Terrestrial review

Terrestrial is a wild film. It starts with a man welcoming his friends to a mansion and explaining that he's sold a screenplay he hasn't even written yet. He's apparently living the life he's always dreamed of. His friends are skeptical, and frankly, so are you.

Something seems off almost from the beginning. He doesn't quite seem to have himself together, and the story he's telling doesn't feel entirely plausible. But the movie is smart about how it plays with that doubt. There's a suggestion that maybe his friends just don't believe he could have achieved this kind of success. There's even a possible racial element to their skepticism.

As a Black man, I found that angle particularly effective. You can identify with someone whose friends seem unwilling to believe that he's made something of himself. Maybe he's a little odd, but maybe they're just underestimating him. The movie uses that possibility to get you at least somewhat on his side, even while you're wondering what he's hiding.

I won't give away what actually happens. That's a big part of the experience. What I will say is that things slowly, and then spectacularly, fall apart. You're watching someone who appears to be profoundly delusional draw his friends into a situation that becomes more disturbing the longer it goes on.

The film doesn't really excuse his behavior or try to give you a neat psychological explanation for it. You can see how someone might get caught up in a delusion and keep pushing it further rather than confronting reality. But the movie mostly just shows you what he's done and leaves you to deal with it.

I felt particularly bad for the young woman visiting him. She seems to have come simply to support a friend, and from early on he treats her rather badly. He's pushy and dismissive toward her, and you don't understand why. She's caught up in something she never asked to be part of, and you remain sympathetic toward her as the situation deteriorates.

This is an uncomfortable movie, increasingly so as it goes along. But I think that's exactly what it's trying to accomplish. The discomfort isn't some unfortunate side effect of the storytelling. It's the point. And I thought the film did a very good job of bringing you along as everything unraveled.

I caught this in a small theater, and I'm glad I did. It's not the sort of movie you're necessarily going to find playing widely, but it's worth seeking out, including on streaming. A smart, disturbing psychological thriller that knows exactly what kind of reaction it wants to provoke.