"ONLY" // TRIBECA 2019 REVIEW
Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 6:32PM | tagged Candler Riggs, Freida Pinto, Jayson Warner Smith, Leslie Odom Jr, Only, Takashi Doscher, Tia Hendricks | in Film Festivals, Film Reviews, Reviews by Mateo Moreno, Tribeca Film Festival 2019 
In futuristic suspense films, you rarely see a bright and shiny vision of days to come. It’s usually bleak and troublesome. And that doesn’t change here with writer/director Takashi Doscher’s suspenseful romance ONLY. Set in a version of a future where a mysterious virus is killing people at a rapid speed. But not everyone. This virus is only affecting those with an X chromosome. In other words: women, and no one quite knows why.
We jump in on Day 400 with a sweet couple Will (Hamilton’s Tony Winner Leslie Odom Jr.) and Ela (Freida Pinto) who have survived without infection to day 400. Their routine, day to day, is to make sure they survive and keep her safe from the now dangerous outside world. We also flash back to the beginning, to the middle, and skip around in time. Eventually, the couple hits the road, desperate not to be found out by the police (harboring a female in this world is a no-no). The film is a slow-burn; never moving fast, but leisurely moving at its own speed, letting the audience explore the world with them, instead of only seeing quick flashes.
Director Doscher has created a very intriguing world, one where answers don’t necessarily come as you want them to, and moments don’t quite move as fast as you’d hope. Still, the power of the main couple’s love, and the journey to keep their hope alive, is a powerful one, and the strong performances by Odom and Pinto keep you engaged and connected to this bleak, grim reality.