Directed by Vasilis Katsoupis

Starring – Willem Dafoe, Gene Bervoets, Eliza Stuyck

The Plot – Nemo (Dafoe), a high-end art thief, is trapped in a New York penthouse after his heist doesn’t go as planned. Locked inside with nothing but priceless works of art, he must use all his cunning and invention to survive.

Rated R for adult language, some sexual content and nude images

(1) INSIDE – Official Trailer – In Theaters March 17 – YouTube

POSITIVES

Single character and setting stories are a tough art to master, but with the benefit of one of cinema’s most dedicated actors at its helm, “Inside” not only crafts a subversively tense and compelling engagement, but also one that highlights the capabilities of Dafoe, and how the film’s simplistic approach affords him the freedom to explore the dark and depraved circles of his cerebrum. As expected, Dafoe rises to the occasion brilliantly, combining a mental unraveling with a constant physical exertion that takes his psychology to the character in dimensions we truly weren’t expecting, all with Willem’s brand of humbling humility firmly disposed at the depths of the character’s own underlining motivations that seem to resonate far beyond a thief robbing a prestigious artist. Beyond his leading lad, Katsoupis is equally up to the task of emitting something gravitational to an otherwise simplistic approach in storytelling, imbedding a tensely gripping enveloping that not only atmospherically channels something dark and foreboding in the single-stage setting, but also helps to vividly flesh out the stuffy scintillating surroundings of Nemo’s newfound purgatory, allowing us relatability to the character’s predicament, despite the fact that he’s the only one enveloped in it. For this being Katsoupis’ second directing effort, his surveilling of the movie’s imagery within the environmental textures and character responses really affords us the accessibility of staying on top of the stakes and circumstances, despite an unknown amount of time passing between each edited cut, transcribing an immersive quality to the visual storytelling that feels decades ahead of his limited experience. In addition to this, I found much appeal and atmospheric effectiveness from the combination of isolated setting and surrounding production designs, which illustrate something sinisterly inside of the upper-class sheik of big city styles. The futuristic tech is fascinating enough, simply because my own social wealth isn’t of that caliber, but the balance of subtle lighting and alienating appeal makes it difficult to believe that anyone, let alone a praised artist, would find it homely, with limited food supply, a complete lack of running water, and the most frustrating earworm of the 90’s firmly on repeat, faithfully emulating the idea of an artist who rarely gets to experience the wealth of his achievement. Finally, while we learn very little about Nemo the character, which is a frustration that I will cover in my negatives, his articulacy and intelligence is established almost immediately in the many attempts to relieve himself of his capture, leaving less doubt for the believability of the conflict, which springs almost immediately in stranded film subgenres. In fact, it’s clear almost from the word go that something deeper and more subversive is taking shape here, and reality seems to not exactly exist within these confines, but even still I appreciate a character who mimics the exact motions that I would under this particular predicament, with his aformentioned mental prowess making the setting all the more remarkable because of the ways it continuously overwhelms and defeats his ideas.

NEGATIVES

Like art itself, “Inside” is so interpretive and subversive that it may feel frustrating to audiences seeking clarity throughout a 105-minute journey, with an abruptly sudden ending that feels like the precursor to audiences groaning, before asking themselves “What the hell was that?”. Part of the problem is in the distance of the journey itself, with this film feeling around twenty minutes too long, especially in the depths of the third act, which remains stalled and sedated a bit longer than I care to appreciate. However, the bigger problem is in the complete lack of characterization or even accidental backstory for Nemo, who as a protagonist judged entirely on his actions isn’t always given the proper justification to invest and even care for. I can understand that Katsoupis isn’t concerned about exposition, especially since the entirety of his dialogue gives us very little to chew on in thought, but I never felt like I invested fully to the point that the intended outcome made an impact to my otherwise trivialized investment, making every bad thing that happens to Nemo along the way feel like an exercise in karma, especially since what little we know about him is that he is a thief, and that the film doesn’t care about the bigger picture in his obviously otherwise tortured existence. Beyond this, Katsoupis himself is a more than capable presence behind the lens, as I previously alluded towards, but his absence of urgency and even momentary levity made this a continuously alienating and one-note investment, with the only escape from Nemo’s claustrophobia coming from Dafoe’s spell-binding seduction. Because the film remains drowning and exhausting throughout Nemo’s fantasy of a tortured artist, it makes the challenge to remain invested all the more taxing in execution, leading to a finished product that is not only void of personality, but also free from the kind of humanity that could’ve only enhanced the stakes towards a protagonist whom we don’t know or even remotely understand.

OVERALL

“Inside” is a psychological showcase for Dafoe, who captivates the attention of an audience with an agonizingly gut-wrenching turn for the arts that continuously unravels his psyche like the freshest onion. Though the film’s intentions frustratingly never materialize the closer you look through a bloated run time and one-note narrative, the tensly taut direction from Vasilis Katsoupis’ second stint in the director’s chair conjures an abstractly anguishing insight into everything from claustrophobic isolation to internal jealousy, leaving it far from a masterpiece, but worthy of its place in the hall among other single setting stories.

My Grade: 6/10 or C