Willem Dafoe defies classification. He appears in blockbusters and arthouse films, in lead roles or as part of an ensemble. What can be counted on is that he’ll add a dash of idiosyncratic malevolence to whatever part he’s playing. Whether he’s playing Christ, Antichrist or somewhere in between, there’s always something slightly off that makes him watchable. In “Inside,” director Vasilis Katsoupis provides him with a showcase part in what is essentially a one-man show that Dafoe carries with aplomb.
Dafoe’s character is an art thief named Nemo. He is first shown breaking into a high-tech Manhattan apartment. He’s connected to someone on the outside via microphone. It’s clear they hacked into the apartment’s security system. The camera slowly reveals the apartment as an expensive and impeccably designed but sterile abode. Its colors are monochromatic in a mostly bluish hue, there’s...
Dafoe’s character is an art thief named Nemo. He is first shown breaking into a high-tech Manhattan apartment. He’s connected to someone on the outside via microphone. It’s clear they hacked into the apartment’s security system. The camera slowly reveals the apartment as an expensive and impeccably designed but sterile abode. Its colors are monochromatic in a mostly bluish hue, there’s...
- 3/17/2023
- by Murtada Elfadl
- Variety Film + TV
The frozen tundra, a desert island, the depths of a jungle, the middle of the ocean, the ends of the earth — these are the places where you normally set a survivalist thriller. Inside adds one more to that list of adapt-or-perish hot spots: New York real estate. Specifically, the kind of luxurious penthouse apartment favored by the one percent, coveted by most plebeian Gothamites, and considered a bona fide bonanza for an ambitious art thief. It just so happens that one of the latter has, along with a team of fellow criminals,...
- 3/16/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Inside is a single-location dramatic thriller that taps into claustrophobia. Director Vasilis Katsoupis and screenwriter Ben Hopkins rely on the talents of Willem Dafoe to carry what’s essentially a one-man show. Despite an assuredly solid performance, Inside is a tepid film that finds moments of tension, but it doesn’t quite push itself as much as it needs to.
‘Inside’ finds a high-end art thief trapped Willem Dafoe as Nemo | Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Features
Nemo (Dafoe) is a high-end art thief with his eyes set on a huge hit in a New York penthouse. His team did their homework, and they have the perfect plan to get in, get out, and score millions of dollars in the process. However, the heist doesn’t go according to plan, as the alarms sound off and lock him inside the expensive, modern home.
Abandoned by his team, Nemo finds himself locked inside...
‘Inside’ finds a high-end art thief trapped Willem Dafoe as Nemo | Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Features
Nemo (Dafoe) is a high-end art thief with his eyes set on a huge hit in a New York penthouse. His team did their homework, and they have the perfect plan to get in, get out, and score millions of dollars in the process. However, the heist doesn’t go according to plan, as the alarms sound off and lock him inside the expensive, modern home.
Abandoned by his team, Nemo finds himself locked inside...
- 3/13/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Willem Dafoe gets a dream role with Inside, a combo of art film in more ways than one, psychological thriller, heist movie, and survival tale all rolled into one in which Dafoe’s Nemo is center stage, alone, the entire time.
The Focus Features release is World Premiering today at the Berlin Film Festival and is the brainchild and narrative feature debut for Greek director Vasilis Katsoupis whose only previous feature was a documentary called My Friend Larry Gus. Here with the help of screenwriter Ben Hopkins, he takes a challenging leap forward creating a wrenching drama about an art thief who becomes trapped in a glass cage, in this case a New York City luxury apartment that if we didn’t know better could pass itself off as an art gallery, its walls and floors full of distinctive works of arts from paintings to sculptures, video to installations, and more.
The Focus Features release is World Premiering today at the Berlin Film Festival and is the brainchild and narrative feature debut for Greek director Vasilis Katsoupis whose only previous feature was a documentary called My Friend Larry Gus. Here with the help of screenwriter Ben Hopkins, he takes a challenging leap forward creating a wrenching drama about an art thief who becomes trapped in a glass cage, in this case a New York City luxury apartment that if we didn’t know better could pass itself off as an art gallery, its walls and floors full of distinctive works of arts from paintings to sculptures, video to installations, and more.
