Lapsis is a 2020 low-budget science fiction film written and directed by Noah Hutton. The film premiered at the 2020 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. Dennis Harvey for Variety praised the film as a 'clever' satire of the gig economy. Hutton was nominated for Best First Screenplay at the 36th Independent Spirit Awards.
In a parallel present, delivery man Ray Tincelli is struggling to support himself and his ailing younger brother. After a series of two-bit hustles and unsuccessful swindles, Ray takes a job in a strange new realm of the gig economy: trekking deep into the forest, pulling cable over miles of terrain to connect large, metal cubes that link together the new quantum trading market. As he gets pulled deeper into the zone, he encounters growing hostility and the threat of robot cablers, and must choose to either help his fellow workers or to get rich and get out.
***SPOILER ALERT***
Low-Budget Sci-Fi and Parallel Realities
FREDDY:
We're back! What better way to start other than with a low budget sci-fi movie from a new young writer/director? With that said, I was expecting a movie with a highly futuristic universe controlled by quantum computers, but soon I found out that the introductory instructional video on an old TV set was no bluff and there was no future high-tech to be seen. What the hell is happening in this parallel universe? We got cables across the woods connecting these supercomputers that seemed to work only for the benefit of the stock market. What's the message here?
We're back! What better way to start other than with a low budget sci-fi movie from a new young writer/director? With that said, I was expecting a movie with a highly futuristic universe controlled by quantum computers, but soon I found out that the introductory instructional video on an old TV set was no bluff and there was no future high-tech to be seen. What the hell is happening in this parallel universe? We got cables across the woods connecting these supercomputers that seemed to work only for the benefit of the stock market. What's the message here?
KRASNAYA:
It's great to be back on the road Freddy! It's been quite some time. Lapsis! What a depressing world we are living here, I would say. This movie is a caricature of our reality when you are forced to do monotonous work to survive or pay a bill at the private medical center whose business is just to make money.
It's great to be back on the road Freddy! It's been quite some time. Lapsis! What a depressing world we are living here, I would say. This movie is a caricature of our reality when you are forced to do monotonous work to survive or pay a bill at the private medical center whose business is just to make money.
The Satire of the Gig Economy
KRASNAYA:
It is a slow movie as I even got in the same state of omnia as the brother of the main character, but the next day it got me thinking and I realized that the narrative is not as simple as it seems. During the movie you constantly see a reference to people being like ants, exploited by the queen (huge corporations) even if the level of technology is high enough to avoid this human labor. In the absence of normal ways of employment, people are forced to engage in all sorts of fraud, build grey schemes on other grey schemes without any guarantees to receive income in the end. Capitalist totalitarianism as it is... and in the false smiles of the staff there is no less cruelty than in the blows of the forged boots of the concentration camp staff.
It is a slow movie as I even got in the same state of omnia as the brother of the main character, but the next day it got me thinking and I realized that the narrative is not as simple as it seems. During the movie you constantly see a reference to people being like ants, exploited by the queen (huge corporations) even if the level of technology is high enough to avoid this human labor. In the absence of normal ways of employment, people are forced to engage in all sorts of fraud, build grey schemes on other grey schemes without any guarantees to receive income in the end. Capitalist totalitarianism as it is... and in the false smiles of the staff there is no less cruelty than in the blows of the forged boots of the concentration camp staff.
FREDDY:
That fictitious disease, omnia, can be compared with EHS (Electromagnetic hypersensitivity), a self-reported condition not proved by science. I think the movie wants to establish a relationship between omnia and those quantum cubes. At mid-film I got carried away by all the mysterious stuff happening, but the movie didn't satisfy my curiosity. Why are people competing with those stupid little machines? Why can't the CABLR company use the delivery drones to do the much needed absurd connections between quantum computers? The whole movie doesn't make sense unless you look at it as a strange dream where the 90's mixes with your present reality and you get to use your Nokia 3310 again.
That fictitious disease, omnia, can be compared with EHS (Electromagnetic hypersensitivity), a self-reported condition not proved by science. I think the movie wants to establish a relationship between omnia and those quantum cubes. At mid-film I got carried away by all the mysterious stuff happening, but the movie didn't satisfy my curiosity. Why are people competing with those stupid little machines? Why can't the CABLR company use the delivery drones to do the much needed absurd connections between quantum computers? The whole movie doesn't make sense unless you look at it as a strange dream where the 90's mixes with your present reality and you get to use your Nokia 3310 again.
Capitalism and Disappointing Climaxes
KRASNAYA:
The GPS device says when you can rest and reminds you with an irritable voice that you must move. What nonsense it is, that cable pulling people should compete with those little machines that go on and on, even if they seem to move slowly, they DO NOT SLEEP and you're going to lose your route.
The GPS device says when you can rest and reminds you with an irritable voice that you must move. What nonsense it is, that cable pulling people should compete with those little machines that go on and on, even if they seem to move slowly, they DO NOT SLEEP and you're going to lose your route.
FREDDY:
I can't say that it is not an interesting movie, and you could have some fun trying to interpret it with someone. I wouldn't spend my time rewatching it or thinking too much about it because there's nothing remarkable happening. Nothing stands out. It feels bland. I was hoping for a big ending where I would say "aaaaah so that's why all those cables and quantum BS were needed", but all I got was a cringey pillow fight instead.
I can't say that it is not an interesting movie, and you could have some fun trying to interpret it with someone. I wouldn't spend my time rewatching it or thinking too much about it because there's nothing remarkable happening. Nothing stands out. It feels bland. I was hoping for a big ending where I would say "aaaaah so that's why all those cables and quantum BS were needed", but all I got was a cringey pillow fight instead.
Krasnaya's Score
60/100
Freddy's Score
45/100
FINAL SCORE
seems interesting.
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