing you will notice over the course of the film is how stilted the dialogue is, as in they do not talk in a way any normal human would talk and it makes you question if the film was written by AI. Two examples of this phenomenon for you, firstly the two central characters are lovers celebrating their first year anniversary yet neither seem to like the other at all and in fact seem to hate each other, yet the film says that at least Tatiana Maslany’s character is happy. To return to Maslany there are also random bits of dialogue that aren’t sad particularly but which she randomly starts tearing up at, even breaking into tears at points, this again does not make sense with the scene as we are having it presented to us.
Overall, it is art house slop made to be deep, whilst being incredibly shallow and without substance, which is seemingly also being rejected in a rare show of unity by both audiences and critics.
0.5/5
Pros.
It is short
Cons.
It is pretentious
It is predictable
It feels like a million other art house projects
The characters are awful
If you enjoyed this review, then please head over to my Patreon to support me, I offer personalized shoutouts, customised film recommendations to suit your personality and tastes, the ability for you to pick what I review next and full access to my Patreon exclusive game reviews. Check it out!
patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer
Or if you would rather send me a donation if Patreon isn’t for you then please find a link to my donations page below
Another Millennial Reviewer 