Movie Review: Stake Land (no spoilers)

2011

Director: Jim Mickle

Writers: Jim Mickle, Nick Damici (also lead character)

(Available on Netflix)

Stake Land was very well-crafted. The cinematography was truly delightful to watch. It was unique, without being overly “artsy” and perfectly captures the environment. Despite the shit-sandwich these characters are encountering on a daily-basis, the movie had a sense of peace to it that makes the unimaginable tolerable to watch. I would have loved some more one-liners for “Mister,” at the end, but the character was great. The character Martin was a solid narrator. Over-all, I can say is Stake Land delivers, and despite my next paragraph, needs to be seen.

I have a couple criticisms, but mostly that’s because I’m from a cynical, sarcastic area and this stuff just automatically gets created in my mind. First off, picking on the Christians is about as risky as kicking a kid who has already been knocked out-cold by the school bully, with the same moral-relativism. I realize the temptation given the megaphone of the movies, but why single them out directly? That’s a lot of people that will get turned off, even if they don’t fight back. Also, some of the contemplative stares lasted a bit too long. Could have shaved 15 minutes by not having to watch people staring out with a blank expression.

*I would note the dystopian future genre has been an extreemly popular theme among films lately. Maybe that has something to do with how our current world-leaders are preforming.

Overall – worth-seeing