Hola all. Massawyrm here.
Easily the most talked about barebones indie of the year, BURIED has upped the ante on the single-location film by stripping down to the barest of essentials, creating one of the single most minimalist film experiences you’ve ever had. Ryan Reynolds, a coffin and a cellphone – that’s all this movie needs to create 94 minutes of hair pulling, knuckle wringing tension that will keep you on the very edge of your seat until the film’s brutal final moments. And it is everything you are hearing that it is.
Somehow Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes figured out how to focus the camera on very small objects in a confined space and keep the camera moving just enough so it is not just watching Ryan Reynolds stare at the top of a box for an hour and a half. Visually you never get bored, with something always to distract your attention when it is solely focused upon the conversations Reynolds is having with the outside world on his cell phone.
To tell you anything else about this movie would be criminal. Who he is, where he is and how he came to be there are integral to the very telling of the story. The film opens with a man in a box. We spend the next 94 minutes watching what is effectively a two-act one-man play, learning about who he is and how he might manage his way out. Most important is that the film doesn’t cheat. We never leave the box. Most directors might shoot 15-20 minutes in the box, interspersed with flashbacks showing the what, the who and the how – but not here. This is all box, all the time.
And it works. In fact, it REALLY works. This is a truly incredible achievement that showcases that tension need not involve chases or bullet exchanges; it requires only an immensely talented actor and a director that knows that the revelation of information can be just as tension building as physical action. Ryan Reynolds fans will finally have the cinematic justification that he is the dramatic actor many of us have felt that he is, while film fans will get to see a masterfully crafted, highly effective experimental film that does everything we’re often told you can’t.
This comes highly recommended and should be seen in a theater, as opposed to home viewing, at your earliest opportunity. Despite its limited scope, the ticking clock nature of the film should be seen in a non-pause environment where the tension can build properly, in the dark quiet without distraction. It really is something special.
Until next time friends,
Massawyrm
Got something for the Wyrm? Mail it here.
