As is typical of works within the genre, science fiction is often accompanied by a social critique. After all, what better way to dissect where we have come from than examining where we might potentially go to? Currently, at cinemas is the alpha prime of big swing social sci-fi: Planet of the Apes: Kingdom of the Over the span of ten films, they have wrestled the issues of slavery, evolution, nuclear war, workers’ rights, the CIA, and Fascism and empire in blunt, unapologetic and highly individual ways. It’s clear how they might have been so successful – after all, their productions are backed by massive budgets and cutting-edge technology. However, one should not be so hasty to assume that Soderberghian politics is only the reserve of bigger sci-fi apes franchises. Take Stefon Bristol’s Breathe, a tastefully done small-budget, post-apocalyptic action thriller but with a big heart about the continuing struggle of the Black American experience complete with a notable A-list cast. The script has been written by Doug Simon and has been on the blacklist in 2022, depicting the WW2’s unproduced scripts with the best potential which resulted in attracting a small cyclone of comparable fruitful talent towards it.
Such a movie would create controversy with a melange of a global-friendly idea and a keen awareness of the racial undertone of the USA especially with regards to his bright time-traveling Netflix Original, See You Yesterday which is why Bristol would bring an appealing fresh voice to the genre.
His destructive second part reveals that due to an unknown catastrophe, Earth is now devoid of oxygen and all forms of vegetation, making it impossible to survive without an oxygen tank. The picture begins with an African American family who lives in a sealed up bunker in Flatbush, New York a rather extreme example at that. Parents Darius (played by Common) and Maya (played by Jennifer Hudson) have been maintaining a rather delicate ecosystem situated beneath the surface, which has been made even more difficult with the teenage issues of their daughter Zora (played by Quvenzhane Wallis). However, when Darius disappears, two other strange survivors (Milla Jovovich and Sam Worthington) show up at the door and it is this torn-up family who has to pull themselves together in order to defend their home.
The childhood trauma faced by Trey Edward Schults’ It Comes at Night and Sam Esmail’s Leave the World Behind seems to resurface here since Breathe functions on the same premise of constant doubt and miscommunication. The American filmmaker also uses that blue-green and orange color scheme that Los Angeles does so well within the films. In some ways, it can be said that the modest amounts of funding allocated come from what is immediately available, making it beneficial to look at the films as a whole. However, there ou can’t see those impressive hard shells with integrated displays and the limitless oxygen’s rule or the imposing design interiors erected in the new RnD paradigm world; just normal people who had to put fragments together to eke out an existence in close enough future. The exteriors include trash abstract, rubbish objects, and urban designs that the naked eye sent you in a deep slumbering state, the magic of the 60s and 70s of cinematic masters.
When looking at the cast, Breathe looks impressively put together given that they seem to have poured most of their budget into hiring an Oscar-winning actress (Hudson), as well as an Oscar nominee (Wallis), Jovovich and Worthington two leaders of huge franchises, not to mention Common, who is an oft-overlooked action star. The real potential problem is whether there is enough on the page to make it worthwhile employing five actors of this level.
Sadly, the answer is no and we elaborate on that. Some moments of truly incongruous and muddled “humor” mar Hudson’s performance as well, which it can be inferred was dubbed over with around 2 often offensive PG-13 profanity (this writer would never utter the term “motherfricking”). She must try to convey a protective mother, which was as uninspired of a task as one could imagine. As expected, Jovovich has dealt with terrible scripts before and knows how to play a fierce badass, so it is surprising to see her struggle so clearly with such an undefined character which remains shifty throughout the film. Wallis thus grudgingly accepts the role of the narrative voice-over compilation, making it a disappointment for her to be involved in such a project after her elation at featuring in The Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Common is literally in the film for not even enough time to leave a single trace. Oddly enough, it is Sam Worthington who looks the most striking of all as a lumbering monster in a dirty 76ers jersey with a mess of unkempt hair, and the best part is, that he gets to be wacky and dangerous when necessary.
He plays such a compelling character that one wonders why he has chosen to pursue a career in anything other than James Cameron’s highly commercialized Avatar film series given how entertaining he can make animation such as this. Why not have Worthington appear in shoots like this once or twice in a year? I believe we would all have been better off.
Now we are left with the social commentary: does it cut? Once again, Bristol does not hide his sources of inspiration. He sets the tone right behind her picture with the slogan “WE CAN’T BREATHE”, where a mask-wearing young Black woman is painted on the wall. At that point, the title finds a new direction, connecting the highly imaginative concept to perhaps the worst event that has happened in the countries of the West in the past few years; the death of George Floyd. Bristol keeps adding touches like this here and there; Malcolm X’s biography is ceremonially passed around and mother and daughter holding each other in a climax shot are on double dolly absolutely how Spike Lee did it is all the movie hints at. The film does not encapsulate most of the instances of sociopolitical phenomena that were inscribed to the work of the cinema rather mediocre and disappointing plot exposed the limitations of the film, leaving any intelligent reflection on the subject disappointed. Bristol also saves his harder and more inspiring moments to tiny moments like the double dolly and otherwise shoots in this boring and locked-off coverage which the material does not need at all.
How ironic, however, that when there is not enough atmosphere in the film there is a lack of it, for all the characters including the director himself, is the director’s as well.
Save for some resourceful use of its budget on its effect and its cast, Breathe is an uneven affair that takes light stabs at genre thrills and moral quandaries. In better hands, it could have been an intense and scary meat grinder that also contained some very nasty things that were very disturbing and very true, but every single chance was given to flaunting themselves and gradually the ordinary smell of sci-fi which was half done at best began to spread into the airways of the audience. Bristol may be capable of uniting the current concepts with futuristic concepts; he just needs to stop and yes breathe in order to communicate the most artistic way of doing that.
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