Sanctuary

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source: Sanctuary

Sanctuary It really was a very strange movie from the start, I just cannot conceive who the audience may be for this strange psychological thriller. Basically the business arrangement between master and slave broke down and they couldn't live without each other. Why this took an hour and a half to demonstrate is bizarre. They padded this with a wordy script, running in an out of rooms and lots of strange camera angles. I could see anything thrilling or unexpected as the movie progressed, it was quite a self-indulgent mess best avoided. I'm giving this tripe 1 out 10, I want my hour and a half back!

Margaret Qualley provides an outstanding performance in this film. Sanctuary's premise is rather simple: a wealthy nepo-baby is inheriting his father's company and is being extorted by his dominatrix (and lover?). While Christopher Abbott is solid, it's really Qualley who delivers the exceptional acting. She carries this film through her intensity, exuberance and sexiness. For a film like this to work, you need the tension to feel real. The consistent argumentative dialog must feel improved. Qualley absolutely nails this. She is able to dangle sex appeal enigmatically while making the audience deeply aware of how wounded her character is. I was disappointed with the ending, would've much preferred the dark path set forth early in this film to never come back around to "love story."

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There are varing interpretations of the plot of Sanctuary. Some have dubbed it an "Up and down ride of domination and submission", others calling it "too obtrusive and pretentious" But I think it is a love story, however strange that might sound, I believe it is. A character study of two people, one who is not able to live up to family and societal expectations, harbouring repressed feelings of incompetence, and one who feels small and insignificant yerning for dominance and control. The perfect pair. Margaret Qualley is definitely a standout. Her range of emotions from scene to scene will be sure to keep you fixated on trying to decipher her motivations. Holding the piece together is director Zachary Wigon. To keep your audience engaged for 96mins in one location is a tough ask, and he handled it expertly.

And yet, somehow it's better than 50 Shades Of Grey! It's the same messed up, kinky sex thing. It's the same messed up, kinky relationship thing. And in the end, it's the same messed up, kinky love thing. I don't know why, but everything felt way better, deeper, and more visceral than 50 Shades. Maybe it's the directing? Maybe it's the acting? The screen-writing? Who knows? But I get more satisfaction from watching this movie than when I watched 50 Shades trilogy. Maybe because it's more concentrated than 50 Shades? I don't know. All I know is that this movie is more interesting than 50 Shades trilogy.

Margaret Qualley is the indisputable show stealer here with an astonishing enactment that has the capacity to linger long even after the film finishes. She had to play multiple shades, each with a different dynamic and she did it with such grace and passion and it reflected in her performance. However, the film failed to create a similar impression. And that's mainly because the writing, the narration, it all felt too obtrusive, too pretentious. Albeit it did have ambition to initiate pertinent discourses in regards to topics that has importance but the execution at least for me failed to cement its aspirations and therefore the end product came to be unrewarding.

In a world that makes you feel fragile and brittle, you get your kicks from being ridiculed, belittled, cleaning round the toilet stem, while your taunter does condemn, as they wait for you to conjure, your remittal. It plays out to a strict script but then a tangent, as it seems you've come across a steeper descent, smoke and mirrors might explain, is this for real or just a game, just who's genuinely showing, their lament. All in all it's quite a curious entangle, although dependant on your perspective and angle, the dialogue creates, a connection, of love and hate, where two people force themselves right through the mangle.

Pointifully performative and bitingly funny-- as a rom-com *Sanctuary* is less of a character study and more of an intense single discussion between Christopher Abbott, Danita Battle, and he prying eye of the viewer. This does feel like a more twisted Netflix or Apple TV date night movie and while the cast carries the film, it does so through both the best of times and the worst of times. While the film's opening is gripping and sexy, and the ending emotionally powerful, very little happens between minute 30 and minute 85. To make matters less convenient, the actors and filmmakers make it painfully obvious in the first 20 minutes that the Dom is in love with Hal and feels the need to demonstrate her value without telling her Sub, "I love you." That would ruin the power dynamic. The result, is a story that feels drawn with a few aimless scenes. I would expect this from a movie with 30 minute long scenes. Films like this seem to rest in the strength of their cinematography, acting (mostly closeups), and the dramatic tension in the dialogue. Director Zachary Wigon, and writer Micah Bloomberg can relax because of the good acting and editing on display here (many movies do); however *Sanctuary* may have had stronger foundations and really stuck the landing if they didn't.