The Discovery (2017) poster
2017 · drama · romance · sci-fi · thriller

The Discovery

Directed by Charlie McDowell1h 42m2017
ElsewhereIMDb6.240kRT48%Metacritic54
  • sombre
  • inventive
Movie DNA

Sombre, steady, measured drama / romance, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

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In the near future, due to a breakthrough scientific discovery by Dr. Thomas Harbor, there is now definitive proof of an afterlife. While countless people have chosen suicide to reset their existence, others try to decide what it all means. Among them is Dr. Harbor's son Will, who has arrived at his father's isolated compound with a mysterious young woman named Isla. There, they discover the strange acolytes who help Dr. Harbor with his experiments.

Our read · The Discovery (2017) reads as a sombre, steady, inventive drama · romance · sci-fi entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of The Discovery

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want eerie afterlife sci-fi wrestling with suicide, love, and looping grief.

ends ambiguousit stays with youa slow buildgrips by minute 18attention 4/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upsuicide themegraphic violence

Skip it tonightSkip if suicide themes and bleak metaphysics will hit too close tonight.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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