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An ecological catastrophe has launched the world into “the new dark ages,” as an opening title announces at the start of “Vesper,” a dystopian fairy tale about a 13-year-old girl who wants more than she’s taught to expect. Vesper ( Raffiella Chapman ), the curious title character, scavenges for seeds (to grow her own food), for power sources (to keep her ailing father alive), and for love (to replace her absent mother). Her prospects are slim, on all three counts, but that doesn’t stop her from scavenging, experimenting, and negotiating her way towards whatever she needs.

Vesper has to do more than she’s told she can for her and her father’s sake. And in “Vesper,” co-writer/co-director duo Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper (“Vanishing Waves”) convincingly dramatize a turning point in their solitary heroine’s life—the moment when Vesper learns that the ground beneath her feet will probably never stop shifting.

Unlike a lot of canned coming-of-age stories, “Vesper” focuses more on credible growing pains than token empowerment and trite reassurances. “Vesper” is the rare science-fiction movie that’s most convincing when its tone and narrative are more surreal than reassuring and borderline absurd instead of cathartic. It's also gorgeous and dream-like thanks to its surreal production design and storyboard-perfect mise en scene. These immediately attractive qualities make some contrived plot twists and baldly stated dialogue seem far less important than the movie’s total vision of adolescence in the shadow of environmental crisis.

In a few early scenes, Buozyte and Samper quickly establish the chilliness of Vesper’s hierarchy-bound world. She soon discovers that her bed-ridden father Darius ( Richard Brake ) needs more electrical power to keep him alive. So Vesper reaches out to Jonas ( Eddie Marsan ), the ruthless leader of a cult-like compound who trades blood and sex for essential resources like food, shelter, and power. Unfortunately, the terms of Jonas’ aide are too steep, and Vesper knows it: she warns him that she doesn’t want to become a “breeder,” like some of the other women in his group. He scoffs, but doesn’t correct her.

Jonas cautions Vesper that she shouldn’t get her hopes up, as far as improving her uneasy station in life. “You think you’re better than everyone else,” he tells her. Unfortunately, Jonas isn’t the only one who reminds Vesper that she’s living in an unwelcoming world, and therefore must lower her expectations. “You don't know the cost of dreams,” says Darius, speaking to Vesper through a drone-like robot that accompanies Vesper on her day-to-day tasks.

The threatening implications of these warnings are both clear and sensible, though both men obviously want to protect Vesper for different reasons. Vesper doesn’t trust Jonas, but you can see why she might be tempted.

Some hope presents itself to Vesper after she stumbles upon Camellia ( Rosy McEwen ), a mysterious refugee from an exclusive upper-class Citadel living community. The Citadels hoard their resources, just like Jonas’ group, and also keep pale, synthetically grown humanoid Jugs as indentured property. Vesper still dreams of living in a Citadel, because why wouldn’t she? She bonds with Camellia, and in not always in ways that can be explained by platitudinous romantic or pseudo-familial gestures. In one scene, the two women howl like wolves after Vesper asks Camellia what various animals sound like. Vesper continues making noise for a few awkward and impossibly long seconds after Camellia stops.

Vesper is a survivor and her actions and relationships reflect her emotional fragility, pragmatic cynicism, and abiding naiveté. Any given conversation has the potential to erupt in violence. That makes a lot of sense in a world where the remaining humans are surrounded by poisonous or parasitic wildlife. Everyone uses everything, which puts Marsan’s unrepentant manipulator in the unique position of being both a great villain and an attractive voice of reason. He’s the human face of a world that’s as obviously hostile as it is perplexingly attractive.

“Vesper” commands viewers’ attention with its exceptionally well-realized costume, sound, and production design, as well as some well-utilized, Cronenberg-icky creature and special effects. But Buozyte and Samper’s movie is even more impressive for its unsentimental depiction of ruthless people who are both products and active participants in their environment. Even Vesper does what she must to push get closer to an uncertain and often hopeless-seeming future.

A considerable amount of computer animated graphics sometimes limits Buozyte and Stamper’s otherwise expansive vision. Granted, many scenes are understandably pre-visualized, and thus never over-complicated by too many camera set-ups or movements. But a general emphasis on human performances and characterizations makes this speculative drama seem real enough. “Vesper” doesn’t just ask viewers to root for one more hopeless case as she struggles to triumph over adverse living conditions. Instead, it asks us to spend time with a young protagonist who thinks she’s on the verge of a breakthrough and leads us to constantly worry that she might be wrong.

Now playing in theaters and available on demand.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in The New York Times , Vanity Fair , The Village Voice, and elsewhere.

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Vesper (2022)

112 minutes

Raffiella Chapman as Vesper

Eddie Marsan as Jonas

Rosy McEwen as Camellia

Richard Brake as Darius

Melanie Gaydos as Jug

Edmund Dehn as Elias

Matvej Buravkov as Boz

Marijus Demiskis as Oed

Markas Eimontas as Mo

Titas Rukas as Beck

Markas Sagaitis as Fitz

Kristina Buozyte
Bruno Samper
Brian Clark

Cinematographer

Feliksas Abrukauskas
Suzanne Fenn

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Vesper gives the apocalypse a pretty face and an ugly heart

For a small indie sci-fi movie, the special effects are stunning, and the world is incredibly well-realized

13-year-old Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) stands in a barren field with giant rusty octopus robots on the horizon in Vesper

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Polygon is on the ground at the 2022 Fantastic Fest, reporting on new horror, sci-fi, cult, and action movies making their way to theaters and streaming. This review was published in conjunction with the film’s Fantastic Fest premiere.

Grim futures and hopeless circumstances are so common on screen that they’ve come to feel like the default mode for science fiction storytelling, particularly in low-budget movies. It’s hard for one crapsack world or future-fascist dystopia to stand out over all the others, when so many sci-fi stories expressly warn us about how every aspect of our lives could possibly lead us toward some sort of apocalypse . The indie science fiction movie Vesper is no exception to that rule — it takes place in a future where Earth has been rendered near-uninhabitable, and the survivors either hide in shining enclaves called Citadels or eke out hand-to-mouth lives in the wreckage outside the Citadels’ walls. But dystopian sci-fi has rarely been as delicately and beautifully detailed as Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper’s new film.

Vesper simultaneously plays like a resourceful shoestring-budget indie in the realm of Dual and like Alex Garland’s $50 million passion project Annihilation . It’s a small-scale story, at times so hushed and minimalist that even putting two characters in the same room can feel overcrowded. But in their first movie release since 2012’s well-received sci-fi import Vanishing Waves , Buozyte and Samper do an impressive job of creating a plausible, tangible world around these quiet spaces. The scenery tells the story as effectively as any laborious exposition could.

Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) and Camellia (Rosy McEwen) stand in Vesper’s dark, crowded lab in Vesper

An opening title card labels Vesper ’s ugly version of the future as “The New Dark Ages.” Facing environmental collapse, humanity tried to stave off catastrophe through genetic engineering. But modified viruses and organisms escaped into the wild and took up the role of invasive species, wiping out Earth’s original biosphere and supplanting it with aggressive new forms of life. The only seeds that will still grow come from Citadel labs and are designed to produce sterile crops, so outsiders have to trade for or purchase new seeds every growing season.

Thirteen-year-old Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) is stubbornly determined to apply what she knows about science to the problem, and she tinkers away in a grubby lab, splicing DNA to figure out how to unlock Citadel seeds or grow her own edible plants. But the project has to take a back seat to survival, as she tries to feed herself and her paralyzed father, Darius (Richard Brake), with whatever she can glean or scrounge from their lethal environment.

There’s no timeline for when or how any of this happened, but the setting shows all the signs of a world that became far more advanced than ours before it collapsed. Darius can’t move or speak, but a grubby plug leading into his brain lets him accompany Vesper on her rounds via a hovering telepresence drone, through which he perpetually grumbles about her choices and how much time she wastes on trying to make their lives better. Meanwhile, Darius’ quietly predatory brother, Jonas (Eddie Marsan), runs a small, rough enclave nearby, where he’s bred a flock of children whose blood is a valuable commodity in trades with the Citadel.

While Vesper is his niece, and barely past pubescence, he makes no secret that he wants her as breeding stock. In a genre where evil often comes in the form of killer-robot armies or towering, powerful villainy, Darius stands out as a deeper and more personal kind of monster just in the proprietary, knowing way he looks at Vesper when she comes to him in a crisis, and the boundary-testing ways he touches her when they both know she can’t afford to make him angry.

Then a drone from one of the Citadels crash-lands near his enclave, and Vesper finds an elfin woman named Camellia (Rosy McEwen) wounded near the wreckage. Camellia promises that if Vesper gets her and her father, Elias, safely to a Citadel, Vesper will be granted entry herself. It’s everything Vesper wants — but naturally, the offer comes with a few major catches.

Vesper ’s basic story plays out in ways familiar from sci-fi movies as small as Prospect and as oversized and bombastic as Elysium . Any time a faceless group of all-powerful elites faces off against a single determined have-not living in their shadow, it’s fairly clear that there are going to be a lot of small hopes built and dashed along the road to finding some kind of path forward, and that virtually everyone else in the story is there to curry favor from those elites and stand in the protagonist’s way. Vesper doesn’t do enough to differentiate its dynamic from so many other movies like it; so much of its action seems inevitable that there’s almost no room for surprise.

And the movie as a whole often feels like a grab bag of elements from other memorable, often culty sci-fi movies: the ramshackle technology, father-and-daughter dynamic, and intimidating alien world of Prospect ; the solemn intellectual and inescapable oppression of Duncan Jones’ Moon ; the dreary palette and strained, exhausted desperation of Children of Men ; and more. Vesper would make a comfortable double feature with any of them — or with movies like The Road , The Survivalist , or Cargo .

Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) holds her hand over a delicate, glowing flower that reaches its tendrils toward her in Vesper

But what makes Vesper memorable isn’t the uniqueness of its ideas, it’s the uniqueness of how they’re expressed. The distinctions start with Chapman’s performance in the title role; she isn’t the fierce, combative hero of so many dystopian-future stories, but a head-down, wary survivalist who even at 13 has clearly learned caution and care. Chapman and the script give Vesper a form of grit that feels unusual for this kind of story. Her every move acknowledges her history, as a young teenager with too much responsibility and too much freedom. Her father may disapprove of her, but he can’t do anything to stop her from doing what she wants. She excuses her choices to him, but makes them without apology or remorse. She’s meek and iron-willed at the same time, and it’s an intriguing combination.

