Control

'Control' (not related to the game series of the same name) features Eileen (Sara Mitich), a twenty-something year old woman trapped in a small room and given odd tasks to complete in a short time limit. Each task becomes increasingly more difficult, and failure to complete a task results in her daughter Eve (Evie Loiselle) dying. Through unchained memories of her daughter and husband Roger (George Tchortov), Eileen must find a way out and save her family.

The premise of being unaware of why one is in a room to be tested/tortured is not a new trope, but the twist of psychokinetic powers does add a bit of originality to the film. Cinematography is very well done and plot makes a logical conclusion, but the fault lies in the characters themselves; through the beginning, they are not very convincing, though to her credit, Sara Mitich does pull off a solid performance by the conclusion. Several plot holes and a completely unexpalined antagonist muddle the narrative, but it is an rather interesting piece, given the budget.

Worth a once over.

A young woman awakens in a stylish prison with no memory except for when she sleeps. Eileen played by Sarah Mitich, sees herself and her daughter in her dreams at a beach singing the same lullaby over and over again. An analog-sounding Alexa-type computer that appears to lack AI has monotone one-way answers to the questions which Sarah Mitich asks.

The computer forces her to complete tasks that become impossible to do without using Sara Mitich's psychokinetic powers, which Sarah learns to control over agony, distress, and fear whilst attempting to achieve the expected result of the test. She's threatened by the dormant Computer with the life of her child.

The cinematography is very good, and Sarah Mitich's acting is very believable. Her husband played by George Tchortov is a bit wooden but he is playing a comatose character.

A creative low budget film misses its marks. If you were to fast-forward Sarah Mitich's dream scenes you wouldn't miss anything. For example, the lullaby repeated often does not tie to anything.

I think that the film is still worth watching. The concept is Interesting.

No pun intended - the movie that some may call a Cube knockoff (I wonder if there was something that inspired Cube back then?) ... and they are not completely wrong if you are honest with yourself. We wake up with the main character and we are as confused as she is. The initial surprise and really tight tension wear off though ... as time goes by.

While the movie seems to be able to add new nuggets (of information and otherwise), is it enough to keep you engaged towards the end? I would think that many will slowly lose interest ... it remains decent! And the ending may very well sway you to vote better than I did ... but is it really? The action is nice but sort of repeats itself towards the end - well no pun intended, right? Life is not a circle ... and we need to have an ending to things ... even if it means we have not moved forward ... at all!

The dialogue is so transparently contrived you cannot take seriously that a human being, let alone a pair of them, could possibly be so deliberately unhelpful, obfuscating and unreasonable.

Reminiscent of The Cube but infinitely less self-aware, bluntly, the writing is too stupid to allow even the most credulous of audiences to enjoy the premise.

The performances are emotionally convincing, and camera work is laudable given the budget, nothing can save the film from writing so disingenously unlike a real person. You spend the entire time frustrated that the characters won't utter a single coherent sentence. Beyond that, the exposition is blunt and choppy, the characters' decisions make no sense, the emotionality feels like the writer has never actually met a human being.

No decision in the entire film, either by the characters, writer or driector make any sense. It's incoherent from opening to close.

Just a disasterous waste of decent acting and a potentially interesting idea.

Understand that if you're watching this movie, you've already seen it.

Do you think it's the game Control? Yes. It is that... except worse. It's horror about a woman with psychic powers. But without the layers of juxtaposition with normal and the bizarre. All of the style is removed.

Do you think it's like the MCU with an Elizabeth Olson look-a-like sporting powers? Yes. It's that... Except worse. They wanted cool mom using psychic powers to kill people. But didn't really give her interesting things to do with those powers. You get some basic attacks and unchoreographed actors acting like they're in pain. They don't even film it well.

Do you think it's like the game, Portal? Yes. It's that... except worse. It is testing in a chamber with a mysterious robotic woman's voice giving instructions. But none of the whimsy or fun.

Everything about this movie is a ripoff of something famous and better. You've seen every reveal and surprise and interesting thing this film has to offer. But you've already seen it better.

The film techniques seem unrelated to what you're watching with the cameras in random positions and shifting randomly between cuts without meaning or direction. The actors appear to have been told to take as much time as they can with everything they do, to the point of it being awkward for them to do mundane tasks like walking across a room. Even the actors didn't know how to make this slow of a pace seem natural.

The lack of care from the film makers is painful. And an insult to whoever paid for this movie to be made. It's an insult to the actors, and an insult to the audience. Crucial details like how much time is left on the clock are used to add tension, which is completely deflated as the clock regularly has time clearly added or removed between shots. They just didn't care. A character even calls out that there's only 60 seconds left, only for the next shot to show it being closer to 90 seconds.

If you can avoid seeing this film, please do. I give it a 2 star because there COULD have been something good here. The one set was designed well. No other sets were. And nothing about this movie should inspire other films. I hope I'm the last one to see this movie.