Social Media Phenomena, But Still a Quality Flick

Rating: 7/10 (18 January 2019)

Birdbox starring Sandra Bullock is a marvelous film, it has many elements of other horror and apocalyptic movies, although it has its own spin on it. The film starts out with Sandra Bullock stars as Mallorie Sharron, an artist and an expecting mother. She doesn't have a husband or father in the picture, her sister is her main company. Her sister worries she is too much of a homebody. While at the hospital for prenatal care they see on the news a sudden epidemic of suicides across Europe. When leaving the hospital they see a random person kill themselves. They barely make it out safely.
The film flashed between present day at the hospital and a safehouse and when sandra and two children are on a river. Throughout the film they figure out they must be blind folded or they "turn." Sandra gets to the safehouse and spends time with people they encounter many different obstacles such as getting food and such. The film was similar to A Quiet Place and has a similar theme or atmosphere throughout the screenplay. The circular plot of time going back and forward keeps the viewer engaged in finding how Malarie got from a normal under the radar life to being blindfolded with two children on a river in a row boat. The survival thriller is similar to World War Z in the beginning but evolves to be much deeper of a plot. There is this apparent force that you look at and become suicidal, there is a twist on it that makes the film turn into something greater. The film has this psycho horror aspect in some parts that have only a point of view perspective and the camera work is great.
The director, Susanne Bier, turned a suburb into a war zone and the style she did it in was brilliant. The overall theme of the movie is never clear until the ending scenes. The way she alternated times throughout the film to keep the mystery of it all real and intrinsic.
A example of a flagship scene would be when Mallory is with the two children and she is trying to get down these rapids but she cannot see since she has to remain blind folded, the children fall out and it shows of great camera work as you view what is happening with the blindfold underwater through the eyes of a five-year-old. Bullock preserves in order to end up at a safe place and the closing of the scene completes the film and closes the theme in a great way, the cinematography of the final shot are marvelous. The camera work as a whole is a substantial part of the strengths of Birdbox. There are weaknesses, the supporting actors are subpar to Sandra Bullock's acting. There are some scenes that make the reader cringe. They are very stereotypical. The film deliberately as characters of all different backgrounds and I think that is good and bad. It makes the viewer connect to some degree with a character weather they're a mother, teenager, father, etc.
The film was slightly controversial due to the fact that the movie depicts mental illness as a bad thing, it is woven throughout the plot. The critics didn't like how they glorified mental illness. To me this was one of the gaps in the plot of Birdbox.
Birdbox is a very controversial movie, it has also showed a change in society. This film has record setting streams. It shows that we are really moving away from traditional theaters and movies to Netflix, Hulu, etc. The movie has received lots of media attention. The camera work was exceptional, the script was well written. There still are flaws in supporting actors, as well as the poor representation of the mentally ill.