Netflix And Chill: Look Away (2018)

India Eisley plays Maria, a quiet girl who isn't having a very good time of things at her school, mainly because of her being a bit quiet (I guess). While unhappy at school, she is equally unhappy at home, observing her unappreciated mother (Mira Sorvino) or being harshly criticised by her cold father (Jason Isaacs). Things start to change for Maria when she finds out that her reflection isn't JUST her reflection. It's a presence that has been with her throughout most of her life, calls herself Airam (of course), and is willing to switch places with Maria to put things right. So the two switch, which allows Airam to start punishing those who have spent too much time wronging Maria.

As slick and teen-centric as it is, and it really is, Look Away also has some surprising depth to it. Written and directed by Assaf Bernstein (an unexpected choice for him, considering most of his previous work), what could have easily been a supernatural revenge tale focusing on a bodycount and bloodshed instead plays out as a character study of a young woman willing to go to extreme lengths to find acceptance and love. Multi-layered scenes none too subtly reinforce the point that how others view you is a lot less important than how you view yourself.

A quote from Hollow Man comes to mind: "It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t have to look at yourself in the mirror anymore." Although that doesn't look to be the literal case here, it's essentially the same thing. Maria sees herself whenever she looks in the mirror. Until she sees Airam, who is the tougher version of herself. Airam, on the other hand, sees Maria for a while, but does her best to avoid her when she starts heading down a very different path.

Eisley does well in the lead roles, doing her best to convince as both the worn-down teen and the badass out for revenge. Isaacs and Sorvino are both superb, portraying parents who are letting their daughter down in different, but equally damaging, ways. Penelope Mitchell is a friend to Maria who may not have always been as supportive as she could have been, John C. MacDonald is a bully motivated by an underlying attraction to Maria, and Harrison Gilbertson is the nice guy caught up in between people who are hiding their agendas from him.

Solid from start to finish, and genuinely interesting and thought-provoking by the time the end credits roll around, it's just a shame that the script doesn't fully convince in the opening act. Maria doesn't seem to have it as badly as some other movie characters we've seen endure tortuous school years of bullying. That's not to say that a character can only feel miserable and bullied if x events occur but it just feels a bit light compared to how the rest of the plot unfolds.

The title may be Look Away, but this rewards viewers who look a little deeper.

7/10

You can order a R1 disc here.
Americans can order it here.

Prime Time: Exposed (2016)

A film that was chopped and changed during the journey from script to screen, Exposed feels very much like what it is. Okay, almost EVERY film goes through a number of changes from script to screen but it's obvious that some are messed around with more than others. The different plot elements here are so badly mashed together that any attempt to provide a satisfying finale is undone by viewers realising how clumsily the main points are being made.

On the one hand, there's a young woman (Isabel, played by Ana de Armas) who is going through a pretty bad time of things. She's also a person of interest in an investigation being conducted by Detective Galban (Keanu Reeves) into the death of his partner. Unfortunately, that investigation may turn up a few details that people would like to stay covered up, and Isabel may be too busy trying to deal with recent events to be of any help. She has seen things that don't seem to belong to this world, has started to help a young girl (Elisa, played by Venus Ariel) who needs protection, and is also pregnant via some immaculate conception.

Written and directed by Gee Malik Linton (who changed his name for the directorial credit), Exposed is a mind-muddling mess, it really is. Nothing works, despite De Armas trying her best in a role that she is certainly capable of playing. The drama doesn't engage or affect viewers, the thriller side of things isn't thrilling, and you're left with a squidgy pan of flour and yeast that nobody has managed to turn into an edible loaf of bread.

This is, apparently, all the fault of the studio. Some people have managed to see the alternate cut of this (the version that was envisioned by Linton before the studios took it and chopped it up and made it unrecognisable). That is known as Daughter Of God and, if it ever becomes widely available, I'll check it out and see how it compares.

But, for now, this is what we're stuck with. It's atrocious. Reeves suffers the most, being given a role that should suit him (he's played cops who are heroic and/or shady a number of times) but with no feeling that he's in the same movie as De Armas. Remember when certain film-makers or studios would take movies and recut them with other movies to make a new title that they would then serve up to us, despite the way the end result would never quite fit together in any cohesive way? That's how this feels. On the one hand, you have Reeves, Christopher McDonald, and Mira Sorvino in a police procedural flick, and on the other hand you have De Armas. It's embarrassing.

There ARE one or two decent moments, scenes that move from reality to something strange and supernatural so smoothly that they manage to impress (an early scene with De Armas watching someone else in a subway station is excellent), but it's a real struggle to remember the few highlights once the film is over. In fact, it's probably as difficult as it was for the main actors to remember what kind of film they were starring in.

3/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.