Vivero

Vivarium is a rather ingenious film about a young couple, excellently played by Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg, lured to a bland housing development by a salesman (a hilariously weird Jonathan Aris) where they are forced to raise a child. I really liked the first half, which is a visually striking, surreal existential drama that can be seen as a commentary on suburban life.

At first much of the movie is weirdly, darkly comical, but as it moves along the comical parts give way to despair and horror. This makes sense, and I think it's a reasonable direction for the movie to go based on its premise. But while the first half is *fun*, the second half is very much not, and that feels like a bit of a bait and switch.

The movie is also, at an hour and a half, too long. It's basically an extended Twilight Zone episode that takes one concept and explores it. There aren't really twists per se, we never learn much about this world, we just see how these people's lives unfold in this bizarre situation.

Ultimately I'm torn between rating this 6 or 7, since parts of it are quite good. But while I was fascinated early on, by the end I was just kinda bummed out.

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.

Unfortunately there's not enough substance here to fill up an entire feature film. There's A LOT of padding. For example the scene where they're listening to ska music in the car. It doesn't add anything much to the movie. It feels like the actors were told to just make up a dialogue on the spot.

For a movie of this kind to sustain our attention for a full hour and a half there needs to be more than just the initial concept. Unfortunatley there's not. There's no twist. There's no second act. There's a really interesting "nightmare"-type scene towards the end which feels for a moment like the movie's finally going somewhere. But then it dissipates and we're left with nothing much once more.

Why didn't the protagonists try and decipher the book that was delivered? Surely that was a vital clue? What caused their health to fail? Why didn't they try breaking into other houses on the street? I wanted these characters to fight to the death but they really went out with a wimper.

Could have been great.... but wasn't. Watch "the Platform" instead if you want surreal horror with a message.

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.

It started out fine. The tone reminded me a bit of Cube (1997) and I have to say that I was intrigued for the first 30 minutes or so. But in spite of being a mere 90 minute long movie, it drags. Which reminds me of Richard Kelly's The Box (2009). Both movies have an interesting premise, which might be enough to fill more than an episode of a show like The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror, but not an entire feature film. The symbolism is very heavy handed and could have done with a bit more finesse.