Director: Reed Morano
Starring: Peter Dinklage, Elle Fanning
Year 2018
I didn’t care for Morano’s debut, Meadowland, and I don’t care for her followup either, I Think We’re Alone Now; neither are very well-directed movies. Her style is far too one-note to translate to great cinema; her stories are interesting, but she doesn’t either expand or diverge from them enough when it’s needed, when audiences grow tired of one emotion constantly pulsing in the background. There has got to be more, more breadth, and although these actors can do the job, they simply weren’t asked to.
In the near future, 99.9% of humanity will die. In this new world, information on why will be scarce, but it wont’ matter; nothing really does anymore. One man who was left over by chance, Del, continues the life he was leading before; working at a library, keeping to himself, not needing anything from anybody. But he’s not the last person living; a young girl named Grace shows up out of nowhere, destroying the silent sanctuary that Del had built for himself, and exposing him not to disease & death, but rather companionship & communication, which he fears much more.
Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning are tremendous actors who I’ve enjoyed countless times; neither was set up for success here. Morano’s direction was to blame, again, because nothing was given to the actors except one idea, one feeling, and that’s not enough to work with. Then a twist is thrown in at the end to mix things up? Nope, too late, and too cheap; we want the actors to show us the layers within the story, that’s what we enjoy, nice effort displaying a nice plot, it’s that simple. Instead, we weren’t given enough, neither were they, and the film falls flat and audiences find that they simply don’t care.
My rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