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Lapsis
USA 2020
produced by Taylor Hess, Jesse Miller, Joseph Varca, Alexandra Winter (executive), Rich Winter (executive) for Couple 3 Films
directed by Noah Hutton
starring Dean Imperial, Madeline Wise, Babe Howard, Ivory Aquino, Dora Madison, James McDaniel, Frank Wood, Arliss Howard, Violet Adams, Jason Babinsky, Malin Barr, Tim Berne, Kim Blacklock, Alex Breaux, Vernon Byron, Cooper Carrell, Will Conard, Richard Cooper, Gina Daniels, Beau Davidson, Daniella DeCaro, Brett Diggs, Caroline Duncan, Aizzah Fatima, Sam Gilroy, Hilary Greer, Taylor Hess, Dru Johnston, Ryan Jonze, Jamal Joseph jr, Sam Khazai, Pooya Mohseni, Franny Morris, Susannah Perkins, Portia, Steve Rasetta, Michiko Sasaki, Joy Sudduth, David Tew, Crystal Tweed, Joseph Varca, Patrick M. Walsh, Jeena Yi
written and music by Noah Hutton, special makeup effects by Esther Kwon
review by Mike Haberfelner
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To pay medical treatment for his brother James (Babe Howard), who
suffers from a rare type of chronical fatigue, Ray (Dean Imperial) accepts
a job at a cabling company. After all, the job (at first) seems simple
enough, it's just hikes through mother nature rolling out cables for cable
transfer, and a GPS supported app sees to it that one doesn't get lost and
gets managable routes. Also the company pays well enough, so what could
possibly go wrong? At first, nothing - until he finds out about the little
walking robots who pretty much follow one's route and ahead of which one
is to remain. They're not particularly fast, but then they walk all
through the night and if they're to overtake one, one loses payment for
the whole route. And at one point, one of these things actually overtakes
Ray. But Anna (Madeline Wise), a woman he befriends along the way who's
actually a journalist who works with the company undercover shows Ray how
to delay the little ones without destroying them. She also tells Ray how
these little robots help the company to exploit the cablers, for whom they
pay no health insurance and who have no representation within the company
as technically they're all freelancers. At first, Ray doesn't have
anything to do with Anna's ideas, including her proposal to create a
union, but then to make a route, he has to destroy one of the robots that
has overtaken him, and thus isn't paid in full, and thus has to break off
his brother's treatment, and thus follows up on a lead Anna has given him
to the creator of the robots (later revealed to be Anna's father), who
gives Ray a very subtle hint how to turn off the robots - and eventually,
Anna succeeds in her intention to unionize the cablers ... In
parts, Lapsis is really effective paranoia cinema, also because
despite its science fiction attitude, most of the technology presented in
the movie is already around. And that the story doesn't reveal its core
conflict for the longest time actually works for the film here rather than
against it. And with that in mind, it's really a bit disappointing that in
the end the resolution is something as mundane as the forming of a union
(as commendable as that is in itself/the real world). That said, there's
still a lot to like about this movie, and that it keeps one guessing for
the longest time is certainly one, as is its rather atmospheric direction,
it just ultimately doesn't totally live up to its promise.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
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