FilmSnobReviews

Title: We Might As Well Be Dead
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Director: Natalia Sinelnikova
Starring: Ioana Iacob, Pola Geiger, Jörg Schüttauf
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

What It Is: Anna Wilczynska (Iacob) is a security guard living in one of humanity’s last bastions, a tall skyrise building featuring flats as well as several other amenities. Anna’s daughter Iris (Geiger) has locked herself in the bathroom thinking that she has “the evil eye”. As strange things begin to happen in their building Iris begins to suspect she may be the cause. Anna will do anything to hide this as a fact. 

What We Think: This is a really interesting film. It seems like Lanthimos-lite. It has quirky and strange characters who have more sinister intentions. Straight out of the Greek auteur’s playbook. Iacob is central to this film and she’s incredible here. It’s just a tragedy that the film around her isn’t as organized as it should be. Most of the support isn’t really there and the characters are the problem. They are all, for the most part very one-note. I think the biggest issue is the direction isn’t focused. The story isn’t focused and both never gel with one and other.

Our Grade: C, It has a steep curve to it being a. a foreign film and b. not a particularly focused one. Keeping up with it can be a struggle. Is it worth your time…sure. Is it really that great a film? Nah. It’ll be a difficult film to get a hold of in the first place but couple that with everything I’ve described here and you get something that if needing to be searched for. An interesting entry in the new modern sci-fi but one that’s too ambiguous to warrant a massive audience. One not good enough to get away with that sort of thing.