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The Control
Canada 2018
produced by Michael Stasko, Eric Schiller, Ted Bezaire (executive) for The Dot Film Company
directed by Michael Stasko, Eric Schiller
starring Michael Stasko, Eric Schiller, Sharon Belle, Ted Bezaire, Jack Senett, Krista Jang, Paul Daniel Ayotte, Jeff Sinasac, Tonya Dodds, Peter Coady, Keifer MacDonald, Milos Savic, Shaun Mazzocca, Ali Shaban, Raymond McCurdy, Kristen Calibaba, Ed Hooft, Laura Callingham, Daniel John, Cheri Kratz, Bob Mero, J.R. Manning, Matt Maenpaa, Justine Kalkhourst, Mike Huq, Elliot Hale, Kyle Archibald, Sergio Forest, Kaitlyn Karns, Serge Forte, Kurtis Sasso, Joseph Stasko, Shay Lewis, Madison Gignac, Courtney Pike, Rebecca Lashmar, Courtney Cameron, Noelle Farrah, Jaylynn Brown, Jessica Sove, Melissa Monteleone
written and music by Michael Stasko, Eric Schiller
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Mike (Michael Stasko) and Eric (Eric Schiller) are documentary
filmmakers, tackling the rather sensible subject of what happens after
death, and as is often with documentaries about very sensible subjects,
things don't exactly go as planned, with interviews dropping out, shoots
being cancelled and the like. Above that, Mike feels a bit off of late,
and he starts to lose trust with Eric. Then one night at a club after a
shoot, Mike locks eyes with a beautiful stranger, Sophie (Sharon Belle),
who's apparently a friend of Mike's ... and suddenly it's the next morning
and he wakes up next to her. He naturally freaks out, but Eric can calm
him down over the phone, and he's decent enough to make Sophie breakfast,
they get to know each other, like each other, go on a camping trip, he
notices her wedding ring ... and she claims they're married.
Unsurprisingly, Mike freaks out again, and while Sophie tells him he just
has another episode, he runs off, calls Eric, who happens to be just
around the corner and comes to calm him down ...
Ray Fuller (Jack Senett), the mysterious and terminally ill CEO of the
Fuller Corporation, heads the development of a computer-brain interface to
keep the human brain active over years of deep space travel in deep space,
but all the corporation's efforts to occupy their test subjects with chess
problems and the like ended in disaster as they were just too
one-dimensional. Enter game developers Mike and Eric, who convince Fuller
and his right hand woman Jacinta (Krista Jang) that to keep the brain
properly occupied, one has to thrive in a rich environment that
encompasses not just mathematical problem solving but also the arts and
complex life challenges - something best mirrored in the world of
filmmaking. And fortunately, young developer Sophie has written just the
computer code that would work perfectly with their concept. But of course,
to test their code and work out all of the interface's kinks, Mike, Eric
and Sophie have to go in themselves, become their own test subjects.
Problem is, Mike and Eric have different ideas how to make the interface
work best ...
A very interesting and fascinating piece of science fiction of
the alternate reality variety - but one that other than the thematically
similar Matrix series does not focus on spectacle but is
very character-centered and puts much more emphasis on the underlying
mystery of the piece, and how the different planes of reality interact in
rather unexpected ways. And all of this is brought to life by a
directorial effort that gives the whole thing an air of mystery while also
being subtle enough to make things feel real (even if they aren't), while
a solid cast keeps things grounded and believable. And all of this results
in pretty good and rather intelligent genre entertainment.
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