Society of the Snow

These 140 minutes flow like water. J.A. Bayona is a master of his craft and genre rules, and here he has a powerful true story to work with. He doesn’t linger in the prologue or on the airborne plane, instead throwing his characters into the snowbound hell as quickly as possible. The mutual confessions of feelings in a desperate situation are effective, and the rising body count adds to the drama. The cannibalism is presented subtly and is shocking mainly in how long the story’s protagonists had to rely on it to survive. And how they got used to it. Good actors and an impressive ending of a film with ideas between the lines. My only criticism involves the work with orientation in the editing of some of the shots observing the mountainous landscape around the plane. (01/07/2024)

Bayona was the perfect choice for this kind of story. Even though there’s already a similar film out there and it doesn’t bring much new to the table, Society of the Snow is a blast. After The Impossible, Bayona proves once again that he knows how to handle large-scale disaster scenes. Absolutely intense! (02/05/2024)

Bayona is a master of the disaster effect. Whereas Alive was a matter of leaving certain things somewhat in the abstract, physical details are not absent in Society of the Snow. Does that necessarily lead to a deeper experience? No, but it doesn’t seem out of place and tasteless like some of the emotional-blackmail moments in Stand by Me. I could have done without the conjuring with the (unreliable) narrator, but it’s not worth concealing the fact that, despite the slight distance that this refined filmmaking evokes, this film has an excellent pace and the actual event on which it is based has enough...well, meat on the bone is perhaps not an appropriate analogy. In any case, Society of the Snow manages to reconcile reverence with adrenaline. Nevertheless, I still think Alive is the better film (also because I associate it with the experience of going to the cinema when I was a kid) and the excellent documentary Stranded offered greater emotional and psychological depth. (01/07/2024)

A powerful, naturalistic and rigorously presented story. An interesting story from a factual point of view and, strangely enough, from a filmmaking point of view as well, as the creators do not shy away from depicting many harsh scenes and great shots of the snowy Andean environment, as well as a dose of suspense while wandering through the mountains and an equally emotional aspect that, especially in the end, makes the audience reflect on the whole event. A superb disaster movie that is good on many levels and that brings the audience closer to an event they probably had no idea about. (02/07/2024)

Netflix continues to surprise. After the flawless Reptile last fall, it has once again delivered a gem, this time from a Spanish production. Before watching Society of the Snow, I had to catch up on a film about the same historical event, Alive. Honestly, that American film doesn’t hold a candle to its younger Spanish sibling. The Spaniards approached it in a much more realistic, naturalistic way. Watching it was genuinely uncomfortable, leaving a much greater impact on me. Even the unknown and unfamiliar faces were impressive. Considering these guys aren’t very experienced in the film industry, they all gave outstanding performances. I was also pleasantly surprised by the ending, where it didn’t conclude with a rescue helicopter arriving, but instead, some screen time was devoted to the events that followed. Yeah, this will resonate with me for a long time. Fantastic. I give it a well-deserved 9/10. P.S. The plane crash itself shook me like few other things. A flawlessly executed nerve-wracking moment! J.A. Bayona is a master of his craft! (02/24/2024)