A man who claims he is from the future, enters a restaurant and recruits the most unlikely group of people to save the world from a rogue artificial intelligence.
“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you,” – Oscar Wilde.
Writer Matthew Robinson and director Gore Verbinski are doing exactly that by clearly trying to tell some nasty truths – but they wrap them in awkward humour, absurd situations, and a strangely chaotic sci-fi narrative so that we laugh first and realise what we are laughing about later.
The film builds an interesting chain of ideas. First, the pandemic of mobile phones permanently attached to our hands. Then, the dependency on social media that follows. Then the endless, aggressive advertising that comes with it. And finally, the zombification caused by endless and pointless scrolling and liking moronic material without actually liking or even watching the content – a condition that has clearly affected younger generations but, if we are honest, has gradually infected all of us. Favourite sequence is inside the school, which is like something out of a Carpenter film, turning the kids into Village of the Damned (1995): https://kaygazpro.com/village-of-the-damned-1995-horror-sci-fi-thriller/.
Then the film moves into much darker territory. School shootings – one of the most horrifying realities of modern American society – are not something you can joke about. And the film does not really joke about them. Instead, it imagines a dystopian future where society has become so emotionally detached and morally confused that even something so monstrous is processed in bizarre, almost absurd ways. It is funny in a very uncomfortable way – the kind of humour that makes you laugh and then immediately feel uneasy for laughing.
The narrative feels almost like a twisted version of The Terminator (1984) mythos: a John Connor-like figure returning to save humanity – but this time not from machines, but from ourselves. Because the world depicted here is not destroyed by war or aliens; it is destroyed by boredom, emptiness, social media addiction, artificial realities, and our growing dependence on artificial intelligence – something we have already invited into our lives and will probably soon be unable to live without.
From a filmmaking perspective, the film is intense, brilliantly chaotic, full of clever flashbacks, and supported by strong performances across the board: Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry, and the rest of the cast do an amazing job. The blend of science fiction, thriller, and comedy works exquisitely well. But I have to admit, while watching it, I found myself thinking less about camera angles or editing and more about what the film was actually saying about us – about where we are as a society and where we might be heading.
And that is always an interesting sign. Because, arguably, the most important thing a film can do is not impress you technically, but make you feel unease about how truthful its dystopia feels – and how close we are to it.
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Solidarity for all the innocent lives that suffer the atrocities of war!
Stay safe!
