The always fantastic Riz Ahmed stars as Malik, a former Marine with proof that the world is in the midst of an alien invasion from intergalactic parasites infecting wasps and other insects that in turn infect the human body via biting them. Once under their control, the host body becomes a prison, unable to act freely. Malik predicts about half the US population is already infected, with the only way to protect yourself being to douse yourself in bug spray. After being estranged for two years because of active duty, he goes to visit his two young sons Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and Bobby (Aditya Geddada), but immediately, something isn't right. Flashing a light in the eyes of his ex-wife — the only way of checking for infection — he becomes convinced she too is now an alien, so takes the kids and embarks on a road trip to a safe area where they can be protected from a quiet invasion.
It's this opening act where the film is at its strongest, blending the paranoid horror of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" with frequently stunning visuals that effectively recall "Under the Skin" in how they realize an alien life force coming to Earth on a shoestring budget. Pearce and co-screenwriter Joe Barton don't immediately reveal the narrative's biggest secret, playing coy as to whether Malik has found out the truth about a covert alien invasion, or whether he's just suffering from intense delusions. This is largely because most of the drama is seen from a childlike perspective, with two sons taking everything their dad says at face value largely because they have both been kept in the dark about his whereabouts for the last two years. Unfortunately, after the first act, Pearce and Barton disperse with the subtlety and divulge their big reveal, conclusively answering the question as to just how much we can trust Malik's perspective — a sequence that would have been considerably more effective had they spent more time letting the audience linger on both possibilities.
As the film won't be released on Amazon Prime Video until December (it's just had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, sharply dividing critics), this is not a plot point that I'll give away here, saying only that the second half quickly transforms into a complex family drama, reorienting itself around the conclusive truth. The genre overtones are still there, but it's not as reliant on its fantastical visuals, grounding itself to focus more on the human cost of what Malik has witnessed. A supporting performance from Octavia Spencer as an acquaintance of Malik further flattens out any of its ambiguities, the great actor doing her best with a role that mostly exists only to deliver exposition, leaving nobody in the audience remotely confused as to where the lead character's headspace truly lies.
"movie" - Google News
September 13, 2021 at 09:31PM
https://ift.tt/2YMxR7z
TIFF Movie Review: Encounter - Looper
"movie" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35pMQUg
https://ift.tt/3fb7bBl
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "TIFF Movie Review: Encounter - Looper"
Post a Comment