Although I celebrated Martin Scorsese’s 206-minute Killers of the Flower Moon only yesterday, I don’t share the opinion of some colleagues that the crime epic is even a minute too long. But I’m sticking to it: For a few years (too many) films have been falling apart in terms of length. Superhero films that hit the 180-minute mark are probably the best-known example of this. A real plague is the assumption that 2 hours is the core of film running time, not its outer limit.
Would anyone really miss 40 minutes out of the almost 147 minute long Jurassic World 3? And do the word family, Corona beer binge and car crashes give enough fuel for a Fast and Furious frenzy beyond 120 minutes? I’m not an editor, but I’m pretty sure that quite a few genre films are made by the would have benefited from the unofficially best running time: 90 minutes. South Korean horror film Sleep, which premieres in Cannes this week, shows once again why the hour and a half deserves a comeback.
Sleep entertains with entertaining horror and fun in a small space
First a confession: Sleep counts for 95 minutes, but the argument remains the same. jason yu, former assistant director of Bong Joon-ho (Parasite, Snowpiercer) makes his directorial debut with Sleep. Parasite star Lee Sun-kyun is in front of the camera in this witty chamber play. Instead of in a villa, this time he lives as an unsuccessful actor in a small but nice apartment with his pregnant wife (Jung Yu-mi from Train to Busan).
Director Yu doesn’t waste time on lengthy exposition, but starts his film confidently like a veteran: the woman wakes up, sees the man sitting on the edge of the bed, the horror ensues.
Suddenly he suffers from a sleep disorder that takes bizarre, then increasingly dangerous turns. Waking up in the middle of the night, devouring raw meat, an egg (with its shell) and a sardine – you can kind of live with that. Wake up in the morning and discover that your husband stuffed the fluffy white Pomeranian into the freezer – Time for an intervention.
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sleeping
With every additional minute and night, Sleep adds a new nasty or surprising flourish to its concept, with the horror taking place almost entirely in the living room, bedroom or bathroom. Is he sick and healing possible? Or has a supernatural being possessed him? Or does both apply?
Sleep does not suffer from Django Unchained Syndrome
Carefully scattered shock scenes, absurd punchlines and a genuine interest in the inner workings of this couple characterize Sleep. This isn’t an earth-shattering genre event, but it’s a cracking horror film with ghost and comedy elements. Not least because this film starts and ends at exactly the right time. As soon as the first doubts arise about the inner logic of the horror, the credits roll.
After all, who doesn’t know that moment in the cinema when a film hits the ideal end point and in another twenty or thirty minutes gambles away the rest of the goodwill while you’re mentally estimating how full your own bladder is? Let’s baptize this phenomenon at this point as “Django Unchained Syndrome”.
Sleep certainly doesn’t suffer from this and more movies should aim for the spice in the near future. If 90 minutes is too much to ask, I would settle for 100. Or 110? Please!?