Near future world with water scarcity issues. Worth a look.

Within the first 3 minutes of the film you can see that the writer and director is a big fan of Quentin's work, this is immediately evident by the over-splattered blood, and then this super obvious "Chapter 1" that appears on the screen. Now the obvious question is "does this film justify being put into chapters?" And personally I believe the answer is no.. the storyline just doesn't feel like chapters are needed because the whole film could actually be put into one chapter called "water crisis". Now the acting, that's a different story, it's a bunch of actors who usually take supporting roles who all have to carry the film at the times when it feels like nothing happens and boy do they succeed! Michael Shannon sells his role like he always does and quite frankly one wouldn't rank him higher than any of the rest of the cast which is really good. The photography is fresh considering this is a low budget film shot with South African equipment. You do get a hint of visual quality that is usually found in other South African films and that is a shame, I'm not sure if it is that the film is likely in 25FPS instead of the Hollywood 24FPS but there is a noticeable difference, whatever it is you get used to it quite quickly. The zooming resolutions are sure to impress you and the Google BigDog feels like one of the cast with an emotional connection as well. All in all I wouldn't discourage anyone from watching this film, but I wouldn't recommend it if you want to see a good film either. If you have extra time on your hands and want to see what you shouldn't do when copying other directors go for this, if you want to see a film about how to correctly execute a low budget, then go for this as well.

I just watched this movie (yes a bit late to the game) and was amazed at the, well everything. It was a minimalist movie for the genre but did so much with what they had it seemed like a big budget film. The story is compelling and you actually come to feel emotions for the characters. The direction was outstanding with shots that brought you into the action while at the same time made you feel alone in the desert. Lastly the actors how this movie escaped the Academy is beyond me. Each one brought an element unique to their part of the story from Michael Shannon who was outstanding as the farmer who struggled to keep thing as sane as possible for his children and who hoped for better days with such devotion as to be palpable. To Nicholas Hoult who showed more range than any young actor has a right to. But the rest of the cast each added an element that together make this film amazing.

Its funny whenever I see movies like this I like them and dislike them-I like them because they make you appreciate what you have by seeing a world where people have really not much at all- and at the same time I dislike them because its like the film that was designed to make people in the real world feel happy with less. Neat trick. Anyway, as far as near future movies go this one is basically a good film-the acting is not bad-three cheers for that-and the plot line is also effective. Apparently the robotic donkey is a real device made in Boston. The beginning of the film reminded me vaguely of the first Star Wars movie-the farm in the desert bit I suppose. I cannot remember it ever being in cinemas but I might have just missed it completely when it came out. I bought it after watching it online for free. Worth a look for "hardcore" SF fans-others probably won't find it all that interesting. Not for kids with scenes of violence and some gore.