Underwater (2020)

REVIEW BY: ROBERT CHANDLER

Well, it’s not as Lovecraftian as it thinks it is, nor as Lewis Carrollian as it wants to be... but it’s much better than the wretched comments on IMDb suggest.

I like Kristen Stewart. She’s excellent in this. It may be the first time I’ve seen her commit so much to a role. And have that commitment show through on the screen.

I love her face. The camera loves her face.

TJ Miller has the temerity to say to her, after she pulls him from some wreckage, “you sweet, flat-chested, elven creature.” She doesn’t bat an eyelid. She’s too busy working out an escape route.

The storyline doesn’t give any of its characters much to do except respond to events around them and show their determination to pull through.

It tanked at the box office, and it’s full of tropes we’ve seen before, but it’s effective. Not least because it starts with a catastrophe and the characters have to work their way out from there. I was happy to go with them.