Movie started of decent though immediately disliked the main character; Jill. I saw the trailer a while back and was excited to watch this because the idea of an incident that causes people to not sleep anymore sounded interesting but man the execution was poor at best. The characters are all but Dodge very unlikable, even those kids. Sorry. When they arrive at the Hub it is immediately clear to me that the other women who can sleep has died and been brought back so I assumed from thereon out that this is the same for the girl and honestly for a bunch of clever scientist, how did they not catch that? When they started the research they weren't 'that' tired yet. Then the sleep expert (or as I just like to call her, the mom van Atypical) tries to explain what happened (poorly) with a 'we think solar flares'. We think?! They couldn't explain this away so they gave some sort of vague answer AND then the girl figures out what I had already found out when her brother dies and comes back so they take mommy to a effing lake, drown her and bring her back when they could've just zapped her with the defibrillator... you know why be so dramatic about it? Could've also brought Dodge back with the defibrillator and maybe some of the others who hilariously got killed over a pine cone. So the punchline is basically 'have you tried turning it off and on again' human edition. I can't.
Storytelling was weak, not backed up by any science which would've been fine if they hadn't tried to put this on Solar flames. If they went with I don't know, aliens... it could've been okay. Aliens give unlimited creative freedom but if you want to add science to a movie you better explain it decently.
Review by Paladin5150BlockedParent2021-06-10T09:07:34Z— updated 2022-02-17T06:15:46Z
Sadly, I have to agree with the general consensus, that this was a good IDEA, very BADLY executed. Rather than taking the seed of that idea and fleshing it out with an intelligent script, they instead went to meme and trope.com and cut and pasted a bunch of stereotypical apocalyptic nonsense as far as the IMMEDIATE breakdown of society, melanin deficient, small town religious zealots, who go from zero to child sacrifice in one sermon, an escaped rapey convict who prefers a teenaged boy over a beautiful woman, and of course, the one Black good guy has to get merked before the credits roll. Jeez!
Although Gina Rodriquez did the best she could with what she was given to work with, and Ariana Greenblatt was cute and precocious as the as the last person on earth able to catch forty winks prior to assuming room temperature, the rest of the cast seemed to fall back on previous roles they have previously played. Jennifer Jason Lee as the creepy borderline sociopathic shrink, Gill bellows as the assistant to the borderline creepy sociopathic shrink, Barry Pepper as the ex dope head turned preacher waiting for his moment with a burning bush, Frances Fisher as the Mean Mom with an opioid problem (wanting her ex drug addict daughter in law to score her a "little sumpthin sumpthin", while at the same time calling her unfit for having HAD a drug problem - SMH) Lucas Hoyos is cliched as the surly teenaged son, and of course, let's not forget Shamier Anderson as the soon to be on the wrong side of the dirt P.O.C..
If you pay attention you'll know what the solution to their problem is in the first 10 minutes or so of the film. If you don't get it then, not to worry, they TELEGRAPH it 10 minutes before the big "eureka" moment, just to make sure they completely drained all the drama and suspense out of the reveal.
If you've got nothing else on the burner, and just need something to pass the evening, then this might be the glass of warm milk you need to help you fall asleep, unlike the folks in this movie.