Overview: “Only,” directed by Takashi Doscher, is a sci-fi/thriller movie about an apocalypse. The pandemic starts due to an ash-like substance falling from the sky, which causes only women to die once infected. Eva (Freida Pinto) and her husband Will (Leslie Odom Jr.) fight for Eva’s survival, as she is the only woman left in the entire world. 

Genevieve Monast:

 “Only” was a weird movie. It had its pros and cons, but overall it wasn’t that good of a film. Despite that, I liked how they depicted the survivors and how the pandemic drove the characters to insanity.

 I also somewhat admired how surreal they made the pandemic seem and how the characters first reacted to it. But overtime, the movie got boring and uneventful. 

The characters were careless and whiney, and with that they did reckless things that didn’t really add to the story. The movie seemed as if there was no climax and it was just slow and boring. 

Even during the important scenes, it didn’t seem that important because there was no thrill to make people interested. The movie just kept on going with no true goal. 

Despite all of its issues, it did have a decent tie to the COVID-19 pandemic that we’re currently experiencing. The way that people reacted was somewhat similar, people were shocked and in disbelief as people were when the Coronavirus outbreak happened. 

Many people quarantined themselves and sanitized everything in order to keep their loved ones safe, which is what many people are doing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Obviously the movie’s cause for apocalypse and the COVID-19 outbreak would be similar because they’re both pandemics.

The movie accurately portrays the feeling of losing a loved one to the pandemic. It shows the hardship, pain, and devastation people often feel during situations like that.

The movie does a decent job of showing the characters feelings during the pandemic: sadness, anger, confusion, and fear. Which is what many people have felt during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Overall, this movie had an interesting plot and nice details, but the writers didn’t make much of what they had.  

Alexis Middleton:

What I liked about the movie “Only” is that it is a sci-fi thriller movie and it has a lot of things that could realistically happen, like the virus outbreak and the quarantine. On the other hand, it has ash that only kills women and interesting ways men and the government are involved, which give an unreal feeling to it. 

Another thing I like about this movie is that it gives little flashbacks about the couple and what is going on before the movie starts off at. For example they show Eva and Will before the virus and the beginning of their relationship. Along with the amount of days they have been in quarantine.   

Parts of the movie I didn’t like were the end. I felt like it had the potential to have a good ending and resolve the problems that Eva, Will and everyone else faced. I also did not like how it did not give enough background and solutions to everything the deadly ash brought. 

Ultimately I am hoping for more, maybe another movie about the resolvement. Along with how everyone picks up from the tragedy they faced, and what their next steps will be.  

“Only” ties into the pandemic we are facing now because of the loss Eva and Will face. Which could be death, freedom, and sense of direction. They have to navigate their new normal like all of us had to do when COVID-19 hit. It also shows the emotions that people faced and are still facing during our pandemic along with isolation from family and friends.    

Close out: 

To close out, this movie is about how you choose to live and to try to make the best out of a bad situation. It also gives a sense of how we live now, but less extreme. This movie demonstrates the madness and thought processes of survivors and victims. There are many things that relate this movie and COVID-19, despite the extreme differences. My rating of this movie would be a 6 out of 10 because it could have been better like I explained earlier (Alexis).

Artwork by Ceora Duran