Title: Snowpiercer
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Written by: Bong Joon-ho, Kelly Masterson
Starring: Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Go Ah-sung, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton
Snowpiercer is something of an amalgam. Part high-concept science fiction, part social satire, part action thriller, the movie weaves in and out of several different genres and moods during its 126 minutes. Much like its director, Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Mother), Snowpiercer is interested in many things at once, and demonstrates mastery over all of them.
Set in the year 2031, after a devastating ice age freezes much of human civilization, Snowpiercer follows what's left of humanity on a giant train powered by perpetual motion. Rattling along icy rails and crashing through frozen overhangs, the train is home to a tiered class system, in which the upper class lives in the nose of the train and the lower class lives in the tail. Snowpiercer tells the story of this lower class staging a rebellion against the status quo.
What begins as a fairly typical jailbreak movie quickly and surprisingly morphs into something much deeper, more layered, and more intellectually, viscerally, and visually stunning than any other movie released this summer season. The screenplay, adapted by Bong and Kelly Masterson (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) from a French graphic novel, is a tapestry of political provocation, dark humor, shocking violence, and big ideas, all wrapped up in a powerful human drama set against a fully-realized and convincing dystopian future.
[Chris Evans stars in Snowpiercer]
Breathing life into that drama is a stellar international cast, anchored by Chris Evans (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) who plays Curtis, the stoical leader of the proletariat, and South Korean actor Song Kang-ho, who disappears into the role of Minsu, a politically pessimistic security specialist addicted to a toxic inhalant.
On a visual front, Snowpiercer is spectacular. Production designer Ondrej Nekvasil (The Illusionist) and his team of art directors, makeup artists, and costume designers have created in Snowpiercer a believable universe within the confined, steely space of a train. Each car has its own visual identity and story, and informs the pacing, action, and trajectory of the movie. Punctuating this trajectory are some thrilling and rattling action set-pieces, one of which is as good as any previously committed to celluloid. Expertly staged, visually inventive, and breathless in its brutality, this sequence is an instant classic.
The same could be said for Snowpiercer as a whole. Not since Neill Blomkamp's District 9 has a movie so deftly woven political allegory and science fiction with human drama. The result is a challenging and powerful motion picture that's both cerebral and visceral. With it, Bong Joon-ho has cemented his status as one of the industry's most creative, nimble, and visionary directors.
