Movie Review: Inside

Anchored by a strong lead performance from Willem Dafoe, director Vasilis Katsoupis’ Inside proves to be an engaging and engrossing thriller that will keep the viewer mesmerized until the bitter end.

The nuts and bolts of the plot of Inside are that art thief Nemo (Willem Dafoe) finds himself trapped and abandoned in a New York penthouse/smart house after his crew leaves him to fend for himself after their planned robbery goes sideways. Unfortunately for Nemo though, the tenants of the home are on an extended trip leaving no food or other supplies in the house and the computer controlling the house has malfunctioned forcing him to devise a way to escape his smart prison before succumbing to starvation and the inevitable hallucinations he will suffer.

While it is only his second film – his first being 2016’s My Friend Larry Gus – director Vasilis Katsoupis shows a flare with Inside for telling a story with minimal means to maximum effect. Shot with a very sterile look by cinematographer Steve Annis, the film gives the viewer the impression of being trapped alongside Nemo throughout. Lambis Haralambidis’ editing allows Nemo’s descent into darkness to feel organic and natural, instead of being a hastily constructed narrative loophole that the film needed to jump through to get to the conclusion, overcoming any shortcomings in the effectiveness of the script by Ben Hopkins.

But it is the wildly provocative performance of Dafoe that holds the entirety of the film together. There is something to be said for a performer that manages to make a criminal sympathetic and someone that the audience will eventually hope comes to no harm, and Dafoe manages to do just that. Conversely, the various illusionary scenes featuring the somewhat unlikeable homeowner (Gene Bervoets) make Nemo out to be a hero of sorts, simply robbing an unworthy man of art he has no business owning as he cannot possibly appreciate it as does Nemo.

Willem Dafoe in “Inside.” © 2022 Focus Features, LLC.

Throughout his involuntary incarceration, Nemo redecorates the penthouse with various original art installations he creates as he grows increasingly unhinged. This allows the frustrated artist within him to reveal himself and offer some explanation as to why he has chosen the vocation that has led him to his current predicament. It is Dafoe’s ability to convey most of his character’s emotions through facial expressions and a few simple, muttered words that allow the whole of the film to prove as effective as it ultimately does. He is the consummate actor for a role like this which he never plays too over-the-top. In fact, he is the grounding force of the entire film, allowing it to achieve greater depths with himself than it might have with another actor at the helm.

Even though Inside may have its flaws, Willem Dafoe’s enigmatic performance is more than enough to carry the film from beginning to end in an effectively entertaining manner.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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