Alone with You

I have a high tolerance for overused horror tropes, but there's one I simply can't stand: when mental illness (or a psychological "break") is meant to explain all the bizarre goings-on. To be fair, I've seen a few movies that have made this work well. "Alone With You" is NOT one of them... Self-indulgent, repetitive for no good reason, and utterly lacking in any originality whatsoever, this movie takes that trope and says, "How hard can we beat our audience over the head with this idea?" VERY hard, as it turns out. At every turn and in every moment, we are beleaguered by the writers/directors team who clearly cared very little about bringing something new to the table. Worse, their kitchen-sink approach means we get all kinds of horror staples without any point or purpose. Lights flicker, shadowy figures pass by in the background, technology malfunctions, doors won't open, religion is shoved down a character's throat... None of it sticks together, and none of it has one iota of a payoff. But worst of all (to me) is that this is all played off as a complete mental breakdown without any thought to how or why the character might perceive ANY of this stuff during a psychotic fugue. I'm not expecting reality here, just for the story to make sense. At all.

I thought Alone with You was sufficiently disturbing because the main character is so confused and seems to be slipping in and out of a dream state. Of course, I know this is NOT how mental illness works - it would never be this detailed of a hallucination, nor go on this long, this movie is more of a vivid nightmare. If you can accept it as a vivid nightmare, it's really unsettling. The situations that Charlie faces are all ugly - cheated on, rejected, trapped in her apartment and can't get out, and that horrific scene with the cat I could have totally done without. Still, I would have given this movie a higher rating if there were some kind of explanation or sense of reality by the end. As it stands, Alone with You is totally surreal and open to interpretation. Also, Charlie - the main character - is obsessed with this ugly, mean girl named Simone, that's one of the most irritating things about the movie. Her girlfriend (or rather ex-gf....or dead gf?) is weird looking and has a selfish, abrasive personality. So that makes the whole thing even yuckier, I wondered if that was intentional or if I just perceived the characters that way.

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source: Alone with You

I was so looking forward to this movie as I'm a huge fan of the director . Well the acting is the worst I've ever seen and the leading actress made the film unwatchable and I had to turn it off . Every other word and I mean every other word was f this f that and it became just so so stupid that you have to question the directors education . I've looked at Facebook YouTube and Instagram and he also swears constantly and sadly has bought it to his films . I'll probably give up on him now as I've just tuned this garbage off after almost half an hour it's that bad. Almost human is sadly a distant memory.

A very simple independent movie that effectively shows the downward spiral of a fragile psyche, that keeps you guessing even if some of its plot elements may be predictable. I enjoyed the main character's portrait of a damaged woman, struggling with the relationships in her life. Very nice cinematography and beautiful photography, accompanied by an interesting music score and sound design. No gore nor big budget effects, the film relies solely on its performances. It's a movie worth watching if you like supernatural psychological thrillers, with a few horror movie cliches but full of interesting details.

"People are fascinating" Uh yeah. People are also cray cray or maybe tormented by an afreet. So OK, 2021's Alone with You makes you feel "alone" while you watch it. No joke. As something about a woman who waits for her would-be girlfriend only to be trapped in her haunted abode, "Alone" is distant and dreamlike and cold and cutoff. The fact that the acting in "Alone" is pretty much a one-person show just enhances the experience. Kudos to Emily Bennett. The only other characters you see in "Alone" are on FaceTime screens, through pink elephants, or in flashbacks. Alone with You is something Terrence Malick might've been drawn to right after his historical, war phase. How transfixing. The pic could be about schizophrenia or some sort of evil entity that settles in a female's narrow apartment. You don't quite know throughout yet "Alone" never fails to be unsettling and/or keyed up. I mean this vehicle had a couple of jump scares that just knocked me into next week. Call it a Black Swan "swan song" if you will. Alone with You's directors (star Emily Bennett, Justin Brooks) bring psychological horror and psychological ruse to the table. They revel in cutaways, bloodied imagery, quiet grandeur, and inching, mind manipulation. What you are seeing is either the aftermath of liquidation, the afterlife of suicide, or both. You as the viewer interpret what you want and that's the beauty of this medium we have with reels and strips. All in all, with "Alone" Bennett and Brooks could terrify you multiple times but don't. It's in reserve. Most of their scenes are either on edge, red herrings or something of the Hitchcockian flavor. I was teased one minute and then felt chills down my leg the other. I hope I'm not "alone" in this inference.

One thing is pretty certain after watching Alone with You. Emily Bennett likes a lot to watch herself in various poses as she seems to be onscreen for 99,9 % of the film's running time in various moods and settings, close-ups, psychedelic dream sequences etc. This is not a bad thing by itself, however, given that the movie has very few (if any) plot points, this practice is getting in the way of suspense and atmosphere after a while. Basically, the whole movie takes place in an apartment while the leading lady is waiting for her lover and thinking she's being stalked, all the while giving flashbacks of their relationship and her own background. Clearly, the two directors are trying to make some sort of a social comment regarding isolation and mental illness but the delivery suffers from marginal interest (at least in my case) both for the main character and- after a while- on her situation. Much of the film plays like a typical thriller but this is interrupted by the aforementioned flashbacks and other psychedelic sequences and at the end o the day I personally cannot say I was overwhelmed by what I watched. However, Bennett's performance is generally good, if not a bit excessive at times, and there is an excellent appearance by beloved Barbara Crampton that steals the show at one point. I admit she was the reason I watched this movie and although it wasn't anything special, it was a worthy 1 hour and 20mins.