The small details about her past and the world that emit from that performance are all the more welcome because no one has to spell them out. The same goes for the production design and world-building. It’s found in little details, like the inexpertly rendered face on Darius’ hover-drone, clearly painted on by a much younger Vesper who was trying to make him seem more comfortingly human. Or it’s found in compelling mysteries, like the secrets behind the “pilgrims,” silent people who hide their faces and constantly collect inedible scraps to haul off to some unknown destination. No one ever bothers to explain the immense, disintegrating octopus-like machines scattered across the landscape — like the similar robots in Amazon’s Tales From the Loop series , they’re just part of the backdrop of the world, an obvious remnant of a former failed effort to reclaim the world for a wider range of humanity than the few cloistered survivors.

Vesper ’s strongest asset, apart from Chapman’s resilient determination and Marsan’s subtle, unshowy menace, is the way special effects are used to populate that world with a seemingly infinite array of ominous life. The condition Vesper finds Camellia in — with slow-moving tentacled things (plants? Animals? Both? Neither?) opportunistically latched on to all her wounds — is both vividly horrifying and treated offhandedly as the obvious result of someone falling unconscious outside. Everywhere Vesper goes, unsettling things twitch, throb, or gape open hungrily on trees and plants. When Darius’ hover-drone is opened, it reveals a sickeningly Cronenbergian form of bio-tech, all frills, membranes, and thick, glutinous goop. Even the Citadel ships look like disturbing insectoid monstrosities.

Inevitably, sci-fi fans who prefer the revved-up speeds and frequent action sequences of Star Wars shows like The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett will complain that Vesper is too slow and too quiet. It’s a legitimate gripe for people who said the same thing about Annihilation , or Andrei Tarkovsky’s similar Stalker before it, or any other piece of science fiction that’s more cerebral than physical. But for the kind of science fiction fans who loved Moon or Kogonada ’s After Yang , Vesper is a rich pleasure: a familiar enough story, but told with a thousand creepy, vibrant, crawling grace notes.

Vesper will be in theaters and on VOD on Sept. 30.

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Vesper Reviews

Despite the fact that this indie project lacked the financial resources of some of Hollywood’s big-budget post-apocalyptic, action-heavy films, the filmmakers exceed expectations in terms of world-building, stunning visual effects, and storytelling.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2023

It’s a fascinating film that discusses the reality and survival of the world through a much deeper lens with otherworldly visuals.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2023

Incredibly imaginative and empowering, this sci-fi tale with a memorable 13-year-old main character shows that intelligence and compassion are heroic qualities.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 19, 2023

Vesper is another movie depicting a bleak hellscape of a not-so-distant future, but the film contains some great performances, an original story, and shimmering visuals [to] keep things interesting all the way through.

Full Review | Jul 14, 2023

With its visual potency, commitment to pure sci-fi, and emotional warmth, Vesper is a film worth considering. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 7, 2023

Directors Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper compose a delicate, precise and extremely lyrical fable about disaster. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 6, 2023

A story of wonders and salvation. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 3, 2023

For something a bit different to your usual blockbuster sci-fi fare, try Vesper. It feels small, earthy, contained to a handful of locations, without the overdone pontificating grandeur.

Full Review | Apr 6, 2023

Chapman, who spends significant portions of Vesper on her own or with only Darius' drone prop for a scene partner, proves a worthy lead.

Full Review | Jan 9, 2023

The film's storyline is stretched thin at a few points, mostly because all of it takes place in this post-apocalyptic forest and they have to figure out how to give her something to do and local baddies to confront before she ventures out.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 30, 2022

The movie creates an astounding world to look at, and it smartly doesn’t try to explain every strange detail.

Full Review | Nov 16, 2022

There’s some very inventive special effects work -- both practical and CGI... Unfortunately, it appears that not quite as much attention and imagination was paid to the script as was given to the look of the film.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 24, 2022

It’s inventive and atmospheric, just not entirely coherent.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 23, 2022

If you are going to see one post-apocalyptic, low-tech French-Lithuanian-Belgian film in English this year with Eddie Marsan as the heavy, make sure it’s this one.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 20, 2022

…tapping into current anxieties about genetic engineering, Vesper turns out to be an unexpectedly smart sci-fi drama…

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 19, 2022

Buozyte and Samper, along with their visual and special effects crew, create a rich and dazzling world not yet seen before

Full Review | Oct 12, 2022

“Vesper” is a transporting experience and a masterclass on immersive world-building, showing that you don’t need the deep pockets of a major studio to create an absorbing setting.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 12, 2022

The world is beautifully realised by directors Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper. Splicing the organic with a sprinkle of magic.

Full Review | Oct 9, 2022

A wonder to look at, complemented by elegant performances, Vesper presents a haunting apocalyptic nightmare that is hard to pull away from.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 9, 2022

Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper’s sci-fi plays out the self-destructive problems of late-capitalist patriarchy in a mutant dystopia

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‘Vesper’ Review: Resourceful European Sci-Fi Offers Glimmers of Beauty at the End of the World

A decade after their festival hit 'Vanishing Waves,' Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper return with a strikingly designed futuristic fairytale.

By Guy Lodge

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Premiering in the main competition strand of this year’s Karlovy Vary festival, “Vesper” marks a long-awaited return to feature filmmaking for Lithuanian director Buozyte and her French writing partner Samper, now assuming a co-directing credit. Their 2012 collaboration “Vanishing Waves,” a vividly original blend of cerebral sci-fi and sensual eroticism, found a keen following on the genre festival circuit as well as widespread international distribution. (Between now and then, the pair have completed only a segment of the Drafthouse horror anthology “ABCs of Death 2.”)

Delivering on the atmospheric formal promise of their previous film while simplifying the storytelling — and switching to English, though the Europudding DNA of this Lithuanian-French-Belgian co-production feels fitting for a post-nations vision of the future — “Vesper” is a more accessible, youth-targeted effort, already picked up by IFC Films for release in North America. This is effectively arthouse young-adult fare, crediting adolescents with curious minds and strong stomachs.

Meanwhile, Darius’ brother Jonas (Eddie Marsan, in slitheringly villainous mode) is not an uncle to be counted on. Lording over a neighboring farm where he enslaves child laborers to harvest what little the ground has left to yield, he has his sights set on his niece’s strength and smarts. Little does he realize her full potential, however: In a secret, shabby greenhouse, Vesper conducts ongoing experiments in synthetic biology, rearing strange, luminescent new life forms — exquisitely rendered by the film’s visual effects team — against the scorched-earth odds.

This cruel social hierarchy exists entirely outside the true realms of privilege in a dying world: elite, elevated citadels, where wealthy oligarchs live comfortably on the fruits of advanced biotechnology, served by a manufactured class of humanoid AI beings called Jugs. Vesper has knowledge that would be of value in these isolated communities, but no line of access to them. So when, in the scrubby wilderness, she encounters Camellia (Rosy McEwen), the refined daughter of a fleeing citadel resident, she sees a chance to change her fortunes.

Though the film’s original screenplay, co-written by the directors with Brian Clark, seemingly pulls from a number of obvious genre forebears — from scene to scene, one might identify stray accents of “Children of Men,” “The Road,” “The Hunger Games” and even video-game smash “The Last of Us” — the result is never quite generic, with an unsentimental but darkly romantic spirit of risk and peril that feels informed as much by pre-Disney literary fairytales as any science fiction. Chapman’s stoic but winningly vulnerable performance likewise keeps proceedings humane and honestly felt: Where so many YA heroines amount to dauntless adults in children’s bodies, she plays the title character as a changeable, characterful child thrust into unreasonable adult responsibilities.

Reviewed at Soho Screening Rooms, London, June 28, 2022. (In Karlovy Vary Film Festival — Competition.) Running time: 113 MIN.

Production: (Lithuania-France-Belgium) A Natrix Natrix, Rumble Fish Prods. production in co-production with 10.80 Films, EV.L Prod. (World sales: Anton, London.) Producers: Asta Liukaitytė, Daiva Varnaitė-Jovaišienė, Alexis Perrin, Kristina Buozyte. Executive producers: Sebastien Raybaud, Cécile Gaget, Louis Balsan, Mike Shema. Co-producers: Benoit Roland, Florent Steiner, Guillaume Natas.
Crew: Directors: Kristina Buozyte, Bruno Samper. Screenplay: Buozyte, Samper, Brian Clark, from a story by Buozute, Samper. Camera: Feliksas Abrukauskas. Editor: Suzanne Fenn. Music: Dan Levy.
With: Raffiella Chapman, Eddie Marsan, Rosy McEwen, Richard Brake, Melanie Gaydos. (English dialogue)

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Movie Reviews

In a bio-engineered dystopia, 'vesper' finds seeds of hope.

Bob Mondello

Raffiella Chapman stars as Vesper, a 13-year-old bio-hacker. Courtesy of IFC Films hide caption

Raffiella Chapman stars as Vesper, a 13-year-old bio-hacker.

Hollywood apocalypses come in all shapes and sizes – zombified, post-nuclear, plague-ridden – so it says something that the European eco-fable Vesper can weave together strands from quite a few disparate sci-fi films and come up with something that feels eerily fresh.

Lithuanian filmmaker Kristina Buozyte and her French co-director Bruno Samper begin their story in a misty bog so bleak and lifeless it almost seems to have been filmed in black-and-white. A volleyball-like orb floats into view with a face crudely painted on, followed after a moment by 13-yr-old Vesper (Raffiella Chapman), sloshing through the muck, scavenging for food, or for something useful for the bio-hacking she's taught herself to do in a makeshift lab.

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Vesper's a loner, but she's rarely alone. That floating orb contains the consciousness of her father (Richard Brake), who's bedridden in the shack they call home, with a sack of bacteria doing his breathing for him. So Vesper talks to the orb, and it to her. And one day, she announces a remarkable find in a world where nothing edible grows anymore: seeds.

She hasn't really found them, she's stolen them, hoping to unlock the genetic structure that keeps them from producing a second generation of plants. It's a deliberately inbred characteristic – the capitalist notion of copyrighted seed stock turned draconian — that has crashed the world's eco-system, essentially bio-engineering nature out of existence.

