Although gritty dramas about the hell of drug addiction are seldom in short supply in the low-budget independent sphere, it’s hard to imagine even the most uncompromising U.S. film committing quite as tenaciously to the idea of the bleak futility and probable failure of rehabilitation as Shih Han Liao’s compelling downer “The Paradise” (title ironic). Beginning where a more forcibly optimistic addiction drama might end — with a volatile young addict entering a recovery program — a lot of what makes “The Paradise” such an uncomfortable watch is its slow-motion explosion of the idea of rehab — as a cure-all happy ending, or even an unquestionable good in its own right.
Premiering appropriately in the Shanghai International Film Festival’s Asian New Talent Award section, the film does herald a bright, if on this uncheerful evidence, not necessarily sunny future for its director. Liao’s command of craft and the excellent,...
Premiering appropriately in the Shanghai International Film Festival’s Asian New Talent Award section, the film does herald a bright, if on this uncheerful evidence, not necessarily sunny future for its director. Liao’s command of craft and the excellent,...
- 6/17/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
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