EyeSore Movie Pics: Exam and Fermat’s Room

EXAM (2008)

This well intentioned thriller, a mix between The Cube and the Spanish movie The Method, fails spectacularly not only at creating tension, but also at a very childish commentary about the “humanity” in mankind.

8 people are sitting in a room waiting to pass the final test to get a job in a super prestigious company, they only have to answer one question but the piece of paper in front of them is blank; they are not allowed to speak to the guard next to the door nor to leave the room and they only have 80 minutes to find out the answer. Now, while you were reading this description you’ve probably imagined what’s gonna happen. And you’re probably right! While well made and reasonably well acted, Exam is painfully conventional and boringly paced. People, as you can imagine, get crazy, over the top and get eliminated one by one and no intention to twist conventions is made; the hotshot is the youngest looking, the psychologist wears glasses and the cool gambler tosses a coin once in a while, just for kicks. I shit you not.

I feel bad, being this mean, there is a lot of effort put into this movie, a low budgeted and technically dutiful film; that’s why it hurts the most when you see that outside the system they didn’t care to do anything else or new with the premise besides inventing a Sci-Fi context with gives the excuse for an awful ending.

On second though is better that this guys didn’t try to do anything new.
Rent Fermat’s Room instead!

- Daniel Montiel @ Eyesore Cinema

FERMAT’S ROOM (2007)

Four elite mathematicians who do not know each other are invited by a mysterious host to an isolated home with the pretext of resolving a great mathematics enigma. The titular room, in which they find themselves trapped, turns out to be a shrinking room that will crush them if they do not discover in time what connects them all and why someone might wish to murder them.

Clever, enthralling, intelligent and very well played… Fermat’s Room stands tall amongst the best films in the tiny “math based thriller” genre, populated with fine films such as PRIMER and Pi. As the plot unfolds, so do the personalities of the characters. Slowly but surely, intentions and motivations are revealed layer by layer. As the room in which they are trapped begins to shrink, the pressure builds and startling revelations begin to find their way through the cracking veneer. How are these characters related beyond their field of expertise? Why have they, in particular, been brought together? And why have they been seemingly targeted for death? To reveal any more of the plot would be a disservice to a masterful film!

First time Spanish Co-Directors, Luis Piedrathita and Rodrigo Sopena, deliver an intriguing thriller that keeps you guessing. The principle actors deliver richly draw characters. All in all a classy affair and well worth the time spent enjoying it!
Rent Fermat’s Room instead of Exam!

- Daniel Hanna @ Eyesore Cinema