Jungle (2017)
Directed by Greg McLean
In 1981, an enthusiastic young adventurer follows his dreams into the Bolivian Amazon jungle with two friends and a guide with a mysterious past. Their journey quickly turns into a terrifying ordeal as the darkest elements of human nature and the deadliest threats of the wilderness lead to an all-out fight for survival.
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10 films that influenced Jungle
What critics say influenced Jungle
In its mix of essentialist storytelling and blatant artifice, Jungle sometimes recalls the 1940s work of low-budget director Edgar G. Ulmer ( Bluebeard , Strange Illusion , Ruthless ).
In its mix of essentialist storytelling and blatant artifice, Jungle sometimes recalls the 1940s work of low-budget director Edgar G. Ulmer ( Bluebeard , Strange Illusion , Ruthless ).
In its mix of essentialist storytelling and blatant artifice, Jungle sometimes recalls the 1940s work of low-budget director Edgar G. Ulmer ( Bluebeard , Strange Illusion , Ruthless ).
A booby-trapped backpacker survival saga set in deepest Bolivia, based on a memoir by Israeli explorer Yossi Ghinsberg, “Jungle” may ostensibly be a nobler departure from the exuberantly grisly genre fare on which McLean has made his name — but structurally and atmospherically, it has more in common with his smashing 2005 breakout “Wolf Creek” than you might guess.
It adheres to a structure that director Greg McLean used in 2005’s Wolf Creek : slowly familiarizing us with its characters, so that even if they’re not exactly likable, they’re sympathetic in their recognizable humanity.
McLean is at his best when he avoids bells and whistles and focuses on creating a straightforward atmosphere of dread, as in his first two films, Wolf Creek and Rogue (or his episode of the subsequent Wolf Creek TV miniseries ).
Yossi Ghinsberg’s true-life survival story is filled with harrowing twists and near-death turns, yet this chronicle of his experiences from director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) never sufficiently captures the depth of his perilous plight.
Complete with an Israeli accent, Radcliffe here suffers for his art as Australian director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) pits him against such familiar jungle perils as river rapids, fire ants, foot rot and quicksand.
There’s a nihilistic quality to director Greg McLean’s previous work, including the Wolf Creek series and last year’s The Belko Experiment.
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Films like Into The Wild , Rescue Dawn , and Kon-Tiki derive an additional thrill from the “based on a true story” angle, the reality of the accounts inspiring a certain verisimilitude: With the artifice out of the way, there’s just a stranger-than-fiction narrative to tell.
Films like Into The Wild , Rescue Dawn , and Kon-Tiki derive an additional thrill from the “based on a true story” angle, the reality of the accounts inspiring a certain verisimilitude: With the artifice out of the way, there’s just a stranger-than-fiction narrative to tell.
While Jungle tries on the clothes of “based on a true story” films like Into the Wild and 127 Hours, they hang loosely as it becomes increasingly clear that Greg McLean has no earthly idea what made those narratives impactful.
In a year rife with whitewashing controversies on both the big (Ghost in the Shell) and small (Iron Fist) screens, the continued underrepresentation of Asian talent stains the film a bit.
Robert Pattinson of Twilight did it this year in The Lost City of Z and now Daniel Radcliffe is having a crack in Jungle, the true story of a gap-year adventure in Eighties Bolivia gone badly wrong.
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McLean is at his best when he avoids bells and whistles and focuses on creating a straightforward atmosphere of dread, as in his first two films, Wolf Creek and Rogue (or his episode of the subsequent Wolf Creek TV miniseries ).
Rogue saw a group of tourists battling against a giant crocodile, The Darkness was a traditional story of a desperate family against the supernatural and most recently, The Belko Experiment , saw office workers simply trying to survive one bloody day at work.
We’ve had murderous bushmen (Wolf Creek and its sequel), killer crocs (Rogue), ancient evils (The Darkness) and now this tale of four backpackers getting soundly spanked by Mother Nature.
While Jungle tries on the clothes of “based on a true story” films like Into the Wild and 127 Hours, they hang loosely as it becomes increasingly clear that Greg McLean has no earthly idea what made those narratives impactful.