The Mandela Effect
Directed by David Guy Levy. Written by David Guy Levy and Steffen Schlachtenhaufen
If you've spent any amount of time on the internet and who here hasn't, then you've heard about the Mandela Effect. It's a collective misremembering of past events. For example Looney Tunes being called Looney Toons or Nelson Mandela dying in the 80s even though he lived well into the 2000s. This movie uses that as a jumping off point.
Unfortunately it also attaches itself to a rather formulaic story about a man losing his grip on reality after the death of his daughter. He falls down a rabbit hole on the internet exploring various theories on the Mandela Effect. We spend a good portion of this film just watching him watch Youtube videos.
He begins questioning his reality and finding the entire thing might just be an elaborate computer simulation. He is naturally hoping that he can find a way to bring his daughter back.
This film has a nugget of a good idea. Once we get past the been there done that opening with its very manipulative hook of the dead kid and we swim through the minefield of the research montage, we get into the existential aspect of life being a simulation. This movie is full of ideas and it does manage to push past its beginning and edge into more endlessly fascinating territory.
I should talk some about the characters but they are really thin sketches to hang the framework of this story on. You're not there to really dig into who they are. You're there to post your fears and anxieties onto them. This movie is interested in the mystery of our existence. How sure can you be that what you perceive to be real is in fact real? This is something that faces people every day. You see it on the internet every day. They build their own world views and find the things needed to keep those worlds from crumbling. That's why it is now referred to as my truth rather than the truth.
While this movie started off like a ride down the well worn path of familiarity, it brought up enough questions and the answers that it gave were sufficient to generate the activity in your brain. You wonder what life could be like if you were able to manipulate the code keeping reality working. What kind of computer is needed for such a thing to be real?
If our memories go, then what do we trust? It asks plenty of questions but as a complete story it doesn't delve deep enough into the people asking the questions in the movie. It could be described as bare bones in this regard. So I think in the end that it is worth a watch. I watched this on HULU should you find yourself also curious. I give this film a C.
If you've spent any amount of time on the internet and who here hasn't, then you've heard about the Mandela Effect. It's a collective misremembering of past events. For example Looney Tunes being called Looney Toons or Nelson Mandela dying in the 80s even though he lived well into the 2000s. This movie uses that as a jumping off point.
Unfortunately it also attaches itself to a rather formulaic story about a man losing his grip on reality after the death of his daughter. He falls down a rabbit hole on the internet exploring various theories on the Mandela Effect. We spend a good portion of this film just watching him watch Youtube videos.
He begins questioning his reality and finding the entire thing might just be an elaborate computer simulation. He is naturally hoping that he can find a way to bring his daughter back.
This film has a nugget of a good idea. Once we get past the been there done that opening with its very manipulative hook of the dead kid and we swim through the minefield of the research montage, we get into the existential aspect of life being a simulation. This movie is full of ideas and it does manage to push past its beginning and edge into more endlessly fascinating territory.
I should talk some about the characters but they are really thin sketches to hang the framework of this story on. You're not there to really dig into who they are. You're there to post your fears and anxieties onto them. This movie is interested in the mystery of our existence. How sure can you be that what you perceive to be real is in fact real? This is something that faces people every day. You see it on the internet every day. They build their own world views and find the things needed to keep those worlds from crumbling. That's why it is now referred to as my truth rather than the truth.
While this movie started off like a ride down the well worn path of familiarity, it brought up enough questions and the answers that it gave were sufficient to generate the activity in your brain. You wonder what life could be like if you were able to manipulate the code keeping reality working. What kind of computer is needed for such a thing to be real?
If our memories go, then what do we trust? It asks plenty of questions but as a complete story it doesn't delve deep enough into the people asking the questions in the movie. It could be described as bare bones in this regard. So I think in the end that it is worth a watch. I watched this on HULU should you find yourself also curious. I give this film a C.