Lupita Nyong'o: "A Quiet Place"

I am so tired of thinking and hearing about Joe Biden. I am so angry that--through his self-absorption and intransigence--he is steering the country toward another Trump presidency. It seems insane to me that the country is where it is. I'm annoyed about Jill Biden--and her "Vote" dress--as well.

So it was helpful to spend two hours in a theater, watching a film about death. Sam is a young woman struggling with cancer. She lives in a facility upstate, and she attends group therapy. In another life, she was a poet--and her nurse forces her to "share" her most recent lyrical draft.

This place is shit.

The food tastes like shit.

The music is shit.

Ben smells like shit....

Rather surprisingly, Sam agrees to attend a field trip to NYC; the reason is that she desires a Patsy's slice, a kind of "Last Supper." It's only after the lengthy, smelly bus ride that she discovers she is living through an alien apocalypse. And the question becomes, what will happen first: delicious communion with a Patsy's pizza, or death-by-alien-attack?

This movie has several strengths; most writers are focusing on Lupita Nyong'o's charismatic, plausible performance. I also liked the visual details: the closeup of a grimy streetlight, the interior of a semi-abandoned cathedral, the layers of ash on the face of one survivor. I thought the screenplay was often smart, especially in the way it handled Sam's cat and Sam's pizza. Finally, the use of sound (and a late audio "cameo" by Nina Simone) will stay with me.

This seems to be a notably brutal summer for movies, but "A Quiet Place: Day One" evinces signs of thought and inspiration. Thank God for that. Two thumbs up.

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