- Sensibility: The premise of the film is a bit hard to explain during the watch, particularly the main characters' decisions to stay at the beach even with extreme pressure to leave.
The insensibilities of the film are redeemed a bit by the ending and the metaphorical interpretations of the film, but it doesn't solve everything.
- Cinematography: Beautifully shot with great production design. Some of the editing is a bit too quick and the shots of Australian wildlife feel misplaced at certain moments, but
these things combine with the pyschological torment of the story to add pressure and keep things moving.
- Energy: Very tense watch. The film does an excellent job of increasing the stakes with every obstacle the main character runs into. Additionally, the descent into madness is very well communicated. Only issue is it takes a while to start up and there is a overly-extended period spent going back and forth about a car.
- Narrative: Excellent story. The film could have easily been brushed off as a delusional, meaningless, psychological thriller, but the ending reveal and the complexities of the main character's relationships
really creates something special. Only thing that doesn't quite work is the removal and re-introduction of the homeless bum from the story. The ending reveal doesn't really explain how the bum character
fits into the main character's experience or reality. Seems a bit like the story is going one way and then reverses at the end to clean things up.
- T-Points: The film received two bonus points: one for a great performance from Julian McMahon which really captures the manosphere leader archetype and one for the brilliant end sequence with the character's haunting past tying into the current experience and providing a metaphorical explanation for
this film.
It's a crazy film right on par with most of Cage's filmography. Great psychological thriller that actually has a meaningful story.
Number of Watches: 1
