Saorise Ronan has been on the independent film train this year. She is using her incredible talent to highlight why smaller budget films are what cinema can be. FOE was released earlier this year and is based on a book. Now as the film never hit theatres it is not eligible for awards season, but we will talk a little bit about that later. I am trying to assemble a little, mini awards show for streaming services which feels like it's bound to happen eventually anyway. For now it will happen on my YouTube channel with me as all the presenters.
Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan play a couple that live on a midwest farm. Late at night a man comes to their house and basically tells them that since the earth is dying they are moving to a space station. But the tests to qualify to go up there are grueling and only he is qualified to go. Thus he is being watched.
Now they framed this like this idea is going to test their relationship, but their relationship doesn’t seem all that strong to begin with. It actually seems like the idea of being separated brought them closer together. They have definitely healed their relationship and then a year later this man pops back up and says it's time for Junior to leave.
Every shot in this film is beautiful. I love it when independent films give us incredible cinematography because it proves that you don’t need monster budgets to make a beautiful film.
Paul is incredible in this film. He shows impeccable range in this role. I feel like independent films will almost always challenge actors more than big budget films ever could.
The pacing is really well done. And the act structure is very clear. The first big moment was the notification that Junior will be taken off world. Act2 focuses on the tests and the preparation process for him tp be ready to leave. In this time our secondary conflict is that they are going to replace him with an AI robot thing so that Hen won't be lonely…that’s nice and creepy.
CRAZY fucking plot twist, holy shit. I had the thought but this is crazy. So the real experiment was their ability to create, and duplicate a person. Turning AI into a fully sentient, conscious being. Thinking back on the film it actually makes it 1000X more brilliant. Because Hen knew he was the replacement. So from her making him sleep in the guest room that first night to the very emotional “I miss you” everything makes perfect sense and it's so much more emotional when you know the ending.
Hen was so in love with his replacement because he was a base version of Junior, he was actually the man she fell in love with. And when the real Junior came back that all went away. And with that she gets the courage to leave him and I love that for her. She also actually leaves. The last shot of the film is her on a plane.
Wow what a ride. That may have been one of the best films I have watched this year. Saoirse is always incredible so that was not a surprise, but Paul’s range in this movie was incredible and it's really a shame that it's not awards eligible because it absolutely deserves some recognition. FOE was an excellent exploration of relationships, self growth and learning when it's time to let go and walk away. God it's really hard for me to not give this film a perfect score so 10/10 it is.
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Alexandrea Callaghan
Certified nerd, super geek and very proud fangirl.
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