365 Days

365 Days (2020) went out on Netflix, was watched worldwide, and holds an IMDb score of 3.3. The gap between those two facts is more interesting than the film. A mafia boss abducts Laura and gives her a year: if she does not fall in love with him in that time he will let her go. The film presents this as romance. The problem needs stating plainly. What is being depicted is abduction and coercion, and the film frames it as seduction. On release it drew serious opposition in Poland and elsewhere for romanticising sexual violence, with petitions calling for its removal. That is a separate matter from critics disliking it. As filmmaking it is also weak: flat performances, artificial dialogue, editing that behaves like a music video. Two sequels followed and both sit in the same place. Who should skip it: abduction, captivity and sex without consent are the centre of the film. The sex scenes are frequent and explicit. Who it is for: only viewers who want to see the argument for themselves. If you are looking for romance, it is emphatically not here.