{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "description": "Wow. What a movie. The most compelling part of the movies set in John Krasinski's Quiet Place universe is the way in which they succeed so deftly at humanizing characters and telling stories when their characters are allowed to speak so sparingly. Lupita Nyong'o carries this entry into the series beautifully. She's terminally ill and thrust into the heart of New York's stupefyingly dense metropolitan core as the events central to the story unfold. She's accompanied by her cat — Frodo (which, by the way — it's remarkable how substantial a character a cat can become when it's presented on the same terms as the human characters, with so few words spoken) — and disoriented (as everyone is) during the initial invasion. So, what does she do? She sets off on a quest for pizza. She's joined by Eric who — similarly stunned — is looking for an anchor. He finds that anchor in Lupita's Sam and slowly wins her over (perhaps it helps that Frodo takes to him?). It's surreal how well Krasinski portrays the growth of their relationship with so little room for speech. It's all bound up in gestures both large and small, Eric's unwillingness to leave on Sam's terms and brief opportunities to write to someone write next to you. The water and the rain are so much more important than they normally would be. New York is an island — that's taken for granted — but that's a boundary for aliens that cannot swim and cannot see. They know it's there, echolocation is pretty clearly their jam, but their knowledge of it is informed by their inability to sense it. For the surviving humans that makes it both a refuge by boat and a brief respite in which speech is afforded by the ambient noise rain creates. It let's Sam and Eric retreat to her apartment and build a rapport — by screaming, by sharing Sam's poetry. No more is needed. The silence imposed by the aliens' presence carries even more weight given Sam's career as a poet, her father's as a pianist. It robs everyone of their humanity and it robs them of their passions. It makes being together dangerous in any significant numbers as something — something — will create noise by virtue of everyone's close proximity. I love that they make their way to Patsy's (even if the pizza is procured elsewhere) and that Sam's near final act is to provide Eric with just enough of a distraction to escape into the water with Frodo. I loved this far more than I expected to, but I love the whole franchise. A more boring film would get caught up in the details of the aliens, trying to offer the viewer an explanation of the inexplicable and A Quiet Place succeeds because those details are immaterial. The story is about the people and their circumstances, not the aliens. The constraints and the horror they inflict are what drives the story forward, but it's the people that matter. Also, Alex Wolff is excellent as Reuben and Djimon Hounsou is always such a stabilizing, compelling presence in all of his roles.",
  "path": "/watching/movies/a-quiet-place-day-one-2024",
  "publishedAt": "2024-07-31T13:47:52Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:sttgf52vkk46f6yuknvqxvgh/site.standard.publication/self",
  "tags": [
    "scifi",
    "thriller",
    "horror"
  ],
  "title": "A Quiet Place: Day One"
}