FilmSnobReviews

Title: Unpacking
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Alexandra Clayton, Michal Sinnott
Starring: Dania Arancha, Handayadi Awur Yadi, Sam Bianchini
Runtime: 1 hr 27 mins

What It Is: Six American women, sold on the promise of radical transformation, travel to Bali into the hands of an influencer guru and her Indonesian assistant, and get slapped with reality: change is messy AF.

What We Think: Unpacking, where “self love” becomes “slightly unhinged”. As the minutes went by I realized that this is one I really can’t relate to all that well, which certainly hindered my viewing experience – there’s a reason why some people say “hey, it’s not for everyone”. That being said, there is still much to appreciate within the visuals, performances and writing.

What I most enjoyed out of the film were the performances – some scenes felt scarily close to a documentary in their execution and it’s clear that this film wants to make you aware that there’s nothing more hilarious than to see foreigners trying to navigate an unknown landscape (personally and physically) in their own ways. The underlying theme of actual self love/improvement ends up in a comfortably tender third act after the zany frames of the first half, so there is substance to look forward to.

It’s clear that Alexandra Clayton and Michal Sinnott have a steady direction over the drama, the melodrama (plenty of it here), and the the eye-twitching madness brewing between these six women. The musical score is a helpful quirk to guide these feelings and there’s a texture present here which the film accomplishes quite well due to it being shot on location in Bali – it’s amusing to see this play out against that backdrop.

Our Grade: B-; Once more, there wasn’t much I could relate to or fully grasp onto here. Regardless, I would recommend Unpacking to anyone who enjoys vacation comedies with a trickling of drama, as there are realistic and funny performances directed by the charming eyes of directors Alexandra Clayton and Michal Sinnott.