Tropic

There’s a strong sense of atmosphere... and the three actors who play the nuclear family at the heart of the film impress throughout and feel convincingly like a tight family unit.

Tropic delves into contemporary and future conundrums. Where it is most powerful is in its raw approach to how the brothers must come to terms with the unimaginable.

This astutely handled film is striking for taking a fantasy theme and employing it to such poignant, psychologically-focused ends.

Its interaction with a fantastical, sci-fi element never goes in the expected direction. There are some extraordinary circumstances in the story, true, but these don’t really go beyond exacting pressure on an already strained family group.

Engrossing, honest and haunting.

It could easily be a melodrama about how a serious illness affects not just those who suffer it, but those around them, but the sci-fi element allows for higher stakes and a sting of classic body horror.

It’s masterfully crafted by a great cinematic team and reminds me of the glorious films of the French New Wave.

Tropic is a pleasant surprise, a genre-bending piece of fiction that combines the practical effects of body horror with all the emotional impact of a more traditional drama.

A sci-fi film infused with a touch of family drama, the film is an involved one. The complexities here never relent for a moment, so that means it is a film that demands much of the viewer as well.

The science fiction elements of the film take a back seat for most of the running time in what is essentially a story about how people deal with extreme situations and with a sense of being cheated out of what they are due.