Soft & Quiet

When I sat down to watch this film, I had no idea what to expect. The brief synopsis mentioned themes of racism, but it still didn't give much away.

The pacing was brilliant-never a dull moment. The film fully engaged me from start to finish. The shock value was masterfully executed.

The filming style, with its deliberate long pauses, added to the tension and drama. The entire cast delivered outstanding performances. I was so captivated that I ended up watching it twice just to absorb every detail.

It reminds us that racism isn't always loud and overt, sometimes it's soft-spoken and insidious.

Just remember, this film isn't for the faint of heart, so be warned.

Soft & Quiet is a provocative and intense film, supported by great acting it provides a gut punch look into minds of twisted and warped mentalities, and it's radicalization. Whilst it flies under the banner of being a horror, it's not in a traditional sense anything like you'd expect from a horror. It's a deeply dramatic movie, with horrific elements based on opinions and actions, not gore or creepy stuff.

Directing, I have to say, it worked for me. I really loved the realism it granted and how grounded it made the movie feel. From driving to walking. You get the feeling you're there, it succeeds at that for sure. To add on to this, the framing of the shots, especially some specific ones where dialog is the main focus, the camera is put in a observing position, not caring about putting the subject in frame, but the dialog. This sometimes made it feel like you were eavesdropping, or just being that ''floating consciousness''. It definitely engaged me. That being said, not perfect. If you're sensitive to shaky camera's and or motion blur, this has a lot of it and some shots felt a bit hard to get through just visually.

Acting/writing was great. Though the characters do feel somewhat unreliable regarding their decisions, which is a shame. That might've sold it fully. But the acting was fantastic, especially Luccardi was amazing, her transformation. The writing was well done too in regards to keeping you on your toes a bit. The overall story is blunt and harsh, and gets the point across no doubt. If anything I wished for a slightly deeper layer within the characters and writing.

Besides that, good movie, uncomfortable, as it should be, but good.

From a story perspective, this movie has a lot of surprises that you don't want to ruin by reading about it before watching. On the other hand, you should probably have some idea of what you're getting into, especially if you need to avoid certain triggers. This movie gets pretty messed up, and it is filmed in a way that is meant to immerse you in the situation as much as possible: it appears to unfold in a single, unbroken take (said to actually be four takes, which is still impressive) with a you-are-there positioning of the camera. It gets a little shaky at times, but it's not found footage--it's more like the camera feels what the characters feel, such as the motion of a car. One thing I will mention is that I turned this movie on when I was almost ready to fall asleep, but once it started, I didn't look away. It can be tricky sometimes trying to decide to see a movie that has been labeled "disturbing." Sometimes it may end up not bothering you too much, other times you end up with images you never wanted in your head. You'll have to follow your own instincts, I guess. For me, Soft and Quiet had some tough stuff in it, but it ended up being a unique experience that was worth the risk.

Blumhouse has a knack for provocation---and though not standardized horror or thriller in the Blumhouse mold, it lies in its own subgenre of fragile white identities gone extreme much like the fringey elements of American History X did in the past. If this film makes you uncomfortable, then it delivered its message successfully, in a one take, hardline address of racism in the US and the tendencies they bring out in what first appears to be "normal everyday group of women" meeting up for a post-workday friendly "workshop" of thoughts and daily agenda. Sounds innocent enough, but it takes no longer than the foil coming off a dessert to show what lies beneath. It's not pretty folks, but that is the gist of the narrative, that the unfounded hate and discrimination is indeed very ugly and you watch it unfold in a slick, non-gimmicky little dark film that doesn't exploit but rips the bandaid off the wound that is extremism and the violence that hides beneath. In plain sight in fact.

Does this help or heal? Neither actually, but shows what it all looks like upclose and feels all too real at times, in these times.

7 1/2 out of 10.

That's how extremists are bred, that is exactly how the notions of extremism manifest.

There are only a handful of films that make me feel nauseated and uncomfortable. I have seen tons of vile stuff in my life; but there were only a couple of instances where I flinched, where my conscience got in the way and told me to ease off and breathe.

Soft & Quiet, as it seems made its way into that list

Everything about this film had me fuming & infuriated, in a good way though! I mean all those arguments that blatantly talked about racial supremacies and ethnic segregation; they were all supposed to make the audience feel enraged and enflamed with anger and rage and now looking at the aftereffect, I must say, they did serve their purpose just fine.

I was feeling so suffocated, I was furious the whole time; the characters were meant to be detested and the actors playing those parts made sure that was indeed the case. Some terrific acting there, cause I wanted all of them to die terrible deaths. It pains me to even think that people like them exist in our society, what a shame!