lapsed
Directed by Noah Hutton
Met Dean Imperial, Madeleine Wise, Babe Howard
★★★★
lapsed It’s somehow the opposite of a blockbuster Disney movie free man, which is also being shown for the first time today. Disney wants to impress the viewer of a new world with an overwhelming visual spectacle, but it remains stuck in old thinking. lapsed It does not use any optical sight but it has succeeded in making you believe in its science fiction. Actor Dean Imperial even looks like a worn-out, realistic version of Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds, who plays Free Jay.
In the near future, the entire United States will be filled with quantum servers from the tech giant CABLR: futuristic cubes that are never quite clear what they are doing. At least something futuristic. Despite this promise of revolutionary technology, they still need to be connected with cables. Cables being laid across the country by flexible workers with one-hour contract. One of the freelancers is Ray Micelli, who quit his job as a package delivery guy to earn lots of money as a cable operator. All this to pay for his younger brother’s medicine.
Ken Loach
Lapsis uses a science fiction proposal – quantum computers – to plot a satire of exploitation in the temporary job economy. Ken Loach did it in 2019 with some drama in Sorry we missed you About the humiliating conditions in which the senders of parcels have to achieve their “goals”.
Lapsis takes it on a larger scale and shows just how sick a community is, with hardly any permanent contracts being forgiven. Exactly the world we live in, without quantum computers. With the promise of “Freedom!” and “Be the boss of yourself!” Ray tends to start pulling the cables. Only later did he see how CABLR uses bots to do the same work: If the bot does the work faster, Ray loses income.
There’s more to it, but like the black boxes that quantum computers really represent, not every detail matters. What matters is the exploitation of disadvantaged workers, which is packaged as freedom and progress. The film is full of factual details about the working conditions. From constant monitoring of workers and feedback to “improve our service,” which is essentially a stick to getting people in line, to mobile devices warning that it’s not time to take a break yet “because you haven’t earned it yet.” It’s crazy.
Energy lapsed In its elegance: sharp satire but told in minimal means. Once the movie starts to feel like a traditional plot in the second half, with workers rebelling against the system, the movie loses some of its momentum. What gets stuck is the realization that we live in a broken system.
