(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page:
“A woman living in a ruined Earth tries to comprehend how the world was destroyed.”
Here’s the thing about propaganda, folks: most of those people who engage in it don’t think what they have to say is propaganda. To the contrary, it’s only you who disagree with them who are the propagandists.
This is why – to a large degree – I limit my time on social media. Anyone who follows me can likely guess at what my political positions are – I certainly don’t hide them – but I do tend to disengage from followers and casual fans when they try to debate me. I’m really not interested in being called names or whipping anyone into a frenzied verbal throwdown when I don’t know them, don’t know their circumstances, don’t know what kind of life they’ve lived, and – hell – don’t even know if they’re not a bot. Far too many online presences appear to be fictitious, and life is far too short to spend arguing with some low rent version of Artificial Intelligence.
But since I don’t hide or prepackage what I think about, I do generally abhor those who do; and today my ire is kinda/sorta loosely turned on writer/director Asif Kapadia. His 2073 (2024) promised to be a look into an alleged Dystopian tomorrow by glancing back into our past; but instead, what the man delivers is little more than a SciFi/Short-Film bookended around a documentary indicting just about everything he sees wrong with the world today. Had I known he was only delivering publicity for his politics, then I would’ve passed on this … and, yet, here we are.
What there is of a fictional narrative in here is surprisingly quite good though still a bit flawed. A woman – she has no name and chooses not to speak but everyone refers to her as ‘Ghost’ (Samantha Morton) – eeks out her living in – ahem – apparently the only surviving city in the world (which somehow magically happens to be in California), digging through refuse for scraps and anything which might aid in survival. There is a functioning city out there – it’s kinda/sorta portrayed as existing in a skyscraper high above the clouds – and its populated by denizens who embrace and coordinate a continuing police state, one where regular folks are not allowed to have any thoughts of their own. In such stories, it’s inevitable that these two sides meet; and, again, her choice in that big showdown will likely surprise no one, nor seem all that interesting.
Kapadia creates this blighted tomorrow – as best as I can understand his political gibberish – by postulating that everything wrong globally – from climate change to nationalist policies to the demise of the Amazon rainforest – somehow magically and mystically combines and produces something called ‘the Event.’ The Event is a worldwide collapse. Cities fall. Governments crumble. Mother Nature throws a hissy. Everything and anything not battened down is laid to waste, but – also magically and mystically – one city survives … and, of course, it would have to be California. This laughably impossible catalyst is meant to be taken seriously, and therein lies the rub: how could both manmade activity completely unrelated to so many disparate systems metastasize into any single ‘event’ on any given day in history? That just isn’t how things work. Yes, it’s fiction, but it still has to be believable to make sense, and – sorry – this doesn’t.
What also is never explained is how 37 years after ‘The Event’ those of the ‘Haves’ still seemingly have anything whilst the ‘Have Nots’ are picking through their garbage. Where is the food coming from? Where is the water coming from? Where are the clothes, the cars, the uniforms, the police drones, or ANYTHING ELSE coming from? Again, I’ve no problem with this depiction, but it needed to be firmly established with some mechanics in order for me to accept such dire constraints. Far too much of this futurescape looks a bit too conveniently like today – except for the subterranean tunnels where the remnants of mankind subsist – so color me unimpressed.
Frankly, there’s far more that’s unexplained in here than should be accepted by any viewer. While I can set aside some of the expansive political discourse with Kapadia’s documentary focus – he’s rapidly anti-anything America or technological in nature, it would seem – I’d could still rather easily pick apart his little SciFi flick because it’s so incomplete. Somehow, this Big Brother establishment has its eyes on Ghost – a woman who does nothing more than pick through garbage – and there’s zero explanation as to why that would be the case. Eventually captured, she’s interrogated by a faceless voice – presumably an A.I., which Kapadia is also opposed to, mind you – and she chooses to not participate.
Well … not participating is likely what led to this world’s collapse in the first place, Einstein, so what good is that?
2073 (2024) was produced by Double Agent, Film4, HBO Theatrical Documentary, Lafcadia Productions, Neon, and Sheep Thief Films. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the good folks at Allied Vaugh. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found the provided sights and sounds to be exceptional from start to finish. As for the special features? Alas, there are none … not that I would likely have spent much time with them had there been any.
Hard To Recommend.
While I’ll admit that in many ways 2073 just wasn’t my cup of tea, I’ll concede that writer/director Kapadia probably achieves what he set out to accomplish here. He swings wildly at just about anything and everything he sees wrong in the world today, so much so that a reasonable person might conclude he hates the world at large. Nothing could be further from the truth as I suspect he only hates those who disagree with his politics: he’s currently fine with using all of these various platforms and technologies to spin his propaganda. It’s just everyone else’s propaganda that he apparently has a problem with. Alas, there’s very little story in here – that which I show up to evaluate – so this one is an enthusiastic thumbs down.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Allied Vaughn provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of 2073 (2024) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
From the film’s IMDB.com page:
“A woman living in a ruined Earth tries to comprehend how the world was destroyed.”
