Most Beautiful Island (2017) Reviews

• Strange

  billcr122017-11-08

  I do not know how to categorize this film. A thirty something immigrant from Spain is escaping her life there after a tragic accident has killed her daughter. Her mother asks her to return home, but she decides to remain in New York City. She works odd jobs, including one as a babysitter to two spoiled brats. A Russian friend informs her of a job paying $2,000 just to attend a private party and blend in while looking pretty in a black mini skirt. If it is too good to be true, and you know the rest. She shows up at the party and it does not go well. The last 15 minutes or so are quite disturbing. There is no way to describe it without spoiling the movie and so I won't. I will warn of some brief full nudity. The acting is good and it only runs eighty minutes. NY City provides a gritty background which works well for the movie.

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• A Powerful Provocative Film about the Dark Side of the American Dream

  JustCuriosity2017-03-16

  Most Beautiful Island was extremely well-received at Austin's SXSW Film Festival where it won Grand Jury Award for Narrative Feature. This eloquent film explores the experiences of Luciana, a recent undocumented immigrant, who has recently arrived from her home land and is just trying to get by in New York. The film focuses on a single day as she takes various odd jobs and then gets invited to work at a mysterious party where she will be extremely well-paid for a single night's work. The suspense builds towards a truly shocking and deeply disturbing climax. This film shows the truly dark side of the American Dream and the truly disturbing nature of class privilege in a society with huge gaps in class and, therefore, power and privilege. The story is described as inspired by true events so there may be some exaggeration in the actual climax, but it is still quite powerful and leaves the audience awestruck. Ana Asensio directed, wrote and stars in this fascinating and absorbing film. It is beautiful written, filmed and acted. The tension builds towards the disturbing climax. The American Dream is not always what it seems to be and needs to be re-imagined for our current economic and political realities. I hope the film gets distributed so more people can learn to empathize with the immigrant experience which has sadly become a political punching bag in recent years.

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• this movie stunk

  t-unknown-one2017-11-07

  It'll be tough to write five lines. It's all right there in the summary. I read reviews and thought I was in for a shocking horror- fest ending. Wrong, it was very dull. Admittedly, I wouldn't want to be in any of their shoes in the ending scenes but it was nothing special really, a real fizzle out ending. I'm not a fan of slasher/gore films and that's not the type of horror/thriller I was looking for and still this film simply stunk. There was nothing deep I could have missed. Whoever said in their review that it was full of mystery was very very misleading, there is no real mystery, maybe a little anticipation as you don't know exactly what is going to be required of the lead character to earn this big money but it's not much and not all that unique. The acting really wasn't bad, but they had junk to work with. Oh, and contrary to one of the other reviews here, there are NO "giant spiders" just two very small ones. Trust me, this movie sucked considering all the hype the reviews on here gave it. It's nothing special, shocking or eye opening, in fact, I was sorry I left mine open long enough to see it all.

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• An immigrant and dark thrill and Ana Asensio complete package.........

  kashidomar2017-10-31

  This is a different type of movie all together. Not a normal thriller movie of recent time. With lot of mystery it involves the misery of a Spanish immigrant and her struggling life. She suffers to meet her daily needs. She does anything to earn money. This movie is associated with the dark side of rich people of Newyork city. Along this it also creates an interesting environment and lot of suspense about the torturing process of the rich people. All the way you are not sure what is going to happen next. What violence is going to grab her. Ana Asensio deserve a lot of credit as she is the writer, director and the central role of the movie. First of all she has written an extraordinary script mixed with sorrow, pain,sufferings,horror and violence. Next she has directed the movie pretty well as the movie starts with the simple story of the immigrant girl but soon reaches it's pick when the original game of shadows started to flourish. And finally as an actress she has created perfect moves to draw the figure of the emotions and tears of the central role. Some audience may find the movie a bit harsh as they may find it difficult to tolerate the cruelty of human mind arising from the darkest side of our mind. Some may find it a notorious movie as there are several near nude and seminude scenes in the film. But apart from all this it is an excellent movie of saddest aspect of the immigrant life with a lot of appeal and mystery as well as thrill in it.

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• Worth a watch

  drutledge-387552019-01-19

  Not great acting but decent enough, and good story. Kept the suspense up right to the reveal, which was worth the wait, though I may not sleep well tonight...