In Vesper, genetic experiments have wiped out all of Earth's edible plants. Courtesy of IFC Films hide caption

In Vesper, genetic experiments have wiped out all of Earth's edible plants.

Those who did the tampering are an upper-class elite that's taken refuge in cities that look like huge metal mushrooms – "citadels" that consume all the planet's available resources – while what's left of the rest of humankind lives in sackcloth and squalor.

Does that sound Dickensian? Well, yes, and there's even a Fagin of sorts: Vesper's uncle Jonas (Eddie Marsan), who lives in a sordid camp full of children he exploits in ways that appall his niece. With nothing else to trade for food, the kids donate blood (Citadel dwellers evidently crave transfusions) and Jonas nurtures his kids more or less as he would a barnyard full of livestock.

Vesper's convinced she can bio-hack her way to something better. And when a glider from the Citadel crashes, and she rescues a slightly older stranger (pale, ethereal Rosy McEwan) she seems to have found an ally.

The filmmakers give their eco-disaster the look of Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men , the bleak atmospherics of The Road , and a heroine who seems entirely capable of holding her own in The Hunger Games . And for what must have been a fraction of the cost of those films, they manage some seriously effective world-building through practical and computer effects: A glider crash that maroons the Citadel dweller; trees that breathe; pink squealing worms that snap at anything that comes too close.

And in this hostile environment, Vesper remains an ever-curious and resourceful adolescent, finding beauty where she can — in a turquoise caterpillar, or in the plants she's bio-hacked: luminescent, jellyfish-like, glowing, pulsing, and reaching out when she passes.

All made entirely persuasive for a story with roots in both young-adult fiction, and real-world concerns, from tensions between haves and have-nots to bio-engineering for profit — man-made disasters not far removed from where we are today.

Vesper paints a dark future with flair enough to give audiences hope, both for a world gone to seed, and for indie filmmaking.

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‘Vesper’ Review: A Feat of Low-Budget Sci-Fi World-Building

David ehrlich.

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Set in “the new dark ages” — a ruined tomorrow in which the engineered viruses and organisms that humanity created in order to stem the planet’s ecological crisis have escaped into the wild and remade life on Earth into a dreary (but awesome) Cronenbergian wasteland full of fleshy droids, bioluminescent critters, and trees whose spores try to suck out your internal tissue while you sleep — Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper’s “Vesper” has already drawn several comparisons to the likes of “Stalker” and the Andrei Tarkovsky-inspired “Annihilation.” It’s easy to see why.

Told at the somnambulant of a European art film but plotted with the simplicity of a fairy tale, the filmmaking duo’s first feature since 2012’s “Vanishing Waves” offers a dramatically uneven but imaginatively vivid feat of post-apocalyptic world-building that flips the script on so many other stories like it.

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Instead of using a variety of unique details to flesh out its familiar dystopian premise about the tension between a rich society of elites — who’ve barricaded themselves within edenic fortresses known as “Citadels” — and the scavengers they’ve abandoned to the mutant wilderness beyond the city walls, “Vesper” blurs that age-old saga of haves and have-nots into a distant backdrop for something more interested in the flora and fauna that have evolved around it.

If humans can have such a profound effect on nature, what effect might nature have on humanity in return? It’s a profound question that Buozyte and Samper’s film complicates with all sorts of intricate and icky special effects, but it’s also a question that “Vesper” rejects on principle to a certain degree, as well. By the time this highly evocative work of low-budget sci-fi arrives at its eye-opening final scene, the clearest takeaway is that our only hope for survival has been coded into us since the beginning of time.

The story “Vesper” tells is a simple one told in broad strokes but saturated in atmosphere. Raffiella Chapman plays the title character, a headstrong 13-year-old scavenger in the Nausicaä vein who lives deep within one of the endless forests that stretch beyond the Citadels (the film was shot in Buozyte’s native Lithuania). By day she rummages through the ruins of the old world, a scout drone piloted by her bedridden father Darius (Richard Broke) — who controls the device through a fleshy white contraption straight out of “Crimes of the Future,” and speaks to Vesper through it in a choked whisper — always hovering by her side. By night, Vesper tinkers with her DIY biotech projects, trying to engineer a crop that hasn’t been programmed to die after a single harvest.

Sometimes she visits her creepy uncle Jonas ( Eddie Marsan ), who’s reacted to the end of the world by hoarding supplies and inbreeding his way to a mini fiefdom that’s only interested in its own survival. More compelling are the shrouded Pilgrims who seem to abandon their lives at the drop of a hat and wander towards some unknown promised land. Perhaps Vesper’s absent mother has joined their ranks.

Just don’t expect Buozyte, Samper, and Brian Clark’s cryptic (if conservatively structured) screenplay to answer all of its open questions. “Vesper” is animated by its lingering sense of wonder, which is epitomized by the sheer variety of critters and plant life that it puts on display. Not since “Avatar” has a sci-fi movie been so justifiably infatuated with an ecosystem of its own design.

Buozyte and Samper don’t quite have James Cameron’s budgets, but the intricacy of their imaginations is more than enough to overpower a few dodgy CGI caterpillars. I loved the unexplained husks of old tech that can be seen poking out from the fog in the distance — presumably relics from some of humanity’s previous attempts to engineer their way towards a better world.

Closer and in squirmier detail are the little snake-weasels that burrow out of the ground for a nibble of someone passing by, and the Birdo-like spore guys that latch onto a high-status blonde woman named Camellia (Rosy McEwen) once the cruiser she’s on crash lands between Citadels. When Vesper finds her, Camellia offers the girl and her father access to the cities above if they help her get home, but it isn’t long before Jonas catches wind of the news that someone of vast wealth and knowledge has plummeted into his backyard. And he comes with some lore of his own, including an overcomplicated seed-trading business and a humanoid “jug” (Melanie Gaydos), who he encourages his brood to treat like a disposable robot without any feelings just because she was made in a lab. This only seems like a strange aside until the moment it suddenly doesn’t.

“Vesper” thrives in the moments between moments, when the film’s generous running time gives viewers the chance to sink into its semi-synthetic world of tomorrow. The actual story beats are considerably less satisfying, despite every performance hinting at rich layers of meaning and possibility the movie never has the chance to explore (Chapman in particular makes a believable lead, the young actress allowing Vesper’s rugged optimism to shine through even the most harrowing scenes).

While the world-building is extraordinary, the part of it we get to see is rather small, and this movie often feels stuck in place as a result — spinning its wheels into the forest bed and waiting to go somewhere. The moments during which “Vesper” is effectively able to dramatize the ideas that it so vibrantly exudes are few and far between, although Vesper’s hope (and the maternal bond that develops between she and Camellia) helps give shape to the story and provide for a handful of heartrending moments.

Most crucial is the hard-won hope they kindle within each other, evidence of which is baked into every damp and verdant corner of this movie. “Oh Vesper,” Jonas tells her, “you don’t know the cost of dreams.” But one look at her surroundings is all it takes to understand that she knows the cost of losing them.

IFC Films will release “Vesper” in theaters and on VOD on Friday, September 30.

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‘Vesper’ Film Review: Quietly Dazzling Sci-Fi Drama Creates a New Kind of Genre

Karlovy Vary Film Festival: This European-made, English-language production mixes modern young-adult fiction with the rhythms of the European arthouse

Aglow in earth tones and abundant with retro-futurist designs, the sci-fi drama “Vesper” certainly feels like a throwback. But a throwback to what? While the postapocalyptic tale reflects sci-fi strands both East and West, echoing cerebral fare from the Soviet bloc as much as grimy Hollywood spectacles, filmmakers Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper have woven those older threads into something wholly unique — at once modern and timeless, nostalgic for a genre only just created, already pining for images freshly cast up on screen.

Making its world premiere in competition at the 2022 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, this wistful, bio-punk fairy tale builds around the broad contours of modern young-adult fiction and shades them with the unhurried, observational rhythms of the European art-house. From the rebellious young prodigy to the focus on class division to the expository wall of title cards that introduce this particular dystopia, the film plays with many familiar while trading the relentless narrative rush of contemporary Y.A. for the ambient woodland menace and darker psychological shadings of the original Grimm fables.

Working with co-screenwriter Brian Clark, Buožytė and Samper have constructed a dense dystopian mythology, rooted in ecological collapse and a corresponding economy built around genetically engineered seeds (and other more ethically dubious inventions). In function and form, “Vesper” explores the periphery, focusing on moods instead of percussive narrative beats as it follows a father and daughter living on the outskirts of this imagined society.

Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) is a 13-year-old who lives with her bedridden father just beyond the Citadel, cast in the shadow of this techno-feudal Promised Land without ever benefiting from the comforts within. That’s all the same for the girl, who never knew a different life, and who spends her days ravaging for scraps and developing her own biogenetic green thumb. Papa Darius (Richard Brake) sees things more clearly. Physically inert and hooked into a particularly Cronenbergian iron lung, Darius has transferred his consciousness to a gyroscopic drone that hovers around his young daughter, signaling his apprehensions in a voice that never rises above a whisper – much like the overall film.

Like its flagship visual element – that drone, worn down and beat up, with a crudely drawn smiley face painted on the surface and an interior seemingly made of human cartilage – “Vesper” luxuriates in landscapes that mix practical and digital VFX to evoke a futuristic world gone to seed. Even as the narrative builds, introducing conflict by way of a sinister neighbor and a pair of Citadel dwellers crash-landed in the forest, directors Buožytė and Samper maintain a low-and-steady thrum, making each frame a showcase for inspired biotech production design that somehow erases the line between organic tissue and synthetic material.

The neighbor, Jonas (Eddie Marsan), is a Fagin-like hawker who hoards lost youth and sells their blood for seeds. He treats Vesper differently from the other wasteland wastrels, though just what prevents this otherwise unscrupulous adult from forcing the girl into his vampiric scheme only becomes clear later. Hitting that darker pitch found in the original Grimm stories, “Vesper” accents the dangers of childhood, tapping a heightened vulnerability in the girl and her father figures.

That theme only deepens when Vesper discovers a crashed aircraft with two Citadelians inside. Young Camellia (Rosy McEwen) is well enough to escape and convalesce at the family home; her guardian, Elias (Edmund Dehn), is so badly mangled that she stays behind.

