disappointment media
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • The Snake Hole
  • About

[Tribeca 2023] SOMEWHERE QUIET -- Things That Go Bump in the Mind

6/8/2023

0 Comments

 
Review by Sean Boelman
Picture
Olivia West Lloyd’s Somewhere Quiet is an impressively directed entry into the “things that go bump in the mind” brand of psychological horror, but as soon as you begin to dissect its script, it begins to fall entirely apart. Nonetheless, it’s clear that Lloyd is a talented director to watch — if only she writes something that’s a bit more logical.

The film follows a woman who, in an attempt to readjust to normalcy after a kidnapping, travels with her husband to his family’s compound where she begins to lose her grip on reality. If you’re like me, you may be wondering, “Well how does it make sense for someone to readjust to society by shutting themselves off from the world again?” Reader, it doesn’t.

From the first few sequences, it seems as if Somewhere Quiet will be a rip-off on the Get Out formula: a Korean-American protagonist and her white husband are taking a trip to a secluded getaway… what could go wrong? While the racial commentary is there — such as one scene in which she questions why one of her hosts felt inclined to speak in Korean to her unprompted — it’s generally underdeveloped because it is a second priority.

Instead, the true intentions of the movie are revealed a few minutes in, when news footage plays on a dated television in a roadside gas station (of the needlessly and inexplicably unsettling variety, of course), explaining that the protagonist had just recently resurfaced after surviving a kidnapping. The premise is certainly fertile ground for psychological horror, but what we get instead is a bland gaslighting thriller.
Picture
The film is composed mostly of conversations with sinister undertones and weird noises happening in the background of otherwise normal activities. The goal seems to be to throw viewers into the protagonist’s world of disorientation and anxiety, and to that effect, it mostly succeeds. However, the fatal flaw of Somewhere Quiet is that it doesn’t build to anything, thus feeling extraordinarily anticlimactic by the end.

That being said, even though the movie is a bit short in the narrative department, it makes up for it in a killer atmosphere. The cinematography by Conor Murphy is exquisite — from the close-up shots of the protagonist’s anxious face to the wide (but somehow still claustrophobic) shots of the woods. And even though it is a bit conventional, there’s no denying that the soundscape and score are pretty effective.

The actors also earn some praise, particularly Jennifer Kim, who plays the character in a very believable, nuanced way even though the ambiguity of the character does not serve her. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Marin Ireland is absolutely chewing the scenery up. She has so many diatribes that make very little sense, yet her delivery is so committed that it’s hard to deny their impact.

It would be difficult to encapsulate Somewhere Quiet — or the rest of the horror genre, these days — any better than Jamie Lee Curtis said about her Laurie Strode character in the Halloween franchise: “It’s about TRAUMA.” And quite frankly, it’s getting old.

Somewhere Quiet screens at the 2023 Tribeca Festival, which runs June 7-18 in NYC and June 19 through July 2 online.

Rating: 2.5/5
               
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019

    Authors

    All
    Adam Donato
    Alan French
    Allison Brown
    Borja Izuzquiz
    Camden Ferrell
    Cole Groth
    Daniel Lima
    Dan Skip Allen
    Erin M. Brady
    Jonathan Berk
    Joseph Fayed
    Josh Batchelder
    Paris Jade
    Rafael Motamayor
    Sarah Williams
    Sean Boelman
    Tatiana Miranda

disappointment media

Dedicated to unique and diverse perspectives on cinema!
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • The Snake Hole
  • About