OtherLife

source: OtherLife

It's hard to feel anything for the lead, because she comes off very unlikable. And liking, or feeling sympathy for the protagonist is probably kind of important. Although there were many beautiful shots, there were just as many unneeded slow scenes. I tried to like it. But I didn't.

Ren (Jessica De Gouw) goes off the deep end and her brother drowns and becomes a mental vegetable. She has created a company that creates chemically implanted memories...memories of not traveling to Mars and saving the miners, but snow boarding. Her experiments have risk and her main goal is to revive her brother. And as expected the film gets to the point where we don't know what is real and what is an implanted memory for its clever twist. Not as well scripted as I would have liked. Acting was okay. Guide: F-word, sex, no nudity

I love Science Fiction movies and I'm usually willing to put up with mediocre character development, and plot holes, but in this case I was so frustrated that I fast forwarded some parts of the movie. This should have been condensed into an hour long black mirror episode. The cinematography and acting was decent, it was the plot, characters, and pointlessly long scenes that annoyed me. The "twist" wasn't really a twist, it's what you expected to happen throughout the movie. I didn't bond with the characters; the only character I actually had feelings about was Sam and I obviously disliked him. The father was pointless; the lover, Danny, was pointless. The brother was only important to the story, I didn't care about his well being. I'm probably being harder on this film that I normally would, but that's because it had the potential to be awesome...instead.....I'm taking the time to warn you not to waste your time.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was well written and acted but I thought the ending was convoluted. I thought a better ending would be to have her wake up from a coma since it was her that drowned, not her brother. Her father could have created the code so that she had to fight to wake up. Trying to save her brother could have been a way to use her own ideas to help the code and explain the process while she was in a coma. As it was, I thought it was a more standard Hollywood ending.

Discovered it by accident, and the reviews here at IMDb convinced me to watch. Plot is good, special effects, flow, suspense...it's all good, and definitely worth the time. I was caught guessing wrong a few times! I really enjoy Jessica De Gouw's acting. Very good at her job, and I hope we see her in a lot more big screen roles in the future.

Under the influence of latest development of "nearly" Sci-Fi shows (Black Mirror, etc.) this one has an enticing idea and I really wanted to love this film. The thing is, without a developed story line, I kind of lost interest after 3/4 of the film where it was obvious that there was no telling between reality and imagination anymore and that we're up for a twist. which was, in turn, disappointing, as well as the ending which lacked resolution and leaves the viewer puzzled and waiting for more. The only reason I am writing this is because I actually felt this film has good potential in the first 20 minutes. However, I like the quote : "As far as your brain is concerned, fantasy and reality are chemically identical."

If you're looking for whiz-bang, this isn't the film for you. It's very much a character-driven movie, with the tech and special effects limited to a few screens of moving-mandala formulation. Scenery varies from sufficient to spectacular. The excitement's in the ideas - none of them preachy in presentation - and in the acting. Questions of life and death and pulling the plug blend with the technological conundrums like: just because we can, does it mean we should, and where do we draw the line on interfering with personal autonomy via tampering with brain chemicals? The lead actor, Jessica De Gouw, carries the script's weight seamlessly, with solid but unexciting support. An exciting entry in Australia's burgeoning film industry.

OtherLife is the story of a piece of software that can transport you into a dream-like world (like Total Recall). The movie discusses the implications of the software through the 2 developers' secret projects with the software. For a low-budget science fiction movie there is a lot of positive things to point out. I was personally impressed with the visual effects and the courage to tell the story through the language of cinematography (dolly zooms, Dutch angles, color-grading, etc.). When it comes to acting and sound design I found the movie did a decent job and it never felt like an amateur low-budget movie to me. Unfortunately there were 2 things that annoyed me about the movie: Firstly, the movie takes ideas from existing sci-fi which makes the story unoriginal and predictable (to some extend). It reminded me in particular of 2 Black Mirror episodes; White Christmas and Playtest. If you haven't seen Black Mirror I think you will find this more original, less predictable and consequently enjoy it more. Secondly, the protagonist is a very smart woman working on the software, but she only appears to be smart when working on the software and not in any other part of her life. I don't want to give any examples of this since that would spoil the plot. If you don't expect to share these issues then I believe you will like or maybe even love this movie. In conclusion i enjoyed watching the movie, and I am surprised by the low rating (my ratings are usually 1-2 points under the average). Despite a few issues I will definitely keep my eyes open for this directors next project. To me OtherLife is a decent movie which amounts to a 6/10 in my rating distribution.

This was a rock solid film until the producers ruined it about 3/4 of the way through with a nonsensical ending. Interesting sci fi, believable characters, an awesome plot twist a third of the way through the film, and decent acting. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised at how good the film was until it went off the rails. However, the ending was incredibly frustrating because of how unbelievably silly it was, totally destroying all the good work built up over the first part of the film. Sad, sad, sad! It could've been an excellent film!