I had some time to waste on the plane, so I checked out Spiderhead on Netflix. It took me two sessions (plus some strategic fast-forwarding) to get through this absurdly misguided, flat, and tone-free mess. I can't think of anyone at all whom this would resonate with; this movie has no genre, no style, no substance, no joy, no stakes.
The plot is close to meaningless, boiling down to "sociopath injects inmates with various drugs to influence their actions and that's bad!", so I won't go into that too much - I want to highlight some of the impressive failures this movie puts on display.
-the cinematography and direction are more lifeless than a Real Housewives episode. At least in Real Housewives, the camera moves sometimes. This 100-something-minute movie is a collection of talking heads in shot/reverse shot and some static medium shots, conveying zero movement or emotion throughout. The actors clearly know they're in something bad - it explicitly shines through their line delivery and choices, which the director apparently had no influence on.
-the soundtrack: "what soundtrack", am I right? The lack of any music throughout most of this film complements the utter blandness of each static shot, conveying a sense of boredom throughout the entire film.
-the script: this movie treats its viewers with massive disdain, overexplaining every plot point and overemphasizing every call-back to the point that you're yelling "I GET IT!!!" at your screen. Also, the characters each get one trait, which isn't fleshed out. There is no growth, there are no stakes, and, weirdly, there are no real side characters. This is a bottle movie.
-the tone: I can't for the life of me explain what I was supposed to feel, no matter how much verbaluce you'd give me. It felt like an episode of one of those dime-a-dozen police procedurals, that only exist to serve as background noise for nursing homes.
-the plot: you tell me. Why does this place even exist without ANY supervision? How is this legal? Why is this being performed in a James Bond villain lair for NO REASON? You could do these trials in any prison, any hospital.
This film was so boring, I can't even hate it. I just don't care. Which might be worse than hate. And Chris Hemsworth does a LAUGHABLE American accent.
The plot is close to meaningless, boiling down to "sociopath injects inmates with various drugs to influence their actions and that's bad!", so I won't go into that too much - I want to highlight some of the impressive failures this movie puts on display.
-the cinematography and direction are more lifeless than a Real Housewives episode. At least in Real Housewives, the camera moves sometimes. This 100-something-minute movie is a collection of talking heads in shot/reverse shot and some static medium shots, conveying zero movement or emotion throughout. The actors clearly know they're in something bad - it explicitly shines through their line delivery and choices, which the director apparently had no influence on.
-the soundtrack: "what soundtrack", am I right? The lack of any music throughout most of this film complements the utter blandness of each static shot, conveying a sense of boredom throughout the entire film.
-the script: this movie treats its viewers with massive disdain, overexplaining every plot point and overemphasizing every call-back to the point that you're yelling "I GET IT!!!" at your screen. Also, the characters each get one trait, which isn't fleshed out. There is no growth, there are no stakes, and, weirdly, there are no real side characters. This is a bottle movie.
-the tone: I can't for the life of me explain what I was supposed to feel, no matter how much verbaluce you'd give me. It felt like an episode of one of those dime-a-dozen police procedurals, that only exist to serve as background noise for nursing homes.
-the plot: you tell me. Why does this place even exist without ANY supervision? How is this legal? Why is this being performed in a James Bond villain lair for NO REASON? You could do these trials in any prison, any hospital.
This film was so boring, I can't even hate it. I just don't care. Which might be worse than hate. And Chris Hemsworth does a LAUGHABLE American accent.