Mark Reviews Movies: 1BR

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 23, 2020

Something's wrong in the apartment complex where 1BR mostly takes place. We know it from the start, because everyone's nice—too nice—smiling and waving and chatting up a complete stranger without any apparent ulterior motive.

It's a sad thing to consider, perhaps—that writer/director David Marmor can imbue such discomfort in simply showing people being kind and polite to each other. We just don't expect it, especially in the heart of busy Los Angeles, where everyone outside the complex seems caught up in the grind of day jobs and unfulfilled dreams.

One of those dreamers is Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom), pursuing a career as a costume designer. While working at a law firm and living at a motel, she attends an open house for the complex and finds it ideal. It may have a no-pets policy, but when she gets an apartment, Sarah is convinced she can hide her cat from the neighbors.

At first, Marmor's debut feature seems to be ratcheting up the tension slowly, as Sarah is kept awake at night by noisy plumbing and is sees passing shadows in the living room. We start expecting something akin to a slow-burning horror story, as sleeplessness turns to paranoia, which may be irrational or completely justified—depending upon which direction Marmor's screenplay decides to go with the material.

Just as it establishes eeriness from the smiling faces on those selflessly helpful tenants, though, the film pretty much shatters any expectations we might have of it with a grisly discovery when the smoke alarm suddenly goes off one night. Without revealing too much, Marmor's plot is entirely about the awful, hidden truth behind the tenants' creepy happiness.

The film becomes unnerving on both a blatant (how the tenants try to make Sarah as happy as they are, using some psychological and physical torture) and a subversive level (confirming that our suspicions about the tenants' civility and neighborliness are completely founded). It repeatedly surprises us with new details about the nature of this place, these people, and the system behind them.

1BR creates an undeniably unsettling atmosphere amidst the sunny light and faces of this apartment complex, as they're juxtaposed with a cult-like mentality that would give up everything for a sense of false contentment. It's an efficient and effective psychological thriller, and the film's final revelation packs a dementedly satisfying punch.

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