365 Days

The fuck? (pardon the pun) It's actually impressive how diabolically terrible <em>'365 Days'</em> is. I had heard small details about how sexual this was but hadn't seen anything about the film's other aspects. Now I know why, there aren't any. It's just one big illicit romp with practically nothing holding it together, a cynic would say this is Netflix just getting pornography on their platform through the back door (pardon the p... nevermind). The worse part about this is the glorification of sexual violence, whether it be kidnapping or even - startlingly - rape. How the plot plays out is actually extraordinary - it turns out THIS is the way into a would-be lover's heart... who knew?! It's crazy. You could argue it's a sexually explicit retelling of <em>'Beauty and the Beast'</em>, but that's an argument for another day. They could've done this without the aforementioned and still got the same vibe out of the film, it's bizarre why they choose to go down this direction. You can make characters hate each other before jumping into bed together, you simply do not need the criminality aspect. If I were to offer minor solaces of 'praise' about this 'film': the music (random Mabel is random) and the end scene, which is well shot.

If I were in the mood to watch adult content, Netflix would definitely not be my first choice. The movie I stumbled upon was a total disaster, making me extremely uncomfortable, especially when children unexpectedly walked into the room. It was a messy experience that I strongly advise against. "365 Days" seems to be all about sex and trying to engage the audience solely on that basis. The sequel follows the same pattern, and both films are filled with excessive plot holes, acting issues, and seem to lack a meaningful storyline. It feels like they are veering towards the wrong direction, almost resembling pornography rather than a film with substance. Despite being somewhat enjoyable, these movies left me questioning why they were even made. I only watched the sequel because I had seen the first one and felt compelled to review both at the same time, even though I found them both to be quite terrible.

The characters and their interactions aren't interesting, the direction's flat, and the story fails to build or maintain tension or momentum, so the audience's interest is neither captured nor kept. There are one or two steamy sex scenes (and I appreciated the use of what I assume is a prosthetic dildo in the blowjob scenes) but the rest of the movie's filler. There is budget softcore stuff that's both titillating and mildly entertaining on a narrative level. This is 95% neither. This is 95% bleh.