Inside: Fascinating Willem Dafoe (review)
Trapped by the security system of a New York penthouse, a thief risks his survival and his sanity. A psychological thriller in which the American actor, the real subject of the film, excels.
The pitch high concept is tantalizing: Nemo (Willem Dafoe), a gifted art thief, finds himself trapped in a luxurious New York penthouse when the security system begins to go wrong. Impossible to open the armored door, break a window or reach the outside. Trapped in this golden prison whose reversible air conditioning goes from polar cold to barely bearable heat, the burglar will have to survive with the little water and food available. Psychological survival not devoid of humor (the freezer plays the Macarena at each opening, unpayable running gag), Inside would very much like to go beyond its initial premise to tell the story of the inanity of rich collectors and the social crushing of the weak by the powerful. Filled with metaphorical motifs and winks (these expensive paintings hung on the walls of an apartment visibly inhabited two days a year, and which seem to taunt Nemo), the film nevertheless remains stuck at the first level. The fault of the solid but without genius staging of the Greek director Vasilis Katsoupis (his second feature seven years later My friend Larry Gus, unpublished in France). Which in no way prevents Inside to function as a pure perverse spectator pleasure, where the weathered and malleable face of Willem Dafoe – more and more fascinating as he ages – becomes a sort of canvas projecting in turn anguish, madness and euphoria, with stunning intensity. The real subject of the film is him, and nothing else.
Of Vasilis Katsoupis With Willem Dafoe, Gene Bervoets, Eliza Stuyck… Duration 1 hour 45 minutes. Released November 1, 2023
