Chained for Life

Name: Chained for Life
Genre: Drama
Released: September 13, 2019
Duration: 91 min
Rating: 79
Cast: Adam Pearson, Charlie Korsmo, Cosmo Bjorkenheim, Daniel Patrick Carbone, Jess Weixler

2019

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Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

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Chained for Life

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Movie Details & Credits

Kino Lorber | Release Date: September 13, 2019 | Not Rated

Starring: Adam Pearson, Charlie Korsmo, Cosmo Bjorkenheim, Daniel Patrick Carbone, Jess Weixler, Joanna Arnow, Lauren Brown, Sari Lennick, Stephen Plunkett, Will Blomker

Summary: A beautiful actress struggles to connect with her disfigured co-star on the set of a European auteur's English-language debut.

Director: Aaron Schimberg

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 91 min

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Critic Reviews

100

RogerEbert.com Sheila O'Malley

Sep 11, 2019

Chained for Life is more than a polemic. There's a free-floating absurdist mood established, humorous and self-referential, allowing space for the audience to not just feel, but think. This is no small feat. Read full review

Keith Uhlich

Sep 2, 2019

Schimberg confidently blurs the lines between fantasy and reality (more than once a scene that appears to be real is actually fiction and vice versa), though never to the point that it detracts from the people onscreen. Read full review

Ben Kenigsberg

Sep 11, 2019

Schimberg’s film is odd, darkly funny and — when it means to be — a little frightening. Read full review

Hunter Lanier

Sep 2, 2019

Toying with the audience’s own expectations and predispositions, Schimberg has made a movie that can be confidently called original. Read full review

Robert Abele

Sep 11, 2019

Anchored by Weixler’s and Pearson’s natural charm, Chained for Life stands up as both a quiet ode to the experimental, dreamlike spirit of moviemaking and a seriocomic corrective to sentimentalized sideshow portrayals. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Sep 2, 2019

Chained for Life invites repeat viewing and “cult film” status, pretty much by design. Whatever writer-director Aaron Schimberg’s other intentions, he’s made a must-see movie for film buffs, one you must-see again just to get all the inside jokes. Read full review

Katie Rife

Sep 2, 2019

A meta-commentary on filmmaking in general and cinematic conceptions of beauty in specific, the film is clearly enamored with its own cleverness—which isn’t to say that it’s not clever, just that a more clear-headed film could have distilled its ideas better, and been more satisfying as a result. Read full review

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DawdlingPoet

Apr 18, 2022

This is very much an indie/b-movie film. I can see that it's trying to challenge peoples view of disfigured people or that it's criticising the stereotypical depiction of this in films but I didn't feel the film really 'worked'. There's not enough strong plot direction. The plot synopsisThis is very much an indie/b-movie film. I can see that it's trying to challenge peoples view of disfigured people or that it's criticising the stereotypical depiction of this in films but I didn't feel the film really 'worked'. There's not enough strong plot direction. The plot synopsis says "A beautiful actress struggles to connect with her disfigured co-star on the set of a European auteur's English-language debut." yet the actress doesn't seem to struggle to connect with the disfigured actor at all, as far as I could tell, indeed they seem to get on ok, so I don't understand that. This must be meant to be some kind of parody of b-movies or the like but I didn't find it especially amusing or even really all that thought provoking. Anyway, I'm not too bothered about peoples looks, for the record, I was more confused about the plot direction - it felt a bit aimless and certainly was neither memorable, not did it have any strong impact on me personally, so I wouldn't recommend this, no. A bit niche perhaps?. I'm not sure how comfortable I'd feel thinking of seriously deformed or disfigured people as being the title of this film - chained for life. I'd like to think people wouldn't feel so removed from society purely due to their face not fitting in to what people in western society regard as acceptable but seeing this film hasn't changed my viewpoints on any of that sort of thing. I wouldn't recommend this film, that's all I can really say.… Expand

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