This film will defy your expectations. If what you want is yet another linear apocalyptic disaster film, there are plenty of those to go around. Just recently there was Greenland, for example. But this film doesn't explain the larger story.
Instead what we have here is a very ground level narrative. We only know what the characters know. And just as in real life, the characters have lots of conflicting information none of which adds up to a clear and obvious accounting of what happened and why. There are lots of hints dropped throughout the film, so if you must form some kind of conclusion there's plenty there to interpret. But the point of the movie is not the larger events. It's our place within those larger events.
And that's what keeps this movie from becoming another run of the mill disaster flick. A suspense and drama will draw you in. You'll find the characters relatable in that they are real people. Flaws and all. There's suspicion, distrust, biases, selfishness... That all makes the story a little more believable. There's nothing over the top here. Rather what we have is a commentary on how we're all living in our own little bubble. But somehow we all share the sense that this world we're living in isn't real. Or at least it can't last. It's a very 2023 sentiment.
Back in 2020, we thought we felt this way but we didn't really. The perfect film for that era was Don't Look Up. That film analyzed how politics and our social inability to find consensus on things as basic as facts we're going to inhibit us from doing anything constructive toward solving any sort of collective problems. The movie's asteroid was really just a placeholder for any of a number of things we face as a species. Pandemic diseases. Climate change. Ecological disaster. You name it. We got a good look at how the distortion of truth not only inhibits but distorts and misdirects humanity's potential. Somehow we managed to make problems worse rather than better.
But in 2023, it seems worse. It's not just our collective detachment, or social media, or the politics. It's us. We see the dangers on the horizon. Almost every living generation grew up knowing that we had nuclear weapons and that these things posed an existential threat to our world. We all know that our consumption habits are unsustainable. We all virtue signal and try to act like we can make a difference. But that's all it is. An act. Somewhere deep inside of us we feel like we can't make a difference. Maybe we even know this. Not feel it, but KNOW it. And of 2023 has shown us anything, it's revealed to more and more people that maybe we're just cogs turning in a vast machine that we can't possibly understand. There are forces shaping the world that are bigger than our individual capacitys, and maybe too complex for us to collectively confront. We lack a common cause. Because we often can't even agree on what the problem is. And where we can and do see problems we only see the surface problems. We bandaid things, and we swat flies. But we're not building the solutions that we need to build a better future.
And now we can see a potential future in which we will end up stuck, with things collapsing around us and not having the slightest idea of why or how. And maybe in that moment will pop in a DVD and tune out to some old comforting sitcoms. And in that moment we'll ask ourselves: is this the real problem? Do we tune out and disengage? Or is this maybe the only solution to problems that have no real solution... To just try and find comfort where you can and hope that you come out the other end okay.
Here's hoping everyone reading this has a happy and prosperous 2024 and here's helping we all make it through to 2025.
Instead what we have here is a very ground level narrative. We only know what the characters know. And just as in real life, the characters have lots of conflicting information none of which adds up to a clear and obvious accounting of what happened and why. There are lots of hints dropped throughout the film, so if you must form some kind of conclusion there's plenty there to interpret. But the point of the movie is not the larger events. It's our place within those larger events.
And that's what keeps this movie from becoming another run of the mill disaster flick. A suspense and drama will draw you in. You'll find the characters relatable in that they are real people. Flaws and all. There's suspicion, distrust, biases, selfishness... That all makes the story a little more believable. There's nothing over the top here. Rather what we have is a commentary on how we're all living in our own little bubble. But somehow we all share the sense that this world we're living in isn't real. Or at least it can't last. It's a very 2023 sentiment.
Back in 2020, we thought we felt this way but we didn't really. The perfect film for that era was Don't Look Up. That film analyzed how politics and our social inability to find consensus on things as basic as facts we're going to inhibit us from doing anything constructive toward solving any sort of collective problems. The movie's asteroid was really just a placeholder for any of a number of things we face as a species. Pandemic diseases. Climate change. Ecological disaster. You name it. We got a good look at how the distortion of truth not only inhibits but distorts and misdirects humanity's potential. Somehow we managed to make problems worse rather than better.
But in 2023, it seems worse. It's not just our collective detachment, or social media, or the politics. It's us. We see the dangers on the horizon. Almost every living generation grew up knowing that we had nuclear weapons and that these things posed an existential threat to our world. We all know that our consumption habits are unsustainable. We all virtue signal and try to act like we can make a difference. But that's all it is. An act. Somewhere deep inside of us we feel like we can't make a difference. Maybe we even know this. Not feel it, but KNOW it. And of 2023 has shown us anything, it's revealed to more and more people that maybe we're just cogs turning in a vast machine that we can't possibly understand. There are forces shaping the world that are bigger than our individual capacitys, and maybe too complex for us to collectively confront. We lack a common cause. Because we often can't even agree on what the problem is. And where we can and do see problems we only see the surface problems. We bandaid things, and we swat flies. But we're not building the solutions that we need to build a better future.
And now we can see a potential future in which we will end up stuck, with things collapsing around us and not having the slightest idea of why or how. And maybe in that moment will pop in a DVD and tune out to some old comforting sitcoms. And in that moment we'll ask ourselves: is this the real problem? Do we tune out and disengage? Or is this maybe the only solution to problems that have no real solution... To just try and find comfort where you can and hope that you come out the other end okay.
Here's hoping everyone reading this has a happy and prosperous 2024 and here's helping we all make it through to 2025.