Review by ehsancinematic

Wow, what a way to take an emotional and horrifying story and turn it into something that feels totally emotionless! I don't get it. Seriously, I'm baffled by so many writing and directing choices in this film. Why go for POV cinematography that doesn't even feel like a true point of view? Most shots could belong to anyone or anything, except when people are talking directly to the camera. The rest look like they're straight out of a documentary. What's with all the plot holes and vague storytelling? And that ending twist-what was the point? There's no real character development, no genuine exploration of the horrors at The Florida School for Boys, and no effective use of time passing in the story. The pacing is painfully slow, making this fascinating story feel unbearably boring. It just drags on endlessly. I can't tell you how many times I wished for it to just end. What's all the hype about the cinematography and it being the best movie of the year? Are we confusing the story behind the movie with what's actually being told?

There's nothing remarkable about this film. If I had to pick something, it would be the sound design-that's about it. Throughout the whole movie, I kept asking myself those same questions. What if this had been a regular, engaging, emotional, scary drama? Why waste two hours just to show me some news on a computer screen at the end? I don't get it. The only moments that grab your attention are those typical dialogues we see in every movie, except everyone is looking at the camera instead of each other. Even the friendships feel hollow and unconvincing, with multiple betrayals happening for some reason. Some plot points and character decisions just don't make sense.

This is basically an interesting short film dragged out over 140 minutes with hardly any plot development or action happening at all! Even if you call it a vibey movie, I couldn't even connect with that vibe! You might argue that the filmmaker is trying to tone down black trauma porn or that these are vague memories of events, but I'm not buying it. This is just bad filmmaking. Even though it tries to tell the story from a first-person perspective, all character development happens through exposition and computer screens-come on.

I'm really disappointed by this movie on so many levels, and I don't want to dive into themes and subtexts like I usually do because they're too obvious and cliché. The only difference here is that they're buried under all the gimmicks and creative nonsense. I can't recommend this movie at all; don't fall for the critics' unrealistic over-the-top praise about it. It's super overrated, and honestly, it's just bad filmmaking!