Vesper and Camellia both have infirm parents, and both were left to fend for themselves – and yet they couldn’t be more different. To call Vesper a tomboy would be a misnomer; as written, clad and performed, the character is a pre-adolescent child of the Earth, essentially gender neutral with an androgynous name and affect (that others refer to Vesper using she/her pronouns is really the character’s sole gender indicator).

With locks so blond as to nearly be shock white and ethereal features accented under permanent mask of makeup, Camellia, on the other hand, instantly reads as high femme. The subtle age difference serves as another point of ballast: Camellia can be no more than a few years Vesper’s senior, still a child in so many ways, just on the other side of puberty – which gives the character’s delicate femininity a harrowing resonance when her true nature (and thus the true nature of her parental relationship) is revealed.

We will say no more, and for that matter, neither will the filmmakers, who deliver glimpses and intimations, creating dazzling otherworldly visuals without a hint of bombast. A Franco-Lithuanian-Belgian production, “Vesper” is an English-language film that aims for the international market, which means the narrative does pick up steam and build toward a dynamic release of tension – an action finale, in other words.

But even in that mode, the filmmakers give priority to the unconventional, staging chases and showdowns with an emphasis on dread (and a look book pulled from 1970s Italian horror). Not wholly cerebral nor fully a spectacle, “Vesper” takes the best of both, tapping into a distinctive wavelength and inviting the viewers along for the ride. Call it Vibe Sci-Fi.

IFC will release “Vesper” in the United States on Sept. 30.

Summary After the collapse of Earth’s ecosystem, Vesper, a 13-year-old girl struggling to survive with her father, must use her wits, strength and bio-hacking abilities to fight for the future.

Directed By : Kristina Buozyte, Bruno Samper

Written By : Bruno Samper, Kristina Buozyte, Brian Clark

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REVIEW: Vesper Creates a Fascinating, Immersive Sci-Fi World

Small-scale sci-fi drama Vesper is a marvel of world-building from the moment it begins, completely immersing the audience in its fantastical setting.

It's not easy to create a convincing sci-fi world that exists just beyond the margins of a modestly budgeted movie, but that's exactly what filmmakers Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper accomplish in Vesper . It's a marvel of world-building from the moment it begins. Opening titles offer background information on the "New Dark Age," in which genetic engineering meant to combat ecological disaster has instead wreaked havoc on the planet, wiping out most plant and animal life and much of the human population. Rich elites live in so-called citadels, attended by artificial humanoids known as jugs, while the poor scrape by in the surrounding wasteland, dependent on the citadels for genetically engineered seeds that provide only a single harvest before dying out.

Almost all of that happens offscreen, but it feels genuine and urgent in the lives of the characters, which are more humble and precarious. Thirteen-year-old Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) lives on the margins of society along with her bedridden father Darius (Richard Brake), who's suffering from an unspecified ailment. Darius is connected via various tubes and wires to apparatuses that keep him alive, but only if Vesper can collect enough bacteria to power their generator and process them into food. He's also connected to a drone that allows him to speak and to see anywhere the drone flies so he can accompany Vesper on her foraging expeditions into the surrounding forest.

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The drone is decorated with a crude hand-painted face like Wilson the volleyball in Cast Away , providing a tiny bit of levity in an otherwise somber coming-of-age story. Vesper's mother has left to follow the silent wandering scavengers known as the pilgrims, whose behavior may be the result of an unknown virus. Darius' brother Jonas (Eddie Marsan) runs a nearby farm with a workforce of conscripted children, and he makes vague -- and then overt -- threats to Vesper about her future prospects. She dreams instead of making her way to the nearest citadel, where she believes that her skills as a self-taught geneticist will earn her a place among the elite.

Vesper seems to find a path to the citadel when she rescues a slightly older girl she finds injured in the forest. Camellia (Rosy McEwen) has come from the citadel with her father, but their glider crashed in the forest, leaving them stranded and separated. Vesper is convinced that if she helps Camellia, she'll be able to prove herself to the citadel scientists, but Camellia is carrying her own secrets. And Jonas is constantly watching them, looking for an angle he can exploit. Vesper has had to mature early to care for her father, but she's also still a wide-eyed child, hopeful and perhaps a bit naive about the way this harsh world works.

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Chapman effectively conveys that mix of emotions, and she has a sisterly connection with McEwen as the more seasoned but still hopeful young woman. Marsan makes for a perfect villain, with an ingratiating manner that soon turns sinister, and the brief appearances of the citadel's forces are suitably creepy and menacing. Even though it's far away and glimpsed only briefly from a distance, the citadel maintains a constant presence in the story, looming over every decision the characters make.

At nearly two hours, Vesper is a bit slow for a movie with such a simple and sometimes obvious story, but Buozyte and Samper -- who co-directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Brian Clark -- immerse the audience in their fantastical world so completely that it's fascinating merely to spend time there. They depict an environment that is forbidding and otherworldly, using a mix of practical and CGI special effects. Every bit of the landscape has been transformed into something slightly off-kilter, and the beautifully horrific plants, fungi, and insects are terrifying and mesmerizing. Vesper creates bioluminescent plants that offer a glorious light show. Later, she and Camellia navigate a field of blood-red bushes that shoot bullet-like glowing bugs if they're disturbed. All of these elements fit together seamlessly in a setting that feels expansive and intricate.

Vesper is an original work, but its world-building could have come from a particularly dense open-world video game , and its story of a brave young adventurer facing danger could have come from a YA genre novel. Vesper is ideal for fans of either of those mediums or for anyone looking for thoughtful sci-fi that isn't a recycled version of an existing property. Vesper barely ventures beyond her small corner of the world by the time the movie is over, but there's plenty of it that's still worth exploring.

Vesper opens Friday, Sept. 30 in select theaters and on VOD.

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‘Vesper’ Film Review: Quietly Dazzling Sci-Fi Drama Creates a New Kind of Genre

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IFC will release “Vesper” in the United States on Sept. 30.

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Vesper review: an imaginative sci-fi adventure

Vesper does a lot with a little. Despite being made on an obviously lower budget than most other modern sci-fi movies , the new film from directors Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper takes place in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world that feels more well-realized, vivid, and imaginative than any of Hollywood’s current cinematic universes do. While its premise doesn’t do much to sell Vesper as a unique entry into the dystopian sci-fi genre, either, it doesn’t take long for its fictional alternate reality to emerge as a striking new vision of the future.

The film’s opening shot throws viewers headfirst into a swampy, gray world that seems, at first, to be perpetually covered in fog. It’s an image that makes Vesper ’s connections to other industrialized sci-fi films like Stalker undeniably, palpably clear. However, once Vesper escapes the foggy wasteland of its opening scene, it begins to flesh out its futuristic reality with rich shades of greens and colorful plants that breathe and reach out toward any living thing that comes close to them. While watching the film does, therefore, often feel like you’re being led on a tour through an industrial hellscape, it also feels, at times, like a trip down the rabbit hole and straight into Wonderland.

Much like the land that Alice famously fell into, Vesper ‘s dystopian future contains wonders both terrifying and comforting. Set during a period that is only referred to by the film’s opening crawl as the “New Dark Ages,” Vesper takes place in a reality where the Earth was long ago transformed by various biological and genetic experiments gone awry. These experiments, we’re told, were conducted in the hopes of preventing the planet’s ecological collapse. Instead, they merely accelerated it, sending the world and all of its inhabitants tumbling into a reality where trees expand and shrink with every breath they take, plants move, and synthetic, multi-colored slugs lurk beneath the Earth’s permanently swampy floor.

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In the aftermath of the world’s off-screen collapse, humanity was essentially divided into two groups: the privileged elites who get to live within tall, encased structures known as “Citadels” and those who have to make ends meet in the wilds of the film’s dilapidated Earth. Vesper (Raffiella Chapman), the film’s eponymous lead, is a member of the latter group. Fortunately, Chapman’s Vesper has become quite adept at surviving in even the harshest of environments by the time that Buozyte and Samper’s film catches up with her. Vesper ‘s opening sequence even sees its young heroine overcome several obstacles in order to save the life of her paralyzed father, Darius (Richard Brake), who uses a telepathic link to communicate with her via a flying drone that accompanies his daughter everywhere she goes.

Vesper and Darius’ lives are thrown into complete disarray, though, when the former unexpectedly stumbles upon an unconscious woman named Camellia (Rosy McEwen) in the woods. Vesper takes in Camelia, a stranger from one of the nearby Citadels, in the hopes that she might be able to help Vesper finally escape the creaky old house that she and her father have lived in for too long. What Vesper doesn’t realize, however, is that Camelia is secretly involved in a conspiracy that not only puts some very dangerous targets on their backs but also catches the attention of Vesper’s abusive, controlling uncle, Jonas (Eddie Marsan).

Vesper , notably, takes its time getting into the conflict that led to Camelia’s chance encounter with Chapman’s resourceful young survivor. The film’s script, which Buozyte and Samper wrote with Brian Clark, largely prioritizes atmosphere and world-building over plot progression. That means the first 30 minutes of Vesper are more concerned with setting up the film’s futuristic world, as well as its young heroine’s place in it, than they are with generating conflict. For some viewers, this may result in Vesper moving too slowly than they would have liked.

That said, it’s easy to see why the film’s creative team was more interested in Vesper ‘s intricate sci-fi world than in its straightforward and predictable story. Not only are many of the film’s plot twists fairly obvious and easy to predict, but Vesper ’s limited production budget also prevents it from making its third act as action-packed as its story demands. As a result, while there’s never a moment when Vesper truly loses hold of its viewers, the film’s measured pace and ultimately subversive finale do make the smallness of its scope unavoidably clear.

Within the film itself, both Eddie Marsan and Richard Brake help bring a sense of on-screen authority to Vesper . Marsan, in particular, is exceptionally well-cast as Jonas, a man who takes immense pride in the crude ways he’s managed to carve out a space for himself in Vesper ’s dystopian world. Opposite him, Raffiella Chapman turns in a youthful but quietly assured performance as Vesper, one that manages to highlight her character’s innate, childlike innocence without ever short-changing her abilities or intellect.

