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      Buoyancy

      Released Sep 11, 2020 1h 35m Drama TRAILER for Buoyancy: Trailer 1 List
      97% 35 Reviews Tomatometer 96% 50+ Ratings Audience Score A young Cambodian boy is taken captive and enslaved aboard a fishing trawler. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Nov 28 Buy Now

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      Buoyancy

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      Buoyancy

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      Critics Consensus

      Grueling but powerful, Buoyancy finds grim urgency in its portrayal of a young man's horrific captivity and fight for human dignity.

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      Audience Reviews

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      greg r Well filmed and well acted. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review les n Superb. Shame on the Thais. Shame. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review dave d Rodd Rathjen wrote and directed this Australian film on human trafficking in Thailand. It's a foreign language feature with Khmer and Thai the two languages spoken. First off, if you have any fears of swimming or deep water or drowning then I'd STRONGLY suggest skipping Buoyancy. This tense and haunting thriller never lets you look away. Rathjen's use of light to illustrate how confined spaces are make this movie come to life. While the sound design wasn't my cup of tea it was a minor blemish in what is hopefully a long and brilliant career of Rathjen. All of the actors are non-actors, but you wouldn't know it. This is a really great film that will open your mind about a subject that not enough light is on. Based on true stories, this is a film about survival. With 30 minutes left you'll have no idea where it's going and you won't mind. Final Score: 9/10 Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review brent m With its heart decidedly in the right place, this socially conscious Australian offering shines an exceedingly bright light on the plight of Southeast Asian men and boys who are willfully deceived and ostensibly sold into slavery aboard Thai fishing boats, forced to work under deplorable conditions and sadistic sea captains. In what essentially turns out to be a Western on the high seas, viewers witness the brutal coming of age of a 14-year-old Cambodian youth who is looking for a better life but unwittingly takes a difficult path to reach his goal. In telling his story, the film features superb cinematography, an excellent score, capable performances and a sparklingly clear message, but its minimalist, sometimes-repetitive, often-predictable narrative and one-dimensional character development tend to undermine the other fine assets that the picture has going for it. While it's indeed discomforting to criticize a release with such noble intents behind it, it's also nevertheless regrettable that the filmmakers chose a comparatively pedestrian approach to fulfill them and to tell a story that's long overdue in being told. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member At one point, the 14-year-old Cambodian boy turned slave in a Thai fishermen ship, stares at the immensity of the ocean around him, contemplating a chance for freedom, a way to better survive his miserable condition. He might also regret leaving his home, with the excuse he wasn't getting paid for his father's requesting jobs ("why did you have so many children?" he courageously confronted his patriarch). He wouldn't have got trapped in a human trafficking, slavery operation taking place in the middle of the ocean, as an accurate portrait of what really occurs in these corrupt, lawless and impoverished parts of the world. His charismatic, determined personality attracts an allied from both sides: he becomes attached, and forms an unlikely father/son relationship with one of the slaved men among them, who shapes him through their suffering journey, and also captures admiration from one of the murderous captains in the ship, who decides to protect him and to turn him into one of his kind. Addressing children exploitation in a gripping atmosphere, powerfully performed and shockingly violent, Rodd Rathjen's feature debut is an impressive, cutting-edge survivalist tale. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member Really Loved this movie... took a day or two to really digest this masterpiece. Very gripping Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Buoyancy

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      Critics Reviews

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      K. Austin Collins Rolling Stone It grows thrilling to watch. Rathjen's careful script and intensive eye for environmental details deliver all of this to us with a steady rhythm. Repetition, a sense of the daily drag, is key. Rated: 3.5/5 Oct 23, 2020 Full Review Peter Rainer Christian Science Monitor It's quite powerful. An inexorable journey into the destruction of this young boy's innocence. Sep 15, 2020 Full Review Christy Lemire FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles) A slow burn. It is steadily tense and horrifying by the end... I can't say I enjoyed it, but it's really good! Sep 15, 2020 Full Review Jessica Scott Film Cred [Buoyancy] shines a light on the nightmares that so many people are living through at this very moment. The tense, minimalist naturalism makes sure that the story gets under the viewer’s skin and pierces their ignorance or complacency. Dec 7, 2022 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews A stark character study of a child becoming a man while still a child. Rated: B Mar 14, 2021 Full Review Amber Wilkinson Eye for Film Rathjen captures the monotony of this existence and the casual violence of it with mounting tension as Chakra himself becomes brutalised - we view key violent acts, not by watching them, but by observing the effect they have. Rated: 4/5 Feb 25, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A young Cambodian boy is taken captive and enslaved aboard a fishing trawler.
      Director
      Rodd Rathjen
      Producer
      Jeff Harrison, Kate Kennedy, Bryce Menzies, Jonathan Page
      Screenwriter
      Rodd Rathjen
      Distributor
      Kino Lorber
      Production Co
      Film Victoria, Feracious Entertainment, Definition Films, Echo Studio, Anupheap Productions, Causeway Films, Screen Australia, MIFF Premiere Fund
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English (Australia)
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Sep 11, 2020, Limited
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Sep 11, 2020
      Runtime
      1h 35m
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