Within the first 3 minutes of the film you can see that the writer and director is a big fan of Quentin's work, this is immediately evident by the over-splattered blood, and then this super obvious "Chapter 1" that appears on the screen. Now the obvious question is "does this film justify being put into chapters?" And personally I believe the answer is no.. the storyline just doesn't feel like chapters are needed because the whole film could actually be put into one chapter called "water crisis".
Now the acting, that's a different story, it's a bunch of actors who usually take supporting roles who all have to carry the film at the times when it feels like nothing happens and boy do they succeed! Michael Shannon sells his role like he always does and quite frankly one wouldn't rank him higher than any of the rest of the cast which is really good.
The photography is fresh considering this is a low budget film shot with South African equipment. You do get a hint of visual quality that is usually found in other South African films and that is a shame, I'm not sure if it is that the film is likely in 25FPS instead of the Hollywood 24FPS but there is a noticeable difference, whatever it is you get used to it quite quickly. The zooming resolutions are sure to impress you and the Google BigDog feels like one of the cast with an emotional connection as well.
All in all I wouldn't discourage anyone from watching this film, but I wouldn't recommend it if you want to see a good film either. If you have extra time on your hands and want to see what you shouldn't do when copying other directors go for this, if you want to see a film about how to correctly execute a low budget, then go for this as well.
Now the acting, that's a different story, it's a bunch of actors who usually take supporting roles who all have to carry the film at the times when it feels like nothing happens and boy do they succeed! Michael Shannon sells his role like he always does and quite frankly one wouldn't rank him higher than any of the rest of the cast which is really good.
The photography is fresh considering this is a low budget film shot with South African equipment. You do get a hint of visual quality that is usually found in other South African films and that is a shame, I'm not sure if it is that the film is likely in 25FPS instead of the Hollywood 24FPS but there is a noticeable difference, whatever it is you get used to it quite quickly. The zooming resolutions are sure to impress you and the Google BigDog feels like one of the cast with an emotional connection as well.
All in all I wouldn't discourage anyone from watching this film, but I wouldn't recommend it if you want to see a good film either. If you have extra time on your hands and want to see what you shouldn't do when copying other directors go for this, if you want to see a film about how to correctly execute a low budget, then go for this as well.