Into the Dark: Culture Shock (2019)

Happy Fourth of July America!! Hulu's anthology series Into the Dark's entry for the month of July, Culture Shock tackles head on to current headline issues of America today with a cautionary tale on immigration. This is yet another ambitious effort with an lead excellent performance by Martha Higarada as the pregnant young Mexican woman who crosses illegally into the United States in the hope of a better life. I liked that the film took a risk by having it dialogue in the first half of the movie entirely in Spanish as the Mexican characters freely converse in their own language. Midway through, the film becomes like a bit of mystery as our heroine wakes up in a nightmarishly perfect America and conversing fluently in English. This portion of the movie is very engrossing as the audience is drawn deeper and deeper into the nightmare together with the character. The final act is when everything falls into place with its predictable conclusion.

While the overall production values, acting, and cinematography is high, I was still not totally satisfied at the end. Firstly, I felt this episode was too politically and propaganda driven, much like all the episodes of the recently rebooted Twilight Zone by Jordan Peele. As such, I feel the story is presented in too much of a one sided approach. Secondly, the whole premise and explanation of the dreamlike virtual reality world is not properly explained, leaving a big hole in the plot that is unfilled. This makes it feel like a massive plot device instead, which was a pity because I felt truly engaged during this act.

All in all, Culture Shock is one of the better entries in the series and worthy of a viewing in spite of its shortcomings. An interesting point to note is that this was the feature debut of director Gigi Saul Guerrero, a Mexican director and actress living in Canada, apparently a representation of Latino talent today. That perhaps explains the fresh look and feel of Culture Shock.