 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 2020 film mosquito state It is a shutter exclusive and it's coming to shutter on Thursday, August 26th And because of that, this is a no spoiler review as far as the thematic stuff and the subtext to the film I will be talking about that stuff so spoiler on that aspect of things But I'm not really going to talk about the actual events of the film other than a very quick very short synopsis of what the film is so Like I said Thursday August 26th is when it hit shutter now. I do feel I'm going to tell you up front I feel very conflicted on this film because there are things I really enjoy about it and there are things I really don't enjoy about it So you can probably tell about where I'm going to put this star rating wise But I'll save that for the end But obviously I'm going to go through and tell you what I really like about it What I really don't like about it without giving you the any real spoilers except like I said subtext and thematically kind of But I'll try and be a little more cryptic on that on some of that stuff So this film is directed by Philip Jan Rimsah Rimsah, sorry. I hope one of those pronunciations was correct I'm sure someone can let me know in the comments my apologies. It was also written by Rimsah and Mario Zermano Mario Zermano also wrote colloquium and Philip Jan Rimsah Did the directed film sand castles and dust clouds which sound interesting. I just like those titles Quicks and offsets of this so it's basically about the main character I believe in it. His name is Richard who has a nice lifestyle. He's he works on Wall Street He's kind of created this very interesting Useful algorithm for Wall Street for stock stuff and he's living the high life but he's a very particular corky individual and He starts to have mosquitoes starts to have a bunch of mosquitoes in his apartment and Things go from there I'm not gonna go any further because if you want to see the film You should just see the film and especially because I'm pretty split on this on what I think about it I would say just watch it You know every film is worth watching at least once just so you personally can make your mind up for what you think About it all the time I have situations where I say I love a film and people comment on this and they're like You know what I watch it I really hated it or I say I hate a film and they comment and they're like actually I really love this film So if you're gonna do that, please do that, but tell me why just let me know You know, I loved it, but for these reasons I hated it for these reasons because just saying I love something or I hate something It's not much of an opinion really It's really just more of a base feeling to you to formulate it into a real opinion You really need to put something behind it Give me the reasoning and we can talk from there because I'm very open to hearing all different types of opinions on things So anyway, the opening credits are done in a very interesting way Which I really really enjoyed and it really gets to the heart of kind of the allegory that's at play for this film You'll hear me say allegory again I'm sorry if you don't like that word, but it really sets up the whole metaphor with the film and It does a good job of doing that Some people may find the intro with the credit with the opening credits kind of gross Not me personally it points to what it is which is mosquito state as the title but actually I was involved in entomology when I was in middle school and high school so You know, it is I was in the 4-H club I was actually president of the 4-H entomology club for a while So that's not something that bothers me. It's more interesting than anything, but some people may be creeped out think it's gross whatever Sorry if that's the case But I thought it was interesting what they did with the opening credits The style in the film strikes you very from a visual standpoint very very early on It looks really good visually and that's why I really have to say the director Really good director cinematography wonderful cinematographer great. I hear great. I the camera is Consistently moving and moving in a very smooth very engaging way Looks beautiful. I mean from the directing and cinematography standpoint. There is not much more. You could do to be honest They do some really interesting things where they play around with certain lighting and I think there's actual Meaning behind the colors of the lighting. So do pay attention to that but there's also a Lot of interesting visuals and there there's some kind of metaphorical visuals that show up Especially within the main characters apartment that tie into the other things that are going on within the film so really be aware of your surroundings as you're watching the film not just because it's visually very appealing but There's there's things to catch the other thing is the music the music is really well matched with the film But also it's it's the right amount of being restrained You know, they don't go over the top to beat their audience over the head with like this is I need to feel right now which a Lot of films have a tendency to do and I don't like They they kind of walk that very thin line of giving you enough where they need to and really having the music have impact when it can influence the Scene enough in an appropriate way versus bringing it back and allowing the audience some space To kind of take things in and kind of see how they feel about things So I really have to give them a kudos for their use of the music and the composition of the music. The music was good Yeah, really good acting as well, there wasn't a single actor that I saw in this and was like You know, that's kind of or that's bad all either quite good to very good So they got really good talent to be in this film. I like that There's a particular sound that they keep using at certain points in the film that It's very important because it ties into, you know, what's going on the events of it But it's also starts to become unnerving I think with how much you end up hearing it is kind of a cyclical sound and also how they mess with the volume of it So it's frequency and volume and the nature of just that sound that starts to become very unnerving and Kind of gets to you as an audience member in a good way because it really does help to kind of further Increase the experience of just kind of feeling a bit unsettled and unnerved with what's going on But to that I really do wish they would have kind of leaned a lot more into the Horror aspect of the film because there is a horror aspect to it as you would probably assume because it's on shutter Or going to be on shutter what I'm putting this out But I really think they should have leaned way more into the horror aspect of it. There's the horror there It's very very light though And it seems like they kind of wanted to go a little bit more of a drama route than anything Which I think is to the detriment of what the story is to be honest You could have had a lot more oomph behind it and a lot more impact to it If you took it down the road of maybe something like the fly I'll just throw that out there because it felt like in certain small instances Very very small that there were some influences from the fly film the Cronenberg version. I will say But if they would have leaned way more into something like that, I think it would have had a lot more impact I think it would have been a lot more interesting because that's one of the other problems That's the biggest problem I had with it. I don't think the film is that engaging I mean I already said from like a visual standpoint It's very engaging