Oxygen

Alexandre Aja and sci-fi? It sounds like an oxymoron :D But in the end, it works brilliantly. Films with a single actor are always a gamble, as everything relies on their performance. Thanks to Mélanie Laurent, Oxygen succeeds remarkably—she’s an incredibly talented and versatile actress. I was a bit worried that the film might slip into a slower pace, given that it’s set in a single location in a cryo-chamber, but the opposite is true. The unsettling atmosphere, permeated with sheer helplessness, was excellently portrayed. The smartly written dialogues between the protagonist and the AI were engaging and occasionally offered a gripping pace. The mesmerizing audiovisuals also had a lot to offer. And the few twists the creators threw at us could definitely be described as "jaw-dropping." This term perfectly captures the essence of the film. I didn’t expect it, but Oxygen turned out to be a genre gem. Fantastic. For me, it’s 8/10. P.S. And for fans of more horror-oriented moments, don’t worry, Aja hasn’t forgotten you (the needle scene is quite intense). (07/17/2021)

Despite all the surprising events of the film, something is missing that would make me want to watch it a second time, but it is definitely a good film. It could be ten to fifteen minutes longer, because at the end, in addition to the main protagonist, the story also runs out of breath. Mélanie Laurent is excellent, Alexandre Aja uses the cramped space of the cryochamber in such a way that you do not get bored, and I really enjoyed the unpredictable computer MILO, which can execute almost any command, but only after it is properly told about it. One may guess the point, but it's mainly about the atmosphere, and it's great. (05/13/2021)

Alexandre Aja's Oxygen impressed me with its intimate concept - Mélanie Laurent's one-woman-show - and the screenwriter's play with the viewer, which, however, had its cracks and weak spots. From the beginning, I had various explanations in my head as to why the protagonist found herself in a broken cryo-chamber, and personally I didn't find the plot so predictable. But I was somewhat distracted by the Milo, who functioned almost as a "deus ex machina" in the story, and at times threw the plot developments around recklessly. Also, Oxygen would have benefited from a quarter of an hour shorter running time. The ending was visually captivating and the title music definitely had its charm. (05/22/2021)

This is a minimalist thriller about being buried alive in a typically Poe-esque fashion, this time situated in the world of science fiction. It does not come even close to the qualities of Rodrigo Cortés's thriller Buried, which was a real conversation piece and came a whole decade earlier. Here, the screenwriter hides the banal plot behind cheap tricks, such as memory loss and the gradual revealing of things the audience can guess a few, sometimes even tens of minutes before they are revealed in the movie. In the last quarter of the movie, it is sort of pleasing to see the broader backdrop in which the action takes place. But all in all, it did not take my breath away at all. (05/17/2021)

The first “point” occurs to you in the first few minutes, in a one-second flashback from the hospital, and the second comes about an hour later. Overall, the film is a jigsaw puzzle of familiar sci-fi and thriller motifs in which you will also find improbabilities in the logic (the development of the dialogue with artificial intelligence). Or, rather, you would find them if you wanted to seek them out, which you don’t, because it’s quite nice to watch – Aja’s directing is at a high level as usual, Mélanie puts in the work, and the last quarter of the film is a sci-fi visual caress. (05/16/2021)