Solis (2018)

– an opinion

Directed by Carl Strathie. With Steven Ogg, Alice Lowe, Sid Phoenix, Henry Douthwaite. After a space mining operation gone bad, Troy is on an emergency escape vehicle drifting towards the sun. He gets radio contact with possible help but will they get there in time?

Source: Solis (2018) – IMDb

review: 9/10

Always judge based on now, not expectations

3 November 2018

I don’t wanna go politics on you all, but a British movie racing against the clock in order to come to a singular goal makes me think of a great loss of community.

Now, forget I said that. This is not a very British movie, and it’s not sentimental, and it’s not Hollywood, and even if the race against the clock is an ancient premise in any action movie, this is a spectacular “spanner in the wheel” kind of story that you may remember for a long time.

When you are young, you easily think you’ve seen it all – there aren’t that many relevant plots in any genre and all of them have been told countless times over. But when the telling of the story, the big HOW to get from plot point to plot point begins to merge with actual knowledge all of the concepts in life giving value and causing loss, which can only be identified with, if your lived through them to survive and NOT have the things in your life be lost, OR if you in fact see yourself move on as they take a seat in memory only, such a story moves from being just a performance of glorious or inglorious actions and mistakes and accidents and blessings and luck to be a representation of the values of fragile existence.

Such is a good story. It may be singular or it may be complex, but judged on its own terms, if will make you feel less on your own with everything in your own life.

Such a movie is Solis. I find the acting to be right on the nose and in tune with the whole reason for what drives the character, which is so closely connected to the purpose of the movie that you have to trust the actor’s portrayal. That he is not just acting against fate, but constantly struggling with what he has become. Every action and reaction has that at its center, and he fits the part perfectly. We do not see calm or surrender or despair or hope – we witness someone who is doing the calculation of “is life worth living” all the time. “Am I worthy of life?”

For more than the end part of the movie I was constantly just about to take myself out of its influence, but remained, at the edge of the seat, in order to give him then chance of redemption, if in any way possible. Reclaiming the honor he left behind.

I give it 9/10 – the last one I retain for 2-3 too misplaced pieces of dialogue in an otherwise very tight script.

I still cannot get over that its a British movie. Now, do better than Hollywood. Make more European sci-fi.

Author: krabat

digter, forlægger, oversætter, admin på kunstnerhotellet menneske.dk

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