IO (2019)

It's still watchable enough, thanks to an unsettlingly ambiguous performance by Margaret Qualley...and a spot of clanging contemporary relevance.

A film more interested in symbols of human resilience than in the flesh-and-blood passions that animate it.

It's not a good sign... when a movie ostensibly meant to rekindle one's faith in mankind makes you long instead for permanent apocalypse.

IO isn't science fiction storytelling distilled so much as it is vaporized.

A fully formed Netflix original fit for streaming anytime, anywhere.

Even if the manner in which it unfolds is, in the end, fairly pedestrian, the message it strives to make definitely is not.

Bleak sci-fi dystopian tale has language, dark themes.

A forced romance, lackluster execution, and a tendency to pander to its audience makes IO come up far shorter than it otherwise could've been.

The slick cinematography can't prevent the film from buckling under the weight of its dull script, laborious pacing and forgettable characters.

A film that tries to come off deeper than it actually is.

Helpert lingers on uninteresting details with glacial pacing, ending up with something best suited for off-Broadway than screens of all sizes.

IO's clichéd reaches for emotional resonance continue throughout the film, landing each time with a hollow thud that left me begging for a toxic storm to wipe the characters and their broody monologues off-screen.