X
- 2022
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 45 m
- 2022
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 45 m
Summary In the hilltops of Burundi, a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each o...
Directed By: Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams
Written By: Saul Williams
- 2022
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 45 m
- 2022
- Kino Lorber
- 1 h 45 m
Neptune Frost
6.4
Where to Watch
Summary In the hilltops of Burundi, a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each o...
Directed By: Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams
Written By: Saul Williams
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 22 Critic Reviews
83
91% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
9% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 22 Critic Reviews
83
91% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
9% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The proceedings have that perfect narrative balance of a simple fairytale, leading to baffling visions and fantastic ideas.
Neptune Frost is a mission statement by way of a musical, and its defining image is a middle finger taking up the whole lens.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 User Ratings
6.4
55% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
27% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
18% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 User Ratings
6.4
55% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
27% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
18% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
If you're looking for entertainment, look elsewhere. Lin Manuel Miranda and a cast of largely unknown Africans have put together a work of cinematic art that will likely become a classic of this century, exploring a wide variety of themes. If you don't know how Africans are still being exploited on their own continent to benefit the wealthier, paler inhabitants of other continents, the images in this film will stay with you. The dances and music are of hallucinogenic intensity, and the plotting is involved enough to warrant a second look. Pay special attention to the yearning for a savior whose initials might be "MLK".
Report
Incredible film. Perfect portrayals of mythic Neptune and Uranus and the energy they deliver, with Mars themes weaving through as well. Powerful and overwhelming at times making the quiet and most intimate parts all the more effectual and leaving the viewer longing for them to last. Imagistically beautiful and potent. The first 2/3rds were perfect, where it lost its footing a bit in the last 3rd, due to a sense of hurrying up to drive home the point for potential folks in the audience who might not have understood. It almost felt like a producer arguing for marketability got in the way of some of the deeper narratives at the end. Original and resonant.
Report
It’s a collective dream coated in a blue lacquer dancing on the edge of something unrecognizable, something wholly transcendent. And it arrives with an exceptional display of bravura.
At times befuddling, though adamantly mesmerizing, Neptune Frost fuses searing anti-establishment lyricism with ethereal electronica to create a film and universe worthy of its place alongside the likes of Sun Ra’s Space Is The Place and 2019’s I Snuck off the Slave Ship.
Neptune Frost is a powerful film, clean and digestible while it traffics in metaphors and deploys poetry and philosophy.
The film thrillingly captures the social, economic, political, and material character of Rwanda in the age of global communication.
A film with sights and sounds you’ve never seen or heard, it’s an intriguing watch with catchy, energetic numbers, even if it doesn’t always land emotionally.
When it doesn't have its ups and downs, Neptune Frost manages to amaze in a very impressive way.
It covers quite a lot conceptually, tonally and thematically but succeeds in doing so without stifling itself.
It is a skillful exploration of imagination. Even when it might seem like the film is dancing on a precipice where it could lose its way, Neptune Frost remains creative and captivating.
Although what is presented on screen is not something I would classify as intricate or overly experimental, attention is an essential requirement to digest it.
Perhaps its artistic display may seem to overshadow its message a little, but for me the symbiosis between the two is very good and works more than fine.
Neptune Frost is an excellently textured film that demonstrates that it is not necessary to force a passable and predictable form to tell this type of story.
Report
I would so liked to have given this ambitious indie offering a higher score, but, unfortunately, because of clarity conflicts between narrative and screenplay, I simply couldn't. This Afrocentric musical fantasy with a multitude of themes protesting war, corporate greed, social intolerance and a host of other issues definitely has its heart in the right place, with inventive special effects and cutting-edge musical stylings. However, its attempt to express itself through cryptic poetic dialogue and soliloquies obscures its messages with its often-indecipherable prose. I sincerely applaud the attempt to push the envelope of the script, but, when the mixed metaphor wording becomes so irretrievably gnarled and vague, it's difficult to figure out exactly what the screenwriter is seeking to say. Directors Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams are clearly on to something here, but they need to clean it up a bit to make the material more coherent and accessible, with writing that's on par with the superb quality of everything else this innovative release has to offer.
Report
Not bad, but not good. It hits on deeper themes that, in its delivery, appear surface level in its understanding and expansion. There were good parts of the movie worth remembering, but I would say only a couple moments. This movie could have been great.
If I were to stumble upon this movie on the SyFy channel on TV (because it is SyFy, experimental movie, ilk) I may or may not abandon the movie altogether.
If you’re radically on the left and uneducated, you will enjoy this movie.
Report
Production Company
Swan Films,
Sopherim,
Knitting Factory Entertainment,
SPKN/WRD,
JMK Films,
Quiet,
Redwire Pictures,
Carte Blanche,
Lizland Films,
5000 Broadway Productions,
MartyrLoserKin,
OkayMedia,
Pirates Blend Records
Release Date Jun 3, 2022
Duration 1 h 45 m
Awards
Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival
• 3 Nominations
Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Cannes Film Festival
• 2 Nominations
