Summary
A teen, played by Storm Reid, must try and find her mum, played by Nia Long, after she goes missing in Columbia.
I will admit this film was a lot better than I was expecting it to be. Based on the trailers I thought this film was going to be incredibly generic, and whilst that is partially true, I found myself caring about the character’s journey and invested in the twists and turns of the plot which was a nice surprise. There are some good edge of your seat moments here, mainly centred around a pretty genius bit of misdirection.
However, the film isn’t perfect and ultimately you will have seen many of these sorts of films before, it can’t escape its generic structure. Moreover, once you know the twist it is highly unlikely that this film will stand up to rewatches as it won’t be anywhere near as good. Widely I think the thing that harms this film is the fact that its format, screenlife as it has become known, films which all take place on someone’s computer or mobile devices, feels like a fad from the middle of the last decade which no longer holds the same novel nature it once did, it now feels tired.
Reid’s performance as well is nothing to write home about and actually comes across as fairly two dimensional at times. She is only a short into her career actor so I won’t be too hard but her emoting and dramatic delivery could really use some more.
Overall, better than it has any right to be, but still hamstrung by its format and overly familiar narrative.
3.5/5
Pros.
The twists and turns
Maintaining good tension
The pacing
It is certainly very watchable
Cons.
Reid
It is overly familiar
Screenlife really is a played out gimmick
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Another Millennial Reviewer 