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Buoyancy

Play trailer 1:42 Poster for Buoyancy 2020 1h 35m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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97% Tomatometer 33 Reviews 96% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
A young Cambodian boy is taken captive and enslaved aboard a fishing trawler.
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Buoyancy

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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Critics Reviews

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K. Austin Collins Rolling Stone 10/23/2020
3.5/5
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. Go to Full Review
Peter Rainer Christian Science Monitor 09/15/2020
It's quite powerful. An inexorable journey into the destruction of this young boy's innocence. Go to Full Review
Christy Lemire FilmWeek (LAist) 09/15/2020
A slow burn. It is steadily tense and horrifying by the end... I can't say I enjoyed it, but it's really good! Go to Full Review
David Griffiths Subculture Entertainment 10/29/2024
5/5
Spectacular film. Amazing storyline that keeps you on the edge of your seat. An important film that everybody should watch. This is filmmaking at its best. Go to Full Review
Jessica Scott Film Cred 12/07/2022
[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. Go to Full Review
Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 03/14/2021
B
A stark character study of a child becoming a man while still a child. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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greg r @itsgregsworld 04/05/2021 Well filmed and well acted. See more les n 01/24/2021 Superb. Shame on the Thais. Shame. See more dave d 12/21/2020 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 See more 09/12/2020 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. See more 04/01/2020 Really Loved this movie... took a day or two to really digest this masterpiece. Very gripping See more nefasto r @Nefasto 03/27/2020 Not an easy film. But that is reality for you: not easy to watch and so many time overlooked. See more Read all reviews
Buoyancy

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Movie Info

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