(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary 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 citation:
“Enabled by a mysterious futuristic machine, Max, a young woman, dives inside the mind of her dying girlfriend, trying to find the essential memory that could save her life, all the while being hunted by a man they presumed to be dead.”
Often times, independent filmmakers will seize upon the Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror constructs in which to tell that a story that – frankly – isn’t all that SciFi, Fantasy, or Horror related.
As a longtime admitted fan of the indie film, I don’t offer that observation as a complaint at all. The truth is storytelling can be about as complex a process as one wishes to make it; and each of us has come across a good, smaller, quieter, and gentler film that’s ‘colored outside the lines’ in order to make some elements of the central tale remotely possible. In using these narrative mechanisms or tropes, the storyteller swings open the doors of what’s plausible in this new universe … but that doesn’t mean the end result is going to be embraced any more strongly than it would without the deployment of the central gimmick.
For what it’s worth, that’s my initial two cents regarding Psychonaut (2024), an indie flick that’s chiefly billed as a SciFi/Thriller. While I’ll easily concede the story is packed with a lot of thrills (some of which don’t exactly make perfect sense), writer and director Thijs Meuwese truly only uses a kinda/sorta cosmic MacGuffin in order to put one or two of his characters literally inside the mind of one another – let’s call it a Consciousness Swap Machine – for the purpose of exploring what’s basically a dark-themed melodrama about family (and extended family) in a world wherein memories can be visually relived in order to resolve trauma.
While I’d rather not spend a great deal of time dissecting the premise – take it with a grain of salt and it all works just fine – I will say that, initially, the tale Meuwese spins here revolves around Max (played by Julia Batelaan), a troubled young woman who can’t quite seem to make any of her relationships work healthily. She’s torn between her love for her same sex partner Dylan (Yasmin Blake) and an overbearing mother/scientist Samantha (Fiona Dourif), and the three all share this journey into what we’re led to believe is Dylan’s subconscious (when she’s injured in the opening). Thankfully, mom’s a genius who just happens to keep this cutting-edge technology at home in her suburban mansion; so this allows science to share the screen time with some equally intimate moments of girls behaving badly … or, at least, poorly … at times.
Now, had the director and his cast and crew actually committed a bit more to the science aspect here, then Psychonaut could’ve had the potential to be a bit more than the Lesbian melodrama it turns out to be; but that would make it a vastly different film. My issue with what remains in here is that because the mechanics of this mind-hopping tech remains a bit vague, I think the entire story fails to resonate as strongly since we’re warned by Samantha that some of the visions could be unreliable. Her point is that these are memories; and, as such, they could be imperfect as they can be shaped by both the pain experienced in the moment as well as lingering after-effects as time goes by. “The wound is real,” she cautions, and encourages her daughter to focus on that. But as the perspective kinda/sorta keeps shifting – even up to the point wherein the participants aren’t even certain whose memories are taking center stage – it all devolves into some scripted ‘race against time’ though I’ve no idea who, why, or what they’re specifically fleeing. It all feels a bit unreliable to me, so perhaps I’m not the target demographic here.
Regardless, kudos to Meuwese for packing these scenes with some of the most imaginative frame composition I’ve seen in some time. There are dissolves and visual exchanges that, astonishingly, I’m at a loss to understand how they were staged. The inventiveness is truly dialed up to eleven here; and perhaps if that same level of focus had been applied to the drama bits and pieces, I might’ve felt more strongly about these ladies (and the one nefarious dude who just won’t die) caught up in the high-tech nightmare. The human element occasionally reared its head, but it was never as strong as was the presentation.
Psychonaut (2024) was produced by The Dutch Angle Project, Falcon Grove Productions, Branded Cinema, and Get Off The Road. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Glass House Distribution. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I can still assure readers that the provided sights and sounds are quite good throughout: there’s an undercurrent of playfulness at many times with the cinematography, but don’t let that intimidate you whatsoever. It’s all quite good. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? The disc presents the feature both in color and in black-and-white along with a commentary track and a behind-the-scenes bit regarding a festival presentation. It’s a good assortment.
Alas … only Mildly Recommended.
At times, Psychonaut feels like an experimental film, something that was thrown together on-the-fly without as much time and preparation paid to the central dramatic story. While that might work fine for some, I felt constantly distracted from the weaknesses of the plot by some sterling camerawork. Without a bit more definitive context, parts of Psychonaut felt like a tale being told by an unreliable narrator – something I personally loathe – so I wasn’t as drawn in as I wanted to be into the private lives of Max, Samantha, and Dylan. Still, kudos for trying to do something different and missing the mark a bit because the film is about as visually arresting as I think was humanly possible.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Branded Cinema (via Allien Vaughn) provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Psychonaut (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 citation:
“Enabled by a mysterious futuristic machine, Max, a young woman, dives inside the mind of her dying girlfriend, trying to find the essential memory that could save her life, all the while being hunted by a man they presumed to be dead.”
