Bottom of the World (2017) Reviews

• Fever dreams of guilt and the after life make for a challenging concept

  gayleosman2017-05-02

  Anyway, this film was fairly fun if you like to think, figure things out. Like watching the 'best of' compilation of someone else's fever dreams. Bottom of the World delves under the surface, to the dark foundations that we embrace by night and ignore by day. This conceit is taken to a psychological level and into the disturbing unconscious mind of Scarlett (Jena Malone) and her creation of a new reality. The film leaves us with more questions than answers but hats off to trying to make something different and challenging to the viewer. I don't recall a film that was entirely a creation of the sub-conscious other than - Fight Club?

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• Dive into your subconscious...

  Corlissa09942017-11-27

  This film having taking cues from Film makers such as David Lynch, Richard Kelly, and Adrian Lyne, still manages to hold its own unique eeriness and maintain attention from the viewer. Spoilers: This movie moves quite a bit, and is very tricky in that the most active character Alex is not even a real entity, but a complex manifestation of Scarlett's last living moments. The movie takes a classic approach to letting the story "unravel" to finally understand what actually is happening as the movie wraps up. My take: Scarlett is a young woman who when she was growing up tortured for several years and then eventually murdered her handicapped cousin by burying him alive in a open fire pit. She made up a cover story to family and police that a burglar had broken in, killed her cousin and proceeded to rape her. Her story was believed by all, and even assured her sympathy and support. The movie we see, is in her subconscious during her suicide by pills and alcohol. Even though she has overdosed, she is not brain dead and therefore piecing through a land of guilt, confusion and retribution. Alex is only a piece of her mind, and actually a part of Scarlett. Alex represents her confusion, her guilt, her comfort and finally her penance and self realization. Right at the beginning when they get to the Ranch, you see Scarlett immediately jumps right in to the thick of it by asking Alex what the most horrible thing he has even done. She proceeds to tell the detailed horrific story of her cousin, (leaving out the murder at this time) and then quickly pretend it was just a joke. This being the first moments of her being honest with herself of what happened, and yet not being fully ready to deal with it. Not long after,you see her start to break down with fear and sadness as she is starting to let in the truth of her guilt and horrible actions. With these feelings fear and confusion almost innocent, she finds comfort and is drawn to her father, represented by the Preacher who first appears on their hotel TV. The entity of Scarlett disappears, and then the part of her that is Alex now has to piece apart the confusion, and along the way is faced with her biggest fears, her fate, her dark side, which is the hooded man that "buries" people alive. (this is no coincidence) The merging of all the cloudy pieces comes when Alex finally goes to her house to understand more of whats going on. We find that the image of Alex, may have been just a neighbor she saw in her waking life that she had a small attraction or obsessiveness with, but no real relationship. She acknowledges that he is in her closet, and demands for him to just take what he is there for. Hence, rape her. She is expecting to be punished, by having all of her own lies and actions come back and really happen to her, thus her lying about a man murdering the cousin and raping her. He reluctantly denies her, and then accuses him of raping her yet again, when her father enters the room. Then Alex takes Scarlett to her old house where she had murdered her cousin, and where she had lied to cover it up. All of her guilty truths are told, and Alex punishes her but burying her in the dirt. This is way she felt she deserved to be punished, and therefore can die in peace. They then show her true body in the conscious world die in a bed after the overdose. A well done film that you may need to watch twice to see all of the hidden potential. Great acting on all parts, and a great story.

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• My theory ----

  janicethompson-379642017-04-27

  Here's what I took: The anecdote of her cousin Wayne that she tells in the beginning is true. At first I wrote the story off as a simple and needless tale based used for shock value (poor writing), but it's so over the top and grotesque that as a viewer, it's so ridiculous that you don't want to believe it, or even regard it as a necessary bit of information because she tells it as a fake story to make Alex squirm. So you forget about it, because at this point, Scarlett is depicted as facetious and maybe a bit unstable. Jumping to the end, you find out that she really committed the heinous acts that she describes in the beginning. Alex is a part of her subconscious, the fact that he has developed sentience within her own delusion is a deeper part of her subconscious that is condemning her as she is unable to process her own guilt (EG her heavy alcoholism). It's a very interesting way to tell a story, as she takes the backseat in the focal point of the story that is 100% in her own head. Now whether she is "delusional", or there are actual spiritual forces at work within the two realms of Alex's initial reality, and the second one where he is her neighbor is sort of up to interpretation. Notice the scene where Paige, (Alex's wife) is counting peas in the kitchen, and it immediately swaps to her holding a glass of milk, as if it's a glitch, this is a tell that he is not in the realm of true reality when they knew each other, or when they're neighbors. Alex is the embodiment of her guilt and shame and also the judgement of maybe a supernatural entity, so he isn't necessarily a person, more of a shifting presence. Alex never existed, she conjured him up.

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• Requires some work to figure it all out but worth it...

  demigodx2017-04-03

  This movie is artistic, confusing, and trippy. If you like strange/complex it is a most creative film. It might be confusing at some parts but that just made it better. Movies today don't put responsibility on the viewer to figure out what is going on and this film does that. Not only that but the Scarlett character is amazing and devastating all at once. Acting is done very well, Jena Malone was great in her role of Scarlet and Ted Levine did a decent job with his character too. Direction is top notch and I will definitely check other movies done by this director. Overall this movie was a joy ride for me and I give it a well deserved 8 star rating.

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• Not for everyone, but I enjoyed it

  jtindahouse2017-02-18

  I kind of liked 'Bottom of the World'. I make no bones about the fact I'm a fan of the 'mystery' genre, and this film certainly had an element of mystery to it. It's a film where the audience knows as little about what's going on as the characters (if not even less at times), yet there are constant hints as to the direction our thinking should be going in. Then a nice little ending was the icing on the cake. The whole "nothing makes sense, what is going on?" thing has been done in movies thousands of times over the years, but it always seems to work. I think in a way, much like a magic show, the audience wants to be fooled, or at least in a state of curiosity. It can also be quite easy for film makers to pull off, because the usual linear film making techniques obviously go out the window, and thus it can be harder for an audience to judge what is actually good and what is not. Some people on the other hand will always hate this type of film and that's fine. I see 'Bottom of the World' being a very polarising film. Some will have a great time with it, while others will utterly despise it. I was in the former camp.

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