Breathe (now streaming on Paramount+) is a cheapo post-apocalyptic sci-fi outing set IN A WORLD where the oxygen is thin and the characters are thinner. Directed by Stefon Bristol (See You Yesterday), the film keeps the setting tight and the budget tighter, casting genre stalwart Milla Jovovich as a stranger who may or may not be trusted by a survivalist family, led by Jennifer Hudson, who isn’t quite so sure if they should share their air. Sometimes small-scale sci-fi can be a tidy display of thoughtful ideas; sometimes they just regurgitate stuff we’ve already seen before. Let’s find out which camp Breathe falls into.
BREATHE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: BROOKLYN, 2039. EVERYBODY’S DEAD. Well, not everybody. One family survives on a sunbeaten Earth where the oxygen levels plummeted, killing plantlife and most of humanity. “They” called Darius (Common) a nut for being overly prepared for the apocalypse, but “They” are all desiccated husks now. And so he and his wife Maya (Hudson) and teenage daughter Zora (Quvenzhane Wallis) live in a cozy bunker with electricity, an airlock, a solar-powered machine that generates oxygen, lots of cans…
Read the full article here