- 2/20/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
You didn’t think Willem Dafoe would star in a conventional escape room thriller, did you? Then again, “Inside” is barely an escape room thriller despite it being about an art thief trapped in the location of his latest heist. Greek filmmaker Vasilis Katsoupis’s elegant provocation may be closer to the kind of existential mood pieces that generations ago defined so much of European cinema, but it’s been given a modern gloss of design, tension, and star power more in keeping with the gripping tales of solitude that have found a mainstream audience.
Inevitably, because of its challenging nature, “Inside” and its methodical excavation of one man’s survival instincts in a place not assumed to require endurance –- a luxury penthouse in Manhattan — will likely only appeal to the arthouse crowd. Even among discerning moviegoers its more indulgent elements may occasionally grate.
But in Dafoe, an actor...
Inevitably, because of its challenging nature, “Inside” and its methodical excavation of one man’s survival instincts in a place not assumed to require endurance –- a luxury penthouse in Manhattan — will likely only appeal to the arthouse crowd. Even among discerning moviegoers its more indulgent elements may occasionally grate.
But in Dafoe, an actor...
- 2/20/2023
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
To set a 100-minute drama entirely inside the confines of a single apartment — and to have just a solitary character performing for the camera — might not seem like the most obvious template for an edge-of-your-seat thriller.
But when that character is played by a versatile actor with the range of multi-Oscar-nominated Willem Dafoe, there’s no telling what will emerge. That’s the case with “Inside,” which premieres Feb. 20 in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival. Focus Features is releasing the film theatrically in the U.S. on March 17.
Dafoe stars as an art thief who enters a collector’s high-tech penthouse hunting for valuable works of art, only to be trapped inside when the security system locks the apartment down. When help fails to arrive, the thief — surrounded by so many of the art works he covets and admires — must use all of his cunning and invention to survive,...
But when that character is played by a versatile actor with the range of multi-Oscar-nominated Willem Dafoe, there’s no telling what will emerge. That’s the case with “Inside,” which premieres Feb. 20 in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival. Focus Features is releasing the film theatrically in the U.S. on March 17.
Dafoe stars as an art thief who enters a collector’s high-tech penthouse hunting for valuable works of art, only to be trapped inside when the security system locks the apartment down. When help fails to arrive, the thief — surrounded by so many of the art works he covets and admires — must use all of his cunning and invention to survive,...
- 2/20/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
When German filmmaker Patrick Vollrath told Dp Sebastian Thaler that he planned to do a film shot in one room, Thaler was curious. What he didn’t know was that Vollrath meant a cockpit.
Vollrath’s feature debut, “7500,” which bows in the U.S. on Amazon Prime Video on June 19, stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tobias, a young American co-pilot operating an evening Berlin-to-Paris flight. Shortly after takeoff, terrorists storm the cockpit and try to hijack the flight, and Tobias is put to the test to save his passengers.
It’s a story that’s been developed many times, from “Executive Decision” to “Air Force One” to “Con Air,” using thrilling action cuts between the tension in the cockpit and the anxiety of the passengers. Vollrath wanted to tackle his hijack story differently.
“He wanted to do this fly-on-the-wall, documentary style with long takes,” Thaler explains. “And he wanted to shoot in a real cockpit.
Vollrath’s feature debut, “7500,” which bows in the U.S. on Amazon Prime Video on June 19, stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tobias, a young American co-pilot operating an evening Berlin-to-Paris flight. Shortly after takeoff, terrorists storm the cockpit and try to hijack the flight, and Tobias is put to the test to save his passengers.
It’s a story that’s been developed many times, from “Executive Decision” to “Air Force One” to “Con Air,” using thrilling action cuts between the tension in the cockpit and the anxiety of the passengers. Vollrath wanted to tackle his hijack story differently.
“He wanted to do this fly-on-the-wall, documentary style with long takes,” Thaler explains. “And he wanted to shoot in a real cockpit.
- 6/19/2020
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
At a time when many of us are still trapped at home and riveted by stressful news, the claustrophobic intensity of Amazon Prime Video’s “7500” serves as the best kind of thriller release valve. We’re confined to the cockpit of an airplane with co-pilot Joseph Gordon-Levitt for 92 minutes as he combats Muslim terrorist hijackers on a flight from Germany to Paris. And German director Patrick Vollrath boldly shot his feature debut as a series of 15-minute, 360-degree takes, encouraging an improvisational spirit among his actors and cinematographer Sebastian Thaler.
