Peripheral

Peripheral was a strange movie. Not just in its title which is equally odd but must have some meaning, but also by the events that happen in it. Hannah artenten plays bobbi. A writer that uses a typewriter for her stories. But one day because of her boss something weird turns up on her doorstep. A strange computer or ai that is very advenced and can help her write more and so bobbie can be productive. It bassically wants to brainwash her and weird things happen after that and it leads somehow to a pregnancy due to the computer and bobbie starts to turn into one herself almost. Overall this movie is weird but it is acted well and the story was interesting.

Young London based writer Bobbi Johnson (Hannah Arterton) is so skint that she can't pay her bills. She likes to write old school by using a typewriter but her publisher convinces her to use a state of the art computer that features artificial intelligence, and so her nightmare begins. Quite an interesting story, very strange at times but thankfully I was able to stick with it and make sense of the ending. Very much in the vein of David Cronenberg and his movie Videodrome, with a splash of David Lynch. In one scene she is raped (?) by the computer, reminded me of Evil Dead but with wires and leads instead of tree branches and vines. The small cast all do a good time, nice to see Jenny Seagrove. Not a movie that I'd watch again but it isn't bad.

I was quite intrigued by this bizarre and rather abstract piece of cinema. I enjoyed how it was written. I would have preferred more of a cyberpunk city setting to really sell it but I had fun watching it in a rather 'cant look away' curiosity. Reminded me a bit of 'Hardware' meets David Cronenberg meets David Lynch. Would I rewatch it? Probably not. But for a free one time watch as a cyberpunk fan it tickles a curiosity and has its merits, albeit nonsensical, absurdist, abstract or hallucinatory at times on purpose. Definitely better than your average cheaply written schlock. Would at least recommend!

Other than the cast and some snippets of good music the whole film is junk. It didn't need to be feature length. The use of technology was way over the top, yet primitive in execution. Imagine using a see-through 50" TV with bright blue lights to write a novel in the dark....and use a touch screen keyboard with keys the size of chicken nuggets - which numpty approved that?

The story is about a young introverted author who had success with her first book. It caused some sort of "revolution". However for some reason she has no money to pay for electricity so agrees a deal with her publisher to write a second book if they pay her bills, the deal also comes with a few caveats...she must use their "hardware" to write the book, instead of her trusty typewriter. The hardware is boosted with AI to aid her writing and for thr publisher to keep tabs on her progress. There's also a side story with Rosie Day (interesting voice) who steals the scenes she's in, it's a shame that was part of the film was so small.

The VFX and CG was overused and over the top - there really was no need to go so sci-fi with the "hardware" and have a stupid webcam with red lights. It was like watching an episode of BBC Three's Snog, Marry, Avoid fused with Black Mirror, made by The Asylum.

No idea how this film was funded, although it didn't need much of a budget, they could have skipped the terrible VFX/UI work and given that cash to charity. The message they tried to drive home was hamfisted and pretentious drivle.

I feel bad for the cast as they did their parts well and will forever have this film on their resume... the story and execution of the film was just bad. Not an enjoyable film you'll ever tell anyone to watch, unless you hated them.

So the setup is pretty simple and rife for some manner of scifi/horror examinations or exploitations; a broke writer grudgingly accepts an AI editor to basically live-edit her newest work as she writes and her publisher will pay her bills and such so she can keep writing.

Over time, they keep sending more upgrades and additions to the AI, to the point where the AI begins to manipulate the story itself.

But none of that is important or really tangential to whatever this film was going for. Instead, the writer, Bobbi Johnson, goes on drug-fueled writing binges rife with laughable "techie-techno" style music and flashing lights while writing some absurdly over the top purple prose. What little of it we are shown is essentially meaningless word salad. The tone of the film and its alleged theme seem to indicate this was intentional.

Along the way, Bobbi is harassed by a stalker who sends her video tapes, a brother who keeps pestering her to hold onto drugs and guns, a deadline that is thrust in her face at the very top of the neon-light eyesore of a computer she has to work from, and the fact that she is inexplicably coughing up ink and her fingers, hands, and arms are slowly becoming coated black with ink.

All of this keeps escalating and culminating in a finale that, without spoiling, seems to make little to no sense either to someone outside of the writing and publishing world, or else like the incoherent, esoteric rantings and ravings of a high-minded writer complaining about the state of modern literature without really having any specific issue beyond buzzwords like "technology" and "truth" and "lies" and "fourth estate".

What message is trying to be said is in no way reflected by what the film is actually showing us. The rising issues of "fake news", propaganda, and expanding corporate media are in no way reflected by Bobbi becoming inky and presumably hallucinating a lot and computer tentacles.

If this scattershot assortment of imagery and themes was supposed to say something meaningful to someone, it clearly wasn't someone like me.