Awake (2021)
Directed by Mark Raso
After a sudden global event wipes out all electronics and takes away humankind’s ability to sleep, chaos quickly begins to consume the world. Only Jill, an ex-soldier with a troubled past, may hold the key to a cure in the form of her own daughter. The question is, can Jill safely deliver her daughter and save the world before she herself loses her mind.
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4 films that influenced Awake
What critics say influenced Awake
Raso and cinematographer Alan Poon only stretch once or twice as filmmakers, but one of the highlights — a single-shot car attack witnessed from within — is a well-crafted nod to another post-apocalyptic tale, 2006’s Children of Men .
I’d compare unfavorably it to Children of Men.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: As in Blindness , set in a world where everyone suddenly goes blind, and as in Children of Men , set in a world where everyone is sterile, Awake , set in a world where everyone is an insomniac, there is always one person, or a select few, immune to the affliction.
There’s Netflix’s own hit “Bird Box,” of course, as well as several tense extended single-shot sequences — one trapped inside a car with Jill and her family, another observing her creep around a garage — clearly inspired by “Children of Men.”
Taking a page from Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men , the film has a pair of gripping, long-take action sequences (a couple of which are even set in cars) and others filled with a quieter sort of tension where characters try to sneak around avoiding the notice of others.
For instance, there’s some nifty camerawork that’s clearly riffing off a famous scene in Children of Men , but this film is not on par with that science-fiction story.
Director Mark Raso ("Kodachrome") is going for a stark vibe along the lines of "The Walking Dead" and "A Quiet Place," but there simply isn't enough plot to drive the story forward.
Awake is the latest word jumble premise-turned-feature film to follow in the high-concept footsteps of Bird Box (2018), A Quiet Place (2018), and Army of the Dead (2021), and its setup is every bit as simple.
Ironically likely to be a cure for insomnia – I found myself drifting as the overwrought performances built towards a deathly dull denouement (although the over-caffeinated score is set to maximum irritation) – Awake is definitely not this year’s A Quiet Place or Bird Box , just a really massive disappointment.
There’s no one element of Awake that’s overly cringeworthy or damning, but like many other recent horror/thrillers (A Quiet Place, Bird Box, etc.), it seems to be just one big thought experiment: Making people unable to do one common thing and then extrapolating on what the logical resulting actions of that event would mean, based somewhat on science, but not really worried about the nitty-gritty of it.
Awake is the latest word jumble premise-turned-feature film to follow in the high-concept footsteps of Bird Box (2018), A Quiet Place (2018), and Army of the Dead (2021), and its setup is every bit as simple.
The rest of the cast doesn’t have quite as much to do: Greenblatt, of Love and Monsters and Avengers: Infinity War, has the compelling task of playing the only character with fully intact mental faculties, but mostly screams and cries (she is a child, after all).
Greenblatt, whom you may recognize as young Gamora from Avengers: Infinity War , is also up to that task from a performance perspective.
Jill, her daughter Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt of Avengers: Infinity War), and her son Noah (Lucius Hoyos) barely make it out alive.