Additionally, while Vesper ’s smaller production budget does frequently prevent Buozyte and Samper from exploring the film’s story as deeply as they probably would have liked, the directors do still manage to fill it with consistently memorable images. One brilliantly inventive scene even follows Vesper and Camelia as they climb onto different chairs and tables in order to avoid touching a biological weapon that takes the form of a yellow mold that rapidly spreads and covers everything it comes into contact with.

The sequence in question calls to mind similar moments in movies like Minority Report and Annihilation , and the fact that Vesper is even able to seem reminiscent of those films is a further testament to its ability to transcend its own financial constraints. For a film that ultimately isn’t able to take its own plot as far as it probably should have, Vesper still manages to tell a visually striking and imaginative story, which is more than can be said for many of Hollywood’s recent sci-fi blockbusters.

Vesper is now playing in theaters and on VOD.

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What the emotional ending of Vesper actually means

While not the tidiest resolution, the ending of Vesper includes a moving lesson about seeding hope for the future.

If you needed to improve your life, would you leave in search of a better one? Or would you try to make the life you already have better?

That dilemma drives Vesper , the beautiful biopunk film from writer-directors Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper.

Set in a distant and dark future after Earth’s ecosystems collapsed, a teenager named Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) cares for her ailing father when a strange encounter puts her on the path to finding a new and life-saving food resource.

While Vesper ’s worldbuilding is complicated — and often takes a backseat to the movie’s drama — it leads to an emotionally enriching ending. The message is that, despite overwhelming odds, we can still seed hope for a bountiful future that will benefit all humanity. Even when things are so bad they feel hopeless, Vesper says that all we need to do is look harder within.

Warning: Spoilers for Vesper ahead.

Raffiella Chapman stars in the tender sci-fi drama Vesper , about a post-apocalyptic Earth where seeds are the key to renewing humanity’s future.

In Vesper , one of the key problems facing Earth’s desolate ecology is failed genetic technology. Oligarchs hide behind cities called “Citadels” and sell seeds that are, according to the prologue, “coded to produce only one harvest.” People starve for long periods, and survive on a dwindling supply of food.

Vesper, a farmer and amateur hacker, conducts experiments that could reverse all of humanity’s woes. Early in the film, Vesper sneaks into her uncle Jonas’ (Eddie Marsan) farm, where she steals a stash of “germinating seeds.”

She then uses these seeds for an experiment involving samples from the synthetic Camellia (Rosy McEwen). While studying the samples, Camellia plays a tune from a musical instrument that causes the “locked” bacteria in the seeds to unlock. While the science is dubious and Vesper doesn’t do a phenomenal job of explaining all this, the point is that Vesper finds a way to “unlock” Citadel seeds. “I can make them fertile,” she says. “We’ll never starve again.”

This also explains why Camellia and her human maker, Elias (Edmund Dehn), were fleeing a Citadel where they were wanted, and attempting to reach another. Camellia held the key to altering seeds, and Elias hoped to trade this knowledge for safe passage into another Citadel.

At the end of the movie, both Vesper’s father and Camellia sacrifice themselves so Vesper can escape the pursuit of Citadel forces. Distraught, Vesper buries the altered seeds, believing there’s no use for them in a world without her loved ones. But when a small group of children find her, Vesper changes her mind. It’s still worth fighting for the future.

Together, Vesper and the children journey to a makeshift tower built by an outcast society of nomads. Vesper climbs the tower, symbolically demonstrating her ascension in this desolate world, and lets the seeds be scattered to the wind. Vesper has let go of the past, and planted the seeds that will save humanity.

Vesper explores a future where the ecosystem has been ravaged, leaving humanity to live off genetic seeds that produce limited harvests. Vesper, however, finds a way to “hack” the seeds.

Much of Vesper relies on arthouse stylings, using abstract symbolism and visual metaphors more than plain-eyed plot resolution. What allows the movie to succeed is a combination of Buožytė and Bruno Samper’s empathetic directing, Chapman’s engaging performance, a breathtaking final shot by cinematographer Feliksas Abrukauskas, and the stirring score of French composer Dan Levy.

These elements swirl together into a finale that isn’t all about cleaning up plot points, but imparting an important lesson: Our bleak present need not decide our future.

Vesper is out in theaters and VOD on September 30.

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A homemade look … Raffiella Chapman as Vesper in Vesper.

Vesper review – exceptional post-apocalyptic sci-fi with a YA edge

Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper’s distinctive-looking film has a compelling narrative as a teenager navigates a mycelium-and-mud world

I f you are going to see one post-apocalyptic, low-tech French-Lithuanian-Belgian film in English this year with Eddie Marsan as the heavy, make sure it’s this one. Co-written and directed by Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, whose previous collaboration, sci-fi feature Vanishing Waves , was well-received critically but little seen beyond the Baltics and the festival circuit, Vesper plays like a cult film waiting to be discovered. It adeptly fuses a compelling YA-friendly story about a teenage girl’s survival in a hostile environment with dense, thoughtful world-building, the sort required to draw in nerdy-minded viewers. That savvy combination creates a narrative that breathes and expands, like one of the freaky mycelium-like life forms that populate the story.

The title character, played with impressive poise by Raffiella Chapman, lives in a future world that’s been plunged into a new dark age after the spectacular failure of humanity’s attempts to avert environmental disaster with genetic technology. Vesper lives with her father Darius (Richard Brake) who’s paralysed and bedridden, but somehow has his mind and voice channelled into a floating drone with a smiley face painted on it, like Wilson in Cast Away. The dad-drone accompanies Vesper on her foraging trips in the surrounding forest, a ravaged landscape that’s mostly mud and the aforementioned fungal entities that engulf and consume anything dead or near enough to death that’s not moving.

It is in just such a state that Vesper finds Camellia (Rosy McEwen), the survivor of an aircraft crash from one of the nearby citadels, which themselves look like giant mushrooms. These are more sophisticated habitats that trade seeds with less fortunate folk, which includes people like Vesper, Darius, and Vesper’s uncle Jonas (Marsan, on great form) who lives on a nearby homestead with dozens of children whose blood Jonas harvests to trade for seeds.

That’s just for starters. There’s a lot going on, but Buožytė and Samper drop in the explicatory dialogue fairly deftly, and you can sort of fill in the rest for yourself. Like the landscapes in Alex Garland’s recent sci-fi feature Annihilation , or even the world on hallucinogens seen in Midsommar , flowers and bugs and what have you are always opening, closing and scuttling about around the edges of the frame. Apparently, the film was made with a minimum of digital effects and that gives the tech seen here an organic, homemade look that suits the story beautifully. The whole thing builds to a lovely, just-so ending that hopefully the film-makers will let stand on its own without a sequel because it’s so self-contained and neatly done.

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Vesper (2022): Movie Review & Ending Explained – Did Vesper’s father make it in the end?

The presentation of dystopian futures in cinema isn’t a new thing. We have seen it in different forms in different films. The Hunger Games series, The Handmaid’s Tale, Wall-E, Children of Men, and so many more. Some films mentioned speak about the bleak reality of life not being possible for various reasons. However, in Vesper, the continuation of life is possible, but it would be a really bold decision for anyone to desire to procreate. This film brings to our minds an alarming future – one where humans are around, but means for sustainability are scarce. It’s almost as if one is fighting a losing battle. Well, everyone except the titular character.

Vesper (2022) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

Per the words on the screen at the start, the story is of “The New Dark Ages” where the citadels rule in a monopolistic barter economy. This isn’t so bad on its own, but the setting of the film and the introductory scene drives home the harsh reality. The people have been left “nothing.”

The set designers present this picture quite well, or it could have even been the location scouts if filmed on location. Nevertheless, the bleak surroundings one would expect from the synopsis are visible courtesy of the barren wetland with weeds and muck; the forest also doesn’t seem to have food. Scavenging is a word that came to mind as I watched an unnamed unidentified figure hunt for something. This figure was important – a fact I realized right from the start as the dull-hued surroundings illuminated with every step she took. Potential signs of life with the tree of souls-esque glow? Based on what she collected, it was scarce; she stored them safely.

In Vesper, food and energy supplies are scant to the point where human commodities are traded for seeds. Synthetic biology is a concept that the director duo of Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper explore in this rather slow-paced film. While I felt that it was unrushed, Vesper wasn’t boring and didn’t drag in any way. Vesper (Raffiella Chapman), an adolescent girl who has “skills”, is guided by her father, who has transferred his consciousness to a probe that drifts along with her. However, she must make her own choices, as her consciousness is ever evolving.

Vesper (2022) Movie Review:

As time passes, the writers peel the layers away and permit the audience to comprehend the motivations of Vesper and Camellia (Rosy McEwen). It makes their actions and situation seem relatable, or, if not relatable, cinephiles can understand the catalyst. These help the ones behind the fourth wall get an idea of why a child like Vesper must behave like an adult.

Chapman, the heart and soul of this film, did not seem out of place in either role. From the moment where this warrior agrees to trade her blood, to the scene where she howls like a wolf; the child star shows that despite being tasked with playing a child with maturity beyond her years, she retains elements of immaturity that serve as a release. How long can someone stay strong?

Vesper presents a tale of exploitation and the urge to do the right thing. It may have been the concept employed by The Citadel before capitalism took over, but the rebels had this thought.

In this sci-fi offering, one also realizes that even when everything is rosy to some, troubles exist. For it is only the ones who go through said troubles that know what it is exactly. The only thing that can be compared is the magnitude of such issues, but even then, there is always something in someone else’s life that seems fabulous. This film provides a take on the perceived ‘haves’ having everything, resulting in the ‘have-nots’ envying them; it turns this narrative around to show that control exhibited is everywhere, with freedom being a desire for all.

On the whole, Vesper presents a glimpse (a warning) into a damning, imminent, but seemingly avoidable future. One can look at it as a premonition and work to avoid it. Audiences with other schools of thought may glean something from the protagonist’s grit and resilience to battle through personal troubles.

Visuals and action tell the story with dialogues not dominating the offering. It is apt for a sci-fi dystopian offering and will appeal to such fans, but audiences expecting grandeur may remain disappointed. Some may remain upset at the sparse science stuff in this sci-fi. However, Vesper is as grounded as it can get with a slow yet steady and rewarding build-up in the one thing they decided to expand upon. Lack of focus in other aspects that got left midway helped enhance the film’s singular goal, with all other elements merely being devices to support the primary story.

