Nightmare Code: It’s Worse than Windows Vista

What do you get when you combine Big Brother with the Singularity? A nasty collection of code called ROPER. At least, the program is hopelessly buggy, or is it? The more he understands the surveillance and behavioral prediction program, the more uncomfortable Brett Desmond gets. One way or another, he has some hardcore coding ahead of him in Mark Netter’s Nightmare Code (trailer here), which releases today on DVD.

Normally, Desmond would not take a gig that wasn’t certifiably cool, but he is caught between a rock and a hard place. On his last government job, he had tried to pull a Snowden, but he was caught and prosecuted. So far, the court rulings have not gone his way, but his new employers promise to make everything go away if he can get their roll out back on track. Unfortunately, they were thrown considerably off schedule by the recent “incident.” That is how they refer to the shooting spree and suicide of Foster Cotton, the lead software developer.

In contradiction of all the team’s expectations, ROPER seems to be acting deliberately perverse. Bugs that were presumed fixed several iterations ago start reappearing. Perhaps most ominously, the program’s video analysis starts playing back violent events that never happened. Looking for possible insights, Desmond starts watching Cotton’s journal entries, but what he sees only prompts more questions, as well as the outlandish suspicion Cotton may have transferred his consciousness into ROPER.

As Desmond, The Walking Dead’s Andrew J. West certainly looks like someone who has spent a great deal of time writing code. Mei Melançon (Psylocke in X-Men: the Last Stand) is refreshingly smart and down-to-earth as Desmond’s co-worker and object of adulterous temptation, Nora Huntsman. Alex Cho also perfectly nails the persona and attitudes of stock-optioned Silicon Valley yuppies, but the rest of the tech firm personnel are just standard issue geeks or villains.

What Nightmare Code lacks in logic it makes up in paranoia. “You do not find the bug in the code, the code finds the bug in you,” sounds like a Yakov Smirnov joke, but it is pretty close to where we are now. Sadly, in commercial terms, it probably comes too late. With the only presidential candidate committed to curtailing domestic snooping, Rand Paul, mired at the bottom of the pack, it is pretty clear the professional activist class no longer cares about privacy. Maybe Code will remind a few viewers of their forgotten principles, because the implications of ROPER are pretty terrifying.

On the other hand, Code is about as technically sound as Electric Dreams from the mid-1980s. Seriously, usually one outbreak of mass murder is sufficient to delay a product launch. When the freaky mishaps keep on coming, you have to wonder why anyone still works for this company. On the other hand, Netter’s visual style, especially his use of split screens, nicely reflects Desmond’s increasingly disoriented and distrustful state of mind.

Essentially, Netter takes a shot at turning the NSA’s PRISM system into a horror movie bogeyman. The results are mixed, but provocative. Recommended for lapsed civil libertarians in need of a cerebral scare, Nightmare Code releases today (10/27) on DVD.

Kino! ’15: Who Am I—No System in Safe

Considering the shadowy cyber-activist outfit known as FR13NDS decks out their avatars with masks clearly inspired by the terrorist protagonist of V for Vendetta, it is probably safe to assume the sanctity of life is not a big priority for them. However, a hero-worshipping hacker will be rather disappointed to learn they are in league with the Russian mob. Unfortunately, this revelation comes after he ever so ill-advisedly passes along some highly secretive intel. Cyber monkey-wrenching inevitably turns into cyber-terror in Baran bo Odar’s Who Am I—No System is Safe (trailer here), which screens as part of Kino! 2015, the festival of German Films in New York City.

Life has not worked out so well for Benjamin, at least so far. Yet, it always makes more sense when he is in front of a computer screen. Since he bought into the propaganda disseminated by FR13NDS, Benjamin has become one of the sycophants hanging on the pronouncements of the group’s shadowy leader, Mr. X, in super-secret online forums. He is not the only one. A chance meeting during court mandated community service with the mercurial Max will bring the two kindred spirits together. Together with Max’s old co-conspirators, they form CLAY (“Clowns Laughing At You”) in hopes of impressing Mr. X with their socially conscious prankersterism.

Much to the temperamental Max’s frustration, Mr. X remains dismissive of CLAY. Yearning for online approval, they swing for the fences, launching a major online and physical breach of the Federal intelligence service. Regrettably, when Benjamin gives Mr. X a batch of unvetted classified files as proof-of-hack, it leads to the gangland-style execution of government informants. Wanted for murder, CLAY will have to take down Mr. X to clear their names.

