Day Four | Sundance 2021
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Concise opinions about the films I watched during Day Four of Sundance 2021, including links to the respective reviews.
Movies present in this article:
The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet
Prisoners of the Ghostland
Violation
The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet
Full Review
Beautifully shot in B&W and accompanied by an interesting score (Nicolas Villamil), The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet is meant to be a character-study about a person's resilience, determination, and perseverance in the face of the worst situations that happen across one's life. Despite the message being successfully transmitted, Daniel Katz's character is far from being a compelling protagonist due to his apparent indifference towards every negative event. Acceptance and moving on is understandable and motivational even, but if the movie doesn't depict the moments that define these steps, then it becomes really challenging to feel sorry for the main character, let alone inspired. Ana Katz demonstrates her talented directing skills, but her admittedly creative screenplay co-written with Gonzalo Delgado lacks consistency and energy.
Prisoners of the Ghostland
Full Review
Prisoners of the Ghostland is everything a film starring Nicolas Cage is expected of being. Possessing technical attributes of making the biggest Hollywood studios shamelessly hide with envy, Sion Sono’s movie is as illogical, absurd, ridiculous, stupid, and insanely entertaining as I hoped it would be. By mixing up dozens of distinct genres, the straightforward premise gets sucked into a world of total anarchy, where samurais, cowboys, nuclear explosions, modern cars, and much more collide to surround an otherwise simple narrative with nonsensically hilarious storylines and awesome action sequences. Sofia Boutella and Bill Moseley help Cage tackle this chaos, but the latter is the absolute standout due to his remarkable experience in crazy films. Despite it occasionally crossing the line and becoming too much for me to manage - it becomes seriously confusing - as long as the viewers are well-prepared to accept every jaw-dropping new development, fun is guaranteed with this brilliant satire.
Violation
Full Review
Violation is one of the most visually shocking, gruesome, disgusting films I’ve seen in quite some time. Madeleine Sims-Fewer shares direction and writing credits with Dusty Mancinelli, but she also portrays a somewhat divisive protagonist. While I understand her reasons and absolutely despise what happens to her, she isn’t exactly an easy character to connect with or even root for. The narrative follows an extremely dark path of revenge, told through an interesting nonlinear storytelling structure. However, its setup is slightly rushed and developed beyond my limit of fictional logic and comprehension. Despite being excessively violent at times, most of the brutal scenes feel justified. I deeply appreciate the lingering cinematography and the ominous score. I recommend it to non-sensitive viewers who’d like a more meaningful take on the revenge subgenre.
