A buck learns about Schopenhauer after an unfortunate accident during mating season.
CONTENT WARNING: Adult language, deer sex, Schopenhauer quotations
Tag Archives: Artificial intelligence
CAPSULE: DREAM HACKER (2025)
366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.
Dream Hacker is currently available for purchase or rental on video-on-demand.
DIRECTED BY: Richard Colton
FEATURING: Molly Hanson, Luke J I Smith, Gary Webster, Hannaj Bang Bendz
PLOT: A brilliant scientist creates a machine which enables the user to hijack sleepers’ minds, and her dream to use the technology for psychotherapy is thwarted by sinister forces.
COMMENTS: This felt very much like a middling science fiction show from thirty years ago—albeit a fairly charming one. An earnest psychiatrist (with more than a little savvy in the field of computing and cybernetics) wants to improve the world, one trauma-sufferer at a time, with an enhanced doo-dad allowing her access to their subconscious. Her machinations result not only in such a device, but also an artificial intelligence to guide her through both the dreamscape (a slightly purple-tinged forest clearing) and the concurrent possibilities of remote body control. A glowing headset, a charismatic avatar, obscure government meddling, a sinister tech-conspiracy—it’s all here, and it all ambles forward in a cutesy thriller kind of way.
Doctor Jennifer Connelly (no, that not one, as clarified during an early scene with a woefully man-bunned blind date) is an unlikely heroine, which is apt considering her naïvety about mankind’s more sinister ambitions. She is awkwardly charming: an American plopped into a metro-collegiate British milieu. (I swear, it seems you couldn’t toss a Beefeater in this movie without hitting one of the hundreds of iconic structures that litter the greater London area.) Her mentor has a tragic history which flirts with the pathetic, and the primary villain is of unclear national extraction.
Jennifer finds herself testing the machine for the first time immediately following the regrettable blind date, waking in the body of a waitress/stripper in Florida. Adam, the artificial intelligence she discovers in her program, combines nigh-omnipotence and simple charm. He, too, can take over (sleeping) bodies, and can otherwise manifest a visible form to Jennifer using the unspecified powers of “science.” The baddies muddle along attempting to kidnap Jennifer, whilst Jennifer and Adam hatch their own plan involving help from the stripper. This and other relationship story-drops are tied in and around the overarching narrative arc towards a rom-com-ish finish.
So, this thing was cute: a big, big, big idea put in service by a plucky adventurer, her computerized friend, and a kooky stripper. I am left with no complaints , except an unlikely one. I kind of want more of this breezy nonsense. Dream Hacker unspools as perfectly as a feature-length pilot for mid-90s science fiction television show. Its goofiness, disregard for grand implications, and laser-focus on the affable leads would demand at least half of a season before the network cancels it.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:
SATURDAY SHORT: THE DIMENSIONAIRES: PRELUDE TO ABRAXAS (2025)
A zooming camera takes a psychedelic tour of a battle between two species in the AIlien Realms, including a look at a sheep-processing plant.
SATURDAY SHORT: ADHD (2025)
The Agency for Defense against Hallucinatory Disruptions claims to be on the case, but we’re not so sure.
CAPSULE: BABY INVASION (2024)
366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.
Baby Invasion is currently available on VOD for purchase or rental.
DIRECTED BY: Harmony Korine
FEATURING: Juan Bofill, Shawn Thomas, Steven Rodriguez, Antonio Jackson, Tej Limlas Ly, Anonymous
PLOT: Six baby-faced goons massacre guests at a mansion in search of stacks of cash and Internet notoriety.
COMMENTS: My only real quibble with Mr. Korine’s latest romp is that it could have been far, far more disturbing. Of course, a “romp” can really only be so disturbing before it leaves romp territory, so perhaps the director did things correctly. Regardless, Baby Invasion is, without a doubt, exactly what Harmony Korine wanted it to be, for better in a number ways—and for worse, according to the general impressions that have caught my ear.
This brings me to the primary characteristic I admire in Harmony Korine: I believe he does not care what I think, what you think, what the Academy thinks, what the French think, what anyone thinks. Like Frank Sinatra, albeit filtered through Syd Vicious, Korine can stand proudly and shout: I Did It My Way. In this case, “his way” went as follows: 1) Invasion. A home invasion, the home being an expansive and expensive mansion, with several pools both indoor and out, countless objets kind of just taking up space (whoever owns this place can afford a decorator, and should seriously consider hiring one). This home is invaded by a squad of alarmingly well-armed guys who show up in a van, eat some of the inhabitants’ fruit, take some of their drugs, and otherwise lark about as they search for the mansion’s safe.
2) Baby. Now, this “found footage” is flanked by a documentary-style (à la late ’90s camcorder, judging from the film quality) conversation with a programmer who explains how her game was hijacked halfway to completion and converted into a quasi-avatar/quasi-livestream showcase for real home invasions. The gaggle of goons have their faces obscured by baby-faces; there is a constant side-scroll of remarks and emojis from real-time ‘Net observers; pixel-splosion boosts and power-ups sparkle on the screen as our pseudonymous protagonist goes through the motions.
Baby Invasion is a novelty, and for its eighty-minute runtime is entertaining enough. Whatever commentary one gleans will not take a lot of effort. I can only recommend this—somewhat—because of my degree of disorientation by the end, as game, meta-game, meta-life, and life became increasingly difficult to differentiate. The occasional shots of the “gamers” suggest none of this is real. The security cameras suggests it is. This muddling, I suspect, is Korine’s overarching goal, and he achieves it nicely. However, I would have preferred to be either slightly more amused, or considerably more dismayed, by the goings-on.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY: