Oxygen

Alexandre Aja has proven more than once that he's a talented filmmaker. While he usually sticks to genre films, he does it really well. I also appreciate how he’s shifted from horror to sci-fi, especially in this more intimate, confined setting. That’s something I really value. Creating an hour-and-a-half story about an astronaut waking up in a cryo-chamber and keeping the tension high the whole time is no small feat. The film also benefits from an outstanding performance by Mélanie Laurent and a soundtrack that, combined with the visuals, works wonders. A solid piece of work! (05/14/2021)

The first “point” occurs to you in the first few minutes, in a one-second flashback from the hospital, and the second comes about an hour later. Overall, the film is a jigsaw puzzle of familiar sci-fi and thriller motifs in which you will also find improbabilities in the logic (the development of the dialogue with artificial intelligence). Or, rather, you would find them if you wanted to seek them out, which you don’t, because it’s quite nice to watch – Aja’s directing is at a high level as usual, Mélanie puts in the work, and the last quarter of the film is a sci-fi visual caress. (05/16/2021)

Alexandre Aja and sci-fi? It sounds like an oxymoron :D But in the end, it works brilliantly. Films with a single actor are always a gamble, as everything relies on their performance. Thanks to Mélanie Laurent, Oxygen succeeds remarkably—she’s an incredibly talented and versatile actress. I was a bit worried that the film might slip into a slower pace, given that it’s set in a single location in a cryo-chamber, but the opposite is true. The unsettling atmosphere, permeated with sheer helplessness, was excellently portrayed. The smartly written dialogues between the protagonist and the AI were engaging and occasionally offered a gripping pace. The mesmerizing audiovisuals also had a lot to offer. And the few twists the creators threw at us could definitely be described as "jaw-dropping." This term perfectly captures the essence of the film. I didn’t expect it, but Oxygen turned out to be a genre gem. Fantastic. For me, it’s 8/10. P.S. And for fans of more horror-oriented moments, don’t worry, Aja hasn’t forgotten you (the needle scene is quite intense). (07/17/2021)

This is a minimalist thriller about being buried alive in a typically Poe-esque fashion, this time situated in the world of science fiction. It does not come even close to the qualities of Rodrigo Cortés's thriller Buried, which was a real conversation piece and came a whole decade earlier. Here, the screenwriter hides the banal plot behind cheap tricks, such as memory loss and the gradual revealing of things the audience can guess a few, sometimes even tens of minutes before they are revealed in the movie. In the last quarter of the movie, it is sort of pleasing to see the broader backdrop in which the action takes place. But all in all, it did not take my breath away at all. (05/17/2021)

Alexandre Aja's Oxygen impressed me with its intimate concept - Mélanie Laurent's one-woman-show - and the screenwriter's play with the viewer, which, however, had its cracks and weak spots. From the beginning, I had various explanations in my head as to why the protagonist found herself in a broken cryo-chamber, and personally I didn't find the plot so predictable. But I was somewhat distracted by the Milo, who functioned almost as a "deus ex machina" in the story, and at times threw the plot developments around recklessly. Also, Oxygen would have benefited from a quarter of an hour shorter running time. The ending was visually captivating and the title music definitely had its charm. (05/22/2021)