Nowhere Movie Review: A Dystopian Film With Good Pace and an Excellent Raw Opening | Netflix Film
Cast: Anna Castillo, Tamar Novas
Directed By: Albert Pintó
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Nowhere is a Spanish survival thriller film directed by Albert Pintó and starring Anna Castillo and Tamar Novas. Anna Castillo is the protagonist of this version of “Life of Pi” which, let’s face it, if we remove Richard Parker (the tiger), the philosophy, the transcendence, the direction, and the special effects, we are left with something similar to “Nowhere“, a dystopian survival film that gives us some well-directed sequences and a good performance from Anna Castillo. Finding yourself completely alone, in the middle of the sea, with an ongoing pregnancy. It seems like a waking nightmare and yet that’s exactly what happens to the protagonist of Nowhere, the new Spanish survival thriller available for streaming on Netflix. Fleeing from a Spain where, due to the scarcity of resources, unproductive citizens are eliminated, Mia – who is pregnant – will find herself completely alone in the middle of the sea fighting for her survival and that of her child.
By the way: if the approach to the survival movie is typical, it is precisely the context that completely changes face, becoming cinematic material that the good Pintò reviews without holds barred, and focusing on the pure principle of empathy. Above all, without excluding the dramatic, preponderant, and explosive effect. Yes, because Nowhere, available on Netflix, is indeed a survival thriller, but it is also a deeply dramatic story, which does not give up a certain crudeness, particularly in the incipit, dazzling, and shocking due to the brutality with which it is imagined. As we will see in our review of Nowhere, the film directed by Albert Pintó can count on the excellent performance of its lead actress (Anna Castillo) who gives life to a real one-woman show, supported by the engaging dystopian background that is provided. It’s a shame that the pace of the narrative is a little too inconsistent, with moments in which absolutely nothing happens and others in which too many things happen at once.
Nowhere Review 2023: The Story Plot
In a dystopian Europe, a couple tries to leave the country (Spain) to head to Ireland, where everything is happiness. On an illegal voyage, the authorities kill all the passengers, except Mía, who becomes (pregnant) and ends up in the middle of the sea trapped in a container. A tough fight to survive begins. Mia escapes from her totalitarian country together with her partner Nico by hiding inside a ship’s container. But, after a storm, the woman will find herself completely alone in the middle of the sea. Due to a shortage of resources, Spain is no longer able to support its citizens. To deal with this problem, for seven months the country under military regime has implemented the “There is none for everyone” project, which involves the extermination of the entire non-productive population, such as children, the elderly, and pregnant women. Mia (Anna Castillo) is part of the latter category and, for this reason, she decides to escape illegally together with her husband Nico (Tamar Novas) on board a ship, hiding inside a container. The journey to Ireland, however, does not go as hoped: the couple is immediately separated due to overcrowding and, while sailing towards Ireland, a violent storm hits the vessel, causing the container – in which she finds herself completely alone – in the sea.
Nowhere Movie Review: And Analysis
After some initial social hints, denouncing the fascism of the authorities and leaving the good and bad guys clear, the film leaves us with Anna Castillo in the middle of the sea struggling to survive and trying to maintain a film about the castaway. Robert Zemeckis succeeded and so did Ang Lee (without a doubt), but it seems that “Nowhere” will not go down in history because, after all, it doesn’t seem to have much else to tell and, above all, to innovate. We’ve seen quite a few survival movies, and “Nowhere” won’t be the last. It is a genre that has its fans and most likely what may seem boring to many will not seem so to fans of these films, who perhaps will find in “Nowhere” reasons to be entertained. However, no matter how much of a fan they are, they shouldn’t expect thematic or structural innovations in the film, because the film focuses on staying true to the genre, doing it well from a technical point of view, and more or less managing to carry a film with very few protagonists.
