Eloquent and beautifully made but not for me, hence no rating. I understand the couple reviews with high ratings, I see where they're coming from but I won't be coming from there. You know when someone tells you a story and it's a nothing story, nothing good nothing bad; like when someone tells you "hey, I went for a walk at the park" and you're just like 'oh okay'. I left the cinema and all I felt was "oh, okay".
So it was hard for me to form concrete opinions on this because it didn't leave an impact on me. I had no idea what this was about heading in, not even the genre, all I knew was the cast of which was an alluring lineup and they did a great job. I was confused for the first hour, seemed all over the place and wondering where the movie was going. I just thought maybe it'll all make sense in the end.
Once things take a turn or the things kick off per say, I thought 'well then it's a thriller', but it never really gets there. There is some action, it's spread far apart so it doesn't feel thrilling, and once the plot is revealed you pretty much know how the rest of the movie will go and when precisely the next big thing will happen as an order is established to it, so zero suspense after that as well.
It's like an ostentatious slasher film, classy. Actually I'll describe it the same way I feel about Michelin star or fancy restaurants; you get there and order off the menu in French even though you don't speak it and when they serve you your order it's on a baroque plate with a tiny but beautiful piece of meat with a mint leaf on top and dazzle of chocolate or something. It's fancy, has all these rare ethically produced ingredients and served with wine thrice your age but you'd really rather just have a meaty McDonald's burger with cola that will actually fill you up instead. And that's me, I'd really rather just have a mindless, barbaric slasher movie. I can appreciate this, it was visually stunning and probably mouth watering for some but but my brain is a hardwired, simple minded layman's.
If halfway through the movie, the kitchen staff started chasing after the guests in the movie, some sick hide and seek then kill game, stuck on an island generic plot line I might have enjoyed it better. The kitchen staff do begin to shift from impressive conduct to a cult like behavior as the night goes, but it never gets slasher-ish, it maintains this high class fiendish aura instead. An example of a movie that sorta blended the two, with less sophistication of course, was Midsommer. So, if you want that 5 star $3000 Michelin dinner/horror movie here it is... but if you want some pizza, grilled cheese or whatever poor man's junk food gory horror, then this isn't for you.
It plays out in real time, in an attempt to immerse you in the experience I presume. It is one of the more original plots and movie settings I've seen this year, just unfortunately doesn't feel that groundbreaking. It's very deliberate, feels like every detail in the movie is exactly how the director wanted it to be, so can't say it there were things the movie could've done better. It's a really well made movie, it just didn't leave an impact on me, and I don't know if it was meant to. It's like they made a movie just because they wanted to, but the still wanted it to be good so everything is daintily done. It also lacks depth, both in characters and story; the high class slander felt too evident and cheap without it.
Here are some bullet form thoughts I had as I was watching(spoiler-ish): -in a gender role reversal, we have a boyfriend, not girlfriend, who takes photos of everything he eats for instagram and hates it when you touch it before he does so -if you hate rich people and wanna see them scared here's a movie for you -If I paid $1250 each for my date and I's dinner, just to be served tiny leaves on an actual stone I'd lose it -Tyler was such a d* rider -Slowik doesn't like s'mores, he's just like me for real
Anyway, I don't want to call the finale underwhelming as it was it felt in line with everything else. And I don't want to give a rating because if someone gave it a 3 and another person a 7/10.... I wouldn't argue with either of them.
In consonance with it's tag line, the movie is indeed painstakingly prepared, brilliant execution... of a dull story. Back to my analogy, sure some fancy Italian cusine sounds and looks great, but I'd rather just eat a pizza. As someone once said; chicken over duck, steak over lamb, salmon over caviar, rice over risotto. And this movie is risotto not rice.
So it was hard for me to form concrete opinions on this because it didn't leave an impact on me. I had no idea what this was about heading in, not even the genre, all I knew was the cast of which was an alluring lineup and they did a great job. I was confused for the first hour, seemed all over the place and wondering where the movie was going. I just thought maybe it'll all make sense in the end.
Once things take a turn or the things kick off per say, I thought 'well then it's a thriller', but it never really gets there. There is some action, it's spread far apart so it doesn't feel thrilling, and once the plot is revealed you pretty much know how the rest of the movie will go and when precisely the next big thing will happen as an order is established to it, so zero suspense after that as well.
It's like an ostentatious slasher film, classy. Actually I'll describe it the same way I feel about Michelin star or fancy restaurants; you get there and order off the menu in French even though you don't speak it and when they serve you your order it's on a baroque plate with a tiny but beautiful piece of meat with a mint leaf on top and dazzle of chocolate or something. It's fancy, has all these rare ethically produced ingredients and served with wine thrice your age but you'd really rather just have a meaty McDonald's burger with cola that will actually fill you up instead. And that's me, I'd really rather just have a mindless, barbaric slasher movie. I can appreciate this, it was visually stunning and probably mouth watering for some but but my brain is a hardwired, simple minded layman's.
If halfway through the movie, the kitchen staff started chasing after the guests in the movie, some sick hide and seek then kill game, stuck on an island generic plot line I might have enjoyed it better. The kitchen staff do begin to shift from impressive conduct to a cult like behavior as the night goes, but it never gets slasher-ish, it maintains this high class fiendish aura instead. An example of a movie that sorta blended the two, with less sophistication of course, was Midsommer. So, if you want that 5 star $3000 Michelin dinner/horror movie here it is... but if you want some pizza, grilled cheese or whatever poor man's junk food gory horror, then this isn't for you.
It plays out in real time, in an attempt to immerse you in the experience I presume. It is one of the more original plots and movie settings I've seen this year, just unfortunately doesn't feel that groundbreaking. It's very deliberate, feels like every detail in the movie is exactly how the director wanted it to be, so can't say it there were things the movie could've done better. It's a really well made movie, it just didn't leave an impact on me, and I don't know if it was meant to. It's like they made a movie just because they wanted to, but the still wanted it to be good so everything is daintily done. It also lacks depth, both in characters and story; the high class slander felt too evident and cheap without it.
Here are some bullet form thoughts I had as I was watching(spoiler-ish): -in a gender role reversal, we have a boyfriend, not girlfriend, who takes photos of everything he eats for instagram and hates it when you touch it before he does so -if you hate rich people and wanna see them scared here's a movie for you -If I paid $1250 each for my date and I's dinner, just to be served tiny leaves on an actual stone I'd lose it -Tyler was such a d* rider -Slowik doesn't like s'mores, he's just like me for real
Anyway, I don't want to call the finale underwhelming as it was it felt in line with everything else. And I don't want to give a rating because if someone gave it a 3 and another person a 7/10.... I wouldn't argue with either of them.
In consonance with it's tag line, the movie is indeed painstakingly prepared, brilliant execution... of a dull story. Back to my analogy, sure some fancy Italian cusine sounds and looks great, but I'd rather just eat a pizza. As someone once said; chicken over duck, steak over lamb, salmon over caviar, rice over risotto. And this movie is risotto not rice.