2073

Most dystopian tales are about a place that could never exist. They exist in the stories and draw parallels to our time or serve as metaphors for our struggles. This movie is not a documentary, but it uses documentary to explain how the future will be created by what is happening now and by what's happened in the last 2, 5, 20, and 30 years.

It doesn't offer hope or answers. Answers aren't that easy. Hope may be a fantasy. What if this is all happening and there's nothing we can do about it? Is it too late already? "If we do not act when we can will we fall off the cliff?"

Will voting change anything? Will not voting change anything? Will continuing to consume and benefit from technological comforts yield any different result than going back to a simpler life that is unconnected to information collection?

These are not equations answered in this movie. But they're questions I have because of it.

I'm sure there many people who think this film is leftist propaganda. These same people don't see how bad things are in this country and the world. They're ok with making American great again. I'm not sure we are ever going to be ok again, neither is this film.

This is not for everyone.

Ignore this being called a "movie". It is not. It is a documentary punctuated by some illustrative fictional moments. Just keep in mind that this can be a very upsetting viewing experience.

As if we needed anything else to make us angry, divided, stressed, worried, etc, this hard slap across our faces is meant to wake us up to what is actually happening in our world...and where we are heading if we let it. No wonder the 1% want us to keep our eyes locked on our smartphones and Tik Tok.

I was not expecting this when I pressed play, but I'm glad I squirmed through it.

Be sure and stay beyond the credits, as there is an interesting hidden scene.

I need a drink...

As "2073" (2024 release from the UK; 84 min) opens, we are in the year 2073 in New San Francisco, "capital of the Americas". The US has become a very dystopian police state. We get to know a mute woman named Ghost, whose grandmother was disappeared years ago. At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from Oscar-winning British director Asip Kapadia ("Amy"), Here he brings a movie that is half fiction and half fact. The fictional part looks at what it might be like in the year 2073. The factual part comes in flashbacks as we see the terrible things playing in the world with authoritarians and wanna-be authoritarians (take a bow, Mr. T., you're almost there), with climate change and worse, etc. Etc. It's just that fiction and fact don't mix very well. And yes, also this: it makes for a mostly depressing viewing experience. But I will give Kapadia credit for the audacity to try. And of course he simply reflects what 's playing out in the world, and it ain't a pretty picture, that's for sure...

"2071" premiered at last year's Venice film festival. Not sure if it ever got a US theatrical release (I kinda doubt it). But I stumbled on this on Max just the other night, and decided to give it a shot. The movie is currently rated only 53% Certified Fresh, and here also I believe it is more a reflection of the movie being anything but an uplifting viewing experience, rather than being a bad movie. If you have an interest in geopolitics (both current and projected), I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Let me start by saying that I agree with all of the politics, and all of the warnings in this movie.

Despite that, this is a terrible movie. There is no story, the characters are not developed, the plot is thin as wax paper, and I honestly don't think much effort was made for it to be otherwise. The film is a vehicle for delivering the political message.

For me, that's not good enough. Better to call it a documentary and to just explicitly make that argument.

The producers intersperse political history from 1980s-2024 to explain how the world tumbled into a fascist global system, where average people are serfs, and only a few wealthy people survive, on the backs of labor performed by robots and AI.

I agree. I agree. But a movie also has to be entertaining. This was slow, boring, depressing (as is the news today), and painful to watch.

The atmosphere this "movie" sets up is brilliant. The downtrodden, harrowing, depressing, soul crushing vision of the future. Had it told that story in the fictional 2073 world and simply tied it to the real life events, it would have worked fine just fine.

But then it drops back into early 2000's and starts weaving real life footage of events from all over the world into its tread... and loses what was built at the start.

It becomes a documentary that's trying to present itself like in a feature film form but it ends up being neither. There isn't just one message here, there are countless, each touching on everything you'd see on some conspiracy theory You Tube video or obscure website visited by people with questionable mental faculty. Reemergence of the far left in mainstream politics, corrupt interconnected politicians, systematic disassembly of democracy, abuse of power, abuse of social media, racism, environment, and so on and so forth.

Don't get me wrong, all of the topics it touches are worthy of your attention and should be addressed, sooner rather than later. But the moment you tangle real life events with fictional narrative... the relevance of the message becomes fictional itself.

This documovie offers causes to issues, exacerbates them as a stepping stone into the fictional environment and the offers nothing in the form of a solution, just a melancholic voice over from the main character that deliberately tip toes around what it really wants to say.

Shame. Because if this had been a fictional movie or a proper documentary... I think I would have loved it.