Vivarium

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.

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

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 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.

Though 'Vivarium (2019)' isn't necessarily a bad in-the-moment viewing experience, it ultimately emerges as a frustrating and almost pointless endeavour. It requires a lot of patience, as most slow-burning things do, but it doesn't reward that patience with anything other than its end credits. Most obviously, the movie is an incredibly cynical and downbeat allegory for the cyclical nature of - I suppose - 'typical' suburban life. It basically posits that life is nothing but a prison (cheerful, I know). The problem is that its metaphor falls short in a few key areas, most notably in how it connects itself to the 'true' surface-level aspects of the story. The actual machinations of its plot are so poorly defined that they lack any real relevance. Plus, in the real world, there's this little thing called happiness, which the flick seems to forget. Of course, movies are allowed to be dark. It's just that they ought to amount to something, to use their darkness as a way to frighten or provoke. Rather than using its nihilism to create fear, the piece just puts it on display. The actual story keeps going in circles. There aren't many twists on the central situation. Even when something new does crop up, the picture tends to bat its ideas aside in an effort to create an increasingly hopeless vibe. Essentially, it's plagued by long stretches where 'nothing' happens. Now, you could argue that's the point: its leads are stuck in infinite suburbia, after all. Just because the characters are bored, though, doesn't mean the audience has to be. The narrative is elusive and strange, an odd mixture of the mundane and the otherworldly, but it isn't intriguing. It really should be, too. The movie's premise and, even, some of its plot points have a lot of potential. That's why it's so frustrating that the whole thing just feels like a waste of time. It's well-made and, as I mentioned, it can hold your attention, but it's the sort of thing you almost regret giving your attention to. There's not much else to say, really. It's just not that good. Oh, and it features one of the most annoying children ever put to screen (through no fault of the actor); he's not freaky or unsettling, he's just plain irritating. 4/10