"A Quiet Place" Review
This is such a special movie.
Dropped in the middle of an mysterious post-apocalyptic monster outbreak, "A Quiet Place" follows a family who've been forced to adapt to a way of living while hunted by a bunch of deadly creatures. The primary way these creatures hunt is by hearing their prey. It's such a neat and simple concept and the movie spends scene after scene building great tension by showing the audience the metaphorical Hitchcockian bomb underneath the table. This is the most basic way to make great suspense and the script understands that very well. Actor/director John Krasinski is extremely skilled behind and in front of the camera. He and co-star/wife Emily Blunt have great chemistry (not just because they're a real life couple).
Because the movie has very little dialogue, the actors have to rely on expressing their character's emotions through body language and Krasinski and Blunt handle their performances delicately and put a lot of care to make every nuance register on the screen. Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe are just as great as Krasinski and Blunt and they portray a very intimate family dynamic so when the hard moments come, they really hit hard. Also, I'm super happy that a deaf character is played by Simmonds (a deaf actor) and her character's disability plays a crucial role. The film empowers deafness in such a great way (I'm not gonna go into it due to spoilers but holy shit!). Also, that ending is so fucking good.
Let's talk sound design. It's one of the best sounding movies ever. You can hear every footstep and everything that every character does and it's there to put you on edge. Jump scares are done right and slower scenes feel and sound gorgeous. The music by Marco Beltrami is also pretty decent and is edited extremely well into its beats.
This movie isn't perfect though. I have issues with some of the weird character decisions during the inciting incident and towards the end that made me question why a bunch of super logical and intelligent characters would do those things during those specific situations. The characters also have and use electricity which doesn't really make much sense if you really think about it.
Overall, A Quiet Place is an extremely well made movie and is a must watch at the movie theatre.