An oddly gripping battle of wits with some stellar performances from Abbott and Qualley, Sanctuary is a dialogue forward, claustrophobic thriller that is equal parts frantic as it is conniving. Qualley is completely transformative here, I've never seen her this confident and striking. Strangely romantic, exploring many questions like gender roles, power dynamics, ascension and expectation, destiny etc; Sanctuary really is a melting pot of genres and ideas, and it looks great too. Flat colours and contrasty outfits make this a feast for the eyes (especially that shot of Qualley with the light reflecting off her jaw line).
It fits Neons "New A24" role in the industry to a T.

Another movie that showcases bad D/s dynamics. Add in a bad SW and here you go.

There were a couple ways to end this, and I was really hoping they would take one of those routes, but they didn’t. It could have been way better.

***Sanctuary*** is something along the lines of a rom-com psychological-drama erotic-thriller. Dialogue and character driven all the way. It reminded me a lot of last year's *Good Luck to You, Leo Grande*.

Excellent character study and relationship/power dynamics. You're never really sure if they're playing the script or improvising. There's sooo many conversational back and forths and twists and turns, it's pretty much a cat and mouse game. It does get redundant and unbelievable in the second half but it still kept me invested.

It's not afraid of taking risks, the way it totally releases the tension in the first act but then manages to pick back up again on several occasions is commendable. The dialogue is mostly stagey, over-the-top (nobody talks like that) but it reflects the whole premise of this movie: it's a façade and breaking it is the whole point.

The performances are excellent but Margaret Qualley blew me away, she was given more playing ground to showcase her skills than Christopher Abbott though. Every movement and object has a crisp sound, energetic score, claustrophobic set and the colors really pop. Unpredictable from beginning to end and perfect ending!

First watch: 7/10
Second watch: 8/10

Christopher Abbott and Margaret Qualley are really great and they’re both going for it but there is too much lost potential in this dom/sub romp comp that never fully comes together.

Lets be honest - a movie where two people are alone in a room for the duration of the movie is really, really difficult to pull off. Fortunately, this movie pulls it off wonderfully. Qualley is an absolute relvelation in this role. As the movie progresses, we see her character morph into several different personas. And the ending... I did not see it coming, and I loved it. This movie was a surprising treat to watch.

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_Roman Roy: The Movie_

This is an interesting analysis of gender- and power dynamics in relationships with some pretty remarkable sound design and cinematography. There are quite a few insane moments in it: most of them delightfully weird, a couple of them dumb. It stretches believability at times, but it had just enough verisimilitude to keep me on board. Abbott and Qualley deliver some of their best work to date here, you could call out some of Qualley's overacting as inauthentic or too over the top, but I think it suits the role she's playing. Very easily recommended and one of my favorites of the year so far.

7.5/10

If narcissists fell in love…

I don't know how I got here, but the pitch for this movie should have died in the same elevator that it was pitched, not every idea/fantasy or in this case twisted fetish worth making into a movie! What a waste of time and money.

I loved Margaret Qualley in this, and she really gets to shine here. This movie is absurd, crazy, and very horny. Plenty of shifting power dynamics, and I laughed at multiple moments with just how the characters would react to each other. Their dynamics are excellent. I had a lot of fun with it, and the cinematography is no slouch either. My one negative is that the ending didn't land as well for me, but still, overall very positive impressions.