by irvin rivera & louise barretto

IRVIN RIVERA: As soon as the film started, director Zachary Wigon immediately took the audience in medias res with our characters Hal and Rebecca in Neon’s romantic dark comedy SANCTUARY. Hal (Christopher Abbott), an uber wealthy man is confined in a room with several layers with his dominatrix, Rebecca (played by Margaret Qualley) where verbal and psychological sports and volleyball of lines happened a lot. 

It’s a beautifully shot film (shot in 18 days) exploring the power dynamics of the dominatrix-sub role play that led to awakening deep-seated feelings and desires between the characters that blurred the lines of their relationship until they found themselves within the comfort of their own sanctuary.

I can sense that Margaret Qualley brilliantly portrayed Rebecca with precision, but also armed with the freedom to express the character her way and it shows. Christopher Abbott’s uneasy and grounded performance was like a great cup of coffee that complemented the delectable layered cake performance of Margaret. Overall, their performances kept me awake throughout the film, though there are some bits and moments where they lost me and my mind wandering somewhere else partly because at times, the film felt like a stage play. It’s the cadence, and the delivery of the lines. Mind you, the script was good. It just felt like watching a stage play on one huge jumbotron (which in this case is your movie theater) intimately witnessing the pores and the sweat, and the facial hairs of the actors. 

Don’t get me wrong, I dig those tight shots- they’re romantic. Although throughout the film you can tell that they consciously tried to break the monotony by moving from room to room, and varying camera angles and occasionally shifting to some wide angle shots, it really just felt like I’m in the audience, watching a play as opposed to my usual film-watching experience of actually being immersed in whatever I’m watching and feeling like I’m inside the story- you know that feeling you get when you feel like you are the character, that feeling when you feel like you’re actually experiencing whatever the characters were experiencing? That feeling was missing, at least for me. There’s a certain level of catharsis that was missing for me. Maybe it's that sport of connection to the characters and the film in general that I was missing for a bit. Again, not saying that I don’t like it, it’s beautiful, story and the psychological battle and sexiness of it all was really good, but I’m watching it- (I know, I really did watch it) from afar, I was reminded throughout the film that I was the audience and am not part of the stage. Perhaps that’s the goal? For the audience to be voyeuristic and see what happens inside the room, down the hall or the elevator whenever a dominatrix and a sub blur the lines of their relationship? I mean members of the audience don’t really go up on stage to experience stage plays, but I digress. 

I’m not a B.D.S.M. expert at all, but I bet there’s so much more to explore from this story, if we’re taking bits and pieces from that world. The idea was there. It’s still entertaining and it takes you into this ride of not knowing where it’s going from scene to scene (a.k.a. What’s going to happen now that they are in another room?) I’d say it was a cute take on the dynamics of a dominatrix-sub relationship. It’s satisfying enough but it just needs a little bit more seasoning and spice.  - IR

LOUISE BARRETTO: In the film, Margaret Qualley plays a dominatrix who follows a script to the letter given by Christopher Abbott’s character, a soon-to-be CEO of a major hotel chain. Outside of the hotel room, he’s in the position of power, but he pays Qualley’s Rebecca to dominate him. When the safe word is used, all hell breaks loose. 

Sanctuary is Zachary Wigon’s second feature film and it’s impressive given the rules he gave himself and his team in the making of the film. One rule: two actors, in one location. Another rule: no frame should be exactly the same. To do that in a fancy hotel room within the thriller genre speaks to his craft as a director and to the top notch performances given by Qualley and Abbott. Film critic Zoë Rose Bryant tweeted that she would see Margaret Qualley in anything — and I completely echo that sentiment. Netflix’s Maid made Qualley a household name, and although she is the daughter of actress Andie McDowell and has played a role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, it wasn’t until Maid that critics started paying attention, earning an Emmy nomination for the role. Last year, she also starred in the Claire Denis helmed Stars at Noon, and played the role of a journalist stranded in Nicaragua having to resort to sex work to survive amid government instability alongside Joe Alwyn. What I love about Qualley’s performance is her ability to look innocent and helpless one moment, and then completely in control of the scene with her razor sharp dialogue delivery, flashing through multiple emotions and beats without saying a single word. And somehow, you always feel for her character whether or not she is doing despicable things. I’ve first seen Christopher Abbott in Lena Dunham’s Girls as Charlie and he is always able to play characters that have this psychosis bubbling under – that it’s only a matter of time that an explosion happens. 

If it wasn’t already obvious, I loved Sanctuary. It was able to combine the rapid fire dialogue of a straight play with stimulating visuals unlike many play-to-film adaptations. Granted the film, written by Micah Bloomberg, was meant to be a screenplay, it evokes the same spirit of dialogue as a David Mamet joint. The theater nerd in me loves compelling dialogue with highly stylized visual compositions. Wigon and his cinematographer Ludovica Isidori agreed not to repeat blocking or compositions, and the film is much better for it. One of my favorite shots from the movie is when Rebecca sits in front of Hal while she commands him to strip to clean the toilet. That low angle shot of Rebecca recalls that leg-crossing shot of Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, completely in the position of power, all minus the genital shot. 

Another favorite moment in the film is when Qualley’s character starts dancing while Abbott’s character is losing his mind. It’s such a wonderful juxtaposition to see — one character having a complete nervous breakdown and another dancing her heart out just to taunt him even more. Qualley’s unhinged dancing recalls that Spike Jonze-directed Kenzo World clip, and we love to see that Wigon is utilizing all the tools in his performers’ arsenal. 

This film is about sex and relationships and power struggles within relationships. It’s refreshing when characters are given the freedom to voice out their desires and wants and needs and make tweaks to their demands of each other as they go along. We all enter into a social contract with one another whether we like it or not, and sometimes it’s just better to be more explicit about it. - LB

SIDE NOTES: 

What’s up with the subtle blurred lines that played in the beginning of the title card and sometime towards the end? Was it a metaphor on the blurred lines between the two character’s relationships? - IR

I loved the blurred, soft focus transitions in between acts, that kind of serve as time passing throughout the night. I think the director used it well to give a breather to the audience, as if an impasse has been reached and even the characters need a moment. - LB