Good thing that Vollrath and Thaler were already somewhat prepared after trying a smaller-scale, claustrophobic experiment together on their Oscar-nominated, live-action short, “Everything Will Be Okay” (2015), in which a father kidnaps his daughter in a hotel room. For the more ambitious demands of “7500,” however, Thaler began his meticulous prep by filming in the cockpit of an actual commercial airline flight,...
Good thing that Vollrath and Thaler were already somewhat prepared after trying a smaller-scale, claustrophobic experiment together on their Oscar-nominated, live-action short, “Everything Will Be Okay” (2015), in which a father kidnaps his daughter in a hotel room. For the more ambitious demands of “7500,” however, Thaler began his meticulous prep by filming in the cockpit of an actual commercial airline flight,...
- 6/18/2020
- by Bill Desowitz
- Thompson on Hollywood
At a time when many of us are still trapped at home and riveted by stressful news, the claustrophobic intensity of Amazon Prime Video’s “7500” serves as the best kind of thriller release valve. We’re confined to the cockpit of an airplane with co-pilot Joseph Gordon-Levitt for 92 minutes as he combats Muslim terrorist hijackers on a flight from Germany to Paris. And German director Patrick Vollrath boldly shot his feature debut as a series of 15-minute, 360-degree takes, encouraging an improvisational spirit among his actors and cinematographer Sebastian Thaler.
Good thing that Vollrath and Thaler were already somewhat prepared after trying a smaller-scale, claustrophobic experiment together on their Oscar-nominated, live-action short, “Everything Will Be Okay” (2015), in which a father kidnaps his daughter in a hotel room. For the more ambitious demands of “7500,” however, Thaler began his meticulous prep by filming in the cockpit of an actual commercial airline flight,...
Good thing that Vollrath and Thaler were already somewhat prepared after trying a smaller-scale, claustrophobic experiment together on their Oscar-nominated, live-action short, “Everything Will Be Okay” (2015), in which a father kidnaps his daughter in a hotel room. For the more ambitious demands of “7500,” however, Thaler began his meticulous prep by filming in the cockpit of an actual commercial airline flight,...
- 6/18/2020
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Often lost in the shuffle of making a quality film are the crew. While a director and the cast get most of the credit, followed by the writer, below the line talent don’t often get their due. When they do, it’s mostly limited to the cinematography and the score. What about production design, however? In the case of 7500 (which we reviewed earlier in the week), both the cinematographer and the production designer are working in brilliant concert with each other, helping to deliver a unique motion picture. So, when given the opportunity, it was a no-brainer to hop on the phone with them and pick their brains. Below you will find my conversations with 7500’s cinematographer Sebastian Thaler, as well as its production designer Thorsten Sabel. Both are key elements why this movie, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is such a success. They take filmmaker Patrick Vollrath’s vision of...
- 6/17/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Airline pilots have a code to report hijackings, but there is no codified response to what might happen on board. The first 7500 trailer shows terrorists can be unpredictable and deadly, regardless of their weapons. Written and directed by Patrick Vollrath, the film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a co-pilot who has to take the wheel after an unexpected burst of turbulence strikes the cabin.
“It looks like a routine day at work for Tobias, a soft-spoken young American co-pilot on a flight from Berlin to Paris as he runs through the preflight checklist with Michael, the pilot, and chats with Gökce, his flight-attendant girlfriend,” reads the official synopsis. “But shortly after takeoff, terrorists armed with makeshift knives suddenly storm the cockpit, seriously wounding Michael and slashing Tobias’ arm. Temporarily managing to fend off the attackers, a terrified Tobias contacts ground control to plan an emergency landing. But when the hijackers kill...
“It looks like a routine day at work for Tobias, a soft-spoken young American co-pilot on a flight from Berlin to Paris as he runs through the preflight checklist with Michael, the pilot, and chats with Gökce, his flight-attendant girlfriend,” reads the official synopsis. “But shortly after takeoff, terrorists armed with makeshift knives suddenly storm the cockpit, seriously wounding Michael and slashing Tobias’ arm. Temporarily managing to fend off the attackers, a terrified Tobias contacts ground control to plan an emergency landing. But when the hijackers kill...
- 6/10/2020
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
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