Best movie of this year hands down!

Memorable, crazy movie

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The first 1/4 or so hit me as laborious, I found one character just simply annoying, but I stuck with it to the end and I'm glad I did. Prior reviewer's comparison to Moon seem spot-on, except this is a much smaller film. And I might add to that, conceptually similar to Moon, and then there's almost a bit of the video game Portal mixed into the backstory. As I got into it, it started to remind me a little Mamet-ish style, like Oleanna maybe, claustrophobic and in-your-face drama where the surroundings reveal themselves very slowly and with quite a bit of tension (ie, I found myself constantly picturing the stories they're *not* telling you about how they got there). It's films like this and Moon, really with a cast of just 3, that remind me how large casts dilute, there's an intensity a good small cast brings. For anyone into a small film that's a challenging drama and a little time-dystopian sci- fi, I'd definitely recommend.

Science fiction has always been there to "test us out" with elements of the familiar in scenarios that are entirely unfamiliar. That's probably a healthy thing, though one is perhaps entitled to question whether it is reasonable to "see how human beings behave" in a largely fantastic (in this case dystopian) scenario to which are added so many specific and contrived conditions (problems) that the already-inconceivable-looking scenario is made less possible by far. In essence, this is what Christian Cantamessa's "Air" does, and in so doing it in some sense resembles, for example, the films of the "Cube" series (though those were glossy and high-tech in their cruelty, while here all is shabby and grey). Still, in "Air" too, both cast (that's basically three players, and mainly just a pretty-Daryl-ish Norman Reedus plus the at-first-sight somewhat strange bedfellow of Djimon Hounsou) and audience are made to jump through hoops a bit to accept what's going on. There's also more than a hint of "10 Cloverfield Lane" in here, as well as the recent (i.e. later-than-2015) "Passengers".So does "Air" have enough to offer either a general audience, or else that more specific subset of people who are already die-hard sci-fi fans? I will elect to answer that question from the point of view of somebody included in the latter category and say "yes". Ultimately, this is an imaginative and intriguing film in which our route to the shocking dystopia it portrays is just about fleshed out enough to engender a shudder and a measure of satisfaction among we "experts" in things that could go wrong with the Earth. It also does well enough at portraying the simultaneously dull yet creepy mini-world that has remained habitable in the midst of catastrophic destruction. Occasionally that confined world has a measure of cosiness, more often it seems claustrophobic, but the imagination takes flight and the empathy turns on when one is made to realise that that is now "all there is". The storyline reminds us repeatedly that this was a last-minute effort cobbled together to try and save something as opposed to nothing, and this is rather a first in movies of this ilk, and somewhat poignant it is too, at least at times.Indeed, so relatively slapdash and Heath Robinson is much of this that our two key characters have few options to work with, yet do keep working hard to expand that list. And given the very specific way they do their jobs (coming out of stasis only periodically for very strictly-limited periods of time), it is true to say that at most moments in the film we viewers have little or no idea of what will follow. Maybe that throws up expectations that can't be met on occasion, but it must also be seen as something reasonably fresh and unique in a film.Ultimately, people are people, and even the scale of our heroes' responsibility (which we are reminded of repeatedly) and the measure of the dystopian challenge cannot suffice to allow our two maintenance men to go on robot-like, doing the job without emotion. Rather, emotion tends to take over, as well it actually might under such extreme circumstances , so fair enough. The very final segment goes with that, but is far less successful, and indeed looks surplus to requirements in what is otherwise a pretty well-imagined and taut piece of film-making supplying a truly awful end of the world on a shoestring, but actually rather well; and offering us a thought-provoking and unpredictable storyline on the back of two seemingly randomly-selected actors who actually gel effectively enough.

I liked the film, as a performance piece from Reedus and Hounsou, and truly it's not more than that. It's a situational drama. The plot is, in fact, irrelevant. The ending scene that brings closure was already not needed.That being said, I feel like the script could have been a little more polished. The dialogue and the decisions of the characters sometimes felt a bit fractured, the movie lacks a natural fluidity. Certainly the film could have gained a point if the extra scenes - like the pointless and extra long beginning - would have been cut in favor of character development.Bottom line: it doesn't deserve such a low rating on IMDb. Cantamessa may not be the best director in the world, but for his first full length movie, he wasn't bad. I felt as if the film was inspired by Moon. It had the same feel, only with two protagonists. And as Moon, the movie could easily have been an episode of a sci-fi anthology. Moon was clearly better, though.

Air is a neat little post apocalyptic thriller full of loneliness, claustrophobia, paranoia and two really great lead performances from Norman Reedus and Djimon Hounsou. The two of them play custodians of sorts, in a cramped underground bunker. The world above is bereft of oxygen, forcing humanity to go into cryogenic hibernation. They exist in solitary down there, simple caretakers surrounded by earth's best and brightest scientists, all in silent slumber, leaving the two of them to go mad in the presence of both each other, and their memories. Reedus is Bauer, the slick loudmouth, a somewhat callous man who cares not for the sleeping scholars, his personality calcified into brittle cynicism by time and tragedy. Hounsou is a bit more soulful as Cartwright, haunted by waking visions of his deceased wife (Sandrine Holt) and morally torn when the big bad decisions of the character arc come his way. He believes what they are doing is important, while Bauer could give a crap. Soon there's trouble, and when they venture to a nearby bunker for spare parts, terrible secrets are uncovered and the shaky bond of trust between them starts to disintegrate. The film relies on its two lead actors who are both solid, especially Reedus, whose intensity ramps up in the third act to an unbearable level as secrets of his past are gradually revealed. It's obviously low budget, and as such the special effects and machinery look like they've wandered in from a Roger Corman movie at times, but it kinda works and gives the atmosphere a 'lived in', organic feel. The plot gets murky and could have done with a bit more simplicity as it trips on itself in attempts to be complex, but it's still character based at its core, and in that regard it succeeds nicely. See it for its two stars, who are given a nice dystopian arena to play in, and tell a story through emotional beats, personal crisis and mounting unease quite well.