“Inside” (2023)
Willem Dafoe and a Pyramid Song to Hell.
Willem Dafoe and a Pyramid Song to Hell.
I’ve long been admirer of the acting prowess of Willem Dafoe and not just because of his continuing alliance and collaboration with Wes Anderson in his offbeat comedies that often bemuse as well as delight in equally enormous measure. Four time Oscar nominee, the Wisconsin born actor has honed his enigmatic acting style for over four decades now with my first recollection being the Tony Scott directed, David Bowie starring vampiric film The Hunger in 1983, Oliver Stone’s first cinematic epic Platoon in 1986, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ two further years later, Alan Parker’s Mississippi Burning before re-teaming with Oliver Stone for another Vietnam inspired, Tom Cruise starring Vietnam War epic, Born on the Fourth of July, and all within the first decade of his acting career.
The 1990’s were a mix and match of Cry-Baby, Wild at Heart, Clear and Present Danger and The English Patient before he commenced a new century with the newly reinvigorated medium of superhero films in Spiderman before ironically, as you’re about to read, he was a huge part of another reinvented medium in animated films and particularly, Finding Nemo. Then came his continuing collaboration with Wes Anderson before another radical departure into the Antichrist and Nymphomaniac world of Lars von Trier, starring opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman in his second to last all time cinema outing in A Most Wanted Man before joining the John Wick legend at the ground floor in chapter one in 2014.
That was almost a decade ago, and a near ten year period that has seen Willem Dafoe excel once more in a superhero franchise (Aquaman), re-team again with Wes Anderson (The French Dispatch), work with directors such as Kenneth Branagh (Murder on the Orient Express), Paul Schrader (The Card Counter), Guillermo del Toro (Nightmare Alley), Robert Eggers (The Northman) and in 2019 starring opposite Robert Pattinson, he excelled in another Robert Eggers directed horrifying masterpiece The Lighthouse, a particular favourite film of mine in recent years.
So Inside, the second all time feature length release from director Vasilis Katsoupis was an easy sell to say the least!
“Nemo” (Willem Dafoe) One of only eleven credited roles of which only three are notable, this is Dafoe’s film entirely, and he’s entirely front and centre as he turns from gamekeeper to poacher, obsessional sketch artist to art thief in a heist that goes horribly wrong and he’s left to his own devices locked inside an opulent high rise apartment with seemingly no means of escape. From “Art is for keeps” through to “There is no creation without destruction”, Nemo is abandoned and alone when the security of the apartment traps him inside an incredibly expensive exhibit to modern art as well as living art. With the air conditioning malfunctioning, next to zero long term food in a refrigerator that plays the song “Macarena” if left open for more than twenty seconds and no water or fluids except for a quickly exhausted bottle of vodka, he is forced to drink from and bathe in the indoor swimming pool as he tries every means of escape from a soundproofed cage as the weeks slowly become months of isolation, dreams, nightmares, hunger, delirium and solitary madness. The telephone line isn’t working. Nor is the television. He doesn’t have a mobile telephone and the battery on his walkie-talkie has long since died. He is alone amongst the art works he once coveted but which he now destroys in anger at a situation he cannot control and a world he can only see through the vast windows of a cage cannot escape.
Dafoe is magnificent and considering the singular nature of the film he has to be. Vasilis Katsoupis’ direction is stylish, often with his star in close up or from above as he prowls through the apartment seeking his escape. The film as a whole consists of two halves, the first a desperate attempt to escape, the second an allegory to life and death, heaven and hell before, rather brilliantly and very aptly, “Pyramid Song” by Radiohead plays out across the film’s closing credits, with stories of “Black eyed Angels”, “A moon full of stars and astral cars”, “Past and Futures” and journeying to heaven “in a little row boat”.
Highly recommended.
“There was nothing to fear, and nothing to doubt”.
Thanks for reading. There are now over 300 articles with a combined 600+ film reviews contained within my “Film” library here. Alternatively, please see the links below to three of my most recently published spoiler free articles:
“The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Remarkable and disturbing arthouse horror.medium.com
“John Wick” — Chapter 4 (2023)
The hitman legend continues.medium.com
“The Unforgivable” (2021)
Everything in its right place.medium.com