Terminal

Naughty, naughty, my shallow comedians

Terminal (2018) is, at its core, a mysterious revenge movie. There, the whole plot spoiled already.

That said, it is actually a well-made film. The mystery works nicely at first, it pulls you in, but as the movie goes on it slowly erodes under a pile of clichés, right up to the ending where everything has to be explained and whatever little magic is left vanishes on the spot. Without Margot Robbie, this would lean dangerously close to bland.

The story itself is simple, almost barebones. What saves it is everything around it, the atmosphere, the editing, the pauses, the half-spoken lines, the setting, the lighting, and above all the cast. Those elements turn an otherwise dull idea into something genuinely enjoyable.

I would call it an exceptional homage to detective dramas from the 1950s era, and viewed through that lens, it is crafted extremely well.

Now for the unfair part of the critique. It does not really fit today's audience or mindset. It is excellent at being the kind of movie that would have worked perfectly 75 years ago, give or take. That might also explain why it never really made its way into my country at all, Czechia, mid-EU, despite being out for eight years.

The storytelling is very, very simple. It is well acted, well designed, and well executed, but still simple.

The music fits the tone nicely, sometimes deliberately uncomfortable, which works in this genre.

The environment genuinely made me want to wander out at night to some abandoned bar in the middle of nowhere. For adventure.

Naughty, naughty. For each well hair-styled Margot involved once.