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).

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.