Underrated psychological drama, Encounter, tackles PTSD in war veterans by "scifi-baiting" it's audience

Image credit: Amazon Prime. 


Directed by Michael Pearce and written by Joe Barton, this 2021 film stars, Riz Ahmed, Lucian-River Chauhan, Aditya Geddada as main characters, Malik Khan, Jay and Bobby Khan who the story mainly revolves around. Malik, a divorced marine corps veteran decides to take his children outside of their hometown in California, on an unexpected and unplanned road trip. Things get out of hand when the family gets stopped by a police officer and a misunderstanding ensues that leads to several lethal encounters that makes the kids question their father's true intentions, motivations, and sanity as the film progresses. 

A lot of sci-fi lovers might definitely feel ripped off by the end of this film due to the massive plot twist revolving alien invasions this film hints at in the beginning and how it's tied in to PTSD, which I really would not like to spoil because it made the viewing experience more enjoyable for me as I figured it out earlier on in the film. Even though I kept hoping that by some stream of luck, I would not be very wrong in the end. 

Image credit: Amazon Prime. 


Sadly, many other Hollywood films with bigger budgets have tackled the themes that this film barely scratches the surface in trying to handle. So what elevates this slightly above an average level for me is the tension between the characters as the story progresses and the hopes the empathetic viewers would feel for the main character as they hope that he isn't entirely wrong in his quest by the end of the film. Riz Ahmed's acting capabilities shines through once again and his child actor co-stars also help in elevating the whole viewing experience with their acting skills. It becomes one of those rare situations where the children can actually perform and are not reduced to whiny caricatures who only help as device plots. 

Image credit: Amazon Prime.


Although Octavia Spenser features among the main cast, she plays a really small role here and barely has up to 10 minutes screen time in total. The CGI of the film isn't particularly bad but it's really done cheaply and the cinematography is just decent. The musical score is great and quite memorable too. People who will really appreciate this film will be fans of Riz Ahmed and people who care about psychological dramas no matter how weakly they are written. 

If you have seen this film, pls share your thoughts in the comments section below. If you are yet to. also feel free to let me know if my writing encourages you to watch? 

                                                                                                written by God'sownM

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why one of the best tvshows in the entire last decade needs to comeback fast and be properly wrapped up

Image
It is unfortunate and sad that despite the 16 Emmy nominations and several awards that Misha Green’s Lovecraft Country has won, this deeply spiritual and impactful series doesn’t get the accolades and buzz that it rightly deserves. I consider the work to be one of the best tv shows to grace our screens in the entire last decade and feel that it is a disservice to fans that until now, no other tv station or streaming service has indicated interest to pick up the story and expand it to at least two more seasons. The 2020 supernatural, Sci-Fi, horror and historical TV drama was developed for television from Matt Ruff’s novel, which was originally written to satirize the popular racist narratives common in the author, H.P Lovecraft’s mythologies, hence, the title of the book. It is this “protest novel” that the incredibly talented writer and director, Misha Green reimagines into this spiritual, educative work of high entertainment art value.  source: HBO.  Set in mid-50’s Chicag...
Read more

Malcolm & Marie (2021): A Quick review.

Image
  photo credit: Netflix Written and directed by Sam Levinson of Euphoria fame, this film follows a heterosexual couple’s arguments after they return home for the night from a movie premiere which the man is responsible for writing and directing.  Filmed totally in black and white, every still in this film literally looks like a work of art, so much that if you find it hard to see films made in black and white, this would be an easy one to sit through as the shots are amazing to look at. High praise goes to the director of photography and the director as well, for their visually outstanding work with the shots. The chemistry between the titular characters the entire plot revolves around is impeccable and this film is actually proof that John David Washington can act, as opposed to the critical reviews he received for his performance in Christopher Nolan's TENET . I could clearly feel his frustrations, anger, disgust, total admiration and love for his partner onscreen and it wa...
Read more

A review of Netflix's groundbreaking psychological thriller on Astral travel, Behind her eyes

Image
photo credit: Netflix  Friends of a private Facebook group which I belong to raved for days about this supposed limited tv series. Members wrote posts upon posts about how incredibly good the plot twist was and then when I realized that it bothered on astral travel and lucid dreams, two phenomena I often experienced as a child but had no name for until much later into adulthood, I knew I’d been had. I was going to see this.  The English series stars the incredibly talented Simona Brown, Tom Bateman, Robert Aramayo and Eve Hewson as the major characters, Louise, David and Rob/Adele which this psychological/supernatural adultery themed thriller revolves around.   The series begins with a very beautiful, black, single mother of a 7yr old boy named Adam as she prepares for a date. She gets to the venue of the date, a bar and after realizing she’s been stood up, makes a move to leave but bumps into a tall handsome hunk of a man with a Scottish accent. They make small talk...
Read more