Serenity (2019)
Directed by Steven Knight
The quiet life of Baker Dill, a fishing boat captain who lives on the isolated Plymouth Island, where he spends his days obsessed with capturing an elusive tuna while fighting his personal demons, is interrupted when someone from his past comes to him searching for help.
7 connections found
View:
7 films that influenced Serenity
What critics say influenced Serenity
Serenity is a Black Mirror episode by way of The Truman Show, with a touch of the straight-faced pomposity of Collateral Beauty —a cinematic “Florida Man” story enacted, somehow, by Oscar winners and nominees.
“Serenity” - which is named after Dill’s fishing boat - at best reminded me of Tom Cruise’s “Vanilla Sky” or even a psychotic version of “The Truman Show” with its absurdist take on modern day technology.
Imagine “Body Heat” being consumed by “The Truman Show” (1998).
Drawing from everything including Field of Dreams to Pleasantville and The Truman Show , Steven Knight’s script believes it’s an esoteric look at identity a la Vanilla Sky when it’s more in line with the S1m0ne .
The repetition goes beyond a merely routine lifestyle (there are shades of Groundhog Day and The Truman Show ).
In dreamlike opening scenes of writer-director Steven Knight’s fishy tale “Serenity” — not to be confused with the 2005 Joss Whedon cult film of the same name — a boy opens his eyes, and we are underwater.
Serenity is not to be confused with the Firefly spinoff movie of the same name, released in 2005.
“Serenity” - which is named after Dill’s fishing boat - at best reminded me of Tom Cruise’s “Vanilla Sky” or even a psychotic version of “The Truman Show” with its absurdist take on modern day technology.
Drawing from everything including Field of Dreams to Pleasantville and The Truman Show , Steven Knight’s script believes it’s an esoteric look at identity a la Vanilla Sky when it’s more in line with the S1m0ne .
The final act of this movie is as absurd as anything I’ve seen since Darren Aronofsky’s mother!
The central mystery is explored and explained before the last reel expires but, although this isn’t an incoherent fever-dream like mother!, some will react similarly.
Advertisement
Jess Hall's (2017's " Ghost in the Shell ") oft-dazzling lensing of Plymouth (filmed on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius) adds to the atmosphere while finding underlying layers to Knight's cumulative intentions, a sun-bleached paradise with an ominously premonitory underbelly.In "Serenity," Baker Dill is a broken soul who will do anything to help his currently estranged son, Karen can no longer stand to be with a violent man who treats the people in his life as his property, and Patrick, glimpsed back home in Miami, frequently retreats to his bedroom to escape the monster lurking on the other side of his door.
Watching “Serenity” reminded me a bit of the way I felt while watching “Tully” – which is a way better film on every level, for the record.
An alcoholic fisherman haunted by the Iraq war, the breakdown of his marriage, his separation from his adolescent son, and an elusive giant marlin, McConaughey as Baker makes Jason Statham’s turn in The Meg look like a restrained piece of naturalism.