All is Lost (J.C. Chandor, 2013)

Speaking of Cast Away, the survival drama is relocated from a tropical island to a medium sized sailing boat, lost at sea. Leading the picture is Hollywood icon Robert Redford (All the President’s Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Chandor’s second feature is largely absent of dialogue, instead drawing us into the silent, perilous journey of a man trying to survive adrift at sea. On the surface it’s an effective and even nail-biting thriller, with carefully constructed sequences of honest to god suspense, like when a storm hits and he has to quickly think how to stop water from pooling in the cabin before the boat is done for. But it’s also a surprisingly emotional existential drama, meditating on man at his most primal and basic. There’s something poetic about separating man from society and pitting him against nature, making All is Lost the rare double-barreled film both visceral and heady.

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