ANNIHILATION Review

"Then, as a psychologist, I think you're confusing suicide with self-destruction. Almost none of us commit suicide, and almost all of us self-destruct."

A visual feast. The Shimmer a half orb of iridescent wonder and mutations, or reflective horror and otherworldly malignance. Where that lands is up to each. It's an incredible sensory setting that is borderline singular against its peers the past decade or two.

"...In some way, in some part of our lives. We drink, or we smoke, we destabilize the good job...end a happy marriage."

Portman, her character self-destructing into The Shimmer due to guilt, is great. In fact, all of Portman's exploring partners (Jason Leigh, Rodriguez, Thompson, Novotny) are great here. So great that the stories weaved for them feel...light. Success is there in Portman's struggles against her past, but I can't help but want more wholesale.

"...But these aren't decisions, they're... they're impulses. In fact, you're probably better equipped to explain this than I am."

One can't really complain if the criticism against a thing is to want more of the thing, right? But there is a struggle against that feeling vs. the absolute hammer of a finale, here. The entire final stanza at the lighthouse sings. The score's organic strings replaced with fuzzed, cosmic feedback distortions. Said score being the only real audio while Portman meets her mirror. It's shake continues for so long that, upon her leaving the bubble sheen of The Shimmer and "returning" to the antiseptic fluorescence of base camp, the first words spoken sound like a shout in the night. Like you've forgotten how words sound. Like you've been in a trance and can't recall when it started.

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The above was taken from my Letterboxd review.