Inside

Focus Features | Release Date: March 17, 2023

4.8	USER SCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Ratings

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imthenoobMay 5, 2023

Dafoe is great but this should not have been anything more than an hour-long movie. It is an absolute chore to finish this with how uneventful it is.

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hnestlyontheslyMar 22, 2023

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Nearly three years after the beginning of pandemic lockdowns in North America, Willem Dafoe’s locked inside some rich architect’s penthouse apartment for an indeterminate amount of time, eating his way through the cupboard and battling with the air conditioning, but a spare script has little to say about its tenor or vehicle: “Was that movie a critique of art or in support of it?” Friend asked frowning at the end credits. While we were standing in the hall after the movie, ruining it for anyone who passed by, I listened to everyone catalogue the ways in which they wanted to improve upon Dafoe’s escape instincts, and it filled me with a sense that the film is deeply interested in showing the futility of escape and the ease with which people are set adrift, especially in those peculiar circumstances from three years ago. “Is no man an island or every man?” someone asks Dafoe midway through the film, and Dafoe quibbles, “I’m an island, but ask me after a few drinks.” So much of the imagery of Inside seems like not-so-subtle send ups to the parasocial relationships we developed with pop culture and social media in that first spring of 2020: the mediation of interactions through screens (the Zoom screen is thoughtfully recast as a kind of unbelievable live cam of the public spaces of the building), the perceived scarcity, the rote image at this point of grieving family members mourning the loss of a loved one through thick glass. But Inside goes long on description without much commentary. Dafoe emotes anguish, frustration, and rugged determination, but nothing of his story describes how he got there or where we are now.

There are moments of brilliance: Jasmine’s scene is rapturous, taut eroticism, literally any moment when Dafoe is cooking or foraging.

Inside’s feints at pop philosophy are either muddled satire or just opaque and earnest, and the fact that it’s hard to tell probably reflects poorly on the movie. “There is no part of the soul that is not the body” and “all energy is pure delight” are good codes to live by, especially for a person encountering hardship and isolation, but what they ain’t is practical. Inside is about a year too late to feel immediate and trenchant in its observations of a shared trauma.… Expand

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JeffroJonesApr 13, 2023

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Willem Dafoe is locked inside a fancy penthouse stuffed with art. Why? Art theft gone wrong! but, strangely, he cannot get out. His hacker accomplices have sprung the joint OPEN for him, but the alarm goes off, and the exits slam shut. Oddly, this alerts neither the police nor the building security. He has forgotten his smartphone, smashed the utilities smart screen for no discernible reason, he has a walkie-talkie but his accomplices (oddly) will not answer it, and their hacking ability has mysteriously deserted them. Leaving Dafoe home alone. The apartment seems rich in technology, with the exception of a laptop, desktop, any sort of phone or connection to the outside world or even an intercom to reception. Setting off the fire alarm alerts neither the fire brigade nor the building's security. If you can accept all (or any) of this, you may be suited to the inept world of "Inside", a movie where you will spend most of your time noting that Willem Dafoe is no MacGyver. Also, he is semi-naked A LOT, for reason of some bizarre plot point, so you will need a strong stomach as well as an almost miraculous suspension of disbelief. This movie is not for anyone who prefers their scripts to make sense, or would rather have their aging screen idols more gracefully clothed.… Expand

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