Vesper (2022) Movie Ending, Explained:

The end of this film sees Camellia subdue Vesper and accept her fate. One Citadel member seemed to accompany her away. Once Vesper awoke at daybreak, she planted seeds in the manner her diagram showed her. Four more children joined her and they trekked past the alien-like structures. After over a day, they reached an outpost where black-clad figures stood and let them past. Vesper walked straight on and ascended the wooden structure that went way above the trees. With a crescendo of uplifting music, Chapman’s character makes it to the top, scans the surroundings, and lets the seeds fly.

It meant she was successful in her aim of finding hope in a place where all hope seemed to be lost. In the process, Vesper lost everyone she cared for.

Vesper used her bio hacking abilities and cracked the code of the seeds

Vesper aimed to decode the seeds and used Camellia playing a particular note to do so. Once she realized what worked, the protagonist got the final key to her experiments. This could have been her ticket to freedom, but she wanted to serve the ‘have-nots’. Camellia opted to turn herself in, but Vesper’s father urged her not to. The protagonist also wasn’t in favor of this, as she implored her companion to be by her side as they attempted to flee the citadel’s pursuers.

Her bio-hacking came to good use as it aided the duo in fending off The Citadel’s people. The one piece of sci-fi action that fans were craving came at this part of the film.

The Citadel treated everyone as collateral

Vesper’s uncle went to the limit of attempting to kill his brother, his niece, and Camellia. Whilst he tried to end Vesper’s bedridden father, Camellia stepped in. He overpowered her but faced opposition from a dagger-wielding Vesper. The antagonist was too strong individually, but a collective effort saw a blade driven through his fist. He let slip the secret of what was happening to The Citadel, but they shot him upon arrival at the house.

Did Vesper’s father make it?

Vesper and Camellia were trapped by a fluid but evaded getting frozen by it. Once two individuals from The Citadel arrived, they went through the house and found a bedridden man. He engineered a blast to eliminate some pursuers, but the manner of the explosion resulted in his own demise. There was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Hence, Vesper’s father did not make it out of his house after the blast.

All things considered, Vesper’s victory came at a cost. The ending implied that sacrifices are crucial for the greater goal.

Vesper (2022) Movie Links – IMDb , Rotten Tomatoes Vesper (2022) Movie Cast – Raffiella Chapman, Eddie Marsan, Rosy McEwen, Richard Brake

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Well, it would be stating the obvious if someone proclaimed their love for films here. Why else would they be here? What would be useful, is knowing that I adore Hitchcock, Tarantino, and Nolan. I'm not averse to any type of film though as each cinematic work of art assists me in growing as a person and a cinema lover and a writer.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Vesper’ on Hulu Is A Bleak But Hopeful Take On The Dystopian Future

Where to stream:.

Vesper (2022)
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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Boys in the Boat’ on Prime Video, a Snoozer of a Sports Saga Directed by George Clooney

Stream it or skip it: ‘butterfly in the sky: the story of ‘reading rainbow’ on netflix, a loving tribute to the pbs show, stream it or skip it: ‘rachel feinstein: big guy’ on netflix, joking about the pleasures and plight of being a firefighter’s wife, stream it or skip it: ‘gaga chromatica ball’ on max, a concert film packed with lady gaga bangers (and a tree piano).

The dystopian indie movie Vesper is making its way to Hulu this week, which means it will hopefully gain a wider audience than it did during its short-lived theatrical release in 2022. The film is as much a story about coming of age as it is about the struggle to survive against all odds. Faced with starvation and desperation, 13-year-old Vesper, played by British actress Raffiella Chapman, struggles to find new ways to keep herself and her father alive, and to keep her own hope alive, too.

VESPER : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A title card explains that the world has been thrust into “the new dark ages” as a result of humanity’s attempts to prevent an ecological crisis with genetic modification. The result was a mass extinction of most plants, animals and humans, and now humans must rely on seeds provided to them for survival.

The Gist: Vesper is set in a dystopian time, an era of scarcity and bleakness set off by genetic engineering gone awry. Most people live in poverty, only subsisting on seeds provided by the powers that be located in wealthy cities called citadels, and these seeds have been engineered to produce only one harvest. Vesper (Chapman) is a 13-year-old girl who is a skilled bio-hacker who experiments on seeds and plants and hides her experiments from the world as she tries to perfect them. Abandoned by her mother who has joined a mysterious group called the Pilgrims who scavenge for she lives with her dying father, Darius (Richard Brake) who she keeps alive with a concoction of bacteria that she’s hooked up to a series of devices, and if she runs out of this bacteria he’ll die. (In this world, blood is harvested as currency, and Vesper’s experiments can sometimes veer into body horror, even though they’re not out to shock. At least not that much.)

In his human form, Darius is paralyzed, but his consciousness is attached to a floating drone that follows Vesper and he can speak to her through it.

Vesper lives near her cruel uncle, Darius’s brother Jonas (Eddie Marsan), a man who runs something of a culty commune where he breeds children for their blood, and creates “jugs” which are android-like beings made to look human and perform like servants. He’s the top dog in town, and is the only one with communication to the citadels, or with access to the seeds needed to survive.

Vesper encounters a young woman named Camellia (Rosy McEwen), a wealthy resident of a citadel, whose airship has crashed. Camellia’s father, Elias, was the other passenger aboard and Camellia promises to bring Vesper to the citadel if she can help locate her father, but when Vesper finally locates the man and his ship, Jonas gets to him first and kills him, partially to scavenge the parts off his ship and partially on principle: eat the rich and all that. Vesper realizes that Camellia isn’t safe as long as Jonas knows she’s somewhere nearby.

Vesper hides Camellia in her home, and as they spend time together they become friends, but soon Vesper learns Camellia is actually a jug, albeit an intelligent, sentient one – a Cylon , basically – who was created by her “father” Elias. This type of jug is illegal, and Camellia and her father, it turns out, were absconding from their citadel in search of a safer place, and she’s on the run. But Vesper learns Camellia holds the secret to unlocking a genetic code within the seeds that make them more fruitful than before. With these newly modified seeds, Vesper now holds the power to feed her family and then some, but in the process, she still has to find a way to escape Jonas, protect Camellia, and come to terms with the fact that if she leaves her family home, she must also leave her father behind.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Me: “This movie was like if Guillermo del Toro made The Hunger Games .” My husband: “It was like a PG-13 body horror Cronenberg meets the visual style of Jean-Pierre Jeunet .”

Our Take: As dystopian futures go, Vesper has notes of The Hunger Games (the citadels, though we never really see inside them, seem very reminiscent of Panem’s Capitol, but it’s implied that only the wealthiest people can enjoy life inside them while the rest of the world starves), but rather than focusing on a gruesome fight to the death, Vesper , though dark at times, has an overall hopeful note to it. As Vesper, Raffiella Chapman is loyal and kind and smart, all the things you want your protagonist to be, but she’s young, and even though the world around her is hard (her uncle wants her to become one of the “breeders” in his cult, her mother left her, her father is dying), she refuses to stop experimenting, searching, hoping for a better way.

After she meets Camellia, the two bond and though Vesper is programmed to view jugs as unnatural, she doesn’t let her prejudices linger and instead she realizes that, ironically, the non-human Camellia offers her the one thing she lacks in her life, a touch of humanity, a friend she can truly love and rely on. While Vesper at first seems like it might be a statement about humankind’s carelessness with the environment, it’s less about that and more about the essentials we truly need for survival. Seeds, like people, need to be nurtured in order to thrive.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Vesper, having abandoned her home with nothing but the seeds she has re-engineered, arrives at the site where the Pilgrims (her mother possibly among them) have decamped. Everything they scavenge, it turns out, has been used to create a massive tower, taller than even the highest trees in the forest. Vesper climbs the tower: to one side, she sees the gleaming citadel. To the other, open fields. She pulls her seeds from her pocket and releases them onto the wind.

Sleeper Star: Eddie Marsan has always been a successful “that guy” character actor, making memorable supporting appearances in films like The World’s End , V For Vendetta , and Gangs of New York , but he is truly menacing and memorable as Jonas, Vesper’s cruel and vicious uncle.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Vermin have brains too,” Darius tells Camellia when she seems impressed by all the synthetic biological inventions Vesper has made.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Sure, Vesper is another movie depicting a bleak hellscape of a not-so-distant future, but the film contains some great performances, an original story, and shimmering visuals (including some gross-out moments) keep things interesting all the way through.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction .

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'Atlas' review: Jennifer Lopez befriends an AI in her scrappy new Netflix space movie

Just when you think you’ve seen everything, here comes a movie where Jennifer Lopez tries to out-sass a computer program.

Jenny from the Block is in her Iron Man era with “Atlas” (★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; streaming now on Netflix ), a sci-fi action thriller directed by Brad Peyton ( “San Andreas” ) that pairs two hot commodities: a pop-culture superstar and artificial intelligence.

The movie shares aspects with a bevy of films like “Blade Runner,” “The Terminator,” "The Iron Giant" and “Pacific Rim,” and it’s best to not think too hard about the science involved. Yet there’s a scrappiness to “Atlas” that pairs well with a human/machine bonding narrative and a fish-out-of-water Lopez trying to figure out how to work a super cool, high-tech armored suit and not die spectacularly.

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But “Atlas” doesn’t have the best start, beginning with the mother of exposition dumps: In the future, AI has evolved to a dangerous degree and a robotic terrorist named Harlan (a charmless Simu Liu) has turned genocidal, wanting to wipe out most of mankind. He’s defeated and retreats into space, vowing to return, and in the ensuing 28 years, counterterrorism analyst Atlas Shepherd – whose mother invented Harlan and made him part of their family before he went bad – has been trying to find him.

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She’s distrustful of Al and also most humans: The antisocial Atlas’ only true love is coffee but she’s also crazy smart, and she figures out the galaxy where Harlan’s hiding. Atlas forces herself on a military space mission run by a no-nonsense colonel (Sterling K. Brown) to track down Harlan, but amid a sneak attack by cyborg bad guys, Atlas has to hop in a mech suit to survive. The caveat: to run the thing, she has to create a neural link with an onboard AI named Smith (voiced by Gregory James Cohan).

