I write like I am talking, because I am. To you. I am not a movie reviewer – and I actually don’t know what the movie is doing. And to say one does know is the height of hubris. So when I say that I am “explaining” what the movie is about, I am actually wanting to discuss with you what we think the movie is actually about. To come to consensus. To try and grapple with it together. It’s how I do it. And yeah, I am totally not going to be everyone’s favorite. There are a ton of different sites out there that discuss movies. Reddit is probably the biggest location to find people discussing and figuring movies out… not sure what sub-reddit you’d want, but it can’t be too hard to find people discussing movies out there. As for me being snarky. You are right… it’s a fatal flaw built into my DNA. My apologies if my snarkiness offended. But good luck finding the answers you are looking for.

Taylor

This is so difficult to follow, your review I mean. Why do you write like you are talking? Also why are there so many question sentences? The whole reason for an explanation is to explain, not come up with further questions. Not only that, but your comments are snarky as well.

It’s also (I thought) dramatically unsatisfying, in that the action of NOT tipping that bottle of acid is essentially a deux ex machina…not motivated by anything inside the story other than the screenwriter flipping a coin: “heads, he lives; tails, I burn the dude.”

FWIW, and interesting companion piece might be “I Am Not a Serial Killer”, which has a similar lo-fi production (shot on 16mm film!), and a similar paranoid build up, but which is taken in a very different direction. Highly recommended.

There was no clear definitive ending. The viewers never truly know the reality of this story due to the fade to black. The ending is only what you decide it was in your own head.

I think this was strongly influenced by Donnie Darko. Even more than just the sound of the interior voice. Just like Donnie in that other movie, Wyatt is both crazy AND “on to something” at the same time.

One more thing, I looked for a review on Mindscape (or Anna, I still don’t know how I should call it) but I couldn’t find one. Have you watched it? I would really like to know what you think of it.

But anyway, thank you for taking the time to write these.

Sincerely,

A 20 year old with zero friends who understand her love for mind bending movies.

Hypothetically – but what made Wyatt not kill Christian? The bloody gag falling on the floor? The bewitching hour of 6:00 PM? I didn’t see Wyatt have any breakthrough thought or realization. And maybe, just maybe (and this is out there) Christian didn’t care if he had died but was just fricking relieved that he hadn’t. Hence the close-up of his face at the end. Maybe, could be, just another point of view.

Convoluted movie but I was really struck by the psychological ties between all the characters (including the deep friendship between Mara and her girlfriend – very subtle). Oh so many more thoughts twirling.

They Look Like People had a lot more potential but pretty damn good considering how it was made.

So a successful movie in your opinion is if he had killed him? Walk that one back for me. Because that isn’t daring or even insightful at all. It’s just more Hollywood tripe being repackaged and repurposed for yet another movie. You’ve already seen that movie a million times. Why is it that that is what you are looking for?

Makes zero sense to me.