Watching Vivarium was a deeply unsettling experience for me. The elements all came together to bring a terrible sense of being trapped in a never-ending cookie-cutter suburban nightmare, raising a child you're not ready for only to have it literally drain the life out of you and ending up in a sexless, spiteful relationship. It basically takes an optimist young couple and destroys them by dropping them into the American Dream - perfect home and yard, marriage, baby, the nuclear family. But what do you do then? They are completely isolated, the food is packaged and tasteless, and the child becomes more demanding and terrifying and they are unable to connect with or understand it. They glimpse the realities around them, with every other couple trapped in the same nightmare but no way to communicate it or break the cycle. Absolutely loved this film and it definitely left an impression on me. But then, maybe it's my age and lifestyle that makes me view it through this lens and project my opinions. Others may interpret it in a totally different way but there's so many great things going on it this film that it is definitely worth a watch.
Review of Vivarium
