Inside movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Inside

This psychological drama movie is now available to stream on ROW8, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, or Redbox.

RATING: R

LENGTH: 1 hour 45 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: B-

IN A NUTSHELL:

The thriller is about Nemo, a high-end art thief who is trapped in a New York penthouse after his heist doesn’t go as planned. Locked inside with nothing but priceless works of art, he must use all his cunning and invention to survive.

The film was directed by Vasilis Katsoupis, who also helped write the movie with Ben Hopkins.

THINGS I LIKED:

I adore Willem Dafoe and think he’s such an incredible actor, so I was excited to see what he would do with this role. As always, he’s great.
The premise is interesting for a survival movie of sorts.
It’s tough to keep an audience interested when there is only one actor and one location throughout the entire film.
It’s entertaining to watch Dafoe discover the many smart-home features in the penthouse and how he chooses to utilize what he finds in the house.
It’s a fascinating perspective on the pandemic quarantine.
The movie asks us an interesting question: If your house were burning down, which 3 objects would you grab to take with you?”
The title says it all. Yes, the thief is INSIDE an expensive penthouse, but the director wants us to go INSIDE the thief’s head to explore more important themes.
I love survival movies that make me question what I would do to survive in similar situations.
I kept looking for deep meaning in every frame and found some interesting symbolism between art, mankind, the purpose of life, the importance of human connection, and more.
In terms of art, it was interesting to see the giant sculpture that Willem Dafoe’s character built in search of hope.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

It’s pretty unrealistic that the luxury building wouldn’t have been notified when all of the alarms started blaring at the beginning of the movie or when the apartment was flooded.
He seemed to give up so quickly, although we really can’t tell how much time has actually passed. Based on Willem Dafoe’s desperation, it looks like many, many months.
SPOILDER: We learn nothing about Willem Dafoe’s heist buddies and why they didn’t return to try to help him escape.
Unlike the movie The Martian (I love that movie!), this drama could have used some humor in the solo survival experience.
There is a scene that is supposed to give us some background information, but it doesn’t really add much to the story.