It might be awkwardly titled (“No system is safe” being one of Mr. X’s maxims), but WAI—NSIS is a massively slick thriller that offers a pointed critique of Vendetta and Hacktivist culture in general, while also slyly riffing on Fight Club. Odar’s inventive representations of cyberspace (in a dodgy looking subway car) are quite stylish and cinematic. He also stages some impressive breaking-and-entering scenes and seamlessly executes the third act mind-twister. Based on WAI—NSIS and his previous film, The Silence, it should not be long before Odar is recruited for a major American studio thriller gig.

The cast might have to wait longer for a call from Hollywood, but they are all reasonably solid. Tom Schilling (Generation War and A Coffee in Berlin) is suitably earnest and nebbish as Benjamin. Elyas M’Barek also vents some convincing spleen as the petulant Max, while Wotan Wilke Möhring and Antoine Monot Jr. add seasoning as their unlikely looking accomplices. On the other hand, it is difficult to fathom Hannah Herzsprung’s appeal as Marie, the charmless object of Benjamin’s affections.

Frankly, it is almost a miracle the production company behind WAI—NSIS has not been hacked back to the Stone Age by hacker-activists taking umbrage with the film’s relatively favorable depiction of law enforcement and decidedly critical portrayal of their online skulduggery. Arguably, it is one of the bravest films you will see all year. Highly recommended, Who Am I—No System is Safe screens this coming Monday (4/13) and Wednesday (4/15) at the Cinema Village, as part of this year’s Kino! in New York.

Hacker’s Game: Young Cyber Activists in Love

The internet is not forever, as a recent New Yorker piece on digital archiving makes abundantly clear. Yes, there is always the nefarious deleting, like the Russian-backed paramilitary commander, who tried to memory hole a tweet bragging about shooting down what turned out to be Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Yet, more often than not, it is a question of hosts going out of business and links becoming corrupted. BL Reputation Management can hasten the process with a little scrubbing and a bit of astro-turfing here and there. Their latest recruit is particularly skillful at navigating the twilight regions of the web, but one of the parties might be getting more than they bargained for in Cyril Morin’s Hacker’s Game (trailer here), which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.

Soyan did not hack into BL’s system cleanly enough to escape discovery, but his work was sufficiently skillful to convince the company to offer him a job in lieu of prosecution. Company chairman Russel Belial and his right hand femme fatale, Lena Leibovitz, will keep the hacker on a short leash, but it is not like he had much of a personal life anyway. The one promising development is his ambiguous friendship (and possibly romance), with fellow hacker Loise. They met on a rooftop catching open wifi signals. She has skills too, which she utilizes on behalf of human rights NGOs, but frankly she prefers ink-and-paper over digital alternatives. Yet, the somewhat immature Soyan manages to woo her (to an extent) with a virtual chess game.

There is a ton of backstory in Game, including the reported exploits of Angela King, a mysterious cyber activist who sounds like a cross between Edward Snowden and Neo in the Matrix trilogy. Somehow Soyan, Loise, and BL are all somehow involved in the wider intrigue, but Morin takes forever to close the loop—even though we can largely guess the broad strokes from the get-go. It just seems like an awful lot of the film consists of Loise and Soyan sitting next to each other, wearing VR visors, thereby preventing any real intimate chemistry from developing.

There are a few intriguing elements sprinkled throughout, including the highly ambiguous portrayal of Loise’s former do-gooder employer. Cinematographer Romain Wilhelm fittingly evokes the dark, murky look of the classic 1970s conspiracy thrillers. Strangely though, Morin’s screenplay never really taps into the current zeitgeist, mostly just feeling like another warmed over serving of anti-corporate paranoia.

Be that as it may, there is something strangely compelling about Pom Klementieff’s Loise. Even her halting delivery of the English dialogue seems to work in context. On the other hand, she and Chris Schellenger (with his anemic mustache and goat patch beard) never look like a believable couple. Prop specialist-turned character actor King Orba has some nice moments as Belial, the villain who maybe sort of believes his own rhetoric. However, the rest of the supporting ensemble gets to be quite a source of adventure, producing some awkward line readings and plenty of general dramatic clunkiness.

Arguably, Hacker’s Game would have been more interesting if it depicted BL in more ambiguous terms. In all honesty, it is not hard to think of circumstances for relatively decent customers to seek out there services, like the CEO who married a long retired porn star mentioned early in the film. A little over a century ago, people could restart their lives by moving to the frontier, but that is no longer an option in the digital age. Regardless, Klementieff is probably due to breakout internationally, but this just isn’t the film to do it. Despite some style points, it is just too slowly paced and too logically-challenged. For the hardcore net neutrality fanatics, it opens tomorrow (3/6) in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinema.

Slamdance ’15: Ratter

Surely, even the most tenacious cyber-stalker has to go to work or buy groceries sometime. Somehow, the predator tapping into Emma’s life always seems to be watching. That monomaniacal focus makes it is even more unsettling to watch her through his eyes throughout Branden Kramer’s Ratter, which screens during the 2015 Slamdance Film Festival.

