I just watched the movie and decided that while it was good, there was quite a bit missing that could have just made it step over the line from being an indie film into something special.
The movie tells the story of a gifted inventor who slowly descends into a state of perpetual paranoia where reality and fantasy become difficult to tell apart. We also cannot tell whether reality is as messy as it appears or if it is merely paranoid delusions taken to their conclusion, even by the end. This makes the conclusion difficult to digest as things are still not clear, and we find that we do not understand the character as we find ourselves with little to sympathize with in the story with all the characters. Perhaps that is on purpose (aka M Night Shy.... something) but people don't commit themselves to a movie unless they see characters they can empathize with. That's why cool movies about alien invasions are usually more of a drama than a sci-fi action flick.
The film also has difficulty making its point. Is it anti-communist? Is it pro-America? Is it telling us about the human condition? Is it telling us about paranoia? By the ending, I felt like I had watched a movie with a great deal of creativity and expression that had something to say and succeeded on some level but due to budgetary constraints and inexperience had limited itself. If the story was rehashed with more obvious yet subtle clues, more energy, more connections with characters and much more coherence, it would have been more memorable.
The movie tells the story of a gifted inventor who slowly descends into a state of perpetual paranoia where reality and fantasy become difficult to tell apart. We also cannot tell whether reality is as messy as it appears or if it is merely paranoid delusions taken to their conclusion, even by the end. This makes the conclusion difficult to digest as things are still not clear, and we find that we do not understand the character as we find ourselves with little to sympathize with in the story with all the characters. Perhaps that is on purpose (aka M Night Shy.... something) but people don't commit themselves to a movie unless they see characters they can empathize with. That's why cool movies about alien invasions are usually more of a drama than a sci-fi action flick.
The film also has difficulty making its point. Is it anti-communist? Is it pro-America? Is it telling us about the human condition? Is it telling us about paranoia? By the ending, I felt like I had watched a movie with a great deal of creativity and expression that had something to say and succeeded on some level but due to budgetary constraints and inexperience had limited itself. If the story was rehashed with more obvious yet subtle clues, more energy, more connections with characters and much more coherence, it would have been more memorable.