Who Would You Take to a Deserted Island?. Jota Linares. 2019. ☆☆★★★★
A Spanish Netflix movie! I am exite!
But… well, there’s good bits. They’ve gone for a very low-makeup look for the actors (you can see every pore), and the actors are pretty good. Especially the women. But it’s difficult to get into this movie: I mean, what’s it even about? It’s a bunch of pretty and pretty young people talking and flirting with each other, but the dialogue feels pretty awkward and unnatural. And not in a heightened reality way, but just… well… awkward.
The cinematography is pretty off-putting: It’s all done with a very mobile camera: It’s either a steadiccam or just some guy with an Iphone. It’s not shakycam per se, but the camera is never not shivering and moving.
And the colours are all washed-out and everything looks like it’s happening on a sunny Sunday morning.
Most of the Netflix movies I’ve watched for this blog series have had a pretty obvious audience: “If this is the sort of movie you like, you’ll like this movie” all the way. Except the Indian movies, which are somewhat baffling.
But I can’t really pinpoint an audience for this either. It has no obvious hooks, and just kinda seems to meander aimlessly… That’s a thing I normally like, but I wonder whether the filmmakers promised “we’ll make a movie that Pedro Almodovar fans will like!” and then didn’t quite know how to deliver.
Or… are they going for Tennessee Williams? I think they are!
It doesn’t help. The “shocking” “reveals” during the Night Of Truth are… well… positively medieval.
Andrea Ros is good, though.
This post is part of the NFLX2019 blog series.