Obviously, we cannot see the man who has maliciously hacked Emma’s computer and assorted internet accessing devices, but he did quite a job on her. Through their web-cameras, he (and we) see just about all of her presumptively private moments. She moved to New York following a rough patch back home, but in retrospect, that seems to be a mistake. When she finally realizes she has been hacked, she immediately suspects her still bitter ex, but he seems an unlikely culprit from our perspective. Unfortunately, the cyber harassment dangerously escalates when the unknown perpetrator starts sabotaging her relationships.

Ratter is the sort of film that will scare viewers into moving a good portion of their lives off-line. Like Bobby Boermans’ more conventionally thrillerish App, it makes retro flip phones look like an idea whose time has come again (they make and receive calls, period). Kramer takes some time to set the scene and flesh out Emma’s backstory, but he steadily builds the claustrophobic tension until you want to scream at her: “get out of the apartment.”

Given its online video look and the menacing vibe, Ratter feels somewhat akin to the original V/H/S anthology film. The most notable dissimilarity—and it’s a significant one—is Ratter’s lack of fun.

In a way, Ashley Benson (of Spring Breakers and Pretty Little Liars) is too realistic as Emma. We see her make dozens of mistakes and in just about every unflattering moment imaginable, yet she always seems like a generally decent, somewhat naïve kid. She also develops some surprisingly down-to-earth flirtatious chemistry with her prospective new boyfriend Michael, also nicely played by Matt McGorry. They certainly do not deserve what befalls them.

Kramer exercises commanding control of the film’s twisted mood and psychopathic concentration, while Benson withstands the relentlessly intimate focus remarkably well. However, even mildly sensitive viewers might be disturbed at where it ends up. Recommended for luddites looking for a bitterly black thriller, Ratter screens again this Wednesday (1/28) at Treasure Mountain Inn, as part of this year’s Slamdance.

App: This is Why Flip Phones are Coming Back

If you work for Sony, you probably don’t need a Dutch genre filmmaker to tell you how scary the internet can be just now. However, if you are a selfie taking, social network junkie who can hardly put down their smart phones, perhaps you could use another cautionary tale. Arriving at a zeitgeisty moment, while Sony and JLaw are still reeling from their respective hackings, a college student will indeed struggle with digital technology at it most pernicious in Bobby Boermans’ App (trailer here) which launches today on DVD from RAM Releasing.

Initially, technology is not all bad for Anna Rijnders. After all, an experimental implant is keeping her extreme sports dunderhead of a brother alive (hello, foreshadowing). Then the morning after a party at her ex-boyfriend’s Rijnders wakes up with a hangover and a nasty piece of scumware installed on her phone. It is called IRIS and it has an attitude. While it feeds her a few answers during philosophy class, it also has a wicked sense of initiative. For instance, recording and posting naked videos is one of its favorite tricks. It also makes calls at inopportune moments. As we can tell from the prelude, it has already driven victims to suicide.

Just buy a new phone, right? Rijnders tries that. It only makes IRIS angry. Frankly, much of the app’s reign of terror defies logical explanations, but at least it convincingly shores up Rijnders’ actions and motivations. It is sort of like the old cult favorite Electric Dreams, depicting the technology of the day running impossibly amok, but if you buy into it, the films chug along pretty smoothly.

In the case of App, Boermans and screenwriter Robert Arthur Jansen tap into a real and growing paranoia over handheld gadgets and accidental over-shares. Much has been made of its “second screen” component, allowing viewers to simultaneously see supplemental scenes and stills via the real life IRIS app.  Fortunately, the film holds up just fine on one screen, because voluntarily downloading IRIS just seems like bad karma.

Without question, App benefits from its lead performance. Hannah Hoekstra (recently seen in the pretty good Irish horror film The Canal) is no stupid teenager or mindless scream queen. She has a smart, dynamic presence that never taxes the audience’s patience. Obviously, she is not making movies because she is plain, but she feels relatively real and down-to-earth as Rijnders. While she interacts with dozens of supporting cast members, Hoekstra is the only one getting appreciable character development time, but she carries the film rather well.

When was the last time digital and wireless technology were a force for good in a film? Maybe You’ve Got Mail? While there seems to be something problematic about that, this is probably not the right time to argue the point, given the recent cyber-terror attacks. As a result, this should be App’s time to shine. In fact, it is a good film to catch up with on DVD. It is occasionally preposterous, but always solidly entertaining. Recommended for international thriller fans, App is now available for one and two screen home viewing, from Film Movement’s RAM Releasing.