Presence

Very subtle but it held my interest.

I loved the ending! It had me continuing to think about the movie for a few days after I finished it, which I enjoyed a lot. And the unique POV camera throughout the movie was really intriguing.

This movie is a perfect example of why nobody takes the ratings on RT seriously anymore. This was a cartoonishly bad, sophomoric attempt at a horror movie, yet it got huge critic reviews and was certified fresh. No, it wasn’t slow burn, it was just boring. No, there weren’t clever metaphors, it was just heavy-handed nonsense. Add to that bad acting, bad production, and bad anything else you can add. The fact that Lucy Liu got talked into this makes me sad. Anyone who gives it four or five stars, professional critic or just a viewer, is just proving that they’re at the level this was shooting for - The entertained by flashing lights (and probably jingling keys and floating balloons) crowd.

Ver una película de fantasmas desde la perspectiva del fantasma prometía un giro refrescante a un género ya explotado hasta el hastío. Y Presence, de Steven Soderbergh, vendía exactamente eso: una experiencia íntima y desconcertante desde “el otro lado”. Pero lo que pudo ser una joya minimalista de horror psicológico terminó siendo un ejercicio fallido de estilo sin alma, un truco de cámara que se olvida de lo más importante: la emoción humana. Soderbergh, con su cámara inquisitiva y el uso peculiar del plano subjetivo, nos convierte en el espíritu, testigo invisible de una dinámica familiar tensa. Sin embargo, al centrarse obsesivamente en esta perspectiva fantasmagórica, el director parece haber olvidado que los vivos también deben sentirse vivos. Los diálogos son torpes, forzados, casi como si los actores recitaran líneas de un guión que nunca fue pulido. La humanidad se diluye en cada escena, y el resultado es una atmósfera más cercana a un ensayo de teatro mal actuado que a una cinta de suspenso bien construida. Lo más frustrante es que Presence sí tiene destellos de lo que pudo ser. Hay una idea potente latiendo en su núcleo: ¿qué siente un espíritu que observa sin poder intervenir de forma directa? ¿Qué revela el silencio del más allá sobre los que se quedan? Pero estas preguntas se ahogan entre actuaciones sobreactuadas y una narrativa que, en lugar de inquietar, desconecta. En resumen, Presence es como ese tipo que llega con una gran historia a contar, pero se pierde en los detalles y termina aburriéndote antes de llegar al clímax. Una propuesta que suena mejor en papel que en pantalla. Y sí, con pesar lo digo: esta película entra directo a mi lista negra del año. Fantasmagóricamente pretenciosa, pero emocionalmente vacía. / Watching a ghost story unfold from the ghost’s point of view promised a refreshing twist on a genre long worn thin. And Presence, directed by Steven Soderbergh, seemed to offer just that: an intimate, unsettling experience from “the other side.” Unfortunately, what could’ve been a minimalist gem of psychological horror ends up as a soulless stylistic exercise — a camera trick that forgets the most essential element of storytelling: human emotion. Soderbergh, with his probing camera work and peculiar use of first-person perspective, casts the audience as the ghost — an invisible witness to a tense family dynamic. Yet by obsessively fixating on this ghostly viewpoint, the director seems to forget that the living need to feel alive too. The dialogue is clunky and forced, as if the actors were reading lines from a script that never went through a proper rewrite. Humanity slips through the cracks in every scene, resulting in an atmosphere that feels more like a poorly rehearsed stage play than a well-crafted suspense film. The most frustrating part is that Presence does show glimmers of what it could have been. There’s a powerful idea at its core: What does a spirit feel as it watches, unable to intervene? What does the silence of the afterlife reveal about those left behind? But those questions drown in overacted scenes and a narrative that disconnects rather than disturbs. In the end, Presence is like that guy who shows up with a great story to tell, only to get lost in the weeds and bore you before reaching the point. A concept that sounds far better on paper than it plays on screen. And yes, it pains me to say it — this one goes straight to my worst-of-the-year list. Ghostly in concept, but emotionally hollow.

Once again when you see the Toronto Film Festival and Sundance logos in the trailer, run away. Total critics choice crap.

This movie was horrible. I don’t understand how it has such good ratings.

Others are right, it’s pretty boring but I also found that with the exception of the husband, the other characters were highly unlikeable and difficult to care about. The ending is supposed to be climactic but is a blink or you’ll miss it moment that falls flat.

I was really shocked by the writing in this movie. It's very stilted at a lot of points and doesn't feel believable at all, which really takes you out of it. It's not particularly compelling until the climax but, in the end, the movie feels empty and pointless. It's a neat cinematic experiment in a way, I guess. It just could have been 100X better. I liked the music. And Lucy Liu was great. She needs to get more roles!

Uma família (pai, mãe, filho e filha) mudam para uma casa nova. Porém, uma entidade já habita aquela casa. Ela passa a seguir os integrantes daquela família, mas acaba se interessando pela filha, que passa a sentir sua presença. Um filme menor de Soderbergh, que se utiliza de um ponto de início interessante: ver o filme pelo ponto de vista da entidade. Então tecnicamente, é um filme bem interessante pelos travellings que a câmera faz quando passeia pela casa acompanhando a família. Percebi que a intenção não era transformar o filme em um filme de terror tradicional que trata do tema de casa assombrada, tanto que a entidade quase não causa sustos, apenas em momentos específicos, quando ela mexe com objetos. No mais, é mais um voyeur da família. O roteiro também não desenvolve os personagens. Meio que cada um fica com uma personalidade até o fim. Assim temos a mãe autoritária e mandona, tudo pelo filho, que é um campeão de natação e um babaca. A menina vive atormentada pelas mortes de duas amigas por overdose de drogas e temos o pai, que é a única pessoa que desperta alguma simpatia no público, por tentar resolver os problemas da filha, mas é podado pela esposa. Apesar de ser um filme de quase 1h30min, muitos podem considerá-lo parado. Eu acho que em um determinado momento a entidade fica muito apática, só observando e, literalmente, não acontece nada. Apenas a dinâmica de uma casa americana. Mas mesmo assim o filme conseguiu prender minha atenção.

Presence, if reviewed as a restaurant; You're welcomed into an immaculate dining room. The tone and composition screams "man, this place costs money". The host is very young, but you can see the staff is working their asses off, and man. You can tell this place costs money. It oozes off the marble counters. You're shown to your seat, and you're waiting to get your menu. Instead, you get a story about how the maitre d' knows a lawyer, and the bus boy tells you about his sketchy friend. But the views are dynamic, and almost other worldly. You're still waiting to get your menu. The bus boy continues being weird. Your server is cold and not really engaging. But man, you just know this place costs money so it's gonna be great when it happens. Then, the hostess and the bus boy's friend do a really messed up improv of Romeo and Juliet, the server pretends it was all just a part of the service, and the maitre d just looks sad. There is no food. There is no menu. Go to Wendy's instead.