Vivero

Vivarium is another mushroom-trip inducing film. If you like slow, artsy, sci-fi, metaphor-for-life type films that leave you with a foreboding sense of dread and could possibly test your mental state after a year of COVID ... then this movie is for you. It is very well acted and I think it achieved what the director set out to achieve, but it may not make sense to you and might leave you feeling like you wasted 90 mins of your life, even during lockdown. If you do watch it, I suggest you come back and read some of the spoiler reviews here on IMDB to help make sense of it all. You might just find you liked it after all.

I thought Vivarium was a nice surprise from a movie I didn't expect much of. The story is completely refreshing, i can't recall watching another movie with a similar story so that's already a positive point. There are too much movies with repetitive stories so to see one with an interesting plot it gets my attention. It's a weird story, so if you don't like the bizarre (that's those with the negative reviews) then you should just not watch it, you will be disappointed. Vivarium is the kind of movie that makes me talk out loud during the viewing, what I would do if I was in that case and so on. The plot is intriguing, the decor very minimalistic but that definitely adds to the odd ambiance, the cast is very small but good. Once you're in the story you defintely want to know what the hell is happening and where they are going to? Maybe the end could have been a bit more elaborated but overal it's a movie that deserves a better rating, just for creativity alone.

But then came the rest of the film. Tedious, repetitive, dull. I was SO glad when it was over. Ick.

I had heard about this film from a reviewer i watch on YouTube, she mentioned it's not for everyone but based on her synopsis I figured it'd be up my alley as i like mind bending films. Overall, I found it enjoyable, I liked the premise and the general mood of the film. It was slow in many places, I'd even venture to say it's a slow paced film in its entirety, but it only really feels slow in certain places. I'd like to imagine that's what the director was trying to convey; monotony, lethargy, emptiness, but it did drag on sometimes. The ending was slightly anticlimactic in my opinion and in general i felt the story left much to be desired. But again I like the idea of it, it just felt very bare bones like it wasn't fully fleshed out yet. Perhaps it could be better as a book where one can spend more time on the details. Would i recommend this? If you like movies with a hint of sci fi/psychological mind bending then maybe you'd find it pleasant enough. Not something I'll be revisiting though.

I believe the point of the film is that it's pointless, a gloomy cycle that repeats itself regardless of anyone foolish enough to try and stop it. It's nihilistic, but also does not seek to convey anything to the audience. It's an intriguing story that begins and ends, and in the end was nothing more than a thought experiment without merit.