“Inside” — Read Along
Highly recommended masterclass from Willem Dafoe.
I first watched “Inside” almost a year ago now and with zero knowledge ahead of time of what to expect including zero trailers or even sneak peeks at reviews penned by others in our collective digital Matrix. The film is only the second in the career of Greek born filmmaker Vasilis Katsoupis following 2016’s “My Friend Larry Gus” and I watched purely on a whim and primarily for my cinematic love of Willem Dafoe. As you’ll discover for yourself when you read my longer, yet still spoiler free review of the film linked below, Willem Dafoe has been an integral part of my film watching life since the early 1980’s and a cameo in the Tony Scott directed, David Bowie starring “The Hunger” in 1983 before working with directors of the calibre of Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, Kenneth Branagh, Guillermo del Toro and Robert Eggers among many, many more. Being an obsessive fan of the films of Wes Anderson ensured my fandom of Dafoe continued past the Millennium and beyond and if you haven’t seen 2019’s “The Lighthouse” (co-starring with Robert Pattinson and directed by Robert Eggers) then strap in for a wild, wild ride!
As is “Inside” here, a film I couldn’t possibly recommend highly enough to you and which ends, brilliantly and very aptly, with “Pyramid Song” by Radiohead.
Willem Dafoe in a singular film of despair and isolation, delirium and solitary madness and which ends with a classic Radiohead song.
What’s not to like?
"Pyramid Song" by Radiohead - Youtube
Here’s the second half of my spoiler free review originally penned and published on 11th April 2023:
“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 he 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”.
Here follows my original spoiler free review of Inside as well as both my Youtube and Rumble channel recordings of me reading my own review!
So now dear reader you have a choice: You can either
(a) Read my entire review of this film via the first link below
(b) Watch either of my Youtube or Rumble channel videos of my reading of my own review of Inside, hence the “Read Along” moniker.
or (c) Treat yourself to any combination of the above or even (d) disappear to pastures new within our collective electrical Matrix.
Oh, and (e) There’s a link to Volume 3 of my exhaustive 7 volumes of “Essential Film Reviews Collection” packaged in my e-book and Kindle series on Amazon and where you’ll find my review of Inside. All free to read if you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package.
Bless you for reading.
"Inside" - Original Review from April 2023
My Youtube reading of "Inside"
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection" - Vol.3
Thanks for reading. Here are three recent additions to my “Read Along” series of articles:
"Children of Men" - Read Along