3ish Short Paragraphs: Awake

 2021, Mark Raso (Kodachrome) -- Netflix

Still pecking away at my largish post, for the binge-meant trilogy for RL Stine's Fear Street, in my usual way of never being able to say anything about something I really enjoyed. Unlike, say Kent, who writes a monster of a post about a book he read. I am just not sure I have that many things in my head to say out loud, on paper, screen or otherwise. Well, not unless its bitching about work. That shit never ends.

(This is the point in the recipe where you just wish the author would stop writing anecdotally and get the fuck on with the ingredients and steps)

This is another in the (or near post) Apocalyptic movies that Netflix is fond of. I cannot call them disaster, as they are not directly related to natural disasters, even if the predicament they are dealing is entirely of nature. Bird Box (blink away, if you don't want to be spoiled) was about "entities" that inspired people to commit suicide, rather like Shyamalan's maligned The Happening. A Quiet Place was about monsters that kill most of the world's population, homing in on any sound. And there is the strikingly similar The Silence. Each of these are about a world-ending event, and some of the lone survivors a short while after. Awake takes place as the world ends, with not a bang or a monster, but with a mad raving whimper, as the world suddenly cannot sleep.

Skipping the science on all of this, as I believe there are documented examples of people who do not sleep, the idea in this movie is that suddenly we cannot sleep, and without sleep we will all succumb to madness and eventually death. Jill (Gina Rodriguez, Jane the Virgin) is a veteran, a recovering addict, estranged from her mother in law, who doesn't trust her to take care of her kids. An event happens, short circuiting all electronics, including all the human brain. Cars die, technology fails, humans cannot sleep. But at the exact moment of the event, Jill and family are in a car accident and daughter Matilda almost drowns. And that causes a small, but critical side effect -- she can sleep.

The rest of the movie is about Jill trying to protect her family as the world quickly crumbles. After just 24 hours of no sleep, civilization falls apart. Anger, irrationality, violence erupts. Meanwhile Jill's boss, Dr. Murphy (Jennnifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight) is setting up a lab to investigate what has happened, and find a cure. But of course, they only have so much time. But of course, Jill doesn't want Matilda exposed to experimentation at the hands of a group of scientists very quickly about to lose their minds.

This is another in a long line of movies made by directors of indie dears, but saddled with a tired, over moderated film. And it shows. Its tense, but that's it. Rodriguez is decent, and I am glad to see Shamier Anderson (Wynona Earp) getting work -- he's actually a rather lively reprieve from all the furrowed brow acting of others. We know it has to hinge around the daughter's ability to sleep, but really, in the end, how can the rare occurrence that allows her to survive actually contribute to the rebuilding of a world? It is that logical fallacy that just ruins it in the end for me. All PA Fiction tells us that a certain percentage of people is required after an apocalypse in order for the world to rebuild. And that ain't gonna happen here.