★★★★

Watched 20 Apr 2025

Review by Fernando Figueroa

Almost anyone can replace an actor (Redwell), if we accept that what matters in a story is the simulation of the character (Palmer), but this meta-theatricality is disturbing because “Re-dream” is not a gratuitous name and the entire cast, that is, the AI constructs within the film—let’s leave aside for the moment whether they are real or not—do not perceive that Brandy, the protagonist, is black or female. The narcissistic actress’s self is eclipsed when identity as collective perception collapses. David Hume would simply reply that Palmer is still alive because Brandy embodies him. Hume argued in Book 1, Part 4, section 6 of his 1739 “Treatise of Human Nature” that even though a ship has had all its planks and nails replaced over time, we still consider it “the same ship” because of gradual continuity; changes do not occur in a day. His example of the ship, perhaps with the paradox of Theseus in mind, extrapolates this to human beings, emphasizing that identity is a fictional construct caused by daily sensory perception that recreates an empirical fiction, a fiction of the imagination. 

This is where Brandy’s meta-cognition begins regarding her genuine artistic and unique contribution to a character (prosopoi = person) that she herself is playing in advance, as Ralph Redwll did before her, fictitiously representing a fictional story. Brandy will understand that identity—and not just in film or TV—is only consensual, trafficked as a currency by collective perception and therefore does not completely obey the hegemony of Hollywood or a gender and racial patriarchy. What Brandy was clamoring for in her work when she asked her agent for different roles—“Where’s my Brief Encounter?”—is equivalent to the unique and personalized feeling that someone who, beyond the common human denominator, seeks uniqueness and fictional distinction through a symbol or image on their back, arm, or chest is likely to seek when getting a tattoo. The babbling from the beginning is so childish, and as soon as she enters the set, she asks Kimmy: “So for them (the holograms or AI characters), Dr. Palmer is a black woman who just turned 40?” as if the actors opposite Daniel Craig thought they were in 1954 opposite Barry Nelson, the first TV 007 in Casino Royal, or opposite Sean Connery in Dr. No from 1962. Until the start of digital “filming,” ambiguity took hold of Brandy. Now the story moves into a second moment of tension and philosophical questioning; the human crisis impacts the AI consciousness of Clara’s hologram or digital construct. “Clara gaining agency,” taking the initiative, was part of the context of the story, resulting from Brandy’s stumble or mistake in calling her Dorothy in the middle of filming. 

The mishap of hearing her name “Dorothy,” even if she is only a digital character, will have consequences in the narrative horizon, which from then on undergoes small but significant changes that will alter the outcome of the classic film. It is a shame that the moment of the kiss that could have led to intimacy between Clara and Brandy is interrupted by the second attempt at murder with the scorpion. And then, coffee is spilled by the re-dream production team. My favorite but saddest part, the “Harry Truman Show” part, ensues, mainly because Brandy loses her temper when everything stops except Clara. She screams in desperation after being trapped in the paused film, and Clara doesn’t understand, but she does understand that something very serious has been discovered. The scene makes the viewer feel Clara’s unbearable emptiness, that she is not alive, she is nothing, and when she leaves the hotel, Ariel Marx’s relentless soundtrack with the track “The void” exacerbates the tense atmosphere in an unbearable way. This is very similar to what Harry may have experienced when he stepped off the stage of that daily lie he was participating in while being filmed live by Ed Harris’ character. They say that before we die, we see our entire life flash before our eyes in a couple of seconds, and that’s probably what Dorothy saw, even as she turned gray from her suicide. Will the truth set you free? Clara arrived, like Harry, where there is nothing left, but there is also no comfortable return. And yet, she goes back to the hotel to live that wonderful truth of the lie. She embraces Brandy, playing Moonlight Sonata distorted by Ariel Marx. Wang Haolu has created a masterpiece.

Tag: Dystopian film