Tlen

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. (16.05.2021)

Unless I'm forgetting something (and I don't think I am), Oxygen is definitely the best sci-fi film the VOD networks have offered us so far this year, which, with competition like Outside the Wire and Chaos Walking, doesn’t say much, but still... Alex Aja proves once more that he has the a knack for the craft, but again with a screenplay that is a bit off, so it again doesn't reach the red colour on Filmbooster. When you start breaking it down and analyse it, you get, to put it mildly, problematic moments in logic. On the other hand, the film can surprise, some of the twists were unexpected (although in hindsight they might have occurred to me), Mélanie Laurent is excellent and there are few uncomfortable scenes with mice and needles that were a delight. A nice little movie. (15.05.2021)

Alexandre Aja serves up an intimate, smart, and thrilling survival drama in a cryochamber for Netflix. It is solid, and survival fans will definitely enjoy it. I would have preferred to see something like Aja's High Tension or some other massacre, but I'm glad for this as well. There is a certain inspiration from the film Buried, so if you liked that one, there's a great chance that Oxygen won't disappoint you. I could complain that it's slower, it could have been more intense and maybe twenty minutes shorter, but on the other hand, I can't really imagine anyone being able to get more out of this premise. Mélanie Laurent performs excellently, the central twist is fantastic and quite unexpected for me, but I also found the other plot surprises to be very well thought out. And surprisingly, Aja managed to include three decent jump scares – one of them even gave me goosebumps! I hate needles and rats, so this part of the film made me uncomfortable. Overall, it's a nice one-off, which I would give 3 or 4 stars, but survival films don't come out at a rate of twenty a year, but rather a maximum of two, so I don't see a reason why I should hold back. 7/10. (13.05.2021)

A claustrophobic, catastrophic sci-fi about a bio-form in a cryogenic box. Bewitching visuals, thrilling conversations with the sleazy voice of Mathieu Amalrica and relatively surprising plot twists are among the main attractions of Oxygen. It turns out that Aja doesn’t restrict himself to blood baths, but he also has a talent for storytelling. Want some sedative? (12.05.2021)

A less depressing and daunting alternative to Buried, where Mélanie Laurent's voice and gestures are similarly important, as is the velvety talking "robot" voiced by Mathieu Amalric. It's nothing revolutionary, but for a film that takes place in a few square meters, it manages to keep the viewer's attention throughout and the last few minutes will delight the eyes and ears of many a sci-fi fan. (20.11.2021)

Despite all the surprising events of the film, something is missing that would make me want to watch it a second time, but it is definitely a good film. It could be ten to fifteen minutes longer, because at the end, in addition to the main protagonist, the story also runs out of breath. Mélanie Laurent is excellent, Alexandre Aja uses the cramped space of the cryochamber in such a way that you do not get bored, and I really enjoyed the unpredictable computer MILO, which can execute almost any command, but only after it is properly told about it. One may guess the point, but it's mainly about the atmosphere, and it's great. (13.05.2021)

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. (17.05.2021)

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. (22.05.2021)