Streaming preview: 15 new movies you'll want to watch this summer, from 'Atlas' to 'Beverly Hills Cop 4'

Obviously, there’s a climactic throwdown with Harlan – you don’t need ChatGPT to figure out the predictable plot – and there are plenty of action scenes with spotty visual effects. But “Atlas” cooks most when it’s just Atlas and Smith, sniping and snarking at each other: He fixes her broken leg, her cursing expands his vocabulary, and slowly they figure out a way to coexist and become a formidable fighting unit.

Lopez does well with the buddy comedy vibe as well as her whole "Atlas" character arc. The fact that she starts as a misanthropic hot mess – even her hair is unruly, though still movie star-ready – makes her an appealing character, one you root for as she becomes besties with a computer and finds herself in mortal danger every five minutes.

While “Atlas” doesn’t top the J. Lo movie canon – that’s rarefied air for the likes of “Out of Sight” and “Hustlers” – it’s certainly more interesting than a lot of her rom-com output . Her action-oriented vehicles such as this and the assassin thriller “The Mother,” plus B-movie “Anaconda” and sci-fi film “The Cell” back in the day, show a willing gameness to venture outside her A-list box.

It also helps when she finds the right dance partner – in this case, a wily AI. And in “Atlas,” that unlikely friendship forgives the bigger glitches.

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Movie Review: Glen Powell gives big leading man energy in ‘Hit Man’

This image released by Netflix shows Adria Arjona, left, and Glen Powell in a scene from “Hit Man.” (Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Glen Powell in a scene from “Hit Man.” (Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Glen Powell, left, and Richard Robichaux in a scene from “Hit Man.” (Netflix via AP)

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For a guy like Glen Powell, the ascent to movie stardom isn’t really a question. It’s more like an inevitability.

Blessed with that square jawline, those bright green eyes, a flop of dirty blonde hair and the kind of symmetrical smile that would seem suspect if it weren’t so darn charming, he’s a Disney prince before they all became the bad guys. And he’s got the kind of effortless, high-wattage charisma that ensures a career beyond soaps and procedurals, the typical resting ground for the laughably handsome. Powell has something, you believe, going on behind the eyes.

This is all to say that suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite going into “Hit Man,” a decently entertaining action-comedy-romance about a fake hit man from filmmaker Richard Linklater, who co-wrote the script with Powell. It’s making a brief stop in theaters starting Friday before hitting Netflix on June 7.

Based on a “somewhat true story” though it may be, this is a film that asks its audience to buy into the idea that the characters in this film believe that Powell’s face is bland and forgettable. This has everything to do with his character, Gary Johnson, a philosophy professor in New Orleans who lives a quiet, solitary life in the suburbs tending to his two cats, birding, tinkering with electronics and helping the local police install surveillance equipment for sting operations. He drives a Honda Civic and wears ill-fitting polo shirts, knee-length jean shorts and socks with his semi-orthopedic sandals. And, of course, like many hot guys in disguise before him, he’s got a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. Why he dresses like your middle-aged uncle in 1992 is anyone’s guess. Were he in Bushwick, it might not even look odd. But this is a movie and we know that Gary is predestined for a glow-up.

Not that “Hit Man” allows itself to have any fun with the makeover aspect. No, once plain Gary is thrown into this amateur undercover work (by Retta and Sanjay Rao), we only get to see the final looks he wears to meet all the people looking to hire a hit man. He dips into the theatrical for these occasions, sporting wigs, makeup, accents and fake tattoos in his attempt to be what he thinks each specific person thinks a hit man should be, which is moderately amusing.

But besides a brief bit showing him watching a wig-and-makeup YouTube tutorial, his transformations are not exactly investigated. There’s no shopping montage, no Harvey Fierstein-type character helping him find his way around the college theater department’s costume room, and no apparent budgetary concerns or discussions, which seems odd for a guy who is only doing this undercover stuff for an extra paycheck. In a movie that perhaps had a better engine behind it, questions like these might evaporate with the laughter and enjoyment of a fairly silly premise. “Hit Man” does not quite have that, though. Again, that suspension of disbelief is necessary.

Things do pick up with the introduction of The Girl, Madison (Adria Arjona, terrific despite being awfully underdeveloped), an unhappy wife looking to get rid of her cruel husband. Gary meets her as “Ron,” who acts and dresses like the leading man of an action movie, or a cocky off-duty movie star, with well-fitting jeans and tight henleys and cool-guy jackets showing off his inexplicably ripped physique.

This image released by Sony Pictures shows characters Odie, voiced by Harvey Guillén, from left, Vic, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, and Garfield, voiced by Chris Pratt, in a scene from the animated film "The Garfield Movie." (Columbia Pictures/Sony via AP)

And he treats Madison differently than the many other characters he’s helped put behind bars whose stupidity, trashiness and ugliness are all played for madcap comedic effect. She, he decides, doesn’t really want this — a grace he extends to no one else. He talks her out of hiring him to kill the bad husband, whom she promptly leaves without incident before moving into a nice house and beginning a steamy romance with Ron.

Again, questions arise about how this woman whose husband didn’t allow her to work and who was so scared of him that she was ready to hire a hit man has managed to escape so smoothly. But, you know, good for her and good for us because the chemistry between her and Powell is electric and ravenous, up there with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in “Out of Sight.”

But the honeymoon only lasts so long and things soon get tricky as Ron starts to become Gary’s dominant character. This all builds to a fairly exciting third act with the introduction of an actual murder and the possibility of being exposed by an increasingly suspicious and crooked cop (played with slimy perfection by Austin Amelio). And you can’t help shake the feeling that it needed something else: a bigger twist, a stickier conflict, some heightened stakes.

“Hit Man” was a movie that got some breathless praise out of the fall film festivals, which might be to its detriment. It’s perfectly enjoyable: a glossy, easy-to-digest Powell showcase that isn’t trying to be anything but fun. But the second coming of the action-comedy-romance, it is not.

“Hit Man,” a Netflix release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “language throughout, sexual content and some violence.” Running time: 115 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

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Jennifer lopez’s ‘atlas’ defies bad reviews to debut big on netflix movie chart.

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Jennifer Lopez in "Atlas."

Lousy reviews didn’t stop viewers from streaming Jennifer Lopez’s new Netflix original movie Atlas in its debut over the weekend.

Directed by Brad Peyton ( Rampage , San Andreas ), Atlas is a futuristic tale about Atlas Shepherd (Lopez), a tech analyst who has led a guilt-ridden life after the death of her scientist mother when she was a child. Atlas’ mom invented an AI robot named Harlan (Simi Liu), who becomes self-aware and leads an AI revolt that leaves millions of people dead across the planet.

Escaping to another planet after the carnage, Harlan resurfaces 28 years later with a plan to annihilate Earth once and for all—so Atlas joins the mission to destroy the AI before it's too late.

According to the Netflix Global Top 10 Movies chart , Atlas had 28.2 million views from May 20-26, which equates to 56.3 million viewing hours in its first three days of release—enough for the film to top the streaming platform’s global list. Atlas was also No. 1 on the U.S. Top 10 Movies chart and finished in the Top 10 in 93 countries that have Netflix overall.

The strong debut of Atlas should take away the sting of the blistering reviews by Rotten Tomatoes critics, who to date have collectively given the film a 17% “rotten” rating based on 71 reviews. Netflix viewers remained neutral in their collective assessment of the film, bestowing a 51% Audience Score based on 500-plus verified user ratings.

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Atlas also stars Sterling K. Brown, Mark Strong and Lana Parilla.

Atlas replaces the Netflix original rom-com Mother of the Bride as the top title on the Netflix global movies chart, a ranking the film held onto for two consecutive weeks. Starring Brooke Shields and Benjamin Bratt, the Netflix original movie dropped to No. 4 on this week’s global chart with 9.3 million views, which translates to 14 million viewing hours.

Animated Family Movie Moves Up The Netflix Global Chart

Finishing at No. 2 on the Netflix Global Top 10 Movies chart is the animated musical comedy Thelma the Unicorn (10.7 million views/17.4 million viewing hours) after debuting at No. 4 last week.

The 2009 animated comedy Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs came in at No. 3 (9.5 million views/15.1 viewing hours) in its global chart debut, while the 2007 Shia LaBeouf crime thriller Disturbia finished at No 5. behind Mother of the Bride.

Disturbia had 8.1 million views, which equates to 14.1 million viewing hours.

Unlike previous weeks in May when Netflix released such high-profile films as Unfrosted , Mother of the Bride and Atlas , there are no big movie productions on this week’s list of films debuting on the streaming service.

Next week, however, will see another big release with the action crime comedy Hit Man , starring Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone but You star Glen Powell opposite Andor star Adria Arjona.

Hit Man is directed by Powell’s Everybody Wants Some!! director Richard Linklater, which is co-written by Powell and Linklater.

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‘Sight’ Review: An Eye Doctor’s (Inner) Journey From China

Based on the real life of the pioneering ophthalmologist Ming Wang, this movie follows the character’s struggle to see inside himself.

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Two men in white lab coats stand, each holding images of eyes on a poster of sorts, in a scene from "Sight."

By Glenn Kenny

Ming Wang, the real-life physician whose biography is the basis for this fictional feature, is a Nashville-based ophthalmologist whose degree in laser physics has presumably been a boon in his work restoring sight to visually impaired patients, many of whom are children.

As is the custom with inspirational medical movies, however, the new film “Sight,” directed by Andrew Hyatt, leans hard into uplift — it provides only the narrative-necessary minimum of the science. Wang’s achievement in developing innovative technology is central to one of the stories here, yes. But the dominating narrative is one of personal growth.

Weaving several decades’ worth of flashbacks into its action, otherwise set in 2006, the movie shows Wang’s traumatic childhood in Hangzhou, China, where he and his friend Lili are terrorized by the Cultural Revolution’s Red Guard. He wants to be a doctor like his father, who tells him his best “chance” in life is to “become a musician.” You don’t hear that too often.

Brilliant at school, Wang is able to make his way to M.I.T., but even in the elite educational environments he passes through, he’s discouraged from pursuing his dreams of becoming a physician. These trials leave Wang with a defensive ego and a tendency to shut out others emotionally. He’s forced to deal with failure and to learn to trust.

