Okay, maybe I definitely should take it a little bit slow with my thriller heavy recent films, but I have yet another one for you today, “Awake”.
Awake came out on Netflix in June 2021 and is a science fiction thriller starring Gina Rodriguez, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barry Pepper, Finn Jones, and Ariana Greenblatt in key roles. From what I’ve seen, I don’t believe this film received too much of a positive response from critics, but while I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this is the best thriller I have watched, it wasn’t too bad either.
Relating to the real-life recent pandemic, the film follows the story of a family after humanity descends into chaos when no one can sleep anymore. And of course, it turns out there’s a little girl who can still sleep through it all.
There’s definitely a little relatability in the film if you’ve had a chance to watch Sandra Bullock’s “Bird Box” as a mother fights off sleep-deprived zombie-like humans to save her kids. The film overall has about enough scary scenes, strange occurrences, and paranoid scenes to keep it a little creepy and enjoyable for a thriller.
The film, however, does not have too much suspense and it would potentially be easy to get a little bored in between. I think I ended up pausing maybe twice while watching to get other things done. As we go through the story though, it does feel a little like the movie rushes the story along in several places while we skip seeing the full effects of the catastrophe for instance.
Performance, of course, cannot be skipped. Gina and Ariana portray their roles almost perfectly and pull the story along. Their performance almost sold the entire film for me.
Cinematography Alan Poon goes sufficiently well with the direction by Mark Rao. Screenplay though by Mark and Joseph Raso could have gone in for more of an impact. Music by Antonio Pinto goes well with the story. It doesn’t stand out too much, which I suppose could just be a good thing here.
Overall, in my opinion, a 3.5/5 and a recommendation to watch on Netflix when you’re bored!
A Different Take 
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