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Join UsStar Cast: Enzo Vogrincic, Agustin Pardella, Matias Recalt, Tomas Wolf, Diego Vegezzi, Esteban Kukuriczka, and Francisco Romero
Director: J.A. Bayona
What’s Good: Bayona and his team match the scope of the environment with the scope of the character’s internal conflict, creating a powerful dilemma.
What’s Bad: The movie’s overreliance on narration makes some of the most potent moments feel flat when the film needs to explain all the internal turmoil in words.
Loo Break: While the movie is long, the pacing is relatively fast, and we see our character fall into more desperate situations by the minute; there are no breaks here.
Watch or Not?: This is a must-watch, especially now that we are close to the awards season.
Language: Spanish (with subtitles)
Available On: Netflix
Runtime: 144 Minutes
User Rating:
J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow sees the Spanish director going once again to the well of retelling true stories on the big screen, as he did in 2012 with The Impossible, a film that told the events of the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. In The Impossible, Bayona proved that he could not only direct a big movie but also he could bring a ton of heart to the project, and those qualities are seen once again in Society of the Snow, a movie that tells the story of the flight crash in the Andes Mountains in 1972.
Society of the Snow Movie Review: Script Analysis
To tell a true story on the screen is both challenging and accessible at the same time because, for once, you already have the main story points laid out in front of you, and so you can avoid the hardships of coming out with a totally original story, which is pretty hard. However, you can also see yourself needing help telling the story on the big screen, as real life doesn’t follow a narrative structure or has all the fun character arcs we love so much. There is also the subject of respecting the story, especially when dealing with a tragedy, so it can be a real hassle.
Society of the Snow is J.A. Bayona’s fifth film, and with it, it seems like the director knows exactly what he is supposed to do, especially when facing comparisons with the movie “Alive” from 1993, which told the same story but mainly using Hollywood actors. Society of the Snow goes for a more realistic retelling of the story, and the first step is the use of a geographically correct cast of actors, and also changing the way the movie approaches the story by giving us the point of view of one character, instead of jumping around all the time.
However, having a single point-of-view character also brings some issues when it comes to storytelling, and the script tries to fill the void by using narration that tells the audience precisely what the characters are feeling. Narration can be good to set up a premise or a setting, but when trying to convey a feeling, it feels like it could be more precise and more appropriate. The actors are good enough to get the proper emotions, so it feels weird to have narration trying to fill voids that are not there.
Outside of that, the movie manages to create powerful scenes that portray the conflict among the victims and how they make the choices that would lead to their survival. Nevertheless, when the movie enters its third act, it does something that takes a lot of steam out of the film. This risky choice can be understood in that it makes the movie handle the story from a new angle but doesn’t help carry the film’s last stretch. It is hard to explain without spoilers, but you will know when you see it.
Society of the Snow Movie Review: Star Performance
Unlike the 1993 film, Society of the Snow manages to gather a proper cast composed of Argentine and Uruguayan actors to play the character of the rugby club that ends up crashing in the mountains. There are a lot of characters, and as expected, the movie only has time to explore and focus on each one. However,r it does enough to paint a picture of these guys and how they face such an extreme situation. We would have loved to get to know the characters better, but even the ones who are mainly in the background get their spotlight occasionally.
Enzo Vogrincic becomes the de facto protagonist of the film; his character becomes the most used point of view, and he also handles the narration when he must. The young actor does a fantastic job conveying a wide range of emotions, and when things become the most desperate, he stands tall as a witness to the events. His role might not be particularly showy, but it is essential, especially as the movie moves into its third and final act. We hope to see more from everyone in future projects.
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Society of the Snow Movie Review: Direction, Music
Society of the Snow is a gorgeous film as much as it is terrifying, and this is the result of Bayona having so much experience creating scope on the big screen. You just have to see his previous films like The Impossible and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to understand that he knows how to create grandeur on the screen; no wonder he directed the first two episodes of Rings of Power, which, no matter what you think of the show, it looked great.
This sense of scope with the setting creates a powerful contrast with the internal conflict within the character’s hearts, a conflict we cannot see as clearly as the infinite mountains but that overwhelms every scene of the film in equal measure. The score by Michael Giacchino enhances this sense of scale by creating pieces of music that tell our brain that something meaningful and significant is happening, even if it is just inside our character’s minds.
Society of the Snow Movie Review: The Last Word
Society of the Snow is a great film; it might not be perfect as there are a couple of narrative tools that make some scenes less impactful, but these are minor inconveniences when the film, in general, is such a great experience, an anxiety-inducing one, but great all the same. It is excellent to see Bayona back in form after The Fallen Kingdom and see Netflix releasing such a well-made film, proving that they still can deliver quality films when they want to.
Society of the Snow Trailer
Society of the Snow releases on 4th January, 2024.
Share with us your experience of watching Society of the Snow.
For more recommendations, read our Breakwater Movie Review here.
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