Tangent Room

I would attempt to call this the best of cerebral fiction, except it's not the best of anything.

This starts out as an interesting premise: four people have four hours to solve a problem or die (Cease to exist? Never existed? Always exist? WHO KNOWS?). The acting starts out reasonably well-done, but soon digresses into a mess of bad directing and poorly-executed unimpressive camera effects.

It's not a matter of "we don't get it". We get it fine-- and it spews. While the idea (which I won't state here-- spoilers) has an interesting foundation, the rest of the house is poorly constructed. The science is the worst of theoretical guessing, the math is nonsensical scribbles (at least, as far as the audience can tell), and the ending totally lacking in substance or sense (other than pure fantasy, which has no place in this supposedly pure-science production).

This is a sneezed boogar of a film that hit a wall and stuck, visibly for everyone to see. The concept had potential, but the execution was severely flawed. Suggestion: re-write, re-make, from start to finish, and next time make sense rather than throwing logic and sensibility out the submarine window.

I was so confused, it was like I was watching team meetings at work when no one knows what's going on or what the other is talking about.

Ingenious but I genuinely don't know what's going on! My advice - watch it sober!

I'm off for a bubble bath!

I'm cutting this one some slack. It's a micro-budget movie that jams in a little String Theory. I'm glad it was only 64 minutes. Frankly, I think they could have cut 4 minutes and made it an even hour. If you like the Twilight Zone, you might like this.

But don't expect to be knocked off your feet. This isn't another Primer. But again, it's a relatively short film, and judging from the set, effects, and script, your investment in time is probably about as big as the budget of this film.

I didn't like the end.

Brilliant idea let down by horrible writing, acting and direction.

It's a film you want to turn off hey early but don't because you want to see what happens, not because the film is riveting but the concept is intriguing.

Sadly though, it's trash.

The basis scenario is set out simply, 4 genius level scientists in different disciplines are set a problem by a deceased colleague to solve within a strict time limit. At first I thought it was a re-telling of the short story "Noise Level" by Raymond F Jones, and certainly it leaves the strong impression that it was originally intended to be so, beginning with the enforced isolation of the scientists and the scepticism shown by them to the situation and to the problem. However, it quickly deviates from that story and instead enters into a situation where it becomes clear that the scientists do not, and cannot possibly have, any control or understanding unless and until they solve the problem. Though the problem is one that cannot be shown cinematically without either great complexity or great simplicity (thankfully the directer went for the latter) it is one that is interesting. Is it worth watching? Yes, but be aware that the movie primarily consists of "talking heads" with a few simple special effects that you won't even notice at first, until they are made obvious to the viewer. More a thought experiment, but with a good cast able to hold your attention