Ana Asensio’s “Most Beautiful Island” is, like most really interesting movies, not necessarily beholden to a genre. It’s an earthbound story about a regular person with common problems, and because of the sense of time and place, you can imagine it happening only a block away if you live in a city or urban area. But while you’d have difficulty shelving it at your local video store, were those to still exist, one viewing would force you to conclude that this is, unmistakably, a horror film.
Asensio also stars as a young Spanish woman in New York City. Without citizenship, she toils in low-wage jobs, looming large over the furniture of her small, dilapidated apartment. The rot she sees in evocative nightmares is not extremely exaggerated from your average tiny New York City apartment. She waits, and waits, and expects this world to swallow her whole. Fortunately, a friend in a similar situation offers an opportunity that could provide financial stability for a short while.
The first assumption she has, and that the audience logs, is that this is an escorting or prostitution opportunity. She is requested to head to a secret location while glammed up, something she barely pulls off on a budget. She arrives at what looks like somewhere off the West Side Highway to become one of a sea of glamorous, tarted-up women, seemingly waiting to be chosen to disappear into a backroom. This, of course, plays into the audience’s second assumption, that being this is a situation that will involve the torture and murder of “forgotten” women.
Both those assumptions are wrong. As a director, Asensio keeps the camera close, creating a sense of disorientation as each guess as to what the evening brings is summarily dismissed. Legendary horror director Larry Fessenden, who produced this, also shows up, because when you make an independent horror film, a Fessenden appearance is your lucky charm. As Asensio begins to fret more and more, we are nervous for her, not only because of what could possibly be happening in the next room, but because she can’t afford to bail on the opportunity to find out the hard way. Once you get behind those doors, the film becomes both weirder and also more human in a sense. Without spoiling anything, I would say that the third act revelations essentially make this a “Madame Web” prequel. Yep, you heard it here first, this is a stealth entry in the SPUMC universe (Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters, for those of you for whom it is not yet Morbin Time).
One of the more curious wrinkles I’ve seen in this week’s films is the lack of opportunities that followed for some of these filmmakers. As I mentioned in discussing “The 40 Year Old Version”, Radha Blank still hasn’t pivoted from her debut film. The Mulleavy sisters seemed to have returned to Rodarte after “Woodshock”. And now Asensio, who has had a fairly busy acting career in Spain before this film, and who now apparently lives with a prolific director husband while seemingly keeping a low profile. It’s disappointing considering that “Most Beautiful Island” is a hardcore NYC debut, a movie that somehow makes the most photographed city in the world feel dangerous and unpredictable again, a movie that buzzes with a crippling sense of terror that bubbles up in organically upsetting ways. Why hasn’t Blumhouse shown up at her door with a blank check?
Money issues power the decisions made by Asensio’s character in “Most Beautiful Island”, and they’re just as much of a problem in prison. Idle hands lead to bad choices, and many men end up picking up gambling as a hobby. Obviously it is discouraged by staff, as are all alternative economies in prison. But go to any unit, and you’ll find scores of men huddled up, playing cards. The currency of all institutions I visited were mackerel and stamps. A package of mackerel usually counted as $1, and a book of stamps could be considered eight or nine mackerel, aka dollars. As these men sat and traded cards, right next to them would be a small pile of stamps, and/or a much larger and more conspicuous pile of mackerel packets.
For many men, this was their “hustle”, as they were not receiving money from home. But “gambling addict” has never been a real job for anyone. For anyone who finished the day with a whole bunch of stamps, there were another couple of guys ending their sessions in the red. At that point, the hope is that someone will front them the money. More than likely, it won’t end well for that guy. The only move at that point is to head to the SHU. These men will tell officers they “fear for their life”, and plead to be transferred to another institution, only because they hope to avoid a debt in the hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Stamps and mackerels. Because inmates have no control over where they are sent, they can only hope that whomever they owe doesn’t have people at the next location. Frequently, they do. Pay your debts, kids.
Next week, get ready for five days of SEQUELS.
I was gonna say- never heard of this - does seem interesting- where would I find it now?
Never heard of this one either!! WTF?!?