Director: Samantha Aldana
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Psychological
Plot:
While trying to keep her life in check, a young woman on the verge of breaking out with her singing career finds herself subject to a debilitating mental disease that threatens to consume everything she's worked for turning her into an unrecognizable monster on the way to battling the condition.
Review:
This was a generally disappointing if still watchable genre effort. What works best with this one is the artistic side on display, with the film seemingly more concerned with artistic camera angles and metaphorical imagery than anything else. Telling the story about her frazzled mental state through inventive camera tricks and editing effects while highlighting the type of behavioral ticks indicative of someone looking for more out of their current state of life but never for sure what, the main focus here on her own life escapes descending into a downward spiral as the disorder rears it’s ugly head continuously in her presence makes for a fine time here. This work, combining the wholly effective artistry on display with the enjoyable character work, creates a wholly intriguing psychological character study enjoyable character work, creates a wholly intriguing psychological character study in this regard. As well, once this goes for the full-on body-horror imagery present, there’s a lot to like with this one as her discomfort and general disfigurement at the hands of the condition is handled with unnerving effectiveness as to whether it's all real or imagined.
That said, there are still some big issues featured here. The major detrimental factor is the generally unappealing and overall bland tempo that makes this feel far longer than necessary by running everything into the ground over and over again. The idea for her mental instability and generally expected psychotic breakdown at the hands of the eating disorder becomes clear quite early on so the repetition of it all, combined with the utterly useless repetition of similar scenes featuring her at work, at the bar, or out with her friends just feels bland and boring with it all being done so many times without getting anything new going which highlights the fact that there’s not enough of a story here to support this one being stretched out for as long as it is. This easily could've been trimmed down to a short or a segment in an anthology and been a much more intriguing tale since this undoes the film quite a bit making it difficult to stay with this one if you’re not impressed by the visual touches on display.
Overview: **.5/5
A generally appealing if still bland psychological character study, this one goes for a generally traumatic and intriguing angle to the disease that allows for a fine visual style but very little else which might be an issue for some. Those who are fond of this type of psychological drama or are intrigued by the concept might enjoy this one, while more traditional-minded genre fans wanting the gruesome antics commonly found here might be put off by this one.
Comments
Post a Comment