Inside (2023) Movie Review: A Thrilling Heist-Gone-Wrong Story
IMDB Ratings: Rating: 5.9/10
The initial premise of "Inside" is so intriguing that any talented filmmaker could absolutely make a meal of it. The issue is that the film's director, Vasilis Katsoupis, does not appear to be one of them. The end result is a film that never reaches its full potential and will leave the majority of viewers craving something more substantial than the hapless protagonist whose misadventures they have just watched for 105 minutes.
Nemo, played by Willem Dafoe, is an art thief. He has just been dropped off by unseen handlers at a massive New York penthouse apartment when the story begins. Nemo quickly grabs nearly all of the Egon Schiele paintings he was there to take after turning off the security alarm. However, just as he is about to leave, the security system breaks and locks everything down. Nemo is left to his own devices by the handler, who then vanishes. Nemo comes to the realization that he is stuck after attempting to break through the ornate front door and a window but failing.
That is awful, yet as he before long finds, things will deteriorate. Even though the apartment is filled with priceless artifacts and bric-a-brac—the end credits list them like other movies list the songs on the soundtrack—nothing about the place suggests that people actually live there. The refrigerator is essentially vacant (however it truly does supportively play "Macarena" at whatever point the cooler is open, the pipes is closed down, and the main wellsprings of water are a pool, the programmed watering framework for the indoor nursery, and two or three huge fish tanks (and you can most likely estimate the destiny of the fish that they contain). As if that weren't enough, the fritzing control system causes the temperature to fluctuate between freezing highs and broiling lows, seemingly at random.
Nemo is aware that he is committed to the long haul. However, this does not stop him from attempting to flee, primarily by jerry-rigging the furniture in the apartment into a tower and ascending it in the hopes of breaking through the skylight high above. He distracts himself during the days, which appear to be turning into weeks, in between those intense and sometimes painful efforts. He staged fake cooking shows in which he showed how to make pasta without a stove and made up stories about the other people in the building, who he could see through the security camera but didn't know he was there. The impact resembles what Matt Damon went through in "The Martian" — the distinction being that everything happens in a setting worth enough cash to finance a decent piece of a Mars mission without help from anyone else possibly.
Getting back to what I was saying about other filmmakers potentially making something out of the setup that Katsoupis and screenwriter Ben Hopkins created here. I thought of three distinct directors who could have done amazing things with the material while watching "Inside," which I found to be ineffective. For instance, I can envision Jerry Lewis turning it into a potentially brilliant piece of sustained solo slapstick as he attempts to escape while transforming the scene into chaos. Check out the incredible opening sequence of his final film, "Cracking Up," in which he accidentally destroys his psychiatrist's waiting room with clumsy moves, a waxed floor, and a bag of M&Ms, if you doubt this.) Then again, I can likewise consider the story to be a kind of existential arthouse (in all seriousness) thriller from any semblance of Michael Haneke — kind of what could result in the event that he was mysteriously employed to coordinate the third "Getaway Room" film. Last but not least, I would have loved to have seen this idea handled by the late great Larry Cohen, who was known for making films with bold plots like this one and could have successfully navigated the transitions into sociological commentary about the value of art, both literal and metaphorical.
The filmmakers I've mentioned may or may not appeal to you, but regardless of what you think about them, each brings unique perspectives to their work that make it interesting and distinctive. On the other hand, Katsoupis doesn't seem to have anything interesting to say about his basic story or its subtext about how people value art. As a result, "Inside" becomes nothing more than a cruel exercise as we watch Nemo struggle to escape his alleged fate. While some of the individual scenes are darkly funny, the whole thing doesn't really add up to much. It all comes to a close in a way that I believe is meant to be a little symbolic (I kid—Ruben stlund himself might find it too on the nose), but it is likely to leave the majority of viewers feeling very underwhelmed.
Oddly enough, Dafoe's performance is one of the reasons why "Inside" doesn't work as well as one of its strengths. He is riveting as he navigates Nemo's inner journey from despair to resignation to some kind of grace with the intensity of a roller coaster in what is essentially a one-man show. However, Dafoe's descent into savagery has a whiff of the familiar because this is the kind of wild, let it all hang out work that we already know he can pull off. Casting a more well-known, laid-back actor and putting them through the rigors of this situation might have been more successful. Set it up like another slick "Ocean's Eleven" romp, cast George Clooney in the role of Nemo, and then have him lick the inside of an empty freezer for food.
While "Inside" is evidently made with skill and craft (the apartment is a marvel of production design), it serves a story that is nowhere near as profound or bold as it claims to be. The film has its good points, and Dafoe gives it his all, but there is a hollowness that makes the whole thing pretty forgettable—it's like buying art for the couch because it goes well with it.
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