Culture news This sci-fi film rated 91% went completely unnoticed in 2022: it did not deserve such a failure at the box office!
Published on 09/26/2024 at 10:15 p.m.
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Science fiction will delight moviegoers and by extension movie theaters in 2024. The genre is experiencing a new cinematic golden age with works that have become instantly cult including Godzilla Minus One, Dune Part II, Furiosa A Mad Max Saga or Alien Romulus again. Other films are less fortunate and have gone completely unnoticed despite their qualities. This is the case of this little gem of Belgian-French-Lithuanian SF.
The unfair failure of an eco-science fiction fable
The success of a film sometimes depends on little, and the same goes for certain failures which we can describe as unfair as these films are praised for their visual and/or narrative qualities. Vesper Chronicles, co-directed and co-written by Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, is clearly of this caliber. In 2022, this science fiction fable won the support of the press who hailed this apocalyptic vision of the future with an uplifting 91% on RottenTomatoes. The general public was much less receptive to this ecological dystopia, as evidenced by the 59% on RottenTomatoes.
For our colleagues atindieWireVesper Chronicles is a “reference work on the construction of a post-apocalyptic world, dramatically imperfect but imaginative, which takes the opposite view of so many other stories of the same genre”. The story focuses on a bio-hacker named Vesper capable of hatching life in a sterile world where only a privileged few survive in autonomous citadels. The teenage girl’s destiny changes the day a mysterious ship crashes nearby. Unfortunately, Vesper Chronicles was a box office failure. Despite a paltry budget of 5 million euros, it only grossed 1.4 million at the cinema.
A sci-fi film conquers the box office and the Oscars in 2022
Another film released at the end of March 2022, then at the end of August in France, experienced a fate diametrically opposed to that of Vesper Chronicles. He was even the big surprise of the 95th Oscars ceremony. Everything Everywhere All at Once co-directed and co-written by Daniel Kwan and Danel Scheinert (Swiss Army Man with Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe) benefited from unprecedented word of mouthparticularly in Uncle Sam’s Country, which allowed it to become a real popular success after having conquered the “critical” sphere.
This feature film mixing action and science fiction within a credible and crazy multiverse ended its career in theaters with 143.4 million US dollars in its pocket even though it cost between 14.3 and 25 million to produce . The company A24 can be congratulated for having focused on this unique project which, beyond the financial aspect, was unanimously approved by the press (93% on RottenTomatoes), but a little less by the general public (79% on RT). Never mind, Everything Everywhere All at Once has especially conquered the Hollywood industry which awarded it 7 Oscars out of 11 nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis), Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan) and Best Director (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert).
- Everything Everywhere All at Once is available for free on France.tv until September 29, 2024 inclusive
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