3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Brick

2025, Philip Koch (Play) -- Netflix

Kent's post.

I never wrote about Rec, the Spanish horror movie (but did about the sequel, during another year's "31 Days of Halloween" series; and used the remake Quarantine as a filler for this year's) but it starts with people waking up inside a building that has been tarped over due a viral breakout. They are quarantined inside the building because someone inside is infected. I came into this movie assuming it was going to go with the same premise, just updated for technological obsessions. Maybe it would be tech, maybe it would be aliens.

Is saying what the movie is NOT a Spoiler? If Yes, then stop now, do not pass Go, pay $200.

Disappointed it was not aliens. Would have been great for them to finally break through the brick wall to find themselves on an alien planet.

Anywayz, Tim (Matthias Schweighöfer, Army of Thieves) and Olivia (Rubby O Fee, Army of Thieves) are going through a rough patch, as they say. Not so long ago they lost their child in miscarriage, and neither are dealing with it well. Well, more Tim than Olivia, and on that fateful night, she offers him a lifeline -- drop the video game he is obsessively working on and just drive to Paris; drop everything, start anew. He refuses. The next morning, they find the doors, windows and pretty much everything are bricked up. Not quite brick, but some weird geometric pattern of an unknown material. And its cut off much, like water, cellular service and Internet, but not air or electricity. Their differences are put aside to focus on escape.

They know they will run out of food and water pretty quickly so, they try going through the wall. The substance is not only blocking windows and exterior walls, but also their door and the walls leading to the hallway. But not the walls between apartments, and not the floors down. And thus begins a trek downward into Cold War tunnels as they don't think any man-made barrier could possibly extend below ground. In their quest, they meet an AirBnB couple next door, a grandfather & his granddaughter below, and find a deceased tech guy and his... intimidating friend.

Again, I wish it had presented as scary, more attuned to the theme I expected, but can I fault it for being a generic scifi thriller? No, not really. Its just that it wasn't very thrilling. As Kent said, its very boilerplate but watchable, but... meh?

I was going to shoehorn this into the current run of "31 Days of Halloween" but no, not even its alluding to "Rec" allows me to do that. Let's just leave it here with "3 Short Paragraphs".

I liked it well enough, but it again leaves me thinking about the effort put into making a movie vs the effort of the viewers watching the movie. There has to be more people, like ourselves, who just feel dissatisfied and film makers must know this ... well, at least in the editing room? I get that a movie is more akin to a puzzle being assembled where the script the box cover, but do creators/producers just accept when things are "good enough" ? I know I do, but my creative endeavours (this included) are more for me, than anyone else, and movies are primarily for the money giving audiences. Is it just because you only need to do so much to sell the movie, and its not worth retooling? Once its sold, that's it, goal achieved?  Still, no matter what the reason, I am left wondering.

I have been thinking a lot about creative materials and the mass amount of "just OK". There is so much to watch, so much to read, so much to absorb, and so very little has me thrilled at the end, and after just coming off a binge-fest, I am left disappointed at the effort it takes to absorb without reward. Is it me? Am I just hard to satisfy?