After reading the other reviews on this site, I wonder if I saw the same movie as everyone else.
Radiant is about four people, three of which are accidentally infected with a man-made virus with the purpose of purging the body of all other viruses. However, all of the prototypes of the virus up to this point have behaved in unpredictable ways, so no one is exactly sure what it does. When the characters are suddenly forced to make a decision between spending the rest of their lives as government lab rats or fleeing they choose to escape into the desert and allow the disease to run its course without infecting others.
At this point I'd like to agree with everyone else who has posted on this film: Radiant is indeed slow, but not in a bad way. The film deliberately takes its time to breathe in order to extend to the viewer the unease and eeriness that the characters are experiencing (think Wim Wenders on digital video). As each of them are waiting in extreme tension to see what happens so is the audience.
But the film is more than merely waiting. As the story unfolds, we begin to know the characters on an extremely intimate level. For all that they know this disease is going to kill them and as they all prepare themselves for that possibility they bond with each other in an unique and powerful way which the audience experiences too. And when it comes down to it that is what Radiant is about--connection. It explores human relationships in an original and in depth manner that left me speechless.
Radiant is a patient, very cerebral, deeply human film that deserves to be watched with an open mind. Kudos to you Steve Mahone for a remarkable and moving first effort.
Radiant is about four people, three of which are accidentally infected with a man-made virus with the purpose of purging the body of all other viruses. However, all of the prototypes of the virus up to this point have behaved in unpredictable ways, so no one is exactly sure what it does. When the characters are suddenly forced to make a decision between spending the rest of their lives as government lab rats or fleeing they choose to escape into the desert and allow the disease to run its course without infecting others.
At this point I'd like to agree with everyone else who has posted on this film: Radiant is indeed slow, but not in a bad way. The film deliberately takes its time to breathe in order to extend to the viewer the unease and eeriness that the characters are experiencing (think Wim Wenders on digital video). As each of them are waiting in extreme tension to see what happens so is the audience.
But the film is more than merely waiting. As the story unfolds, we begin to know the characters on an extremely intimate level. For all that they know this disease is going to kill them and as they all prepare themselves for that possibility they bond with each other in an unique and powerful way which the audience experiences too. And when it comes down to it that is what Radiant is about--connection. It explores human relationships in an original and in depth manner that left me speechless.
Radiant is a patient, very cerebral, deeply human film that deserves to be watched with an open mind. Kudos to you Steve Mahone for a remarkable and moving first effort.