An interesting idea eaten alive by a poorly-made movie – or: A better-than-average student film.
In the minus column: Terrible acting, horrible photography, and dialogue several drafts away from even being conversational, much less compelling.
In the plus column: it’s a sci-fi film with no special effects (a sub-genre which is a personal fave of mine) and
a premise which is novel, emotional, and thought-provoking enough to warrant a better interpretation
(I don’t want to give it away here, it’s worth watching to find out, especially if you aren’t as distracted by the film-making as I am).
Speaking of student film, this would probably make a good exercise (or series of exercises) for a dramaturgy course:
- workshopping dialogue (or, less charitably: when the need for re-writes becomes painfully obvious)
- managing actors managing dialogue
- blocking and coverage for an over-talky, single-location script
- interpreting material with artistry, consideration, rhythm, cinematic style, choices motivated by themes in the material…
… ok, this may be getting snarky now.
Further Viewing
His Three Daughters (2023) is one level up: also a chamber drama, with much better actors and performances, but with room for better craft behind the camera. Another one for our student film-making class to try to improve on: