K-SCORE: 70
Director: Ben C. Lucas
Writer: Gregory Widen, Kelley Eskridge, Ben C. Lucas
Starring: Jessica De Gouw, T.J. Power, Thomas Cocquerel, Liam Graham, Clarence Ryan, Tiriel Mora
Spoiler Level: None
Believe it or not, it is a little difficult to keep the form and content of these reviews constantly evolving so as to maintain an interested nonexistent readership. I don’t want you people who live in my dreams to think that I’ve run out of ideas. Fear not, my sarcasm does not, will not, run out.
That said, OtherLife is not a particularly worthy film for my complex analysis and cruel brand of review justice. It’s an indie sci-fi film with a grabbing premise. I’ll come to those things faster than my dog comes to cookies. (Just kidding. No man can move with such swift enthusiasm.) I’ve reviewed similar films countless times. Check out Arq or Time Lapse. Also, it’s really Australian. The only ideas Australians can have for living the perfect day in a matter of seconds are varying degrees of extreme sports. The only tragedy they can come up with that would kill a young man is to have him hit his head on a rock while scuba diving. That’s how Australian this shit is.
And perhaps what’s inhibiting my inspiration the most: OtherLife is fine. The story functions alright, it’s decently acted, decently written, sort of thought out, with characters that aren’t amazing, but you won’t want to throw acid at. The premise of the film is that a young company invents new technology, which allows people to put in some eye drops and experience something that takes a day or more in a much shorter time. The main issue the movie has, that which holds it back from greatness, is that the creators don’t really understand what this means. They call it an experience and show the characters living these virtual lives as if they have free choice, but you can’t have a safe, scripted experience in a system that has free choice, so really it’s as complex as The Matrix and even The Matrix didn’t iron out the kinks with The Matrix. I should really rewatch and review The Matrix...