and the music was good and everything but From a story standpoint and from a pacing standpoint. It is not engaging People will check out of this film I can almost guarantee there are gonna be a lot of people who just check out on this one Because they feel like the pace is all messed up because the pace is all wrong The pace is very much wrong with this film Everything seems like it's taking way too long and not for any actual good reason The runtime is about an hour and 40 minutes. I think it's actually like an hour and 41 minutes with the credits but The story is not there for that and not enough happens for it to have that runtime This is one of the things I like to rail out about a lot Which is cut your film down if you don't need it to be that long It's not because I feel like you're necessarily wasting my time. It's because the film suffers the film Experience for the audience greatly suffers when they feel like everything is taking forever and It just you know the length just doesn't fit how much story there is and that's the problem with this The way they're telling the story and what the story is you don't need an hour and 41 minutes It should have been cut back significantly in my opinion in order to have it have a lot more impact to be honest Also, the you know lean more into the horror. I think should have been another thing Like I said, it's very slow I Get what they're going for in the final scene of the film and there is a very beautiful visual aspect to the end of it, but There is a significant CGI portion to it that looks wonky which happens a lot with CGI even if you have good CGI That's why practical effects are the best, but I understand why they couldn't do practical effects for the end I'm just saying maybe they should have gone some different route to get the same point through but How wonky that CGI looks really took me out of it and you'll see what I mean It's kind of like it seems like it's a very obvious green screen type of thing and People will see that and instead of focusing on what's really going on. You're focusing on that looks weird That looks out of place. This looks really fake and that's the problem for me It's like it really took me out. Hopefully that doesn't happen for other people, but for me personally it did just saying Okay, so some final notes on this one a few things I want to say there is an allegory for what the US has been going through with politics and the role of money in society Driving the behaviors of people at their deepest levels and obviously not in a very good way. So for that reason there is Some political commentary in here. It's not on the nose It's not in your face. It's not actually spoken about. It's more Subliminally in there. It's subtext. So you could ignore it. You could choose to really acknowledge it It's kind of up to you So it's not one of those films kind of like the hunt that's a lot more in your face about, you know What it has to say about politics, which I did like the hunt I thought that was fun especially because a lot of people gave that film crap because they're like, oh, it's so divisive but They get they get give and get for both sides of the political spectrum So I didn't understand what the real problem was with people plus entertaining film There's also a point about the social issue that's kind of come up where people that's been occurring with people that I've kind of noticed a Lot with people where people get into this situation where something's not going right or something seems kind of Hopeless or tough to deal with and instead of trying to mitigate that trying to work towards making things better People just throw their hands up and say well, this is screwed up. You know, this doesn't work This is no good. So then they just lean further into, you know, let's just make it worse Let's just be let's just go all the way in if it's gonna be bad Let's just make it the worst possible and that's something that I've really noticed in people that's really Exciting and disappointing and this kind of makes some sort of comment on that It's it's rolled into the subtext of the story the theme of the story And yeah, it's definitely something that's been going on in society And I think it's something that really needs to stop because that level of cynicism Is bad for you individually and bad for us societally if you just give up on everything and say just screw it Things are not going to go well things really are not going to go well. Let's work together To fix the problems and even if we can't make it ideal, which I think is what the problem ends up being for people They want it to be this specific Ideal, you know, you can't necessarily get there, but you can work towards it You can make things better You might not get exactly where you want But you can try and get better than where you are and that's really how we should be focusing So the last thing I have to say and this is very key This is very interesting and I like this aspect of the film. There's a term used in the film It's it's called imago and I looked it up because I wasn't a hundred percent sure what it was now It's a dual purpose term. Well, I'll read exactly what I put in here It ties into the actual Events of the film, but it's also part of that allegory part of that subtext of what's really being talked about Within the film, which I thought was smart I love when there there's that kind of dual purpose used in these films So I like that a lot now. Let me let me read to you verbatim what the definition is. I got off the internet for imago An unconscious idealized mental image of someone, especially a parent which influences a person's behavior So the especially a parent portion I don't think has anything to do with this specifically So I'm going to edit it down and read it again to what is important in this film An unconscious idealized mental image of someone which influences a person's behavior That's what the film's about So there you go. You've got some information for me. Hopefully it helps you out with it Please let me know what you think of the film Out of five stars with half stars in play I'm so undecided because there there are some really good things about it But there's some really bad things about it in my opinion But I'm just going to put it at a two and a half star rating because I really feel in the middle about it I don't want to dog it too hard because the visuals are so good. The directing is so good. The music is so good The cinematography is so good. The acting is so good. There's some really good subtext and themes But on the other hand, um, the pacing is terrible The story I mean the film the runtime is way too long for what's actually going on there It really feels like there's not a whole lot going on at a lot of times during the film And they really should have leaned into the horror a lot more I think they left way too much meat on the bone in that respect and they could have done so much more this film could have been Amazing if you kept all the aspects that were great And you just kind of went harder on the horror and kind of cut it down a little bit for pacing This film would have been amazing and could be amazing But you know once again, maybe you do feel like it's amazing and I would love to hear that from you And like I said, don't just say I thought it was amazing say why you know Tell me why what am I missing about this because it's highly possible with every single review I do then I'm missing things things that could potentially alter my opinion So go ahead and put your comments down there love it hate it whatever But do me a quick favor. 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