Change Your Image
protazyboryna
Reviews
Small World (2021)
A boring ride in a crazy rollercoaster
It feels like three different movies accidently stitched together, each being weird in its own way. It might be almost likeable for its quirkiness if it wasn't so hard to sit through.
It begins with a fairly enticing criminal story about a kidnapping. It presents some uneasy characters and strong emotions that are not entirely unrelatable. The acting of a mother who is emotionally at 11 for hours may seem a bit over-the-top but you'll miss it with what's coming.
Next we follow a policeman tracking the ever-elusive kidnapped girl. Without going into details, a big part of the story is his self-destructive persistence. The only motivation we eventually get is the idea that.. he may be a pedophile himself. From a shrink, no less. This is after a scene where he gets exposed to an over-sexualized teen/child and gets confused. This motive seems very much like a cash-in on the Cuties "you may be a pedo" franchise and its immense press coverage. I'll just say it's not even trying to be graceful in any way here, or to make sense for that matter.
The second face of the movie is composed of adorably clunky punisher-esque scenes. If the beginning tried to be down-to-earth, now we're blown right to the outer space. These parts of the movie are like Alex's Jones fever dream depicting most rough-hewn satanic-pedophile cults you'll ever see.
The third face is what worn me out the most. A dramatic depiction of a seemingly high-life of a "special requests" prostitute in Thailand, taking a formidable chunk of the later parts of the movie. It seems like the director wanted to utilize the actor playing the partner of the prostitute (a role that was relatively not terrible), but had little idea how to do that gracefully. It stretched mercilessly, offering little exposure while presenting a character/relationship that may have been almost interesting to analyze, but underexposed and underdeveloped ultimately got dulled down in a mix with the punisher franchise during the culmination.
There's much more to say about the movie, but that should at least scratch the surface. Vega seems to attempt the high-low tension curve with some humor at times, but hardly masterfully. Up to a point, where I don't even know if he really attempts that.
Like there's a scene in the brothel after a "special request" service by the girl, where another customer walks in and asks to quickly slurp down the used condoms right there and then, since his family is waiting for him. W-what? Is that supposed to be a comedic relief or a dramatic depiction? In the end it just seems weird, just like the entire movie does.