Ryan Reynolds has become one of the biggest, most popular, and highest-paid stars in the industry by essentially playing the same archetypal character over and over again. The actor and producer almost always defaults to the smart-mouthed, sardonic, and wildly charismatic template that’s served him so well, but Buried was an incredible example of what could happen when he tries his hand at a straightforward dramatic performance.
Rodrigo Cortés’ agonizingly intense single-location thriller sees Reynolds deliver the best turn of his entire career, and it’s not even close. It takes a special type of star to keep an audience engaged and invested for 95 minutes as the sole character onscreen, never mind one that’s confined to a coffin for the duration, with only a handful of items to use for illumination.
It’s a stunning piece of work, with Cortés utilizing some ingenious camera techniques and visual flourishes to somehow deliver a relentlessly gripping, agonizingly intense, and fantastically stylish high concept thriller from the confines of a wooden box. If you suffer from even the merest hint of claustrophobia, then stay as far away from Buried as possible, but that obviously doesn’t apply to a huge number of HBO Max subscribers.
As per FlixPatrol, the gut-wrenching and nerve-wracking exercise in dread has cracked the platform’s Top 10 most-watched list among audiences in the United States, who may have to go outside and breathe in as much fresh air as possible by the time the credits roll, such is the unbearable agony watching it in a darkened room can bring.
