
Inside a quarantined apartment building a man must protect his pregnant wife from his new neighbors.... (Full plot summary below)
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Inside a quarantined apartment building a man must protect his pregnant wife from his new neighbors.
Leave your thoughts about Phase 7.
| Dork ShelfShelagh Rowan-LeggGoldbart deftly conducts his film as a strange absurd look at the true meaning of neighbours, and maybe the true meaning of boredom, in a fresh and highly original film. |
| MovieFreak.comSara Michelle FettersThere is a pervading menace of distrust and anxiety that only grows as the film progresses, and watching Coco try to navigate these soon-to-be murderous waters while also doing his best to keep his wife as in the dark as possible giddily surreal. |
| Boston PhoenixPeter KeoughPhase 7 distinguishes itself by its suffocating setting, its low-affect tone, and its cast of flaky characters. |
| Orlando SentinelRoger MooreAn entertaining variation on a well-worn theme. |
| St. Paul Pioneer PressChris Hewitt (St. Paul)No matter how hard the musical score labors to convince us otherwise, it's not scary. |
| HeyUGuysJamie NeishA nail-bitingly tense thriller, with keen performances and a savvy, evocative soundtrack. |
| St. Paul Pioneer PressChris HewittNo matter how hard the musical score labors to convince us otherwise, it's not scary. |
| User ReviewPamela DPHASE 7 (2011) Argentina; Spanish language, English subtitles WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: Nicolás Goldbart FEATURING: Daniel Hendler, Jazmín Stuart, Yayo Guridi, Federico Luppi GENRE: NON-SUPERNATURAL HORROR, THRILLER TAGS: quarantine, pandemic, sci-fi RATING: 7 PINTS OF BLOOD PLOT: When a likable young urban couple is quarantined inside their apartment building during a pandemic, they must cope with diminishing supplies and misinformation from the authorities. All the while, their eclectic and quirky neighbors are becoming increasingly unstable and unpredictable. NOTE: This is the second of two reviews of recent, well-produced horror films from Argentina. See also, Penumbra, below. COMMENTS: Coco (Daniel Hendler) and Pipi (Jazmin Stuart) are a naive, happy couple who do normal kinds of things, like go to the grocery on Saturday morning. This Saturday morning is different however. On their way back, people begin swarming the streets in a panic. An epidemic has broken out and if the media is to believed, it's becoming worse by the minute. Monitoring the situation from home, Coco and Pipi's evening is interrupted by floodlights and loudspeakers. Their building's been quarantined and the emergency respondents are cordoning it off under a huge plastic tent, as if the tenants are termites to be exterminated. They find themselves sealed into their own apartment complex, forbidden to leave. They can only watch from their windows as the outside world turns to bedlam around them. Bedlam is not confined to the outside for long. Inside, resources dwindle, utilities are cut off, and fellow residents get cabin fever and panic. Coco does his best to keep his head, protect Pipi, and hold down the fort. It's not easy. It turns out that doomsday scenarios aren't necessarily like fast-paced action movies. Caught in the doldrums, Coco and Pipi are stuck waiting, waiting, waiting... Instead of excitement and contingency, the experience for the group of tenants is more about nagging spouses, running out of lightbulbs and toiletries, and putting up with annoying neighbors, i.e. each other -for awhile that is. As the situation outside increases in severity, tension mounts. Pipi unwittingly works against Coco by innocently leaking critical personal information about their situation to an untrustworthy neighbor. Tenants fraction into factions. Coco must decide whether to go along with the prevailing group or stay out of it. The situation inside the complex degenerates further when under the auspices of moving a possibly infected neighbor off their floor, it becomes clear that the do-good members of the "apartment association" cell are out for their own gain. One thing leads to another and they attempt to force their way in on a fellow resident to loot his provisions. The bodies begin to pile up. Residents are dying, but is it from a hemorrhagic plague, or are they being murdered? Sadly, Coco's best option seems to be to join forces with his paranoid but gregarious, survivalist upstairs friend Horacio (Yayo Guridi). He's a nice guy, but maybe insane. Horacio's apartment turns out to be a high-tech, reinforced bunker complete with an armory of automatic weapons, electronic surveillance equipment, maps, and stacks of classified government information. Horacio wants Coco to join forces with him, and offers him a CBR protective suit and a firearm. Then he invites Coco on patrol with him through the darkened stairwells and corridors of their massive apartment building. The neighbors are up to some monkey business of their own and these nightly sojourns through