Mnemophrenia

An intelligent and complex movie that raises a number of important questions concerning our interaction with technology. And a great example of the power of indipendent and low-budget cinema!

"Er...um...yes of course now surely you can all see how this could change us all in the future, giving us such freedom to...." To what, not know if half or more of what we think are our actual memories are true or not? To move freely in what way(s)? This very arthouse movie is overtly nebulous in its attempts to show great meaning and arch intellectual reach. Acting is often mediocre at best. The actors seem more like stage actors than ones used to performing in front of a camera. Characters say a number of statements like, "Imagine the possibilities of life with mnemophrenia.", or, "Can't you see what this could mean for the future?". But they don't go into much detail about what it could mean aside from inferences about empathy/understanding being increased. The visual work is often impressive in the use of the computer analysis overlays and in creating a dream-type effect during the VR scenes. But I felt too often the film was meandering, repetitive.

This movie was so bad. Boring, poor visual effects and bad dialogue. The only reason it has a good score is because of reviews.

Theoreticians, futurists, and sci-fi fans will rejoice after collective immersion in the wonderfully dense "Mnemophrenia," a film that anticipates a near-term medical condition identifying the mind's inevitable blurring of truths between organically-lived experiences and those realized through ongoing exposure to virtual reality. Imagine, for example, learning that a man you knew throughout early life wasn't ever real, yet his virtual construct positively informed you to live your most fully realized existence: Would you feel total invalidation, or total gratitude? These are the types of heavy-as-an-anvil suppositions this terrifically ambitious film puts forth in what could soon become a shockingly prophetic piece of cinema.

"Mnemophrenia" isn't just philosophically sharp without the on-screen chops to back it up. This is a somewhat ingenious slab of filmmaking, cleverly crafted by deploying the camera as an all-seeing computer eye moving between a series of vignettes, all set in various future stages. The computer captures two lab techs as they debate the ethics of a large-scale mnemophrenic state in which virtual experiences aid or falsely influence (depending on which side of the debate you're on) all life experiences. Elsewhere, the camera documents a therapy session in which subjects process aloud various mnemophrenic epiphanies. In a further future, the camera serves as the mind's eye of a woman with an embedded chip in her brain, recording and interpolating her living moments until it quite literally embodies a hardware version of her true self. When she's diagnosed with a fatal illness, something resembling a downloadable, posthumous eternity is promised for both her and her partner.

This is a film presenting high-level theory with a shrewd attenuation to grass roots, solution-driven filmmaking, and it's a combination that makes for great storytelling. Turn off your phone and clear your mind going in, as "Mneophrenia" very attractively offers head candy by informing, theorizing, and challenging in equal parts. Highly recommended, and sure to provoke exhaustive water cooler debate in its aftermath. - (Was this review of use to you? If so, let me know by clicking "Helpful." Cheers!)

Great film albeit disturbing. I think reality is hard enough to find already so to live in a fantasy knowingly thinking it not to be reality will blur our already tenuous link with what we think to be real still further. The film brings up questions like these and left me in wonder and trepidation as to the future of mankind. The director has, I believe, done this deliberately so as bring the audience into the subject, leaving them to work it out for themselves. The girl with a VR boyfriend really shows the double edged sword of this technology. Indeed it is a technology which will become more available and probably along the very same limes as Dr Konstantinidou is suggesting.