Inside

Flashbacks of 2020 , you know I'm something of an insane recluse myself. Has that problem where you can't tell if Willem Dafoe is going crazy because you cast Willem Dafoe.

Something something Tower of Babylon, something something folly of man. Willem Dafoe stumbles around an art house inside an Arthouse film that fails to captivate. It lacks any engaging elements and would have been a much better suited as a 10 minute short. Inside is a nice looking waste of time.

Willem Dafoe really gives his all in his performance and the cinematography is great, but the story just didn't do it for me. I really liked the setup which is why I even watched this in the first place. The movie just felt self indulgent in the way it was paced and edited.

"Inside" boasts a captivating performance from Willem Dafoe and a fascinating initial premise, but its overly ambitious themes and lack of a solid narrative structure hinder its potential. While it may be appreciated by those who enjoy open-ended, thought-provoking cinema, others might find the experience ultimately unsatisfying and exhausting.

"Inside" is a visually striking but ultimately uneven film. It presents an interesting exploration of art, obsession, and survival, but its indulgent approach and lack of emotional grounding dilute its impact. As a meditation on the human condition and art's role in it, the film offers food for thought, but as a cinematic experience, it leaves much to be desired.

Willem is amazing, of course, but the film never quite goes beyond its thin concept and develop something truly interesting, which is just too bad. At least it plays Pyramid Song during the final credits.

Having Dafoe's as-usual sterling acting tear up the scenery makes for a great viewing experience. And while I enjoyed the film, I can't help but feel that it was ultimately vacuous. Perhaps, the film is meant to reflect the contemporary art scene in most museums today: it in itself is a futile attempt at audaciousness that fails due to lack of substance. The ultimately irony is that the most audacious thing about this movie is its implicit claim that music isn't art!

Interesting premise for a survival film. As a viewing experience, it's fairly well devised though not entirely convincing, and may test your patience. What really falls flat is the "message".

For the most part, the movie was solid, filled with a lot of meaning and allegories. However, the lack of an ending, or the open for interpretations ending, really ruined it for me. Willem Dafoe was superb and perfectly cast, but I really, really hated the finale. We, as the viewer, were invested in his life and art and we deserved to know for sure what happened to him, even though there were strong suggestions he committed suicide.

Pretty boring and meaningless, while pretending to be otherwise.

Defoe is the man. The movie he inhabits isn't focused enough and suffers from some pretty poor pacing though there are moments to be enjoyed. Having sirens blaring at full volume for what felt like 5 minutes was a bad choice.

This movie is shallow, and empty. A collection of interesting visuals do not make a good movie. What a waste of talent, concept, and set.

KUDOS to Willem Dafoe, who IS the movie. Compelling and intense throughout.

The premise is of course absurd, at the very least the building management would have come and investigated when the fire sprinklers went off. Plot holes aside, with anybody but Dafoe in this role the movie would be borderline unwatchable but there are worse uses of time than the Willem Dafoe Show

Just nice to look at.

Dafoe is as great as you’d expect. The camerawork is also better than it needs to be for a film like this. I’ve always appreciated stuck-in-one-place movies, and the first hour or so is a solid example of the sub genre. It does lose steam towards the end, retreading old ground, dream sequences, etc. it didn’t need to exceed 90min, and could’ve used a 15 minute trim. The ending is also fairly underwhelming, but it doesn’t ruin anything. While it’s not the best of its type, I liked it.

One of the things that a lot of people don't realize about Castaway is that there's a significant chunk of that movie that isn't on the island. I'm happy to watch Dafoe do anything but this was a little too much of the same thing over the course of a little too much time for this viewer. I'm not saying he needed a Wilson, but maybe I did. EDIT: It probably isn't clear enough that I did not want them to add Helen Hunt. I just felt I had to say that explicitly.

Dafoe is great. The pacing is not. I understand the point is to feel his frustration and therefore scenes go on longer than they ordinarily would, but I wasn't feeling masochistic enough to enjoy a large part of this as a result. Happy I watched it, but disappointed it wasn't enjoyable. 5.0