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Reviews
La tour (2022)
Better than the sum of its parts
The premise of this film is good. The tone reminded me of the last third of the much better film, Aniara. I actually think this film is too similar to that one to not have had some direct influence.
After the initial premise is set up, the film tries to tackle themes of chaos vs order, religion vs secularism, good vs evil. It does this quite badly. Some of the tribal groups have no credible route to development and in the plotting, at times, it isn't even clear what they are. The baby eating clan, for instance, makes no practical sense, doesn't really represent a human group archetype and it wasnt clear thats what they even were until the last 15 minutes. In trying to tackle these big themes, the film completely loses its path in terms of creating a coherent plot and rounded characters. Some of the plot holes to do with food really take you out of the film. The ending tries for some philosophical pretention but is pretty much meaningless.
Having said all that, the premise, tone, acting and technical film making skill, make it strangely much better than the sum of its parts. I found it quite effective at creating a mood, that's for sure.
Undergods (2020)
Looks good, but completely empty
As far as I can make out, this film is somewhere between an anthology and a complete film that is very episodic, loosely kept together by some recurring characters, backdrops and themes. The film looks fantastic and the technical aspects are very good. The themes about family breakdown and and a dystopian future are potentially interesting. Unfortunately the plot is ultimately too disjointed and senseless to be enjoyable. In fact, this aspect is so bad that it totally ruins the film. It's like the creators gave up halfway through and replaced any meaning with pretentious, impenetrable nonsense.
In a way it would be interesting to watch twice because there are several plot strands and characters that you assume are going to make some kind of return and get some kind of resolution but they never do. It is only when the film ends that you think: what the hell was that about. Please don't think there's something you missed and maybe you needed more intelligence to fully appreciate it. That is not the case.
Breach (2020)
Completely broken
I would love to know what happened during the filming and production of this film because it is completely broken. It's obviously had re-edits. There are sections where it's clear that whole scenes have been removed. Really weird editing and jumps. The set looks worse than early Red Dwarf but with none of the cheap charm. The special effects are horrible. I wouldn't criticise the acting because the dialogue makes a good performance impossible. I actually wouldn't give the film-makers and performers that hard a time because it's clear something somewhere went very badly wrong and that may have been out of their control. The awfulness makes no sense otherwise. I would actually recommend watching it in a way, because although it's not 'funny bad' like The Room it is grimly fascinating as a car crash.