‘Vivarium’ Review: Jesse Eisenberg Satire Bites Off More Than It Can Chew
Eisenberg and Imogen Poots star in director Lorcan Finnegan’s film set in a purgatorial pre-fab suburb, but it never follows through on its interesting ideas
Feeling simultaneously overstuffed and undercooked, Lorcan Finnegan’s “Vivarium” tries to ring a warning bell about, well, a lot of things. In the end, though, it works best as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of filmmakers biting off more than they can chew.
Clearly a lot of thought went into the film. The story of a young couple trapped in a purgatorial pre-fab housing complex, “Vivarium” tries to work as a consumerist satire, as an allegory about parenting and as a sci-fi thriller, but it never fully satisfies on any one front.
Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots play a thirtysomething couple looking to take the plunge into homeownership. On a lark, they agree to visit a pre-fab suburb somewhere on the outskirts of town, mostly to gawk at the units that look like Monopoly houses painted in the uniquely unappealing shade of pea soup.
Only when it comes time to drop the laughs and head home, they find themselves unable to leave, driving in circles around the seemingly deserted suburb until their car runs out of gas and they decide to retire back to the house they toured for the night.
The next morning, a parcel arrives full of individually packed food products and amenities; then another parcel arrives the following day, this time containing a baby and a note: “Raise the child, and you’ll be freed.”
There’s a version of this that could work perfectly well as a comic allegory, a Jorge Luis Borges-like riff on Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime,” where the characters find themselves in a not-so-beautiful-house, with a not-so-beautiful life, asking themselves, well, how did they get here?
Another version of this film could lean harder into the human menagerie connotations of the title, foregrounding the more overt sci-fi elements the script tries to bluster its way through.
Both versions would be perfectly fascinating, and both could make for a richer film. But this hybrid ends up feeling like a bull session, throwing out promising avenues and interesting ideas without ever sticking on any of them long enough to consider their potential and see them through.
Which is too bad, because the film engages from a technical perspective, with sharp production design that plays up the inherently alien plasticity of the ‘burbs, and the story is anchored by a particularly strong lead performance from Poots. Maybe it’s fitting, then, for a film all about the parenting to inspire that most withering parental admonishment: We’re not mad at you, “Vivarium,” we’re just disappointed.
“Vivarium” is available on digital Friday, March 27.
16 Horror Movies Set in Broad Daylight, From 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' to 'A Quiet Place' (Photos)
Many iconic horror films lay their jump scares like mines behind dark corners, but there is also a subgenre of horror going back to Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" that basks its characters in the blazing sun.
Are you afraid of the dark? It doesn't matter, because the movies below are proof that nightmares can lurk even during daylight hours.
Universal/A24/Paramount
"The Birds" (1952)
Alfred Hitchcock takes the everyday fear of being attacked in the street by city pigeons to the next level, having what feels like every bird in the city of San Francisco attack humans without warning. What adds to the horror is that the birds attack when people are most on the move; one scene depicts a flock of crows attacking a group of school children. "The Birds" stars Tippi Hedren as the lead Melanie Daniels, with Rod Taylor starring alongside as criminal defense attorney Mitch Brenner.
Universal Pictures
"The Wicker Man" (1973, 2006)
"The Wicker Man" is similar to "Midsommar" in that foreigners -- in this case police sergeant Neil Howie -- travel to a remote location where villagers follow an ancient pagan religion. Howie (Edward Woodward) is quickly entangled in the village's May Day celebrations, where he discovers the villagers are going to use the missing child as a sacrifice. Nicolas Cage starred as the lead in the 2006 American remake.
Warner Bros.
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974)
Sally (Marilyn Burns), her three friends and father Franklin are attacked by the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) when their car runs out of gas and have nowhere to go. Sally is put in a race against the dwindling sunlight as she does everything she can to escape.
