Review of The Odds

The Odds (2018)
6/10
Satisfying low budget suspense with torture porn
26 June 2019
Woman plays a game showing how far she is willing to self-harm for a million bucks. Film is almost entirely about her interaction with the referee.

This is probably as low budget as anything-- basically one setting, two speaking characters, most gore is insinuated rather than shown, might have been filmed over the course of a week or less-- but they do a good job with the budget by making those choices, and while it might have a late-night Showtime feel to it, it's at least just a B-movie, not a C-movie; production values are still high.

As I said in the title, this is basically a suspense film, about character interaction, although there is some torture porn to it. The gore is mostly off-screen, but if you don't like gore, stay away. Character interaction is with a cookie-cutter misogynist, and I'd be willing to bet there are some deeply individual misogynists who would resent the portrayal; I guess they should probably stay away as well.

Acting is strong, but character writing is on the two-dimensional side and serves narrative convenience over strong characterization. It's no Streep vehicle. Still, good enough for this film.

I suspect some of the reviews here are from shills, people involved in production, but this isn't a bad film, acceptable for what it is, although very far from high art.
12 out of 19 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed