Film Review: INSIDE (2023): Compelling Drama Showcases Willem Dafoe at His Very Best

Inside Review

Inside (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Vasilis Katsoupis, written by Ben Hopkins and Vasilis Katsoupis and starring Willem Dafoe, Gene Bervoets, Eliza Stuyck, Youl Samare and Andrew Blumenthal.

Willem Dafoe is in top form in director Vasilis Katsoupis’s new tense and disturbing thriller, Inside. Think Cast Away set in a New York penthouse and you get an idea of what Katsoupis’s film is trying to do. While hearing the old “Macarena” song in the background at several key intervals in the movie is a bit silly, the film otherwise maintains a feeling of frightening intensity that is more than properly matched by the central leading performance by Dafoe which ranks among the actor’s very best work to date.

As the film opens, Dafoe’s character, Nemo, breaks into a NY penthouse to steal several valuable pieces of artwork. It takes a couple of minutes of him trying to locate a $3 million painting unsuccessfully to end up getting locked into the apartment. Nemo’s partner in crime (who speaks to him from a phone) soon disappears from the action once Nemo gets trapped in the apartment. It seems Nemo is on his own and must try to escape somehow.

There are three things that Nemo once told a teacher of his when he was younger that he would take from his home in the event of a fire. One of them is his sketch pad and the other two I’ll leave you to discover for yourself. This movie spends a lot of time alternating the temperature in the apartment Nemo has found himself stuck in. At one point, Nemo is licking the inside of a freezer while in another scene, he is in sweltering heat. He also needs to eat and cuts himself trying to open a can of food at one point. Apparently, the owner of the apartment has everything but a can opener in his kitchen.

Eliza Stuyck plays Jasmine, one of the few characters besides Nemo who is in the movie and she doesn’t have much, if any, dialogue. She is seen by Nemo on the camera in the apartment but she never seems to discover he’s trapped in the penthouse. Nemo watches her and hopes she’ll come and open the door so he can get out but it never seems to happen that way. Instead, Nemo watches her from afar as she begins to strike up a conversation with another worker.

Inside is a taut, gripping film. Nemo is essentially losing his sanity during the course of the movie as the film progresses with harrowing developments at each and every turn. From uncomfortable temperatures to the lack of sufficient drinkable water, Dafoe’s performance is reminiscent of Tom Hanks’ in the film, Cast Away. Dafoe commands the audience’s attention from beginning to end. It’s hard not to sympathize with him even though he’s a criminal. He suffers immensely living each and every day over in a Groundhog Day type cycle except there’s no other humans present nor do the events that occur change too much. Nemo may have wished he never took on the heist that he embarked on initially as the film reaches its unsettling climax.

Dafoe makes this role count. Each and every scene slowly and masterfully captures the character’s descent into madness. He talks to himself, he accidentally hurts himself and he doesn’t know how to escape the hell world he has recently become accustomed to. What does he do while he waits for a rescuer who never arrives? He draws and alters the artwork in the apartment and feels a sense of great hatred towards the owner of the apartment.

Towards the end, some seriously twisted things happen and it’s easy to feel somewhat sympathetic toward Nemo while at the same time realizing that he is a thief and is perhaps suffering more in his predicament that he would have had he simply gone to jail for his crimes.

This film exists as a vehicle for Willem Dafoe to strut his dramatic acting chops and he does so remarkably. Inside is not a perfect film. If you look too closely, you may find a plot hole or two along the way although there is certainly enough suspense to overlook these holes, but still. The dark and dreary nature of the movie will take its toll on the audience who may just wish the film concluded when it feels it may. There are at least two endings here in this film. One in which audiences may think it is over and another where audiences will realize it’s really over. Neither ending is entirely satisfying, though.

Willem Dafoe has always been one of our most underappreciated actors. He gets the one-man show role of a lifetime in Inside which despite its flaws should be seen. Dafoe keeps us watching him every step of the way while another actor could have made us lose interest about halfway through. Dafoe is the reason to see Inside even though you may have wished it had a stronger third act. This film is ultimately a tale of trying to maintain sanity in difficult circumstances and is an interesting “fight for survival” movie which is ultimately worth seeing.

Rating: 7/10

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