The Invisible Man (2020)
February 29, 2020 1:52 PM - Subscribe
When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.
Apart from a few little nitpicks, I thought this was fantastic. There was a moment about halfway through the movie where about 10 seconds after it happened I became consciously aware that my jaw had literally dropped open.
posted by doctornecessiter at 5:21 AM on March 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by doctornecessiter at 5:21 AM on March 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
I was just recently bemoaning the recent dearth of slick, mid-budget suspense thrillers after going on a mini-binge of 1990s movies from that subgenre (The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Single White Female, What Lies Beneath, The Good Son, etc.) so this movie was a welcome surprise. I hope it does well enough at the box office to spawn a sort of mini-revival of that genre.
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:53 PM on March 2, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:53 PM on March 2, 2020 [4 favorites]
...a welcome surprise.
I see what you did there.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:42 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
I see what you did there.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:42 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
Brilliantly showed what gaslighting, crazy-making and isolation tactics are about for a survivor of intimate partner abuse at the hands of a rich and powerful Cluster B. It also recalled many elements of the film Unsane, which is also fantastic.
Moss can say so much with just the tiniest movements of her eyes, my god.
posted by edithkeeler at 5:10 AM on June 20, 2020
Moss can say so much with just the tiniest movements of her eyes, my god.
posted by edithkeeler at 5:10 AM on June 20, 2020
Incidentally, one very early scene showing someone literally surreptitiously adjusting the gas level. Deliberate? I hope so.
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 4:19 PM on August 22, 2020
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 4:19 PM on August 22, 2020
Okay that was better than I expected. Moss is great. I’m amused at the things that fail suspension of disbelief for me - the first time she goes back to the house, who’s been taking care of Zeus and why isn’t she asking that very question. I expected Chekhov’s spare suit to get used right away, but the delay led to some nice poetic justice. Kind of surprised the shock collar didn’t show up again later, too.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:49 AM on September 26, 2020
posted by rmd1023 at 6:49 AM on September 26, 2020
I was just recently bemoaning the recent dearth of slick, mid-budget suspense thrillers
I know someone who often complains (and with some justification) that movies are now sprawling MCU/Star Wars blockbusters or microbudgeted indie/student films with nothing in between. Many’s the time he has said, “Instead of a $250 million dollar movie, why not 25 $10 million movies?”
Oddly this movie shows why it is not that feasible; I was startled to see a Toronto Unit block in the credits. I had assumed the entire thing was shot in Australia doubling not especially well for San Francisco. Reading up I see there are two brief shots from Toronto reshoots: the scene with the blanket being pulled off the bed and a later scene when Cecilia calls Adrian. One set and one non-descript exterior, three people onscreen, minimal special effects and less than four minutes of screen time. The Toronto unit was just shy of a hundred people.
My suspicion (as someone who does not work in that business) is that the budget is more fungible than the people involved. Your $250 million blockbuster might have a thousand people on the credits and fifty speaking roles. Breaking that up into $10 million dollar movies does not mean each one gets made by forty people with two people who have dialogue. You can’t have 4% of a cinematographer.
Anyway, all that said, I liked it more than I expected. Whannell knows Hitchcock’s dictum about how suspense works, and there are a lot of locked shots of open rooms with blank walls and empty spots where we have been conditioned by lives of movie watching to expect someone to appear in shot. The audience does the hard work of filling in the unseen character. There are some decently subtle notes that I didn’t see until I went back and rewatched a scene or three: when Cecilia steps away from the stove and offscreen to wake Sydney, the scene of the gas being turned up is clear enough. I did not notice until the second time around that the knife she has been slicing vegetables with topples off the counter but we do not hear it clatter to the floor. Nice.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:35 PM on October 27, 2020
I know someone who often complains (and with some justification) that movies are now sprawling MCU/Star Wars blockbusters or microbudgeted indie/student films with nothing in between. Many’s the time he has said, “Instead of a $250 million dollar movie, why not 25 $10 million movies?”
Oddly this movie shows why it is not that feasible; I was startled to see a Toronto Unit block in the credits. I had assumed the entire thing was shot in Australia doubling not especially well for San Francisco. Reading up I see there are two brief shots from Toronto reshoots: the scene with the blanket being pulled off the bed and a later scene when Cecilia calls Adrian. One set and one non-descript exterior, three people onscreen, minimal special effects and less than four minutes of screen time. The Toronto unit was just shy of a hundred people.
My suspicion (as someone who does not work in that business) is that the budget is more fungible than the people involved. Your $250 million blockbuster might have a thousand people on the credits and fifty speaking roles. Breaking that up into $10 million dollar movies does not mean each one gets made by forty people with two people who have dialogue. You can’t have 4% of a cinematographer.
Anyway, all that said, I liked it more than I expected. Whannell knows Hitchcock’s dictum about how suspense works, and there are a lot of locked shots of open rooms with blank walls and empty spots where we have been conditioned by lives of movie watching to expect someone to appear in shot. The audience does the hard work of filling in the unseen character. There are some decently subtle notes that I didn’t see until I went back and rewatched a scene or three: when Cecilia steps away from the stove and offscreen to wake Sydney, the scene of the gas being turned up is clear enough. I did not notice until the second time around that the knife she has been slicing vegetables with topples off the counter but we do not hear it clatter to the floor. Nice.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:35 PM on October 27, 2020
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posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:30 AM on March 1, 2020 [5 favorites]