Asylum Seekers

2009

Action / Comedy / Fantasy

3
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 35% · 1 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 35% · 50 ratings
IMDb Rating 4.4/10 10 1050 1.1K

Plot summary

Six people on the verge of a breakdown decide to check themselves into an insane asylum, only to discover there is just room for one.

Director

Rania Ajami Photo
Rania Ajami

Top cast

Stella Maeve Photo
Stella Maeve as Alice
Joseph McKenna Photo
Joseph McKenna as Mickey
Bill Dawes Photo
Bill Dawes as Alan
Suneet Kochar Photo
Suneet Kochar as Girlfriend #2
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
815.81 MB
1280*522
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 28 min
Seeds ...
1.48 GB
1920*784
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 28 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by gavin6942

So Much Potential, But Not Completed

Six people on the verge of a breakdown decide to check themselves into an insane asylum, only to discover there is just room for one.I have to wonder, what sort of thing inspires this film? Luis Bunuel? David Lynch? Clearly Alice in Wonderland to some degree... but this film has a surreal vibe -- no, not a vibe. It is surreal through and through. Which, if you like that, will tickle your fancy.The idea behind this film was awesome, the imagery was awesome, the twists were awesome... so why did I give it a mediocre rating? Simply because this film, if redone by someone with a bigger budget and with access to more star power, could make it a much better film. The only really good actor was the man playing the bald guy in a suit. (The cyber girl was okay, too... the gender bender rapper was by far the worst.
Reviewed by NoDakTatum 6 / 10

Crazy from The Beard

The initial set-up to "Asylum Seekers" is promising: half a dozen people with mental problems try to get into an insane asylum where only one spot is available. Only the craziest will make it in. The possibilities are endless: manic dark comedy, bloody horror film, social satire, etc. What I did not see coming is a film even more insane than its characters. Six people enter the asylum, and are provided with onscreen introductions. Antoine (Daniel Irizarry) is a virgin nymphomaniac, Maud (Pepper Binkley) is a trophy mouse-wife, Paul (Lee Wilkof) is an evangelical nihilist, Miranda (Camille O'Sullivan) is an introverted exhibitionist, Alan (Bill Dawes) is a gender bender refugee, and Alice (Stella Maeve) is a cybernetic Lolita. All possible patients are put through various "contests" by the mean Nurse Milly (Judith Hawking) and her evil henchmen, under the watchful eye of the unseen The Beard. The asylum itself is full of fringe characters even more bizarre than our prospects. Maud and Antoine begin to grow closer (as close as a nymphomaniac and a mousy wife can), until The Beard makes up their mind."Asylum Seekers" is exhausting. Co-writer/director Rania Ajami ups the bizarre quotient right away, never giving the viewer a break. Each successive scene is a little more insane than the one before, and even quiet scenes turn into bizarre set-pieces that are not soon forgotten. I would compare her direction favorably to Terry Gilliam or Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Her use of widescreen is excellent, and she gives us some creepy imagery that plays with the viewer's head as much as the characters'. I could tell too easily, however, which characters were going to be the focus of our attention. Some are given small back stories- little scenes that show us why they are where they are, but some are not. Some characters don't live up to their own opening onscreen intros- Alan seems more torn about his race, not his sexuality. Same with Miranda, the most inhibited exhibitionist I have seen. Even Paul, who should have been a right-wing fanatic nutjob, seems toned down, becoming a mild paranoid instead. The cast does a great job playing characters that are way way out there. I would love to see their reactions reading the screenplay, seeing what they must endure on film. There is nothing "Salo"-esque here, no exploitative feces eating or anything lowbrow like that. Instead, Ajami puts her cast through the paces of "American Idol"-like competitions and wearing giant animal heads. The problem is all the surrealism should have been toned down as much as some of the characters. A more mainstream approach to the material might have warmed me up to the film, where following through on some of the initial scenes are a problem. The lack of strong characterization also means not being able to sympathize much with any of these people, much less the equally disturbed asylum staff. Technically, "Asylum Seekers" is a visual marvel and very well made. I would slightly recommend it, I guarantee you will be talking about it for days, love it or hate it.
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