X
- 2023
- R
- Amazon Prime Video
- 1 h 50 m
- 2023
- R
- Amazon Prime Video
- 1 h 50 m
Summary Hen (Saoirse Ronan) and Junior (Paul Mescal) farm a secluded piece of land that has been in Junior’s family for generations, but their quiet life is thrown into turmoil when an uninvited stranger (Aaron Pierre) shows up at their door with a startling proposal. Based on best-selling author Iain Reid’s novel.
Directed By: Garth Davis
Written By: Iain Reid, Garth Davis
- 2023
- R
- Amazon Prime Video
- 1 h 50 m
- 2023
- R
- Amazon Prime Video
- 1 h 50 m
Foe
44
5.4
Where to Watch
Summary Hen (Saoirse Ronan) and Junior (Paul Mescal) farm a secluded piece of land that has been in Junior’s family for generations, but their quiet life is thrown into turmoil when an uninvited stranger (Aaron Pierre) shows up at their door with a startling proposal. Based on best-selling author Iain Reid’s novel.
Directed By: Garth Davis
Written By: Iain Reid, Garth Davis
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 34 Critic Reviews
44
12% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
65% Mixed
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
24% Negative
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 34 Critic Reviews
44
12% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
65% Mixed
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
24% Negative
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
There is an unshakable and electric hum to Foe that ensures director Garth Davis’s work will stay with audiences attuned to its distinct frequency for days, months, perhaps ages.
For all the cast’s best efforts, however, Foe never seems more than a theoretical exercise, a sketch for an uncompleted project.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 User Ratings
5.4
32% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
37% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
32% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 User Ratings
5.4
32% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
37% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
32% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
The three lead actors deserve praise, as their performances (notably Saoirse Ronan) are excellent and they stop this film from being a disaster. The problem is, yet again, the shaky bordering poor quality of the background material they're trying to work with. Once again, a production team have taken off-the-shelf and shrink-wrapped components and simply bolted them together, hoping to get something different as a result. SURPRISE! It doesn't work. We're all now exhausted by the grey, dust-swept dystopias - they've been seen too many times. The idea of artificial "people" not realising they are such, has also been done previously. The denouement was tediously predictable from about 5 minutes in and we just had to sit there and wait for it to arrive, presumably with the writers expecting viewers to pretend to be surprised. The script also suffers from absurd irrationalities that are far too numerous to go into here. These sorts of lacklustre writing and production efforts are in danger of totally discrediting SF as a genre. Please Hollywood - get this sorted out!
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Quando um filme com certa áurea que lembra "M. Night Shyamalan" é construído, você com certeza irá desenvolver certa expectativa, mas infelizmente, à medida que as horas passam, todo o potencial da história vai se desmoronando, em que pese a entrega do elenco.
Ao receber a estranha visita de um desconhecido num mundo apocalíptico, o casal tem seu relacionamento abalado: apenas um deles irá para outro planeta, como forma de cumprir aquilo que as instituições governamentais decidiram para enfrentar a crise planetária. Não se preocupe se você não entendeu a motivação dessa ida a outro planeta, provavelmente nem os roteiristas entenderam.
Daí, sem explicação plausível, cabe transformar o homem estranho em uma nebulosa nuvem de mistério, o que convenhamos, num cenário como esse, soalá no alto a desconfiança. Então porque cargas d'águas um representante oficial do governo veio com todo esse suspense? Mas prossigamos.
A atmosfera construída no terço inicial vai cedendo lugar a cenas bucólicas e a capturar o relacionamento intimista daquele casal, transformando o filme em puro deleite romântico. Confesso que gostei do que vi pela química muito boa entre o casal principal, mas não sei ao certo se transformar atrama num romance irá agradar a audiência.
Resultado: o plot transforma os estranhos em peças meio maniqueístas para abalar um relacionamento conjugal, e quando a ideia do clone é inserida, aumenta ainda mais a sensação de traquinagem do conteúdo.
A fotografia confere certa beleza escura nas locações, o cenário realmente convence e o casal, como dito, tem química, o que salva isso aqui da tragédia total. De resto, uma trama manipulativa, que acaba desperdiçando a densidade do argumento.
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Foe, the beautifully shot yet scattered lo-fi sci-fi mystery thriller starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, is not a good movie. However, it is an interesting one.
To their great credit, the Irish stars, often loosely clothed and soaked in sweat from the lack of air conditioning, have such presence and chemistry that it’s possible to believe in their intimacy — the pull and tangle of their bodies, their paroxysms of anguish — and even to pretend in the moment that they have full-fledged characters to play.
Despite a capable cast and crew, Foe is a muddled mess that feels more like Black Mirror Lite than powerful sci-fi commentary.
It’s difficult to overstate how badly Foe fumbles its heady premise and firecracker cast, a film so dependent on its biggest secret that it’s both predictable and hard to grasp by the time the trigger is finally pulled.
At every turn, Garth Davis’s Foe not only fails to adequately redress or rework played-out tropes within its high-concept world, but its examination of marriage and identity is also hackneyed.
THINGS I LIKED:
Academy Award winner Saoirse Ronan is fantastic, as always. We see a LOT of her…if you know what I mean. I’m always surprised when exceptional actresses choose to go nude in films. That seems like something desperate actresses are more willing to do. Am I the only one who thinks that?
Paul Mescal won a British Academy Television Award and also did a great job. Really great.
The other leading character in the movie is played by Aaron Pierre. I only vaguely remember him from M. Night Shyamalan’s creepy movie Old. I thought he did a terrific job and look forward to seeing him in more future flicks.
Great cinematography by Bartosz Nalazek with stunning special effects.
The music is perfectly disarming, leaving you feeling uncomfortable, knowing things are not quite right.
There are a few times when you’re not sure what’s real and what’s AI.
Twists. I love twists.
The featured house was constructed and filmed in Australia.
The movie poster makes it look like it’s going to be a big, romantic drama. It is, but there’s a lot more to the story than that.
THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
Everyone seems a little nuts and unhinged.
A lot of the dialogue is just odd, despite being delivered by extremely capable actors.
The pacing is too slow and takes too long to get to the point. So many of the sex scenes could have easily been cut.
The toxic marriage reminds me of the one featured in the movie Napoleon.
TIPS FOR PARENTS:
Kids will be extremely bored. This is not appropriate for them anyway.
We see a married couple have intimate relations with movement, sound effects, and partial nudity several times.
A woman is braless in almost every scene.
We see a naked man from the back. He’s shirtless in many scenes but no one is going to complain about his 6-pack abs.
Profanity, including many F-bombs
We see a lot of dead chickens at a food-processing plant.
We see a fat bug get squashed with all of its guts hanging out.
Various weapons are used.
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This film takes place in 2065, but it's one of those low-budget sci-fi dramas that's more about the characters than cool futuristic stuff. Saoirse Ronan & Paul Mescal play a happy couple living on a secluded farm in the barren Midwest, when a stranger shows up with an unusual proposal that will challenge their relationship. It's interesting that both of the actors are Irish, playing Americans, but it's even better that they're both such talented actors. She goes thru some interesting changes, while he once again displays his knack for compelling depth. Their intimate moments are the highlights. On the down side, this film is mired in too much atmosphere, obtuse dialogue and ultimately, an ending that isn't worth the effort.
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Good for Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal in terms of their performances, but the film, on the other hand, is a lifeless, underdeveloped and muddled story that never manages to wake up from its slumber, and as much as you as a viewer can maneuver as to how ''intriguing'' or ''interesting'' you might find the concept of its plot, -because frankly there are very few places to go with that argument, by the way- the truth is that Foe cannot overcome one very simple but 100% crucial element, and that is to avoid being tedious, and Foe is an extremely tedious movie.
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I don't understand what they meant or did with this; you never know what's going on, and I mean that in the derogatory sense. The script is a mess from start to finish. The attempt to make existentialist science fiction fails miserably. Garth Davis, trying to emulate Terrence Malick, only manages to bore and construct an extremely pretentious and empty discourse. Acting is all over the place and it doesn't let you get involved with the characters either. At least it has a good photograph.
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One of the more boring films ever. If we are going to make Ronan and Mescal be the most boring ass farmers ever can we at least let them be boring ass IRISH farmers???
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