Vortex Films
"Jaws" (1975)
During the opening scene, we are introduced to Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie), who decides to take a dip in the ocean after leaving a beach party. The John Williams score starts to swell when Chrissie suddenly feels something pulling at her from underneath. The terrorizing shark, even though it was shown only briefly during the actual movie, left audiences fearful of ever going back into the ocean. "When you go out into the water, there’s this idea you’re incredibly vulnerable," a clinical psychologist told the New York Post in 2015. “Literally anything can kind of happen. We’re built to kind of fear that, we’re built to fear the unknown.”
Universal Pictures
"The Hills Have Eyes"(1977, 2006)
A family's trip from Ohio to Los Angeles goes awry when their truck explodes in the Nevada desert. They soon realize they're surrounded by a clan of cannibals lurking in the hills. "The Hills Have Eyes" director Wes Craven shot the film in the New Mexico desert, while the 2006 remake was shot in Morocco.
Fox Searchlight
"Dawn of the Dead" (1978, 2004)
A zombie uprising leads a group of human survivors to camp out in a shopping mall. Why are the zombies drawn to the mall? The movie explains to us that it's where the humans were used to being when they were alive.
MKR Group
"Predator" (1987)
Arnold Schwarzenegger leads a special forces rescue team on a mission to save U.S. officials captured by the Soviets. The story plays out much like a Cold War action film, except for the fact that their foes aren't only the Soviets, but also an alien species armed with advanced hunting weapons and the power of invisibility.
20th Century Fox
"Tremors" (1990)
Valentine (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) try to save a small town from carnivorous "megaworms" in this early '90s creature feature, much of it taking place under the arid heat of the Nevada sun.
Universal Pictures
"Anaconda" (1997)
Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube and Owen Wilson. Sounds like a great group to go on an exotic trip with, except when they're a documentary film crew traversing the dangerous Amazon in "Anaconda." The crew is taken hostage by a hunter (Jon Voight), who forces them to help him capture a monstrous snake.
Columbia Pictures
"Lake Placid" (1999)
A crew investigates the disappearance of a scuba diver off the coast of Maine, only to find a gigantic saltwater crocodile dwelling below. The movie stars Brendan Gleeson as Sheriff Hank Keough. The actor also appears in other entries on this list, including "28 Days Later" and "The Village."
Fox 2000
"The Ring" (2002)
Newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) investigates why people are dying seven days after watching a cursed videotape in this remake of a Japanese horror film of the same name. Similar to other thrillers that followed "The Ring," the film emphasizes the green and blue colors in the frame, adding to its eeriness in either day or night.
DreamWorks Pictures
"Ju-On: The Grudge" (2002)
A Japanese social worker is taking care of an ill mother when she realizes the house she's working in is cursed from a murder that took place in that very home. The vengeful supernatural force takes the shape of a young woman and boy with pale blue skin.
Lions Gate Films
"28 Days Later" (2003)
Cillian Murphy wakes up from a coma to discover that London has been decimated by a virus, leading those who are infected to turn into rabid zombies. A friendly tip: Just like when trying the "Hot Ones" challenge, don't let any of it get in your eyes.
20th Century Fox
"The Village" (2004)
Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix and Sigourney Weaver star as members of a small countryside community that fear a predator outside of their village is set to attack them.
Touchstone Pictures
"A Quiet Place" (2018)
Lee (John Krasinski), Evelyn (Emily Blunt) and their kids are forced to live a life of silence when blind aliens with armored skin invade Earth, attacking anything that makes the slightest sound.
Paramount Pictures
"Midsommar" (2019)
In Ari Aster's horror flick, four American tourists go on a trip to a remote commune in Sweden to immerse themselves in a festival during the summer solstice or "midnight sun," a period of time when it's almost exclusively light out. And then things get really trippy.
A24
1 of 17
Movies like “Jaws,” “The Birds” and “The Hills Have Eyes” prove you don’t need to be in the dark to be horrified
Many iconic horror films lay their jump scares like mines behind dark corners, but there is also a subgenre of horror going back to Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" that basks its characters in the blazing sun.
Are you afraid of the dark? It doesn't matter, because the movies below are proof that nightmares can lurk even during daylight hours.
Universal/A24/Paramount
Universal Pictures
