A lot of people ask me why I watch so many crappy movies? It’s not that I love watching crap films, it’s that I’m always searching for that needle in a haystack. Finding one good movie in a sea of other crap makes it worth it. That leads us to the Hulu film called “No Exit”.
When it comes to streaming service movies, the bar is set very low. When it comes to streaming services like Netflix, the bar is buried under the ground. But Hulu is a little bit different. Ever since Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, they have been unloading a lot of small-budget films that wouldn’t work in movie theaters onto the streaming service Hulu. A perfect example of this is the film No Exit, a film that is solid but wouldn’t work in a theatrical release.
The film is about a recovering drug addict named Darby Thorne (Havana Rose Liu), One night in rehab Darby gets a phone call from a relative that her mother had just suffered a brain aneurysm and is in the hospital. Darby decides to break out of rehab in Sacramento and drive all the way to Salt Lake City to go see her before she passes away. Before she can make it to Utah, a massive snowstorm has shut down the entire interstate forcing Darby to redirect to a local Visitor Center.
Darby meets a group of strangers who were also stuck in the snowstorm. When Darby goes outside to see if she can get cell phone service, she notices a bright blue van parked outside in the snow that has a little girl trapped in the back. Someone inside the visitor center has kidnapped the little girl but she doesn’t know who it is and with no cell phone service she can’t call for any help. With time running out on her mother, Darby has no choice but to figure out who kidnapped the girl and save her before an already bad night gets much worse.
One of the best aspects of No Exit is the fact that the film always stays one step ahead of its audience. The film reveals just enough to make you think that you understand what’s going on and then on a dime, the film throws in a twist that changes the entire dynamic of the movie. The film has a well-crafted cast of actors who play a diverse role of personalities throughout the film. Once the conflict of the film has been presented, The story engages its audience to stick with it throughout its ever-changing mystery.
For someone who doesn’t have much acting experience, Havana Rose Liu does a very good job at being a captivating leading actress. Havana understands which emotions to play throughout the course of the movie. She’s a flawed character who becomes the only person the audience can connect with.
The production of the film is very simple, there aren’t a lot of sets and there aren’t a lot of locations but the movie works with what it has and makes the best of it. The film draws a lot of comparisons to a 2018 film called Bad Times at the El Royale with the major difference being what this film lacks in star power, they make up for with storytelling.
No Exit is the type of film streaming services were made for. It is short, smart, and entertaining making it a certified gem for 2022.
4/5
Don’t forget to Subscribe for Updates. Also, Follow Us at Society-Reviews, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Odysee, Twitch, & Letterboxd.