Synopsis
Never tell the ending…
An illegal immigrant struggling to begin a new life in New York City is offered a great opportunity, but as day turns to night, she discovers she's been lured into a dangerous game.
Most Beautiful Island
2017 Directed by Ana Asensio
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Alternative Titles
모스트 뷰티풀 아일랜드, La isla mas hermosa, MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND モースト・ビューティフル・アイランド
Popular reviews
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A short, stressful, and utterly spellbinding debut that transforms the immigrant experience into the stuff of an early Polanski psychodrama, Ana Asensio’s “Most Beautiful Island” is a worthy winner of the SXSW Grand Jury Prize for best narrative feature, and — more importantly — strong evidence of a cinematic juggernaut in the making.
Asensio, a thirtysomething Spanish actress whose work is virtually unseen on these shores, not only wrote, directed, and produced this fraught metropolitan thriller, she also appears in just about every frame. And while the film might begin by suggesting that its heroine was chosen at random (a mesmeric prologue follows seven different women as they weave through the sidewalks of Manhattan, the camera picking them out of…
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SXSW 2017 #9 - This film is FUCKED UP. Do you know the feeling of clenching your butt and holding your breath because you're so nervous? THAT'S THIS MOVIE FOR 45 MINUTES. The buildup is incredibly intense, and the film is basically an exercise in suspense and teasing everything until the last minute. But it's also a cathartic experience and has a wonderful payoff. Go into this blind, don't read anything about it. The trailer, poster, and synopsis are vague for a reason.
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"We make our own luck."
The less you know going into this movie, the better. Most Beautiful Island is one of the boldest debuts of the year, but it's so much more. First introduced by a brilliant visual prologue, the thematic weight is always on our shoulders -- Luciana is fighting to survive in a city of indifference. There are a few people who show her kindness, but at large, she's all alone. It takes quite a while before the genre elements really kick in, but in this first act, the groundwork for what follows is laid so elegantly. Luciana makes her own choices, but her agency is limited. She's at the end of her rope -- how can she…
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I’m sweating.
Man, that was intense.
Absolutely gripping from start to finish.
The last 20 minutes literally made me feel sick from anxiety. If you have the same phobia as me, you’ll know what I’m talking about. This is how I like my films; ones that creep up on you and rip the rug out from beneath you. I had no idea where all this was going and did not expect that ending at all.
This is everything but its title would suggest.
I hope Ana Asensio does more because this was brilliant and she is bloody gorgeous.
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Big dreams
Minimal, taut & sweat inducing. Trusting people is always a risk but sometimes it's all you can do. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn't. This was brilliantly done. Reminded me a bit of Julia Loktev's Day Night Day Night. Somewhat lost & desperate women embracing anonymity in the Big Apple, frantic but silent, seemingly revoked of their agency, on their way to do something potentially life changing. The pace is similar too (so are the posters lol). The cause for desperation is less opaque in this one though.
Am definitely anticipating Asensio's next project whatever it may be.
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when a movie asks you to wait until its final 15 minutes for anything interesting to happen, it better pay off. this does not.
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following the total disbelief i felt after watching this, i rushed to find any interviews with ana asensio speaking about her influence. before i pressed play on one of two videos, i realized this film started with "this is based on true events."
watching asensio be so fearlessly candid and eloquent in explaining how her horrible experience translated to this film is nearly as heartstopping as the film itself. she talks about the girls she encountered, girls like her who were unlucky and struggling against all odds. she talks about how she could only imagine dramatizing it and turning it into something that people could watch and learn from.
my mind is totally blown. "most beautiful island" takes place within…
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How does a movie make your skin crawl with absolutely no gore or violence? Watch this and find out.
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Imagine you’re an immigrant with an undocumented status in New York City. You’re desperately looking for a second menial job and some Russian girl you meet tells you that you have long legs and can make a lot of cash from it. She hands you an address and end up in some sketchy alley where some guy hands you a locked purse to bring to another underground location. You can only bring that locked purse and you have to wear a black dress and some high heels to this place.
Now that already sounds like a formula for some fucked up black market scheme!This film gave me a lot of ANXIETY like watching Uncut Gems without screaming New Yorkers! It’s quietly tense.
When you think you know what’s gonna happen next, it completely takes you by surprise. -
The first half, which seems like it was filmed to pad out the rest, is really rough in terms of technical ability. The camera work is poor, the dialogue is tinny, and the acting is weak. It takes about a half hour to tell us that the main character is desperate for money.
For the uninitiated, this is the story of a beautiful, young, immigrant who is trying to keep her head above water in NYC. She hears about an unusually high paying job from a friend that sounds a bit sketchy, but she needs that money. So, against her better judgement she goes. Surprise, surprise things at the job get weird and threatening right away and, you know... stuff…