Stab me with money
As a producer with a number of shorts and a few documentaries under his belt, Princeton Holt has directed a couple of feature length films. This full-length film, 2050, is a bold look at a frigid future when human beings find love and satisfaction in the arms and company of E-mates, or “Evening Mates,” designed by a company called Butterfly Chasers. The inspiration for the corporation comes from the feeling you get when you first fall in love. E-mates are designed to rouse that transitory state for an extended time. But the film’s writer, Brian Ackley suggests relationships are flawed, people have faults and shortcomings, and the magic of human interconnection is in embracing those things. Growth can only happen from a place short of perfection. If you begin with perfection, there is nothing to aspire to. Emotion will turn dull, and passion will turn to monotony. Ackley stops short of defining human relationships with artificially intelligent sexual beings as a step toward universal psychopathy, but the hints are there. If the human spirit is nurtured artificially, it will fizzle. 2050 delivers this message, and caps it with the earnest truth that chasing butterflies is futile. As an addict will take more of what they need to get high, they eventually reach a peak. From there you can add a step ladder to the top, but you must eventually descend. You come down one way or another.
“By 2050, people will not only be having sex with robots, they will be falling in love with them.”
—David Levy
2050 sets the tone immediately by drawing boundaries on sexual morality for the characters. Ackley makes Luddism synonymous with prudishness and equates those who embrace cutting edge technology with depravity. That is until a somewhat miscast Devin Fuller, who plays Drew, realizes he wants to reconnect with his ex instead of continuing to look for affection through his E-mate, Quin, played by Stormi Maya. He begins his transition into becoming a renaissance man by reading, detoxing, and working out; as if becoming cultured, healthy, and well-rounded can happen overnight. He eventually realizes that becoming a “perfect man” is impossible. Thankfully, a wonderful character in Alli, played by Hope Blackstock, and Drew’s brother-in-law, Michael, played by David Vaughn, are there to remind Drew and the viewer that being who you are is a lifestyle. You can’t flip a switch to change your programming.
It seems as though Drew is the lead character until you learn more from his sister’s husband. Michael Green’s journey through 2050 is more important than Drew’s. Drew plays off an unlikely dude-bro best friend, David, played by Chris Riquinha. The two appear to be an unintentional comedy duo. The chemistry is lost between the actors, but Riquinha hits his own character with perfect bullseyes in every scene until he has to interact with Michael’s wife, Brooke Greene, played by Irina Abraham. In their single shared scene, we’re unconvincingly led through exposition meant only to give us the information that Brooke has had an affair. It would have been perfectly fine for that information to come out in an argument with her husband after he reveals he’s had an affair of his own. He doesn’t consider it cheating on his wife, though, because Sophia, played by Stefanie Bloom, is a customized E-mate, not a person. She’ll be referred to “however you like.” Michael chooses “Being,” to dehumanize the all too human companion.
Irina Abraham’s accent is cleared up in throw-away dialogue early on as Drew explains to Quin she “talks different” because she was adopted. The fortuitous side-effect from this interaction, after Quin meets her master’s sister for the first time, is that the E-mates are not just inquisitive for the benefit of their owners responsible for their personality design, but that they are punctilious creatures, recording every moment like the machines they are.
The warehouse inventory of E-mate prototype parts paint a picture of the sexual theme for 2050, but the constant visual reminder of delivery drones being ubiquitous in every sky gets distracting. Being reminded you are in a not-so-distant future during the story comes more naturally through the interactions between the human characters and their E-mate companions.
Early in the film, we see mannequin and sex-bot bodies with exaggerated genitalia that point us to a cultural future when libido is quenched through artificial means. The environment was established well without it being necessary to add peripheral interruptions.
Blocking suffered somewhat throughout the film for the benefit of artfully designed story-boarding. Several scenes were agonizingly static when some performances, particularly those of Hope Blackstock and Dean Cain, would have been more effective with camera movement. Alli was my favorite character. She deserves to have the camera mimic her energy. Cain’s character was more important than initially presented, but the idea was telegraphed as he was introduced as an inconsequential bartender/clerk at the Butterfly Chasers’ storefront. His execution played well, but he was underutilized. Both versions of his character were sacrificed to be no more than catalysts for Michael Green to move through his own development. David Vaughn carried the story along with a brilliant performance by Irina Abraham’s Brooke Greene. Their superb chemistry on screen was ironic considering they were supposed to be drifting apart emotionally and sexually.
Reminiscent of films like Her and Ex Machina, 2050 brings us to a setting before Blade Runner when skin jobs are just being introduced to the world. The music is charming and playful. At times, particularly the walk through the warehouse, the editing is inefficient making some scenes unnecessarily protracted. The concept is fairly simple, however intense; but the ending feels out of place, like it turned into an episode of The Twilight Zone from one of the reboot series.
Overall, 2050 is worth seeing for the value of the conversations it inspires. Like an intellectual dildo, 2050 will leave you satisfied, but yearning for something more.
2050 is available via On Demand and DVD January 14th from Uncork’d Entertainment.
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Stab me with money
