It's a wild experience walking back out into reality when this movie ends. And that's after the movie itself already featured a sequence about precisely that, and got the whole vibe so very right. This movie makes reality feel like it moves in slow motion.
This is a movie that the average person is not going to be able to handle. It is designed to test it's viewers limits. That's probably why it has like a 3.5 out of 10 on iMDb right now. It proudly, and notably in several self-referential sequences, exists as a prime example of hyper-stimulation, and with good reason as it correlates directly with the satirical techno-focused plot. The pacing and editing is kinetic, and rarely gives you a chance to breathe through it's entire 80 minute runtime. The audio is LOUD and pummeling, the concepts themselves feel as if they have the power the violate you as a viewer just as they do with our protagonist Rachel, and the screaming feels like it never stops. Getting through this film will feel like an endurance test of sorts, but in my opinion it is with great reason, well worth it, and actually totally enjoyable all the way through even if your brain is telling you that you should take a break.
I am a firm believer that Betsey Brown is currently the most talented and enthralling actress who is yet to be featured in any major motion pictures outside of the handful of forward-thinking "arthouse" movies that her up-and-coming circle of provocateurs have put out. She is a powerhouse in everything I've seen her in, but this film showcases her most impressive performance yet. Between her commitment to playing a baby-brained individual who's grown up as a one-dimensional experiment for an ad agency, her signature throes of torment, pain, and sadness upon her horrific discoveries, and her visceral portrayals of sex, she is the ultimate martyr for the filmic lens who has yet to receive any "Hollywood" attention. She often channels a bit of young Julianne Moore (I'm thinking of SAFE, 1995), if I had to compare her to anyone. Her many riveting sequences in this film are often goosebump-inducing, especially when she finally "steps out into reality'.
I am wholly impressed with what Peter Vack (brother of lead Betsey Brown) has accomplished here as writer and director. I've seen him as an enjoyable actor in Betsey's film ACTORS and recently in Eugene K's THE CODE alongside Dasha Nekrasova, but have yet to catch any of his directorial works. Nothing could have prepared me for what Vack has created here. Visually, it was often quite stunning. To put it simply, this is way higher art than I was expecting. The vision is high and strikingly original, the concepts have tons of depth, the movie isn't afraid to jerk off on your face when it feels like it but it more often spends it's time committing to it's narrative, one which is far stronger and more profound than I was expecting.
Most "sci-fi" now is just rehash of what people envisioned the future like in the late 70's and early 80's. That was all brilliant at the time, and gave us some of the coolest things to do with massive film budgets as far as creating iconic visuals goes. But, if you set aside what you've been programmed to perceive as sci-fi...www. RachelOrmont.com really does fit the bill in an entirely fresh and forward-thinking way. It has enough satirical humor to sit in with the best of the works by the best sci-fi authors of all time (Dick, Vonnegut, Burroughs, etc), but all intelligent jokes and contemporary statements aside, it offers a riveting experience that is actually more ahead-of-its-time than a majority of current film and TV offerings, and if you are able to open yourself up to that, it's a pretty powerful experience. I would even call it a FACE-MELTER. Many of y'all are probably gonna hate this, but I think it's some form of bizarro cult masterpiece.
