I do appreciate when a writer, director, and actor undertake a film where there is virtually one set and one character. I found Christopher Soren Kelly to be engaging.
I disagree with those saying this is a HAL rip-off. I mean, yes, that is the most famous film with a similar AI companion. But in 1963 webcam-styled H. A. L. Was way ahead of its time but in 2016 it's a familiar sight everywhere we go.
I felt that by the end the film was not as ambiguous as many reviews suggest. There seems to be one main question for most of the audience: Did Howard trick Frank or did Frank trick Howard.
However, I thought the film expected to be transparent in those final shots -- Frank has not escaped.
He exits from the same stairwell yet is now in a completely different place. The film pans out to show us he is actually in the photo Gabby has on the wall. People happen by to rescue him and the news exclaiming his escape now in the midst of a new freedom are all too idealick to be real. Howard has succeeded in making Frank believe he's escaped.
Or has Frank succumbed to the fact that he can't outsmart Howard? That's the only issue I found to be uncertain. He at once reveals the hiding place and throws away the drive. That looks like defeat, to me; resignation.
There are some other clues in the film that I think could be debated, such as who imprisoned him and how were they able to manipulate his mind and reality?
In one shot, late in the film, Frank hands Gabby a foreign bill suggesting he is either a spy accustomed to being in a foreign country and that currency is in his memory, or that whoever has imprisoned him is a foreign government. This makes me think the film is an updated story about government manipulation and mind-control.
Eventually, they show Gabby in a cell revealing she is also a prisoner. How has she been in Frank's memories-turned-fantasy? Was Frank in the cell the whole time?
There are a lot of things to keep wondering about; a puzzle to solve. But not whether Frank has actually escaped. That final shot showing one of the AI modules is in no way vague.
There's a hint in the trivia section where we learn "the original title for the movie was "Somnio", which is Latin for dream; and in the movie, the device inside the prison that manipulates their memories, forcing them into a dream state was called Somnio, but the scenes were cut. The movie's distributor though the title was too abstract and they decided on Infinity Chamber instead."
This tells us that their dreams were being manipulated (which admittedly wasn't always that clear in the film), but also tells us they decided on a more appropriate title, which tells us Frank is kind of reliving each day over and over perhaps not even in an actual physical environment?
In many ways, this film reminds me of edgy state of the art authors like H. G. Wells, and maybe a big production of Outer Limits.
I'm left with a sense of concern that in our 2021 world we are not that far from becoming totally controlled by the aberrant minds that look at man as a commodity but now armed with the capability of virtual control. Definitely a mind-bending film that, yes, could have been better in the hands of Ridley Scott or Steven Spielberg, but which nonetheless gave a wonderful performance with a tiny budget and a big imagination.
I disagree with those saying this is a HAL rip-off. I mean, yes, that is the most famous film with a similar AI companion. But in 1963 webcam-styled H. A. L. Was way ahead of its time but in 2016 it's a familiar sight everywhere we go.
I felt that by the end the film was not as ambiguous as many reviews suggest. There seems to be one main question for most of the audience: Did Howard trick Frank or did Frank trick Howard.
However, I thought the film expected to be transparent in those final shots -- Frank has not escaped.
He exits from the same stairwell yet is now in a completely different place. The film pans out to show us he is actually in the photo Gabby has on the wall. People happen by to rescue him and the news exclaiming his escape now in the midst of a new freedom are all too idealick to be real. Howard has succeeded in making Frank believe he's escaped.
Or has Frank succumbed to the fact that he can't outsmart Howard? That's the only issue I found to be uncertain. He at once reveals the hiding place and throws away the drive. That looks like defeat, to me; resignation.
There are some other clues in the film that I think could be debated, such as who imprisoned him and how were they able to manipulate his mind and reality?
In one shot, late in the film, Frank hands Gabby a foreign bill suggesting he is either a spy accustomed to being in a foreign country and that currency is in his memory, or that whoever has imprisoned him is a foreign government. This makes me think the film is an updated story about government manipulation and mind-control.
Eventually, they show Gabby in a cell revealing she is also a prisoner. How has she been in Frank's memories-turned-fantasy? Was Frank in the cell the whole time?
There are a lot of things to keep wondering about; a puzzle to solve. But not whether Frank has actually escaped. That final shot showing one of the AI modules is in no way vague.
There's a hint in the trivia section where we learn "the original title for the movie was "Somnio", which is Latin for dream; and in the movie, the device inside the prison that manipulates their memories, forcing them into a dream state was called Somnio, but the scenes were cut. The movie's distributor though the title was too abstract and they decided on Infinity Chamber instead."
This tells us that their dreams were being manipulated (which admittedly wasn't always that clear in the film), but also tells us they decided on a more appropriate title, which tells us Frank is kind of reliving each day over and over perhaps not even in an actual physical environment?
In many ways, this film reminds me of edgy state of the art authors like H. G. Wells, and maybe a big production of Outer Limits.
I'm left with a sense of concern that in our 2021 world we are not that far from becoming totally controlled by the aberrant minds that look at man as a commodity but now armed with the capability of virtual control. Definitely a mind-bending film that, yes, could have been better in the hands of Ridley Scott or Steven Spielberg, but which nonetheless gave a wonderful performance with a tiny budget and a big imagination.