Written by Michael Clawson
80/100
Paranoia spreads like a virus in Seimetz’s sci-fi-inflected psycho-thriller, which shows her deftly threading black comedy through gloomy atmosphere. The outbreak starts with Kate Lyn Sheil’s Amy. For reasons unknown, she’s got it in her head that the next day will be her last, and she passes that conviction on to a friend, played by the eccentric, very funny Jane Adams, who spreads it further. Seimetz taps each character’s reckoning with their mortality for bleak humor while keeping dread in the air, pulling off a tricky tonal balancing act. Kate Lyn Sheil and Jane Adams are the two clear standouts among a solid cast. Sheil bears what comes across as true despair in Amy, despair that provokes makeup smearing tears and depressive shuffling around her new house as she listens to a haunting Mozart record on repeat. Above all, what’s alluring is Seitmetz’s control of mood, and the strobing red and blue light and swirling bacterial imagery she punctuates it with. There’s nothing more anxiety-provoking than the thought that tomorrow, everything could come to an end, but maybe there’s some consolation to be found in seeing that the fear passes through a lot of us at some point. It isn’t any less scary, but maybe it’s a little less lonely.
–Michael Clawson originally published this review on Letterboxd 08/13/20
Available for rent from most services.