Often times, independent filmmakers will seize upon the Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror constructs in which to tell that a story that – frankly – isn’t all that SciFi, Fantasy, or Horror related.
As a longtime admitted fan of the indie film, I don’t offer that observation as a complaint at all. The truth is storytelling can be about as complex a process as one wishes to make it; and each of us has come across a good, smaller, quieter, and gentler film that’s ‘colored outside the lines’ in order to make some elements of the central tale remotely possible. In using these narrative mechanisms or tropes, the storyteller swings open the doors of what’s plausible in this new universe … but that doesn’t mean the end result is going to be embraced any more strongly than it would without the deployment of the central gimmick.
For what it’s worth, that’s my initial two cents regarding Psychonaut (2024), an indie flick that’s chiefly billed as a SciFi/Thriller. While I’ll easily concede the story is packed with a lot of thrills (some of which don’t exactly make perfect sense), writer and director Thijs Meuwese truly only uses a kinda/sorta cosmic MacGuffin in order to put one or two of his characters literally inside the mind of one another – let’s call it a Consciousness Swap Machine – for the purpose of exploring what’s basically a dark-themed melodrama about family (and extended family) in a world wherein memories can be visually relived in order to resolve trauma.
While I’d rather not spend a great deal of time dissecting the premise – take it with a grain of salt and it all works just fine – I will say that, initially, the tale Meuwese spins here revolves around Max (played by Julia Batelaan), a troubled young woman who can’t quite seem to make any of her relationships work healthily. She’s torn between her love for her same sex partner Dylan (Yasmin Blake) and an overbearing mother/scientist Samantha (Fiona Dourif), and the three all share this journey into what we’re led to believe is Dylan’s subconscious (when she’s injured in the opening). Thankfully, mom’s a genius who just happens to keep this cutting-edge technology at home in her suburban mansion; so this allows science to share the screen time with some equally intimate moments of girls behaving badly … or, at least, poorly … at times.
Now, had the director and his cast and crew actually committed a bit more to the science aspect here, then Psychonaut could’ve had the potential to be a bit more than the Lesbian melodrama it turns out to be; but that would make it a vastly different film. My issue with what remains in here is that because the mechanics of this mind-hopping tech remains a bit vague, I think the entire story fails to resonate as strongly since we’re warned by Samantha that some of the visions could be unreliable. Her point is that these are memories; and, as such, they could be imperfect as they can be shaped by both the pain experienced in the moment as well as lingering after-effects as time goes by. “The wound is real,” she cautions, and encourages her daughter to focus on that. But as the perspective kinda/sorta keeps shifting – even up to the point wherein the participants aren’t even certain whose memories are taking center stage – it all devolves into some scripted ‘race against time’ though I’ve no idea who, why, or what they’re specifically fleeing. It all feels a bit unreliable to me, so perhaps I’m not the target demographic here.
Regardless, kudos to Meuwese for packing these scenes with some of the most imaginative frame composition I’ve seen in some time. There are dissolves and visual exchanges that, astonishingly, I’m at a loss to understand how they were staged. The inventiveness is truly dialed up to eleven here; and perhaps if that same level of focus had been applied to the drama bits and pieces, I might’ve felt more strongly about these ladies (and the one nefarious dude who just won’t die) caught up in the high-tech nightmare. The human element occasionally reared its head, but it was never as strong as was the presentation.
Psychonaut (2024) was produced by The Dutch Angle Project, Falcon Grove Productions, Branded Cinema, and Get Off The Road. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Glass House Distribution. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I can still assure readers that the provided sights and sounds are quite good throughout: there’s an undercurrent of playfulness at many times with the cinematography, but don’t let that intimidate you whatsoever. It’s all quite good. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? The disc presents the feature both in color and in black-and-white along with a commentary track and a behind-the-scenes bit regarding a festival presentation. It’s a good assortment.
Alas … only Mildly Recommended.
At times, Psychonaut feels like an experimental film, something that was thrown together on-the-fly without as much time and preparation paid to the central dramatic story. While that might work fine for some, I felt constantly distracted from the weaknesses of the plot by some sterling camerawork. Without a bit more definitive context, parts of Psychonaut felt like a tale being told by an unreliable narrator – something I personally loathe – so I wasn’t as drawn in as I wanted to be into the private lives of Max, Samantha, and Dylan. Still, kudos for trying to do something different and missing the mark a bit because the film is about as visually arresting as I think was humanly possible.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Branded Cinema (via Allien Vaughn) provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Psychonaut (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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