CREATIVE CONTROL – The Review

It’s time to push the fast forward button at the multiplex (I would say we’ll go “back to the future”, but this flick doesn’t look back). Film makers love to dabble in “what lies ahead” in everything from JUST IMAGINE (a 1930 musical comedy about the far-off 1980) to last year’s hit THE MARTIAN. Now, there’s no space travel going on (aside from trips inside your own head) in this new film. It’s on terra firma, with no personal jet packs or flying cars. We’re in a future not very removed from our present, much as in last year’s Oscar-winning EX MACHINA from Alex Garland, though it feels like a close relation to another recent Oscar winner, HER from Spike Jonze. The gadgets and doo-dads are just a few “.0’s” away from being ordered online. The film ponders whether the use (and abuse) of technology will still permit us to retain CREATIVE CONTROL.

The terra firma of this near-future is Brooklyn, the home of burnt-out advertising exec David (Benjamin Dickinson). He should be happy living with his gorgeous girlfriend, yoga instructor Juliette (Nora Zehetner) in their lush apartment in a trendy neighborhood. And he’s best buds with fashion photog Wim (Dan Gill), who sends David cell snaps of his model conquests. But David’s in a funk, one that’s not curtailed by his boozing and pill popping (these future pharmas look like candied cereal bits). Then he’s jolted awake by meeting Wim’s lovely live-in, fashion designer Sophie (Alexia Rasmussen), around the same time David’s company gets a big new client: Augmented Reality. They’re in need of a marketing campaign for their new, top-of-the-line, ultra-tech eyeglasses. And David is given a pair for a “test run”. As his relationship with Juliette deteriorates, he aggressively pursues Sophie. When she doesn’t reciprocate, David gets an idea. His glasses recorded his encounters with Sophie. Can he use them to create an almost-photo realistic avatar of her, one this is more…receptive?  As time passes, David devotes more and more time to his virtual lover in a twisted affair that threatens his work and actual relationships. Will David ever return to reality?

Dickinson (who also co-wrote and directed this film) convincingly projects an air of aloof apathy as the story’s center. Perhaps too convincingly. David drifts along in a fog, never really connecting with anyone until his obsession with Sophie ignites a long-dead passion. From that point (namely the creation of his designed desire) he loses any audience empathy as he pushes everyone aside, becoming quite a single-minded hedonist. From the tale’s mid-point most of our sympathy shifts to Zehetner as the confused neglected Juliette. Fortunately she is no mere victim, and is striving to fulfill her own personal and professional needs. Zehetner’s wide expressive eyes inject the often lethargic proceedings with a much-needed energy boost. Gill makes Wim a new age, very laid-back satyr, always on the lookout for another new paramour. As Sophie, Rasumussen is a futuristic take on the classic “cool blonde” (as Hitchcock would say). Her disconnected mysterious demeanor (David just can’t figure her out) conflicts nicely with her submissive pixellated doppelgänger. Also of note is the excellent work by musician comedian Reggie Watts playing an ultra-hip, pretentious parody of himself. Thankfully we’re treated to a scene-stealing cameo from H. Jon Benjamin (TV’s “Archer” and Bob’s Burgers”) as Juliette’s dim bulb employer.

Director Dickinson employs lots of stylistic and visual tricks to place us in this near-future setting. There are no monitors or video screens, instead boxes crammed with ever-changing data float in front of the cast, often projecting from their finger tips (think smaller takes on Tony Stark’s Jarvis system). These are greatly enhanced by the splendid, shimmering black and white photography of Adam Newport-Becca, particularly when the virtual Sophie emerges in warm, airbrushed-like color (she really pops from the grey backdrops). Unfortunately these inventive touches are in service of a meandering story. The film gets some very funny digs at the “ad game” when David and his co-workers must deal with nit-picky, “flip-flopping” clients during a commercial shoot for a “mood-elevating vape”, and there’s a powerful verbal smack down during what begins as an intimate dinner which will make you squirm with discomfort. But there’s very little resolution to the many plot threads and the main protagonist remains cruel and callous. And the almost constant toking and boozing deaden any real dramatic momentum. There’s some clever ideas in CREATIVE CONTROL, but they’re buried in a uninvolving, unfocused narrative.

3 out of 5

CREATIVE CONTROL opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre