Grandma Smells Like KoreaMinari | Directed by Lee Isaac Chung | 2020 | 115 minutes By Majed Hakawati
Minari was written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung. It has raked up considerable critical acclaim and 6 Academy Award nominations for this Oscar season, including Best Picture, with Chung up for two Oscars for writing and directing. His filmmaking background consists of smaller festival films. This picture has put him on the map as a filmmaker to watch out for. The charm and magic of Minari comes from the authenticity of its’ story, as it follows Chung’s own childhood. Chung was raised by Korean immigrants on an Arkansas farm, and he crafted this film from his heart and his lived experiences. The premise is a simple one: “A Korean family starts a farm in 1980s Arkansas” (IMDb). The film stars Steven Yuen and Yeri Han as the parents, Jacob and Monica, with Alan Kim and Noel Cho as the children: David and Anne. Having migrated to California from Korea, the couple worked as chicken sexers to make ends meet while living with their children in the city. Jacob makes a big move for the family as they leave their city life and move to rural Arkansas to start a farm on 50 acres of grass. The couple’s relationship becomes contentious at best, as Monica is highly skeptical and discontented with Jacob’s plan. Then Grandma Soonja played by Yuh-Jung Youn moves from Korea to live with the family. A playful, and optimistic character, she has an important role in the family dynamic. She is also an atypical grandma, as David is fast to point out. Youn fills the role beautifully - hers is the standout performance of the film. Minari explores the dynamic of the American immigrant family. With the young children being more adapted to the host culture than their parents. David associates difference with being Korean. “Grandma smells like Korea!”, he proclaims. Most of the film’s dialogue is spoken in Korean, and the film is a transparent display of the Korean American identity. The story expresses the importance of hope and labour despite adversity. Jacob does not want to give up on his dream of making a living from the earth by growing vegetables for Koreans. Above all, the movie shows the importance of simple acts of love, and how they can sometimes flourish to bear more fruit than back-breaking work. Watching Minari, I almost forgot I was watching a movie. I felt like a fly on the walls of the trailer-home where the family lived. The pacing is not centered around particular plot beats; it flows freely in the way that life flows from day to day. The authenticity of the characters’ plight, and the details in the setting maintain the viewer’s attention at every moment. The story and cinematography radiate the charming and earthy atmosphere of a rural life. The themes are universal and thought-provoking yet understated and not forced. Chung does not linger too long on one scene or issue - to the movie’s strength. The subtle ending left me with something to think about long after the credits rolled. Emile Mosseri’s score is also notable, particularly when he uses sound to simulate the feelings of characters. In my opinion, Minari is suitable as a family movie. I thoroughly enjoyed Minari and recommend it as a must watch film. Source for Background information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10633456/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_
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Don't you know that you're toxic? Promising Young Woman | Focus Features | Comedy Thriller | 1H 54M by Emerald Fennell Nominated for five academy awards, including best picture, best director and best actress, Promising Young Woman follows one woman’s journey of revenge over the horrific rape of her best friend in college. The brilliance of the film is that it is not a blanket statement on the issue of our rarely acknowledged rape culture but delves into the nuance of toxic masculinity and how it continues to sustain itself today. There are plenty of examples of men taking advantage of women in the picture, but the film goes further showing exactly how apathetic “nice guys” are to the core issue. The strength of Fennell’s narrative drives this point forward, and the film's shocking twist is what brings the entire film together. This moment ties the film's dark humour and theme of rape culture together to ask the audience to analyze just how engrained toxic masculinity is in our popular culture. The film follows Cassandra Thomas (Carey Mulligan), a med school dropout working at a coffee shop as she is about to turn thirty. When she is not a work, Cassandra spends her time at nightclubs pretending to be blackout drunk. At the club, she is approached by men offering her a “safe” ride home, to which, she accepts. These seemingly "nice guys" end up changing their plans and taking Cassandra home, despite clear indications that she is too drunk to give consent. When these men try and take advantage of an isolated and “intoxicated” Cassandra, she calmly drops hers drunken act and asks the guy “what are you doing?” Gobsmacked by Cassandra sobriety, these men quickly change their attitudes to protect their “nice guy” image. Cassandra calls them out for what they are, a predator taking advantage of a woman unable to give consent. She then threatens to ruin their lives if they continue to prey on women. This tale of revenge gets complicated when the film introduces the character of Ryan (Bo Burnham), an old friend and former med school student who is now working as a pediatrician. Ryan is an escape from Cassandra’s life of pain, and their cutesy relationship is a welcomed tone in her personal life. The film quickly cements a desire for things to go well for them, but this is not a romantic comedy, and the tale of revenge comes back in a haunting way. As much as Fennell wants us to laugh with and love these characters, she too wants us to challenge our expectations of these tropes. The romantic comedy aesthetic the film carries is perhaps the most brutal condemnation the film gives. The sense here is that Promising Young Woman is a response to the mainstream culture's use of women for the overall benefit and sexual gratification of men. The disappointment I have with the film is that I think the film could have gone further with its own pop style. There are brief moments of hyper stylized pop imagery, like the scene with Cassandra and Ryan dancing in the pharmacy, but the rest of the film feels like its holding back. The colours and lighting are present in most scenes, but the flashiness and energy of the camera is not. This commitment to style would perhaps amplify the films ending and its critique of the pop art form in general. Additionally, small flourishes of character building details like the pop mania of the pharmacy scene to the cutesy traditionally and innocent details Cassandra’s parents’ house feel too sparse from one another, and the connective tissue between these environment isn't there. The result feels a little unimaginative and almost shows Fennell's cards too well. That said there's lots of praise to give the film, particularly the male cast in the movie. This comment might seem strange for the subject matter of the film, but having these male characters portrayed by comedians and sitcom stars kind of acts as a response and critique to the mainstream films and television shows these men have starred in. These movies, from Superbad to New Girl, participate at one level on relying on the exploitation of women’s sexuality, which is often played for humour. I mean, we even have Jennifer Coolidge, who quite famously played Stifler’s mom in American Pie. A film series hell bent on sexualizing women for jokes. The success of Promising Young Woman is that it creates this conversation about rape culture that is silenced by our popular media and even in our daily lives. Fennell has crafted a dark and funny film that is equally discomforting for the audience. Promising Young Woman, by Emerald Fennell, is a great debut from a talented writer and I’m looking forward to what comes next from her. by the members of the U of C Film Society Feels Good Man (Arthur Jones)I will admit that I was somewhat predisposed to like Feels Good Man because it combines two of my favorite things: documentaries, and weird internet phenomena. But luckily this documentary goes beyond those two aspects to create something I would recommend to anyone. The directorial debut of director Arthur Jones, Feels Good Man documents the rise of the infamous ‘Pepe the frog’ meme against the backdrop of the 2016 US election. While it mostly focuses on cartoon artist Matt Furie’s personal struggle with being unintentional creator of a symbol for the alt-right, it also explores a larger discussion of intellectual property, authorial intent, and the intersection of politics and the hellscape that the internet. With some great animated sequences, and Furies charming and genuine personality as he tells his story, this is easily up there as one of my favorite documentaries. -Kierra Miller Emma. (Autumn de Wilde)I had not seen very many films in 2020—besides a handful of delightfully awful Hallmark movies— and I was not eager to seek out new films either, but when I had the chance to see Autumn de Wilde’s Emma. (2020) I was more than ready to jump into its pastel world. Jane Austen’s Emma has been adapted countless times, from BBC miniseries to Clueless (Heckerling, 1995). In de Wilde’s adaptation she manages to capture the youthful vibrancy of Clueless while setting the story within its original time period. The performances in the film highlight the wit and complexities of the source material. My favourite performance within the film is Miranda Hart as Miss Bates, a chatty spinster. Hart takes a character that could easily be one note and develops her into someone who is sympathetic and even relatable at times. Emma. is a perfect film to escape into during the end times we are living in. Within the world of Emma. the collars are high, manners are of the utmost importance, and the drama is frivolous. Doesn’t that sound nice right about now? -Erin Shanks Soul (Pete Docter & Kemp Powers)It has been a weird year for movies to say the least, but oddly enough we were blessed with dozens of great films from Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods to Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland. Perhaps the most impactful films I saw was Pixar’s Soul. Soul tells the story of Joe Gardner, a Jazz Musician waiting for his big break so his life can finally start. He finally gets this big break when he auditions for Dorothea Williams (a famous Jazz legend in the film) and is offered a chance to play piano in her act later that night. Elated, Joe goes to prepare for the show, but almost immediately falls down a manhole and dies. In the afterlife, he is mistakenly assigned to train an unborn soul called 22. Joe obviously wants to return to his life, so 22 offers him their ticket to earth. The only catch is that their ticket is missing 22’s “spark”, therefore the two must find 22's reason to live. Soul achieves something quite moving in its deconstruction of traditional narrative. The principal idea of the film is that life does not start and stop, it is happening all the time. I cannot think of a more profound lesson in life then something magical happening in your life, and for that life to quickly move on. I think it takes on another level of significance looking at the last year which has taken so much, and yet we are learning that there’s still so much beauty to experience in just the day-to-day grind of it all.
-Anton Charpentier Why Rosebud?by Anton Charpentier Mank is a strange film. If I woke up out of a coma and you told me David Fincher made a contemplative, black and white film, on the writing process of Citizen Kane... I would probably think that I was still in that coma. This film is a far cry from Zodiac, Gone Girl and dares I say it, Fight Club and the strangest thing about this movie is that I think it is my favourite film Fincher has made. Perhaps you could argue that he had done something similar with The Social Network, but the overall mood of the films are miles apart. I think what I am trying to say is that it is so unexpected, and damn it, I love it when filmmakers do that to me. Mank follows Herman J. Mankowitz’s journey decade long journey in writing Citizen Kane. We watch this alcoholic, chaotic and brilliant writer stumble through success in a depression-era Hollywood. Internally, he battles with his conflicting privilege in the film industry, palling around with the likes of William Randolph Hearst (the not so subtle inspiration for Kane) and his political beliefs in socialism and unionization. Mankowitz also strikes up a deep platonic friendship with Hearst’s domestic partner Marion Davies, who ends up being the inspiration for the character of Susan Alexander. Gary Oldman just kills it in his performance. It is the kind of performance that is just so perfectly in tune with the aura of the film that it does not stand out as being over the top or calls specific attention to his acting. Rather, his performance becomes the core of the film that grounds the entirety of the film. It reminds me of Yalitza Aparicio’s performance in Roma, there is just something these actors are doing that captures your attention but never ask you to notice it. I think few people will praise this performance as highly as I am, but I would argue that it's one of Oldman’s best works. There is very little to complain about in the technical filmmaking in Mank as Fincher’s is notorious as a perfectionist. Mank is a departure in some respects as it never feels as fluid as his other films, particularly in the camerawork, but it works. If anything, Fincher seems to add in-camera flourishes that emphasize the black and white nature of the film, with many shots bringing a certain level of homage to Citizen Kane. If anything, fans of Orson Well’s masterpiece will at least enjoy the reverence for that film in Mank. I also found it funny that Fincher decided to make a film about the importance of the writer rather than the director. My final point that I want to briefly highlight is the political nature of the film. I found this element to be perhaps the most surprising part of the film, especially the dedication to it. I would almost say that it changes my reading of Citizen Kane towards an anti-republican socialist manifesto, but I’d have to revisit the film in order to come to any conclusions there. There’s an interesting subplot in Mank about the influence of film on politics and the ramifications of the propagandistic nature of cinema as well as the Hollywood system. I cannot say too much more on this narrative thread as it spoils the best parts of the film. Suffice to say it is what makes Mank worth your attention. Overall, I think Mank is one of my favourite films I have seen this year. I typically enjoy David Fincher’s movies and this one felt like an unexpectedly perfect Fincher film. There’s very few biographical or true story/making of movies that are actually compelling as a film itself and Mank definitely surpasses the rest of this genre’s ilk. Mank releases on Netflix on December 4th. I Do Not Know What This Movie Is About Hillbilly Elegy | Directed by Ron Howard | Drama | 1 HR 56 MIN By Anton Charpentier If you simply looked at the cast of this movie you would think that it would be nothing short of Oscar gold. You have Glenn Close and Amy Adams going head to head in an acting battle of the highest order. At least this is what the trailer would like you to believe and I admit it looks pretty good cut down to two minutes. It all falls apart quickly into the movie as the editing, writing, and directing just feel so uninspired. I will even go as far to say that all three of these elements actively hamper any potential this movie maybe could have had. For instance, the movie relies heavily on cross cutting between several temporalities in J. D’s life and it never once works in favor of making the film more symbolic or even helps the narrative. If the editor just life the film as a linear story from childhood to adulthood it would make this story way more interesting. Look, it is not like there is anything awful about the movie, but it is missing the last bit of competency to make it a decent movie. I do want to spend a little time mentioning how great Glenn Close is in this movie. I have nothing bad to say about her performance in this movie as it is simply amazing. Amy Adams is the same, she is here to work, and she does an incredible job. The other actors are fine too, but nothing about their performances are outstanding. Ron Howard and his casting directors did a fine job, but man, all the other aspects of this movie are just so below what they should have been. I titled this review “I Do Not Know What This Movie Is About” because the movie tries to throw in complex themes and ideas, but I have idea why. For instance, J.D. is watching an Al Gore speech for like two seconds and his Mom turns off the T.V. and he replies “hey, I’m trying to watch Gore”. This thread of democrat vs republican stuff is brought up again and again, but not once does it lead to anything. Seriously, I thought this was going to be something deeper in the movie, but I guess maybe it is a form of foreshadowing for his leaving the south. This confusion is my exact point, I cannot make sense of any of these details, they mean nothing except lengthening the movie by minute. Hillbilly Elegy is a disappoint airplane movie on a long flight, there is nothing worthwhile in the entire runtime of the movie. I suppose it would be fine in the background on your tablet while you are cooking or something, but this movie is not worth your time and attention. Hillbilly Elegy releases on Netflix November 24th, 2020. Horror Movies We Love to Help You Celebrate Halloween!Marcus Ogden - VP Finance
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Countdown to Halloween Part 6 – My Eyeballs and Ears are Bleeding (But in a Good Way) Suspiria | Directed by Dario Argento |1977 | Horror | R | 1 H 32 M By Jocelyn Illing I’ll say it right off the bat, the original Suspiria is not really a scary film. It does deal with mysterious and murderous subject matter, but it’s nothing compared to horror films being made today or others made during the 1970s and 1980s. Although there is blood, talk of a murderous being, as well as an overwhelming presence of something sister and supernatural, it doesn’t seem like Argento was focused on scaring his audiences. Suspiria is instead concerned with filmic style and how cranking its effects to the maximum can create a new and interesting viewing experience. Suspiria takes place in Freiburg Germany during the 1970s. Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper), a young American ballet student, has been given the opportunity to study at the Tanz Dance Akademie. Upon her arrival, Suzy witnesses another girl suffering from some sort of mental breakdown or episode, departing from the academy’s doors and running into the rainstorm. When Suzy approaches the door, she discovers that it is locked and rings the intercom, only to be denied by the woman on the other end. She returns the next day and is greeted warmly by Miss Tanner (Alida Valli), the head instructor. However, as Suzy begins her classes, she suffers from multiple fainting spells and it becomes apparent that there is something strange going on at the school. Although the story is a little slow, and I never really felt any sense of terror, the film compensates with a complete manipulation of sound and colour that truly shocks your senses. The majority of the scenes are accompanied by an electrifying soundtrack from Italian rock band Goblin. Their music overpowers any dialogue or other audio in the scene, thus allowing the viewer to experience an uninterrupted merging of music and visual. The music is so loud and so present that any scene without it seems rather sparce or incomplete. Because we have become accustomed to the noise, these scenes without non-diegetic sound actually appear abnormal and you find yourself anxiously waiting for the music to start again. Probably my favourite component of Suspiria is its use of colour and mise-en-scène (everything in front of the camera). Each composition is so beautiful and colourful that it could easily be a painting. From the opening scene with passengers boarding the train, basking in a red light, it becomes apparent that colour is going to play a large role in the viewing on this film. Every scene is assigned a different vibrant colour palette that takes us aback in a very pleasurable way. While other horror movies rely on dark shadows in order to create mysterious atmospheres, Suspiria achieves the same effect through the use of colour. Often the colours are almost too bright or too vibrant, leading one to feel as if something is off. If you watch the film, you will see just how correct your intuition is. I would completely understand if you said that this movie doesn’t sound like your type of film. Although I would be sad, for it is truly a work of art, I know that many people expect to be shocked by a horror film not by its filmic effects, but more by the narrative or special effects. If this was the case, I would then direct you to Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of the film, which is also titled Suspiria. Although the film tells the same story, Guadagnino’s aesthetic is much darker and the film is, for lack of a better word, creepier than the original. With a more muted colour palette than the original, Guadagnino’s version puts focus more on the actor’s performances and the psychology of their characters. In addition, I found that the remake’s depiction dance as a performative art consist of some of the strangest, most beautiful and most uncomfortable scenes in films of the past decade. You will know what I mean when you get to the finale. DISCLAIMER: The audio for the 1977 film was recorded in most production, so some of the dialogue does not match the lips of the actors on screen. I know that this bothers a lot of people, but I encourage you to look past it. Countdown to Halloween Part 5 – Well Hello There FreddyA Nightmare on Elm Street | Directed by Wes Craven | 1984 | Horror | 18A | 1 H 31 M By Jocelyn Illing The thing about dreams is that, unlike reality, there really are no rules. You close your eyes and are transported to a world that might be similar to real life, except something is off. Maybe your skin is purple, maybe you’re floating above the clouds or maybe your friends have transformed into elephants. Dreams can be all good and fun, but it is the nightmares that really get you. They take your fears, buried deep down in your subconscious, and create terrifying scenarios which they then plop you down right in the middle. You don’t know how you got there, and you don’t know how to get out. A Nightmare on Elm Street, master of horror Wes Craven’s 6th feature film, focuses on the connected spooky dreams of four teens: Tina (Amanda Wyss), Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), Glen (a very young Johnny Depp in a football jersey crop-top) and Rod (Jsu Garcia). The subject of their nightmares? A man with a cut-up face (which frankly, looks like it was covered in jam) and knives for fingers, Mr. Fred Krueger. After Tina awakens from a particularly frightening dream to find her night-gown torn to shreds, she and her friends vow to stay awake in order to block the merging of dream and reality. All of this is set to a haunting children’s rhyme, warning the teens that “Freddy’s coming for you.” Craven’s film flourishes on the endless possibilities of the dream-world. The central setting for the nightmares is a sort of deserted boiler room. Dimly lit and grossly humid, we watch as Tina scrambles through the maze of pipes, trying to find a place to hide from Freddy. As we watch her, we feel an immediate sense of fear and isolation, for Craven has created a scenario that is so specifically sensuous. We can see the condensation dripping from the pipes and sweat off Tina’s brow. We can hear the piercing screeching of Freddy’s knives against the pipes. In a similar way to Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street utilizes the horror movie formula in a way that sets the standard. However, Craven chooses to take a more visual approach, allowing the audience to witness the horrors instead of alluding to them. The films scariness comes from its shocking and bloody imagery. As I previously mentioned, because of the nightmare setting, Craven can let his imagination run wild. This means we get people eating beds, blood volcanoes and a Freddie with expanding arms causally stalking our heroes down the street. You might want to look away but then you will miss out on some pretty fun practical effects (oh how I miss them). At the end of the day, these are the main reasons why you should watch this film: Freddy Krueger’s visage and fingernails protruding through a wall, second-hand embarrassment from hearing Tina and Rod getting it on in the room next to Nancy, and Johnny Depp in a crop-top. What I am trying to say is that Craven understands that not everyone wants to watch a creepy man chasing teenagers for 90 minutes. The humanizing and entertaining comic relief provides a great contrast to the bloody visuals, a formula that is characteristic of many of the great slasher flicks of the 1980s. Countdown to Halloween Part 4 – Always Listen to the Town Crazy Friday the 13th | Directed by Sean S. Cunningham | 1980 | Horror | R | 1 H 35 M By Jocelyn Illing One of the most important components of a contemporary slasher flick is its opening sequence. During these first moments we get a feel for the tone the film is going to take, what kinds of characters we are going to be dealing with and, most importantly, the style of horror and murder that the film with portray. You can tell a lot from the first few moments of Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th. We see young people, innocently singing songs by the fire, the hopelessly in love couple trying to find privacy and, of course, murder. However, the film takes a unique direction when it comes to the killings. Instead of showing the act of murder itself, the camera takes the perspective of the killer, providing the audience with a first-person point-of-view of the terrifying expressions on the victim’s faces. The establishment of the camera as the killer is gives the film its edge, and fosters a deep sense of paranoia and anxiety throughout the film. Friday the 13th tells the story of a group of young people heading out to a secluded lake to prepare a long-abandoned summer camp for reopening. On the way to the lake one woman, Annie (Robbi Morgan), is warned by a truck driver (Rex Everhart) to turn back, for the camp is cursed as a result from the drowning of a boy there many years ago. She, and the other camp counsellors, dismiss these warnings as they reason that the townspeople are just being overly superstitious. However, after Annie goes missing and the rest of the counsellors settle in, it becomes apparent that there is something truly sinister going on at the campgrounds. I think the best thing about the film is that it knows what it is and what it is not. To begin, it knows it’s a horror film and does not try to be serious. Unlike a lot of horror films, Friday the 13th also doesn’t rely on the cheap tricks of gore and raunchiness to make the film entertaining. Instead, it relies on the campiness of its characters and the power of the camera to keep the viewer engaged. Rather than an in your face approach to horror, the film chooses instead to allude to acts of violence. A film does not need blood and guts to be scary. What the film does instead, as mentioned in the introduction, is create an overwhelming sense of anxiety over who’s perspective the camera is taking. After the obvious first-person perspective during the first murder, we cannot help but wonder if the camera will take the same position for the rest of the film. The camera’s voyeuristic stance not only creeps us out because the killer is spying on its victims but also because we assume the same position as the killer, thus making us feel just as villainous. The obvious presence of the camera thus does not call attention to the constructed qualities of the medium, but actually brings us into the world of the film, so that we are not just a viewer but an active participant. Because of its “tame” direction, in regards to the murders, and experimentation with perspective, I would argue that Friday the 13th is the perfect film for first time slasher-flick viewers. It’s not scary enough to push them away but it’s also entertaining enough to keep them watching. There’s blood, but it’s not too graphic, and there are jump scares, but not too many. If not for the amazing 1970s fashion and the witty banter people the characters, watch it for its climax. It’s sure to not disappoint. Countdown to Halloween Part 3 - Always Read the Terms and ConditionsCountdown | Directed by Justin Dec | 2019 | Horror | PG-13 | 1 H 30 M By Jocelyn Illing You are a nurse who learns that one of your patients had an accident in their stairwell to the hospital. You are concerned, but also suspicious. There has been an app going around, claiming to predict people’s deaths, so you decide to investigate. You go into the patient’s room and take his phone from his personal effects, but oh no, it’s locked. What do you do? Obviously, you take the phone down to the morgue, find his body, and test different identification techniques until you unlock the phone. Is this okay procedure? Probably not. Does it showcase the determination of Justin Dec’s Countdown’s heroine Quinn Harris (Elizabeth Lail)’s determination in the fight to cheat the app, and therefore death? Yes. The premise of Countdown, as you may already be able to tell, is quite simple. Quinn is your typical horror movie blonde, a nurse who has recently acquired her license. During her congratulatory cake-break, she and her co-workers discuss the new phone application that supposedly predicts when you are going to die. Quinn and her co-workers are mostly skeptical about the legitimacy of the app, claiming that not only is impossible to predict one’s death but it’s also unnatural. However, later in the day as she receives an invitation to join the app by one of her co-workers, Quinn’s curiosity gets the better of her and she creates an account. The only problem? She skipped through the terms and conditions, the rules of the app which help to determine her fate. What I liked about this film is that it doesn’t seem to be trying to hard. It knows that it’s a commercial horror movie with a catchy premise and uses that premise to keep the audience engaged. Although not all of the characters are thoroughly fleshed out, they all have redeeming qualities which make us root for them; Quinn is a health care worker trying to report her creepy boss; Jordan is her little sister, grieving after their mother’s death; and Matt is… the hot guy that keeps Quinn company? (I should mention that one of the main tropes in American horror movie’s is conventionally beautiful people. Countdown ticked off that box). Like many other horror films of the past five years, Countdown’s villain takes its form in a piece of technology. Through this framing, the film is commenting, rather comically, on the dangers of technology. We all know that no one reads the terms and conditions for they are too long, too boring, and we assume that there won’t be any consequences for skipping them. Countdown’s argument seems to suggest that we really need to think hard about the information we are giving to websites and phone apps, for there indeed will be consequences down the road. In the end, the film comes down to two essential questions, one philosophical and one not so much. It first asks the viewers that if you could learn the exact date you will die, would you want to know? I think this is a rather interesting conversation for it causes one to think of what they would do if they knew when they were going to die. Would they live their life to the fullest, or crumble and count down the days? The film also asks, in the digital age, what are the consequences of not reading the terms and conditions? Yes, death is a bit of an exaggerated consequence, but it gets us thinking about how we often give our information to companies without thinking. While the film itself was not particularly scary (minimal jump scares, not really any gore, semi-creepy looking demons), the plot was interesting enough to capture my attention and make watch the entire film. Countdown is an easy watch, but not a regrettable watch. |