j_chy

I really enjoyed it. I had to go back and watch quite a few scenes a second time. Who was on which side was a question throughout. It keeps you guessing as to reality versus perception. From the beginning, it hints on most of the reveals at the climax and denouement, but the hints were buried so well that I missed them. Overall, it seems to be self-consistent and there are thematic connections throughout.

There seem to be some long, excess, and gratuitous fight scenes, but even this is hinted at by the appreciation of Bruce Lee movies.

I enjoyed some of the little details such as Esther's bubblegum and her blue nails, Ian's split lip, Adriana's rings, and Perceptor's sunglasses and turtleneck. I also enjoyed how the filmmakers did some (cheap) exposition with video monitors and mirrors to establish the rules of projections.

The movie leaves some unanswered questions and possibly space for a sequel, but the hanging items do not bother me.

The brutalist architecture sets are reminiscent of 1970's paranoia films. There are some slightly unexplained settings.

I'd say that the effects are a little bit weak.

It is not an "American" nor an English-language movie, and I think that it suffered from some translation loss in the dialogue, Clearly, the actors can emote appropriately and they showed good characterization. Possibly the dialogue was even weak in the original Spanish.

This movie could be a drama (play) as it occurs mostly in a motel room and it is mostly dialogue-driven. It has twists and turns as we see new parts of personalities come out. The problem is that it is poorly written and couldn't be saved by acting or directing.

If you are going to have twists, you need to have hints earlier in the plot that viewers were likely to miss, but then recall as the twist occurs. If you are going to have a dialogue-driven film, the dialogue needs to be smart, showing multiple layers of the primary characters. If there is to be a battle of wills, like a chess game, sometimes each player must appear to be winning and the apparent winner must move between characters.

Those were all missing, There is a battle of wills, but the power role does not move around very much. There is dialogue, but it's 7th grade level and not many surprises or "gotchas". There are twists, but no missed clues. The onion had 1 layer.

If you enjoyed this, see a better move like Oleanna, Tape, The Man From Earth, Exam, Unthinkable, Spanish Prisoner, Deterrence

I'd compare it thematically to "Man from Earth" (though that was far better). I have to commend the filmmaker for trying something.

I found it a bit preachy. It touched on ideas that I find distasteful. Still, it challenged me a bit.

It touches on anti-technology, religion, good and bad, self-interest, capitalism, eastern spirituality, commerce, pride of work, homelessness, wealth inequality, justice, afterlife, suicide, "love", punishment and reward, simulation theory, a "God" that is not all-powerful, a vengeful god, heaven and hell, the mutability of facts. Unfortunately the movie makes some presumptions while exploring these ideas, and does not acknowledge all sides of the ideas that it touches on. At some point it becomes an apology for human suffering under an altruistic god, and at a different point it mirrors the Unabomber's view of technology. It's all over the map with its religion, is it hindu? it is christian? is it buddhist?

Frankly, the thing is a mess, most of the mechanisms and drama were contrived, yet I am not unhappy that I watched it. I don't think it is anywhere near a masterpiece, nor do I need to see it again.