All of this is laid out in competent commonplace fashion, with the principal actors Terry Chen, Greg Kinnear and the always welcome Fionnula Flanagan displaying the expected professionalism.

Wang has written a memoir in which he discusses his Christian faith in some detail. The film proper does not. But the faith-friendly distributor, Angel Films, has appended to the feature a “Pay It Forward” coda (similar to that on their 2023 release “Sound of Freedom”) in which the real Wang testifies to his spirituality.

Sight Rated PG-13 for thematic material, mild violence. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters.

An earlier version of this review described incorrectly Hangzhou, where a character grew up. It is a city in China, not a province.

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Tv review: 'lillian hall' confirms that jessica lange is the greatest minnesota actor of all time.

Jessica Lange has won two Oscars, two Emmys and been nominated this year for her second Tony. But she remains underappreciated. At the very least, she deserves one of those Kennedy Center Honors. At most, her hometown of Cloquet, Minn., should erect a statue of her in the parking lot of its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed gas station.

Her talent is on full display in "The Great Lillian Hall," a three-hankie drama debuting 7 p.m. Friday on HBO. The fictional Hall is Broadway's leading lady whose time at the top is threatened by the onset of dementia. The fact that she's having problems memorizing her lines for a production of "The Cherry Orchard" is only part of her challenge. She realizes all too late in life that her commitment to the theater has come at the cost of relationships with her family and loved ones. The cast includes Kathy Bates, Pierce Brosnan and Lily Rabe.

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COMMENTS

Vesper movie review & film summary (2022)
Vesper is a survivor and her actions and relationships reflect her emotional fragility, pragmatic cynicism, and abiding naiveté. Any given conversation has the potential to erupt in violence. That makes a lot of sense in a world where the remaining humans are surrounded by poisonous or parasitic wildlife. Everyone uses everything, which puts ...
Vesper (2022)
91% Tomatometer 67 Reviews 59% Audience Score 250+ Ratings After the collapse of Earth's ecosystem, Vesper, a 13-year-old girl struggling to survive with her Father, must use her wits, strength ...
Vesper review: A gorgeous sci-fi thriller with an apocalyptic heart
But in their first movie release since 2012's well-received sci-fi import Vanishing Waves, Buozyte and Samper do an impressive job of creating a plausible, tangible world around these quiet ...
'Vesper' Review: Seeds of Hope
Sept. 29, 2022. Vesper. Directed by Kristina Buozyte, Bruno Samper. Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi. 1h 54m. Find Tickets. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site ...
Vesper
With its visual potency, commitment to pure sci-fi, and emotional warmth, Vesper is a film worth considering. [Full review in Spanish] Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 7, 2023. Directors ...
Vesper (2022)
Vesper: Directed by Kristina Buozyte, Bruno Samper. With Raffiella Chapman, Eddie Marsan, Rosy McEwen, Richard Brake. Struggling to survive with her father after the collapse of Earth's ecosystem, 13-year-old Vesper must use her wits, strength and bio-hacking abilities to fight for the future.
'Vesper' Review: A Resourceful, Richly Built European Sci-Fi ...
'Vesper' Review: Resourceful European Sci-Fi Offers Glimmers of Beauty at the End of the World Reviewed at Soho Screening Rooms, London, June 28, 2022. (In Karlovy Vary Film Festival ...
In a bio-engineered dystopia, 'Vesper' finds seeds of hope
Review Movie Reviews. In a bio-engineered dystopia, 'Vesper' finds seeds of hope. September 30, 2022 5:00 AM ET. Heard on All Things Considered. Bob Mondello In a bio-engineered dystopia, 'Vesper ...
'Vesper' Review: A Feat of Low-Budget Sci-Fi World-Building
Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper's first movie since "Vanishing Waves" is a post-apocalyptic tale that proves how far imagination can go. Vesper Review: An Evocative Feat of Low-Budget Sci-Fi ...
'Vesper' Film Review: Quietly Dazzling Sci-Fi Drama Creates a New Kind
Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) is a 13-year-old who lives with her bedridden father just beyond the Citadel, cast in the shadow of this techno-feudal Promised Land without ever benefiting from the ...
Vesper
Vesper plays like a cult film waiting to be discovered. It adeptly fuses a compelling YA-friendly story about a teenage girl's survival in a hostile environment with dense, thoughtful world-building, the sort required to draw in nerdy-minded viewers. That savvy combination creates a narrative that breathes and expands, like one of the freaky ...
Vesper (film)
Vesper (released in France as Vesper Chronicles) is a 2022 science fiction film directed by Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, starring Raffiella Chapman, Eddie Marsan, Rosy McEwen and Richard Brake. Set in a bleak post-apocalyptic Earth, it follows a 14-year-old girl skilled in biohacking.It was selected to compete at the 2022 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Vesper Movie Review
The movie's plot is sophisticated and cerebral, and the script assumes that viewers are, too -- it doesn't dwell in explanations. The intense violence isn't gratuitous, but it is realistically blunt for the circumstances. For teens mature enough to embrace the storytelling, Vesper is a mind-blowing marvel, and the character herself is a ...
REVIEW: Vesper Creates a Fascinating, Immersive Sci-Fi World
Published Sep 29, 2022. Small-scale sci-fi drama Vesper is a marvel of world-building from the moment it begins, completely immersing the audience in its fantastical setting. It's not easy to create a convincing sci-fi world that exists just beyond the margins of a modestly budgeted movie, but that's exactly what filmmakers Kristina Buozyte and ...
'Vesper' Film Review: Quietly Dazzling Sci-Fi Drama Creates ...
Also Read: Karlovy Vary Film Festival Opens With Pop and Politics. Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) is a 13-year-old who lives with her bedridden father just beyond the Citadel, cast in the shadow of ...
Vesper review: an imaginative sci-fi adventure
By Alex Welch October 2, 2022. Vesper does a lot with a little. Despite being made on an obviously lower budget than most other modern sci-fi movies, the new film from directors Kristina Buozyte ...
'Vesper' ending explained: What the modified seeds actually mean
Much of Vesper relies on arthouse stylings, using abstract symbolism and visual metaphors more than plain-eyed plot resolution. What allows the movie to succeed is a combination of Buožytė and ...
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Vesper (2022): Movie Review & Ending Explained
Vesper (2022) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis: Per the words on the screen at the start, the story is of "The New Dark Ages" where the citadels rule in a monopolistic barter economy. This isn't so bad on its own, but the setting of the film and the introductory scene drives home the harsh reality. The people have been left "nothing.".
'Vesper' Hulu Movie Review: Stream It Or Skip It?
The dystopian indie movie Vesper is making its way to Hulu this week, which means it will hopefully gain a wider audience than it did during its short-lived theatrical release in 2022. The film is ...
Vesper (2022)
8/10. Miyazaki. yusufpiskin 15 October 2022. A very watchable dystopian movie from Bruno Samper and Kristina Buozyte. The most interesting aspect of the film is that either the two directors who also wrote the script of the film or the production designer Henrijs Deicmanis and Raimondas Dicius were heavily influenced by Miyazaki.
Everything You Need to Know About Vesper Movie (2022)
Across the Web. Vesper on DVD January 10, 2023 starring Raffiella Chapman, Rosy McEwen, Eddie Marsan, Richard Brake. After the collapse of Earth's ecosystem, Vesper, a 13-year-old girl struggling to survive with her Father, must use her wits, strength and b.
Vesper
Watch the trailer, find screenings & book tickets for Vesper on the official site. In theaters September 30 2022 brought to you by IFC Films. Directed by: Kristina Buozyte, Bruno Samper. Starring: Raffiella Chapman Eddie Marsan, Rosy McEwen, Richard Brake, Melanie Gaydos
5.26.24 Vespers, Sunday Evening Prayer
IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers.
'Atlas' movie review: J.Lo battles space robots in new Netflix film
Just when you think you've seen everything, here comes a movie where Jennifer Lopez tries to out-sass a computer program.. Jenny from the Block is in her Iron Man era with "Atlas" (★★½ ...
'The Garfield Movie' is more like a stale snack than a fancy feast
For anyone with an appetite for more than air conditioning and a PG rating, though, "The Garfield Movie" is more like a stale snack than a fancy feast. "The Garfield Movie" premieres May ...
Movie Review: Glen Powell gives big leading man energy in 'Hit Man'
For a guy like Glen Powell, the ascent to movie stardom isn't really a question. It's more like an inevitability. Blessed with that square jawline, those bright green eyes, a flop of dirty blonde hair and the kind of symmetrical smile that would seem suspect if it weren't so darn charming, he's a Disney prince before they all became the bad guys.
Jennifer Lopez's 'Atlas' Defies Bad Reviews To Debut Big ...
Animated Family Movie Moves Up The Netflix Global Chart. Finishing at No. 2 on the Netflix Global Top 10 Movies chart is the animated musical comedy Thelma the Unicorn (10.7 million views/17.4 ...
'Sight' Review: An Eye Doctor's (Inner) Journey From China
Weaving several decades' worth of flashbacks into its action, otherwise set in 2006, the movie shows Wang's traumatic childhood in Hangzhou, China, where he and his friend Lili are terrorized ...
TV review: 'Lillian Hall' confirms that Jessica Lange is the greatest
Jessica Lange has won two Oscars, two Emmys and been nominated this year for her second Tony. But she remains underappreciated. At the very least, she deserves one of those Kennedy Center Honors ...

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‘Vesper’ Review: Resourceful European Sci-Fi Offers Glimmers of Beauty at the End of the World

Reviewed at Soho Screening Rooms, London, June 28, 2022. (In Karlovy Vary Film Festival — Competition.) Running time: 113 MIN.

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Vesper review: an imaginative sci-fi adventure

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Vesper (2022): Movie Review & Ending Explained – Did Vesper’s father make it in the end?

Vesper (2022) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

Vesper (2022) Movie Review:

Vesper (2022) Movie Ending, Explained:

Vesper used her bio hacking abilities and cracked the code of the seeds

The Citadel treated everyone as collateral

Did Vesper’s father make it?

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Vesper (2022) Movie Links – IMDb , Rotten Tomatoes Vesper (2022) Movie Cast – Raffiella Chapman, Eddie Marsan, Rosy McEwen, Richard Brake

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