Dreams

This film explores the perilous intersection of ambition, love, and power. At its core, it tells the story of Fernando, a young ballet dancer from Mexico whose dreams of international recognition collide with the carefully controlled life of Jennifer, a wealthy socialite. What begins as hope and devotion quickly spirals into a devastating exploration of what happens when someone plays with another person's dreams.

The narrative is rich with themes of social injustice and imbalance of power. Fernando's innocence and vulnerability clash against Jennifer's calculated control, exposing how devastating it can be when ambition is manipulated by those who hold privilege. From the very beginning, you sense the story can only end in tragedy, yet the uncertainty of how it will unravel keeps you gripped.

Jennifer's character is perhaps the most haunting-an accomplished woman, outwardly devoted to her career and philanthropy, yet trapped in loneliness, eating dinners alone, craving youth and vitality through a relationship that was never meant to be equal. Her desperation to maintain control over both her public image and private life turns the story into something deeply unsettling.

It's complex, layered, and relentlessly tense-an unflinching portrait of innocence consumed by power, and of a woman so committed to her own survival that she loses sight of humanity.

Cheap erotic scenes and poorly constructed story line. Hard to watch really. Contains already seen societal dynamic plot and poor acting, where you can't pick a single role that makes you feel something deeper and special. Just forced erotic movie, where you could just google for something similar on adult pages and even that would be more artistic and creative.

Michel Franco is a filmmaker who understands how to explore some really dark and twisted movies, that causes outrage and frustration amongst his audience. Having enjoyed many of his works, this latest movie isn't his best movie but it still is ambitious with some good concepts and atmospheres explored.

Throughout, the ambitious atmosphere and direction from Franco is pretty good. As Franco is exploring dynamics between power play, social injustice, politics, and paradox of the world. Alongside with some good camerawork, the performances from the cast members are pretty good. Especially Jessica Chastain and Isaac Hernandez, as the tension dynamic, dark elements, and disturbing undertones offer some good insights to their characters and personalities.

The writing is interesting, however, the issue is that at times, the writing ends up feeling distance with it's mean subject and purpose, which causes some of the pacing and moments feel flat. Franco's point is to explore unlikable characters doing things which makes conflicts and challenges happen. Which Franco does at times have some solid efforts throughout.

Alongside with some clunky dialogue, some of the musical score is good, and the ballet sequences in display are well-directed and presented. I do appreciate some of the lens Franco does explore despite it's very dark and controversy.

Overall, I still enjoyed it as it's dark purpose and presentation feels meaningful.

Trailer is misleading, lost 93 minutes of my time for nothing. The main characters are acting in a bizarr way, almost surgical. I came in expecting a psychological thriller based on that trailer, OMG was I maistaken. First characters are cold, after hot, again cold and indifferent, and back fully on fire at times deranged, and it is worse than watching a documentary, you actually learn something in a documentary. Seriously? Story could have been told in 20 minutes...

This is not a story about "good immigrants" and "bad white people" as some critics claim.

It's about the collapse of moral clarity. There are no pure victims or villains here. Just people making devastating choices. It's uncomfortable, complex and challenging.

About the casting. When asked if he was afraid to put Jessica Chastain, a world-famous actress next to Isaac Hernández, a ballet star with zero acting experience, Michel Franco said: "I believed he could do it and was willing to take a risk...".. and added "in the end it's just a movie." He doesn't play it safe, not in casting, not in storytelling, not in tone.