FASE 7

FASE 7 (PHASE 7) (2010)
AR
Directed by Nicolas Goldbart

CAST:
Daniel Hendler - Coco
Jazmin Stuart - Pipi
Yayo Guridi - Horacio

PLOT:
     Inside a quarantined apartment building a man must protect his pregnant wife from his new neighbors.

REVIEW:
      Well here I am starting to write the review for Fase 7, and I can't quite concentrate enough to really get anywhere serious on it due to AMC playing Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 back to back. I know I have to concentrate on the review but the brutal fight between Kiddo and Elle just started and I'm still amazed by it. In fact I'm quoting lines from the movie while typing this without even looking at what's going on on the screen. Just wish they would put out a director's cut of the movie including the missing fight scene with Michael Jai White. Anyway, you're here to read a review for Fase 7 so I shall get started on it!

     Daniel Hendler's Coco is just fun to watch throughout the movie as a guy that basically gets no respect from anyone and is afraid to take action himself. Half the movie is spent in Coco and his wife's apartment during a quarantine and the boredom that comes from and of basically being locked up with one person with no way out.  The movie really picks up once Coco decides to venture outside his apartment and start exploring his entire apartment complex and sees what is becoming of his neighbors as they start to devolve into insecurity and paranoia takes over their minds. Yayo Guridi's Horacio is just quirky as what at first seems like the usual conspiracy theorist giving Coco propaganda about  the world leaders final answer for economic downfall (gee, how timely) until it starts to sink in that maybe Horacio is actually the sane one all this time. Okay, he's basically a functioning crazy who has the best lines in the movie. It is easy to say that Federico Luppi's Zanutto is what brings the movie together. Zanutto is completely unhinged and can be compared to the virus that is destroying the outside world. Luppi's acting is what keeps the movie from becoming a parody as well as keeping it from being to over-serious.He does a great job with this balancing act.

     I have to give director Nicolas Goldbart a hand for making a timely social commentary. He also keeps the pacing at a mid level. Nothing really goes too fast or too slow, even though the beginning does seem to drag on for a while, it is deliberate though. Yes the film is low budget, but because of the way it is filmed it doesn't feel that way. Goldbart knew what to film to get his vision across while cutting scenes or action he knew isn't needed. Although cause of this, the movie never reaches the mayhem it could, instead the viewer is treated to a trophy room of past killings and as a way of showing that the character Zanutto is a virus in the building.  It is the dialogue between the neighbors at the start of the quarantine that sets the humanity level of the story and then we get to watch the deconstruction of society on a small scale both inside and outside of Coco's apartment.   

     What I liked most about the movie is that it comments on the political world and current events very slyly and doesn't go overboard with it.  In fact the subject matter is just a back drop to what is happening, or what causes the quarantine. With music reminiscent of early 80's horror and minimalistic sound design helping build the tension up, which the movie does a good job of yet without going overboard with it. Those that are going in expecting a taunt thiller with surplus blood will be disappointed as the Fase 7 is more of dark comedy than anything else, yet it is more than worth viewing just for the laughs and the weird tension that rises throughout.

BEST DEATH:
     A welcoming point blank shotgun to the face. I have a thing about exploding heads it seems........

BEST LINE:
     Who gives a flying fuck!

FUN FACTS:
     Fase 7 played at the South By Southwest film festival this year.