Randomly caught about a minute of this playing one day, it looked weird, so I stopped watching immediately, figured I’d DMR it. I like weird movies and hate spoilers. I don’t review enough ‘recent’ films either, so sheeit, let’s give it a shot! It’s labeled a black comedy thriller? Uhmmmm. After viewing, not really seein the “black comedy” here. Some people might take to it better than I did, and I feel sorry for you if you do. This one’s a tough one to review, There’s a messaging element to the film I’m not exactly keen on, so while I don’t give any direct spoilers, I do touch on themes that are a bit spoilery in nature so be Warned. Here’s we go.
Interesting look at the world of bees. Not going so good for them lately, apparently. Good metaphor as the story expands out. Teddy and his kind of mentally-stunted cousin Don, doing some beekeeping and rural survival kinda training. Cut to Hot-Shot Pharmaceutical CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), doing her own training regimen, shooting her company Diversity Training videos, doing the job and showing she is the alpha chick while also trying to seem nice. Then due to maybe some alien-related conspiracies and Teddy’s sick mom, the three of their paths cross. Intentionally. Ted has strong convictions that Michelle is an alien. She earnestly refutes that she is not. Exactly what an Andromedan Alien would say! Three days til the lunar eclipse where communications are supposed to take place with the Mothership, guess we find out one way or another then, eh? But yeah, a lot of basement shots and chains and Conspiracy theories and Psychological manipulations on a few different levels.
I do dig the unsettling play on what is reality here, definitely a strong Ari Aster kinda vibe. Looks like he was involved in the production of it, makes sense. It’s Dark. More psychological horror than anything else. And it does delve into some crazy shit, potential theories of aliens, evolution, the enjoyment of coconut cake. As a psychotic thriller kinda film, it’s not bad, and for that, it gets a better Story score than I would normally have given it. Unfortunately that’s just the tortilla delivery device to a bit of nihilistic bullshit AIDS-kinda claptrap burrito filling that’s been circulatin’ as of late. This is the reason I don’t review many movies from the last decade or two. This. It’s a remake of the 2003 South Korean flick Save the Green Planet! While the plot seems to remain mostly the same (I haven’t seen it but read the synopsis to verify), I wonder if the underlying messaging changed at all. Wouldn’t be surprised if it hasn’t, they been working this kinda deranged message like a 2-dollah whooore for quite awhile now on a global scale, we seeing its fruition in the Hollywood scene quite heavily over the last couple of decades. Sad.
Somebody brought up the 1986 Twilight Zone episode ‘A Small Talent for War’ not long ago, it’s kind of the antithesis to that. Or the opposite of Buckaroo Banzai in a lot of ways, where that emoted positivity, this one projects negativity.
My conflict here, I don’t agree with the messaging, but does that make it a bad movie? It is thought provoking, it’s stayed with me after watching. But I guess just to recognize it as the blackpill propaganda BS that it is. Save the bees, save the whales, because humans are complete wastes. Well, at least some of the humans. So once again, Ari Aster finds another interesting uncomfortable subject to inject us with, even if it is a remake. But at what point do you say this is a net detriment vs benefit to society? Like writing a book about being sympathetic to a pedophile. Just...No. That is an absolute lose-lose scenario by supporting that in an evolved society. Sure, this is a fictional narrative that takes an extreme viewpoint as a basis for the premise as a warning, but Diverse “advanced” alien societies that choose to wipe out the human race because they don’t like it’s progression at a certain point in time in its evolution is not only asinine, it suggests this is the preferred option. The ultimate blackpill. Not a fan.
