Super Dark Times (2017)

The greatest movie ever made..!

The Age of Commercialism

A Major Disappointment

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

They did a great job depicting the most extreme socially awkward teens, I was cringing on behalf of the main characters quite often. They did a good job with the nostalgic details too - the bikes, the screensaver that was my first screensaver as a kid (almost as fun to watch that as it was to play the games.) Otherwise it's all messed-up kids making messed-up decisions. The movie was a bit slow sometimes but it added some tension so it's all good. The only problem is I didn't enjoy it at all. I wanted sometime more than one or two touches of 'awe I recognize that' and an hour and a half of alternating between cringing from awkwardness and cringing from pain. I felt like I was a kid again, walking four blocks barefoot down a blazing hot gravel road to find out the store is closed and I have to walk home again with nothing but blistered feet. Well-made suffering is still not pleasant if it gains you nothing in the end. Would not endure again.

Just finished this on netflix and omg. Let me just say that I had a "super dark time" just WATCHING this movie. If u don't know this already, I'm a huge film geek and dont find many movies that toy with me the way this one did. Even when I figured out where the plot was going, which is usually pretty quick for most movies. This was still able to leave me feeling rather disturbed when it all plays out. If it weren't for the horrible pacing in the 3rd act, it could have been fantastic. The director shouldve put more effort into balancing the themes; after managing to make the audience feel just as traumatized as the characters, it was a disservice to all that authentic grit to just leave me feeling confused as to WHY the director wanted to tell this story. Its like, "wait, its over? Ok...im disturbed. But what else am i supposed to feel?" I believe it tried to hard to be a minimalist art film and ended too hastily causing the narrative to feel thematically sloppy and unclear. Which is frustrating because I started this movie not expecting it to hold my attention and it actually kept me engaged and guessing all the way to the end, and even afterwards. I was waiting for the director to make it clear what he was trying convey with this story but he never figured out what angle he wanted to take so it felt like I was just forced to watch the innocence and sanity of these hs kids get ripped away by a series of depressingly senseless traumatic events over the course of 2 hrs. maybe he thought if he just kept it vague and dark it would make it sophisticated. Wrong. Vague =/= artistic. Couldve been great, took too many risks, ended up way too obscure and inaccessible. Will likely never get seen or talked about because anyone who watches the whole thing probably won't want to themselves or anyone else through that again knowing how it ends. All macabre, no closure. Making the violence feel antithetical and therefore unnecessary. 6/10.P.s. That review ended up being way longer than I intended because I couldn't easily put my finger on where it went wrong.

What a great film! The story just keeps building, the suspense keeps you on the edge of your seat, the acting is first rate. If you just want to be entertained and enjoy a good disturbing film, then this is one you definitely should watch. Ignore the armchair analysts and dime store critics and just sit back, relax (if you can, what with the nail biting tale) and just watch this movie. You can do much worse!

If there's another 2017 film that starts off really well and continues greatness until it loses all its momentum and potential and becomes a mess in its third act, then I haven't seen it. This film is an intriguing but realistic psychological drama/thriller for its first two acts and then decides to become a genre film instead. By doing so, it loses everything that made it interesting. Maybe in retrospect and on a possible rewatch I will think the third act is fine for what it is, but it's such a shame the turn the film makes. Still, it remains a worthy effort overall, with some fine performances from its cast and some effective imagery.