Here’s the thing about propaganda, folks: most of those people who engage in it don’t think what they have to say is propaganda. To the contrary, it’s only you who disagree with them who are the propagandists.
This is why – to a large degree – I limit my time on social media. Anyone who follows me can likely guess at what my political positions are – I certainly don’t hide them – but I do tend to disengage from followers and casual fans when they try to debate me. I’m really not interested in being called names or whipping anyone into a frenzied verbal throwdown when I don’t know them, don’t know their circumstances, don’t know what kind of life they’ve lived, and – hell – don’t even know if they’re not a bot. Far too many online presences appear to be fictitious, and life is far too short to spend arguing with some low rent version of Artificial Intelligence.
But since I don’t hide or prepackage what I think about, I do generally abhor those who do; and today my ire is kinda/sorta loosely turned on writer/director Asif Kapadia. His 2073 (2024) promised to be a look into an alleged Dystopian tomorrow by glancing back into our past; but instead, what the man delivers is little more than a SciFi/Short-Film bookended around a documentary indicting just about everything he sees wrong with the world today. Had I known he was only delivering publicity for his politics, then I would’ve passed on this … and, yet, here we are.
What there is of a fictional narrative in here is surprisingly quite good though still a bit flawed. A woman – she has no name and chooses not to speak but everyone refers to her as ‘Ghost’ (Samantha Morton) – eeks out her living in – ahem – apparently the only surviving city in the world (which somehow magically happens to be in California), digging through refuse for scraps and anything which might aid in survival. There is a functioning city out there – it’s kinda/sorta portrayed as existing in a skyscraper high above the clouds – and its populated by denizens who embrace and coordinate a continuing police state, one where regular folks are not allowed to have any thoughts of their own. In such stories, it’s inevitable that these two sides meet; and, again, her choice in that big showdown will likely surprise no one, nor seem all that interesting.
Kapadia creates this blighted tomorrow – as best as I can understand his political gibberish – by postulating that everything wrong globally – from climate change to nationalist policies to the demise of the Amazon rainforest – somehow magically and mystically combines and produces something called ‘the Event.’ The Event is a worldwide collapse. Cities fall. Governments crumble. Mother Nature throws a hissy. Everything and anything not battened down is laid to waste, but – also magically and mystically – one city survives … and, of course, it would have to be California. This laughably impossible catalyst is meant to be taken seriously, and therein lies the rub: how could both manmade activity completely unrelated to so many disparate systems metastasize into any single ‘event’ on any given day in history? That just isn’t how things work. Yes, it’s fiction, but it still has to be believable to make sense, and – sorry – this doesn’t.
What also is never explained is how 37 years after ‘The Event’ those of the ‘Haves’ still seemingly have anything whilst the ‘Have Nots’ are picking through their garbage. Where is the food coming from? Where is the water coming from? Where are the clothes, the cars, the uniforms, the police drones, or ANYTHING ELSE coming from? Again, I’ve no problem with this depiction, but it needed to be firmly established with some mechanics in order for me to accept such dire constraints. Far too much of this futurescape looks a bit too conveniently like today – except for the subterranean tunnels where the remnants of mankind subsist – so color me unimpressed.
Frankly, there’s far more that’s unexplained in here than should be accepted by any viewer. While I can set aside some of the expansive political discourse with Kapadia’s documentary focus – he’s rapidly anti-anything America or technological in nature, it would seem – I’d could still rather easily pick apart his little SciFi flick because it’s so incomplete. Somehow, this Big Brother establishment has its eyes on Ghost – a woman who does nothing more than pick through garbage – and there’s zero explanation as to why that would be the case. Eventually captured, she’s interrogated by a faceless voice – presumably an A.I., which Kapadia is also opposed to, mind you – and she chooses to not participate.
Well … not participating is likely what led to this world’s collapse in the first place, Einstein, so what good is that?
2073 (2024) was produced by Double Agent, Film4, HBO Theatrical Documentary, Lafcadia Productions, Neon, and Sheep Thief Films. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the good folks at Allied Vaugh. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found the provided sights and sounds to be exceptional from start to finish. As for the special features? Alas, there are none … not that I would likely have spent much time with them had there been any.
Hard To Recommend.
While I’ll admit that in many ways 2073 just wasn’t my cup of tea, I’ll concede that writer/director Kapadia probably achieves what he set out to accomplish here. He swings wildly at just about anything and everything he sees wrong in the world today, so much so that a reasonable person might conclude he hates the world at large. Nothing could be further from the truth as I suspect he only hates those who disagree with his politics: he’s currently fine with using all of these various platforms and technologies to spin his propaganda. It’s just everyone else’s propaganda that he apparently has a problem with. Alas, there’s very little story in here – that which I show up to evaluate – so this one is an enthusiastic thumbs down.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Allied Vaughn provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of 2073 (2024) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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