Apostle (2018)

The discussion online concerning homage and rip-off poisons forums and Facebook comment threads alike. Was The Hunger Games really a ripoff of Battle Royale? An homage? Does it even matter? Various dystopian novels predicted that government-implemented hive-minds or emotional repression would be the downfall of society. I disagree. Read any Facebook comment thread under anything to do with film or art, and you’ll realize that dystopia is knocking on your front door .Too many people have a voice, and many of them are about as appetizing as the collective pool of fluid at the bottom of a garbage bag. Director Gareth Evans attempts to tackle a plethora of dark ideas, morality and repression in the Netflix original Apostle, and despite this, I think it will be overshadowed by many who are too busy comparing it to other properties (Wicker Man, Silent Hill, The Witch) than to see it for its own merit. Evans has already proved he had a knack for action set-pieces in his previous series of bone-crunching films ---The Raid series---and Apostle has the same craftsmanship, but it's harnessed in different, more experimental ways.

I won't divulge too much about the plot. I think the film is far more fun going in blindly---like most Netlix properties (TANGENT: Netflix often doesn't advertise many of its original properties, and they drop it often out of nowhere, and this inadvertently creates an excitement for movies similar to when I was still surprised by trailers before the age of the internet spoiled literally every detail of a film before you could see it. Remember when you used to see trailers or films and never even know they were going to be made. Netflix has blown new life into that feeling in the internet era, and that is quite a feat in its own right). But the basics are the following: Thomas Richardson (Dan Stevens) attempts to find a lost woman who has been kidnapped by a radical religious cult in 1905, and upon infiltrating the community he uncovers some bizarre happenings that defy explanation and real-world logic. The voyage scene to the island, in which this cult resides, opens like a Jack-in-the-Box of weirdness with a passive sacrifice of animals galore. But how long can this weirdness sustain itself, and does this cult have anything to say of value that makes this backward-thinking community? What is the appeal of such a place? When Thomas arrives to try and find out, many weird practices and suspicions swell like a boiling pot.

Many people I’ve talked to have cited that the first act of Apostle is a slog, which I couldn't disagree more with. To me, it is the most compelling portion, the cutting and direction in the film has an ample energy similar to The Raid films, and a pace that I found more thrilling than most films that take place in this historical period. I never really associated a film from 1905 to move like an action film---but this does. It has enough fresh and interesting surprises that it kept my interest to the end. I think the film would have worked better without such a clean and slick polish to it all, however. Adapting a more grainy, 60’s to 70’s sensibility would have bolstered the last act into something more exploitative and reminiscent of a grindhouse b-movie and better fit the tone. I was completely engaged more by the first two acts than the last act where a profound switch in tone takes place and becomes something entirely different. The last act is the weakest part for me---if I had one quibble---but it has enough interesting ideas and imagery, brutality, that it pulled me by my shirt collar .

An interesting experiment of a film that is entirely worth watching, destined for cult status, and being free to stream on Netflix isn't too bad either. (7.9/10)