Someone once said of a great director that he was a great director of scenes, not of sets. The same thing happens to this film because as a whole it fails to create in the viewer the need to continue watching, to marvel at an epic story of survival. The strong point of Nowhere is certainly its protagonist who, alone, must carry all the weight of the film. Particularly interesting is observing the evolution that she makes from when she is put on the ship to when she is forced to fight for her life in the middle of the sea. If at the beginning we see a demoralized and emotionally fragile woman, needing to be continually reassured by her husband’s presence, after the shipwreck she goes into survival mode (hers and hers), becoming completely unrecognizable. Whether it is her instinct for self-preservation, the innate strength of a mother, or the habit of deprivation she acquired during the last months spent in Spain, the woman brings out the most tenacious and pragmatic side of her, managing to use any object in his possession to his advantage without ever giving in to despair.
The brutality that the woman faced in her homeland and the vicissitudes that she finds herself facing to save herself make the viewer immediately empathize with her, pushing him to act like her for her survival. This is also thanks to the actress’s interpretation: although it is not easy to support the weight of a film almost solely on her shoulders, Anna Castillo compensates for the lack of counterparts with her intense and extremely credible performance, bringing all the pain to the screen, Mia’s frustration and hope. The protagonist’s determination also serves to compensate for what is, however, the shakiest element of the film, her screenplay. The latter is characterized by an inconsistent rhythm in which either absolutely nothing happens or too many things happen.
The introduction of Nowhere immediately catapults us into a dystopian universe – which recalls, however, on the one hand, the Nazi concentration camps while on the other it draws on the real problem of scarcity of resources – in which the weakest (elderly, children and women pregnant) are exterminated so as not to burden society. Although it only occupies the first twenty minutes of the narrative, the context within which the events narrated take place is fundamental: it allows us to immediately get in tune with the protagonist’s state of mind. And, even if at a certain point the narrative changes completely, moving to the middle of the sea – and leaving open questions regarding this new totalitarian regime that will not find an answer – the dystopian background does not remain detached from it:
The strength of Nowhere is, therefore, mixing tones: following without abandoning the dramatic path (the first fifteen minutes leave their mark), the screenplay written by Indiana Lista, Ernest Riera, Seanne Winslow and Teresa de Rosendo (yes, several of them) it mixes the dystopian, the thriller and the survival, making us take part in the vivid nightmares of an excellent protagonist, who finds herself from the frying pan into the fire (Nowhere follows among other things the most famous Murphy’s Law: when it rains, it pours). We feel an attachment to Mia, we try to encourage her, and we root for her.
We would like to jump directly to the ending, going quickly to the epilogue – also because some twists and some visual keys, in the central part, border on the ridiculous of the sculpture -, perhaps finding her safe and sound. Nonetheless, the general tension does not fray, leading us to an active and never passive vision, even if consumed in the comfort of a sofa. It’s true, we would have liked to know more about the dystopian context, but Albert Pintò’s film seems built as much to entertain as to impress, underlining first the fragility and then the firmness of Mia – supported by a good Anna Castillo – willing to do anything to survive. Of course, nothing memorable, but surprising in its staging and in her courageously mature language.
Nowhere Movie Review: The Last Words
Nowhere can count on the excellent performance of its lead actress (Anna Castillo) who gives life to a real one-woman show, supported by the engaging dystopian background that is provided. It’s a shame that the pace of the narrative is a little too inconsistent, with moments in which absolutely nothing happens and others in which too many things happen at once. As written in the review, Nowhere is a survival movie that works. It works because the predominant dramatic aspect hides the clichés of the genre, despite some hasty ideas and some visual choices bordering on sculpture. A good pace and an excellent, extremely raw opening make the Spanish film a surprise.
Nowhere Movie Review: A Dystopian Film With Good Pace and an Excellent Raw Opening | Netflix Film - Filmyhype
Director: Albert Pintó
Date Created: 2023-09-29 20:01
3
Pros
- A good staging.
- Great pace.
- The incipit.
- The dramatic aspect.
Cons
- Some superficial choices.
- Some quick resolutions.
