Vivarium

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.

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.

The 27th March of 2020 is a good day, a decent day, a day to enjoy a fresh Jesse Eisenberg double feature - "Resistance" and "Vivarium". The latter proved to be an entertaining and thoughtful parable in the atmospheric and thematic traditions of "The Twilight Zone", yet not without its flaws and misses.

"Vivarium" is almost entirely based on a metaphor/s, a parable of an often-used theme, a story that knows what it wants to say but, despite a nice flow of inventiveness, can't keep it consistently substantial. The vert first minutes, the intro sequence, heavily foreshadows what ideas are to follow without even using any characters yet. Later on, there are points where the commentary is perhaps too obvious and spoon-fed. Rushed-in family-hood, the challenges of parenthood, ownership and more similar ideas are presented and worked into a dystopian, lab-rat-like environment. There's a decent dose of humor injected in it as well, the more grim kind. The movie plays off its cast's content and realistic little performances, a top-notch, eye-pleasing production design and various atmosphere-setting devices, trying to be an intriguing survival drama that's swimming around the surface while continuously hinting on a something deeper. The deeper never truly comes. "Vivarium" succeeds at being a drawn-out episode of what could be an anthology horror series, but as a full feature it lacks additional components. For the most part, it is enough with the presented themes, the distressing and messed up character's new routine and the fantastic, mysterious elements surrounding it, but... "Vivarium" has got style, but half-way through it slowly ceases to be enough & as a climax we receive... even more style. Basically, as far as atmosphere, special effects and indie arthouse creativity goes, "Vivarium" is a great little flick worth seeing, but chances of eventual underwhelment are there.

For anyone who loves oddball indies, mysterious concepts, metaphors, borderless creepiness and what people call "Twilight Zone-esque", "Vivarium" is a journey worth taking. Should it succeed, thoughts might be provoked. My rating: 7/10.

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.