Director: Ben C. Lucas
Rating: 4/5
OtherLife is a new film on Netflix, and if you thought you’ve seen it all when it comes to sci-fi, you didn’t.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkrl1nOvzKI
When the film first started I nearly freaked out when I saw it was Australian, because honestly, every film I ever watched that was made in Oz was weird as Hell.
Well, so is this one but this one is weird in a good way. There is not that much story or action going on but the film still manages to keep you in a front of the screen because it tackles some really good ethical, religious and everyday questions and thus it makes you think about stuff you do not necessarily think about.
In that, Ren Amari (Jessica De Gouw ) has developed a new product called OtherLife, an eye drop that one can put in the eye and create new experiences to enrich their lives. For example, if you’ve never been to the mountains you can do it with this eye drop and you can spend, for example, a whole week there but it will only ‘cost’ you a minute or two from your actual life.
However, the system has a bug and because some people even die Ren has to go to the virtual reality to sort it out. But then, as it turns out, she ends up in a nightmare because she was set up to stay there for good. Or, was that a part of the virtual experience and she is actually in real life? Or, she was in virtual reality but then got back only to end up there again? Is someone trying to set her up? Is her partner Sam (T.J. Power), a loyal friend or a complete bastard trying to take over a company and make a fortune by locking her up in her own head? Will she manage to save her brother, who was the main reason for developing the product in the first place? I guess you will have to watch the film to find out…
The film basically tackles the issue of not living our lives to the full potential as well as the all-time question on whether digital relationships can replace human ones. Should we create a virtual experience of leisure activities or should we find the time and go and actually do it?
In addition, the film also tackles a religious issue of whether we should let things happen the way they do and accept death or should we play God and try to avoid death by creating a device that can put us back in time and enable us to make a different choice to save our lives?
Seriously, watch this. It is a bit slow, but it is also beautifully different and wonderfully weird.
Thank you for reading.