the edifice's labyrinthine passages turn out to be enlightening in an upsetting and disturbing kind of way. Maybe Horacio isn't so paranoid after all. He seems to know an awful lot about what's going on, more than anyone else. But can Coco trust him? Blackly comic but subtly so, Phase 7 combines suspense, grim social commentary, and unsettling insight into human nature in a droll thriller format which is interrupted by moments of horror. Artfully shot and well paced, Phase 7 makes dramatically good use of camera angles and framing. Lighting is alternately glaring and sterile, and gloomily claustrophobic. This emphasizes the film's thematic contrast; the delineation between the bright, logical, outside world of society, authority and officialdom, versus the insular, isolated, inner world of sanctuary and retreat. Yet as the film goes on, we begin to detect a double meaning; authority is questionable. Society is reasonable strictly on its surface, and only so long as everything is going well. Safe refuge, once cut off from the outside world, can quickly degenerate into a den of suspicion, irrational fear, and schizophrenia. It's the cinematography that accomplishes this. Our sickening epiphany arrives not just from Phase 7's dialogue and action, but from a dual interpretation made possible by the very lighting and camera work itself. Ultimately, Phase 7 is about masquerade; how things -people and situations -can turn out to be something very different from their daily representations. In Phase 7, Coco discovers that he can't trust anyone or anything other than his own judgment and instincts, but the trouble comes from not knowing for sure whether his personal interpretations are sound. Under the circumstances, with little reliable input to go on, and multiple variables and potential explanations for what's happening, every course of action is a gamble. Coco must do his best to make the right choices to deliver himself and Pipi from myriad dangers which mount behind every turn. |
| User ReviewEd COne line summary: Tenants quarantined in an apartment building face scarcity and each other. ------------------------------------------- Coco and Pipi are at the supermarket. She's very pregnant, he's grumpy at best. People are running like anything away from the supermarket as they check out. They arrive home, after seeing others rushing, some with as many groceries as they can tote. There is some plague in Argentina, Mexico, USA, Canada, UK, Spain, and other countries. Air flights are cancelled; some chain stores are closed. One couple in their apartment building was detained by the health authorities for testing. Armed people in hazmat suits inform them that their building is quarantined. A quick total indicates there are 16 people in the building, plus a live in maid. They are closed off with plastic at first. Coco's cough causes some concern. Coco inventories the refrigerator and the rest of the kitchen for rationing purposes. The health folks drop by to give a physical checkup of everyone. Zanutto visits them to borrow a power adapter. They read a lot and play board games. At the beginning, at least, the water and power stay on. The level of the outbreak rises. There is not enough street traffic and police to keep the streets safe at night. A couple of the other tenants have lowered themselves to holding up other tenants using a hammer. On the other hand, Horacio gives them light bulbs, some extra breathing protection, and a pistol, which Coco hides rather than tell Pipi. The alert level rises again, to 7, whatever that means. Horacio meets Coco to give him direct instructions about using the hazmat suit. They meet with Lange, Guglierini, and one other to discuss Zanutto. It turns out the three bachelors are running out of food. So, we have an exercise in the politics of scarcity. Horacio is a survivalist, and a mason, of sorts. He has no intentions of putting up with the bachelors' thieving ways, and he gives Coco some instruction on how to booby trap his apartment to repel intruders. Will the thieves get what they want? Well, no. Zanutto has quite a surprise waiting for them. How does it all pan out? Will the plague be ended? Will some of the tenants survive? ------Scores------- Cinematography: 8/10 There was the occasional soft focus plus large scale darkness. Sound: 10/10 No problems. Acting: 8/10 Daniel Hendler, Jazmin Stuart, Yayo Guridiand, Federico Luppi were all quite good. Screenplay: w/10 Fails as a comedy: no belly laughs, no chuckles, no "isn't that the truth?" moments. As SciFi, it was a wash, since there were no SciFi elements. As a gorefest, it was a bit weak. As drama, it was reasonably strong. The shock of people acting differently under different rules is pretty strong, as is the sight of blasted bodies to those who have never seen them. Much of this movie was about ordinary people dealing with these challenges. |
| User ReviewJim BMovie is from Argentina and was a pretty good "oops, the government fucked up again" apocalypse movie |