So, there is apparently some kind of moratorium on writing reviews on this movie, but they still let the public in to see this? I mean, I’m not a professional critic and yet, here I am, just having seen this movie. There’s also audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, but no critic reviews. Did someone not plan this correctly?

Linda isn’t a finance bro, so she is not getting ahead in her career, even though she is the one who actually understands anything about finances in the company. To prove her worth, she is invited to come along with the executives to discuss a merger in Bangkok (BTW, the movie is partly financed by Thailand tourist office, although not shot there). She is further humiliated when the execs laugh at a video of her audition to take part in Survivor. Then a storm hits and the plane goes down. Only Linda and the CEO survive. He is injured, so she has to take over when the two of them are stranded on a deserted island. Well, gladly, she is very much into the Survivor stuff… But tensions rise.

So, this is a Sam Raimi movie, but at the same time there is a lot of just sitting around and surviving. Raimi’s style doesn’t really lend itself to that. There’s nothing wrong with those sections, but there is just a big contrast between the parts where the two of them just eat together and when something violent happens. This isn’t exactly an action movie, so there isn’t that much violence. Since there is only two people on the island, there can’t really be much of a body count after the accident either.

I am glad Raimi is back. He has such a distinctive style. It just isn’t showing here. I wonder why he wanted to make this movie, because it does feel more like project for an upcoming director rather than a veteran of 40 years. Maybe he just wanted to do something smaller after Dr. Strange 2.

This is definitely a smaller movie. Mostly a two-hander. Sure, the location is not completely in their control and the whether can’t be cheap to manufacture, but still. A pretty small compared to something like Dr. Strange 2. I get it. Having to work with Marvel versus just directing a project of your own. You might not be making as much money, but Raimi probably isn’t exactly hurting for that.

Mostly the movie is pretty much what you expect: getting food, making fire, building a camp, trying to escape… except that Raimi’s unusual sensibilities do affect this. Then there’s Linda, who has been dreaming of surviving on her own, which is another point of tension. Much of the movie probably wrote itself after the scenario and the characters were decided. Except that there’s the occasional Raimi touch.

I wonder how much this was supposed to be a take against capitalism. You could easily see Linda as a self-insert and the finance bros without any understanding of finance running the company as producers in Marvel. You know, people who like to think they have a good grasp of the creative but have shown themselves to be pretty one-note in that regard. Yet, they still insert themselves into the process and directors have left project before over “creative differences”. It is nice to see this critique, but it isn’t really as biting as one would want.

Is it good? I would characterize it as decent. If you go to theater every once in a while, this isn’t it. If you go weekly, why not? Does anyone (besides me) do that these days?