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Sounds the logical songfrom Supertramp, at the beginning of spider headthe dystopian film by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun Maverick) with Chris Hemsworth (Thor, when playing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and Miles Teller (flick), premiered this Friday at Netflix.
And while not all of the songs on the film’s soundtrack have their plot implications, you have to listen to Roger Hodgson when he sings that of Please tell me who I am (please tell me who i am), because some characters in the film, due to so many drugs on them, don’t know who they are.
One of them is Jeff, played by Teller, who comes from working with Kosinski Top Gun Maverick, like Gallus, the son of the late Goose. He understands, in part, why being a prisoner he agreed not to be in prison and to undergo drug tests on his body, as other inmates do. It’s a medical experiment, a science experiment or whatever you want to call it.
Australian Chris Hemsworth produced and starred in this John Kosinski film in his home country. Netflix photos
The place is run by Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth), a researcher on what we might call the beautiful island.
Spider head is the title, and also the name of this detention center away from it all, luxurious, set on an island with a spectacular pier. The inmates agree to be guinea pigs in a super cool environment, in exchange for not eating the typical, almost vomiting prison food.
Chris Hemsworth drives the speedboat and Miles Teller is blindfolded. And it’s not that I trust too much.
Is that there are no cells with bars, but single bedrooms, people from the kitchen pass by with trays of delicacies (Lizzy is Jeff’s romantic interest, played by Jurnee Smollett, from Lovecraft country Y Birds of prey), there are also ping pong leagues, and if they act like Jeff, they can even enjoy a Friday off.
Terror, laughter or sex
Of course, to receive those benefits, they also receive the drugs (they have to agree every time they are administered in their fluid). Steve and his assistant Mark (Mark Pagio) give them drugs from a device attached to their body (Movipack), with a catalyst, and observe the different effects and monitor their reactions.
Steve (Hemsworth) invites Jeff (Teller) to see how other inmates react to drugs.
Steve and / or Mark can, by moving a finger on their cell phone screen, switch from giving him a drug that stimulates verbalization to another that causes him to experience hallucinatory terror (they call him Terrorflox). In between, there is one that makes them laugh, even if they should react differently to what they are told, or behave sexually in a frenzied way.
“I want to know if love, if this love, lasts,” he says after Jeff and Heather (Tess Haubrich), who didn’t know each other, love each other wildly. “We are working for a better world,” says Steve on more than one occasion.
Will it be another mad scientist, in the middle of a lost island?
Jeff and Lizzy (Jurnee Smollett, from “Lovecraft Country” and “Birds of Prey”): is love stronger?
Kosinski, who has a lot of experience in science fiction cinema (Tron: Legacy, Oblivion: The time of oblivionwith Cruise) was based on the short story Escape from Spiderheada dystopian story by George Saunders published in the magazine The New Yorker. Adapted by the authors of dead PoolPaul Wernick and Rhett Reese, does not guarantee that this is an action comedy.
In any case it would be a satire, but up to there.
There are inmates of all kinds who agree to be drugged so as not to have (such) bad times.
In the plot prevails the threat that the state or a private individual can hold up the emotions of any citizen, but spider head, at least the film, rather than making those approaches, goes on the side of the action, with some touches of comedy. To loosen the nerves.
Little by little – and don’t worry we won’t ruin anything for you – it will be revealed why the inmates ended up in prison and what Steve’s purpose would be.
Miles Teller, who was in “Top Gun Maverick”, also directed by John Kosinski.
Hemsworth and Teller seem comfortable in their roles, except when, if it’s an action movie, the script forces them to fight. If Chris isn’t as ruthlessly funny as when he brings Thor’s hammer, it’s because of the script and Teller looks really serious. Why so serious? The Joker would ask him, but we’d already be talking about another movie, and spider head ends up being not-so-stunning entertainment.
A tip, when you see it DO NOT READ the description that accompanies the +16 vote at the beginning, because there is a spoiler. No problem.
“Spider head”
Good
action / drama Australia, United States, 2022. Original title: “spider head”. 106 ‘, SAM 16. Of: Joseph Kosinski. With: Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett. Available in: Netflix.
Paul O. Scholz
Source: Clarin
