X
- 2020
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 37 m
- 2020
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 37 m
Summary Tom and Gemma (Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots) are looking for the perfect home. When a strange real-estate agent takes them to Yonder, a mysterious suburban neighborhood of identical houses, Tom and Gemma can’t leave quick enough. But when they try to exit the labyrinth-like housing development, each road takes them back to where they...
Written By: Lorcan Finnegan, Garret Shanley
- 2020
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 37 m
- 2020
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 37 m
Vivarium
64
5.3
Where to Watch
Summary Tom and Gemma (Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots) are looking for the perfect home. When a strange real-estate agent takes them to Yonder, a mysterious suburban neighborhood of identical houses, Tom and Gemma can’t leave quick enough. But when they try to exit the labyrinth-like housing development, each road takes them back to where they...
Written By: Lorcan Finnegan, Garret Shanley
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
64
61% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
35% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
64
61% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
35% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
While I already miss the experience of seeing these films in a theatre, Vivarium does evoke TV precedents, most notably Twilight Zone in the cleanness of its premise and the parsing out of dark details on a need-to-know basis.
Vivarium is a wonderfully strange and gripping thriller that examines the stresses of homeownership and starting a family, perhaps all-too-soon.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 99 User Ratings
5.3
37% Positive
37 Ratings
37 Ratings
37% Mixed
37 Ratings
37 Ratings
25% Negative
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 99 User Ratings
5.3
37% Positive
37 Ratings
37 Ratings
37% Mixed
37 Ratings
37 Ratings
25% Negative
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
A trip through the liminal.
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You’re reminded of the all-time “Twilight Zone” chillers that left you pondering and unsettled in your living room, questioning how well you knew the people sitting next to you. Given the current state of things, you’ll have to experience Vivarium in much the same way.
The movie sometimes overstates its ideas, but Poots keeps Vivarium from being just a coy, chilly intellectual exercise. She adds flesh and soul to what might be the film’s most disturbing notion: In some ways, we all become encased in the lives we have stumbled into.
If you can look past the gallingly obvious and derivative metaphor, Vivarium has its moments of effective "Twilight Zone" creepiness.
Finnegan offers a vision of domesticity as a soul-sucking grind, done for the benefit of malevolent overlords. His film chills the mind more than the spine.
Vivarium isn’t a fun watch, and not just because it’s generally claustrophobic and insistently bleak.
After a certain point, it is not hard to understand who is the boy. I was expecting an explanation yet after reading the interviews you realize the movie never meant to explain anything. It is just, confusing.
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This film has an artificial feel to it (the setting), which reminded me a little of The Truman Show, only the characters are nearly entirely alone - isolated in a very clinical feeling way. It has a spooky, unsettling feel to it. I felt there were some unanswered questions - where did they get there groceries from, if their truly trapped in the same street with only houses as far as the eye can see, for example?.
If your not ok with loud, long, prolonged shrieks then this film isn't for you. Also, it becomes distinctly more unsettling and surreal towards the end, with a lot of emphasis on light and colour - one plot element reminded me of 'Being John Malkovich'. It also made me think of 'The Stepford Wives'. By the very end, I felt it was a bit of a 'mind eff' type film. I'm not sure I'd say its particularly good but its certainly not a pointless film - its quirky and definitely not perfect - perhaps somewhat memorable, though not entirely in the best of ways maybe, I'm going for this rating as I thought the cast did well and the visual effects aren't bad. If your into claustrophobic, somewhat spooky mystery type films, then this is likely worth your time but it won't suit everyone.
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(Mauro Lanari)
On the end credits there is "Complicated Game" (XTC, 1979) in place of "Every Day Is Exactly The Same" (NIN, 2005). Although both songs are excellent, their cinematic rendering could not be more different: a loop of quiescent nihilism in the first case, a cry of desperate existentialism in the second.
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Production Company
Fantastic Films,
Frakas Productions,
Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland,
PingPongFilm,
Lovely Productions,
XYZ Films,
Madrona Drive,
Eurimages,
Det Danske Filminstitut,
Copenhagen Film Fund,
Wallimage,
Voo & Be tv,
Film4,
MEDIA Programme of the European Union
Release Date Mar 27, 2020
Duration 1 h 37 m
Rating R
Tagline You're Home. Forever
Website
https://vivarium.jp/
Awards
Irish Film and Television Awards
• 5 Nominations
Cannes Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations