REVIEW: ‘Magic Magic’ an exciting thrill ride

Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo

Sebastian Silva, not yet a well-proclaimed director of cinematography, seems to have hit the jackpot with the postings and ratings on Rotten Tomatoes with his new film, Magic Magic.

The online voting website, which mainly is for avid moviegoers and movie critics, gives the movie an average positive rating of 97 percent.

When Alicia (Juno Temple) visits her cousin Sarah (Emily Browning) in Chile after being kicked out of her house in California, she and her cousin take a backpacking trip accompanied by Sarah’s friends Barbara (Catalina Sandino Moreno), Brink (Michael Cera) and Barbara’s boyfriend Augustine (Augustin Silva), all unaware of what the trip has in store for all of them.

This film serves as great entertainment with its unexpected plot twists and the sense of what’s real and what is not. The actors seem to have fit their character quite well in many situations.

There are numerous scenes where (believe it or not) I covered my face with mixed feelings of nervousness, anticipation and anxiousness. Temple and Cera both are superb – and obviously lax with Silva’s sense of directions and plot twists.

There is, on the other hand, one actor who had me questioning the movie from the very beginning: Cera as the sadist, Brink.

Cera has, from the beginning of his acting career, been typecast as the awkward, love-struck, teenage boy as in Juno (2007) and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008).

So for me as a reviewer, it came as a shock to watch him play a questionable, mid-20s role. As the movie progresses, however, I noticed the director’s choice of picking him was excellent, as Cera gives off the creepy role of a sadist very well.

Although Silva’s directing style still is quite unknown and unpredictable, Silva did a pleasing job with the direction of this film. With the movie only 97 minutes long, it gets what needs to be said out of the way.

However, the story is unclear and at times a bit sloppy. There were times in the movie when I was confused and questioning whether it had been two days or if the day was even over yet.

With all the film’s minor mistakes set aside, Magic Magic is nerve-racking and anticipatingly exciting – well worth your attention.

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