Where I Watched it: Netflix

English Audio Description Provided By: International Digital Center

Written By: Liz Gutman

Narrated By Jabari Gray

Cast: Julia Robert’s, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, Myha’al, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evan’s, and Kevin Bacon.

Written and Directed By: Sam Ismael

I went through all the emotions while watching this roller coaster. I remember at the top of my YouTube review, I said this movie gets all the grades. It had me so confused, up and down, weird shit, great shit, experimental takes, great acting, bad acting, cool ideas, unoriginal ideas, and then right at the end… I realized. this film is amazing, you just need a certain perspective.

This movie is about a young girl, Rose (Mackenzie) who is living her best life. She is obsessed with the TV show Friends, and she has been binge watching it for the first time. Will Ross and Rachel end up together? There is no greater question in life. She even asks her parents if they can take a trip to central Perk. But, her mom drags her away along with the rest of her family, to an Air B&B type situation for a vacation, and she’s stuck out in the middle of nowhere. But she still has her tablet. And then the world starts to end. Will Rose be able to finish Friends in time to beat the apocalypse?

Rose is my spirit animal. Lots of people have thrown their ire at this movie, and a lot of it is earned. But, to look at this film from Rose’s perspective, she is laser focused on getting to that series finale, apocalypse be damned. Her story should ring true to any cinephile as she makes a strong case for physical media.

The rest of her family is caught up in the whole push and pull of this film going from interesting to abominable, and everything in between. It’s a conglomerate of ideas, and one that feels like it wants really bad to have a sequel, almost like I Am Legend. The big curveball thrown is that while this family is staying at the house, two mysterious strangers show up. They claim to be the owners of the house, and they turned around and came back. Ali plays the father of this duo, who is more than generous, and as the film explores the apocalypse dynamic, it also explores race, strangers, and anything else its director wants to cram into its overstuffed runtime.

Robert’s comes across as racist, but later just admits she hates people in general, regardless of their race. She’s just a bitch 24/7. Hawke clearly has something else going on, and has an interesting scene where we explore how he does not know Spanish, before he’s attacked by advertising. Their son likes to masturbate, and annoy his sister. Rose, when she’s not trying to watch Friends, notices the deer are acting strange. And Ali’s daughter in the film is annoying. She doesn’t really do anything, but she has a monologue about wanting that to be her thing. She doesn’t see the point of having a career. Gen Z. Am I right?

The audio description here is one of the best of the year, as it actually tracks Ismael’s movement. He likes to bring style to the film so you might think you’re watching a better director. He’ll pull the camera through a keyhole, or drop the shot through the floor to the lower family. There are also a lot of weird things that happen.

We do have to normalize describing random things more often. The problem with pointing certain things out is that in the audio description I know it will later become useful because we just don’t point this stuff out enough. So, for example, when a car door is left open, and mentioned in the audio description, I know we’ll be coming back to that at some point.

I can agree this movie is deeply flawed, and the critics who don’t like it have very valid points. I also see the people who are terrified by it, and I understand why. but for me, i look at the story of a girl, who despite seeing the world collapsing around her, against all odds, WILL find her Friends series finale. It’s never really stated who is behind all of this, but Rose stands defiantly against whatever terrorist group, alien race, or even God, and stares into their souls so they know she will not be raptured until she has some answers.

So, my grade is based on her perspective in this film, because I love the ending, and I love that the theme from Friends plays during the end credits.

Final Grade: B+