Vivarium is this week's slap. Directed by Lorcan Finnegan, who is presenting his second feature film, the film reunites Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots. In search of their first home, this young couple visits with a mysterious real estate agent and finds themselves trapped in a strange subdivision. Vivarium is a very creative little nugget. The filmmaker tackles many themes relating to the couple and society. The duo is transcendent and carries on their shoulders an intelligent and confusing feature film, which is certainly worth seeing.
The story of a couple…
Vivarium is an oppressive feature film, a true horror movie for all young couples who want to settle down. Lorcan Finnegan depicts the hell of confinement, the loneliness of the couple, through an ultra creative story. The filmmaker delivers a corrosive and nagging social fable, which refers to many masters of the fantastic. He does not hide behind a false modesty, a false subtlety, from the beginning he announces the color. Vivarium is full of symbols, clues, false pretenses. The filmmaker accompanies his viewer from the beginning, when he makes an obvious and yet intelligent parallel with the cuckoo, this horrible bird that lays its eggs in the nests of others. A metaphor that says a lot about the film, as well as its title, very revealing. 
By this process, Lorcan Finnegan does not lie about his merchandise. He takes the audience into a confusing, suffocating and nagging, almost nihilistic film. A real nightmare, which depicts the loneliness inherent in the condition of the couple. He sets up the metaphor of life together, which moves tirelessly towards isolation, sadness, separation. Through the prism of the home, here materialized by uniform subdivisions, but also via the arrival of a child , here very strange, Finnegan sets up the whole anthology of the inevitable stages of the couple's life. Steps that send the duo directly to its demise. This is evidenced by some obvious allegories, such as the character of Jesse Eisenberg, who digs his own grave throughout the film. In short! Vivarium is a pessimistic and exciting vision of the evolution of a couple through time, here condensed into a few moments.
… but also that of a society
Lorcan Finnegan also discusses societal standardization. From the angle of the couple, he then enters a pessimistic representation of our modern society. It examines the trivialization and formatting of our customs, of our way of life, through these housing estates all identical. A veritable contemporary labyrinth, the criticism is obvious: beware of the standardization of our society. And for that, there are the usual clichés with which he plays cleverly: synthetic turf, clouds all identical, homogeneous houses, everything breathes the knock. A way to highlight the superficiality of our modern world. With these concepts, the filmmaker does not hesitate to humbly borrow from The Truman Show, where Jim Carrey is at the center of a social and human experience. Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots seem to have landed in the same type of macabre exercise. 
Vivarium also does not hesitate to draw inspiration from the classic The 4th Dimension. The film is a worthy heir to this cult series, which seems to have no secrets for Lorcan Finnegan. The latter pays tribute to it and modernizes it with great talent, offering an almost metaphysical "mind-fuck". With a cold, metallic, almost disembodied approach, the filmmaker offers a very personal, confusing and terrifying film because of its apparent simplicity. A feature film that wants to highlight the way our society falls asleep without even realizing it. Demonstrate how it is indoctrinated by advertising, globalization and globalization of an entire culture. A people that no longer thinks, that no longer controls anything. A nation, victim of the decisions of the powerful, impalpable and yet only masters on board. Lorcan Finnegan offers a logical parallel between his film and the impotence of men. In this theme, the director pays tribute without hiding to The Invasion of the Burial Desecrators or The Invasion of Los Angeles. He uses disembodied, empty, automatic figures, in line with the films mentioned above. This is obviously a theme of great replacement, here, perfectly treated. In short! Vivarium is this week's slap, which plays cleverly between horror, science fiction, second degree and social satire. A thought-provoking, confusing and exciting film. A disenchanted and nihilistic vision of our society, and more broadly of human existence…
Vivarium Trailer
https://youtu.be/7bl4CVODYX4
