Proximity

Wow this was bad. A whole lot of nothing - 119 min to be exact, that felt like an eternity with the ridiculously slow pacing. Writer, director, producer, and editor Eric Demeusy makes his first full-length feature film debut, having 6 previous short films on his resume. This should've been his 7th short film, because the 2 hours I had to sit through, was hell. It was cheesy - MIB guys, seriously?, the music and score were ridiculous - annoying and out of place, as was the "I-cant-decide-what-this-film-is-going-to-be-about" writing. Just a variety of up-chuck splattered everywhere. The acting was stale and boring - probably from the lack of direction by Demeusy. The only redeeming quality was the cinematography and some visuals (not the laser beams lol), which is what Demeusy's role has been in the film industry. That's were most of my 4/10 goes towards, and includes cutting a newb filmmaker some slack. Not deserving of anything less, because filmmakers have to start somewhere, right?

What's going on with the soundtrack in this movie! It's absolutely terrible, like watching a movie with someone in the same room as you playing a cd , or watching a movie from 1940 with the volume turned up way to loud while you try to listen to the dialogue! And music playing completely inappropriate to the scene on screen , it's a shame it completely destroyed any chance of liking this movie .

This film is kind of a fascinating trainwreck of someone who was trying to be Spielberg but also wanted to be John Hughes. It mean, it's so...uneven. The photography is fine, the dialogue is above average, the acting solid. But I would never have thought this was written and directed by the same person; it feels like the writer and director were at odds with each other.

The basis of the story is a video of an alien that a guy says he shot, and the story is driven by whether it is real or not...but you never get to see the video. It's like a McGuffin...but you NEED to see it to validate the other characters' responses. It's cheating the viewer by not letting you see it for yourself.

And the music is TERRIBLE. Invasive, and tries to drive the emotion of the scene in all the wrong directions. I swear, if I produced this and heard that music in the final cut, I would have paid out of my own pocket to have it re-scored.

It's not awful. It's not unwatchable. But it always feels off tempo, off balance...and not in a good way.

Overall: Meh.

This movie literally has everything, and that is the problem. I have never seen a movie where 50% is honestly good and the other 50% is film-school horrible.

Overall the acting, special effects, and idea of the movie are good. But, the plot, pacing, and "black-ops government scenes" are so dumb (and out of place) they're comical. I have never edited film in my whole life, but I guarantee I can turn this stinker into a decent story with 30 minutes in the editing room.

This movie has it all! Including (in no particular order): -Alien Abductions -Main Character who is "finding himself" -A train "chase" scene -Cyborgs on motorcycles -A lot of 1990's technology in 2020??? -Social Media bullying -Cable News -A 5,000 mile non-stop Cessna flight from Costa Rica to Canada (Impossible) -Breaking out of Prison -oh, and Jesus (yes, Jesus Christ)

But ... it plays out as a like an average feeling kids movie made by well intended amateurs. The main protagonist teen actor did a great job, as did his female sidekick. The rest of the characters were either badly directed or miscast. There are sections where the film shines, but these sections are quickly superseded by ridiculous film-craft in other parts.

Pedestrian direction and editing (get experienced people to do this), completely un-scary and miscast villains with over-sized suits in some cases (Agents are meant to have money. A fitted suit indicates the agent is well resourced. Thus an over-size suit on an agent is hugely distracting), comedic robots which don't intimidate at all and yes the most comedic men-in-black you could image. I laughed out loud when these guys in sunglasses strolled down the hall. Why put comedy into a serious scene?

The scene near the end where they escape, it was impossible to figure out what the heck was happening there. There was not enough precedent to the characters powers that we could draw upon to make sense of that scene. You need to make the details of superpowers clear early on, so we can know what to expect. Ie: Why does the glass disappear to the guy with powers, but not disappear to someone else watching? You need to answer this question in the film somewhere, and make it obvious. Otherwise we are looking at a frustratingly confusing film that had so much potential. If some thinking was done on what to include in the film or not, there would've been great improvement.

Hats off to providing a satisfying alien explanation scene.