Drake Doremus
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Connections, in both directions
Director Drake Doremus ("Like Crazy," Breathe In"), whose story was written by Nathan Parker ("Moon"), revisits ideas well known from films like George Lucas‘s "THX 1138" and the recent YA adaptation "The Giver" without adding anything new.
You’ve seen this brand of sterile, monochrome fascist compound before, in movies such as George Lucas’ “THX 1138” and Michael Bay’s “The Island,” which at least had the wisdom to spike the formula with motorbike chases, dead bodies and regular surges of adrenaline.
The characters all live in clinical white environments that recall the George Lucas pre-Star Wars effort THX 1138 (1971); they dress and look like catwalk models.
"Equals" is what I call "jumpsuit science fiction," not because everyone in it wears a jumpsuit (they wear white suits with jackets and trousers here) but because the movie worships the sort of 1970s future-vision showcased in films like " THX 1138 ," " Logan's Run " and " Star Trek: The Motion Picture ."
In everything from B-movie fodder like Logan’s Run to artsy fare like Gattaca (which this strongly resembles), filmmakers lavish art-department resources on wholly invented worlds—the better for initially docile antiheroes to rebel against.
The futuristic dystopia of the arty sci-fi romance Equals will be familiar to anyone who's seen the likes of Gattaca, The Island, or THX 1138.
It’s a bleak blue world reminiscent of Gattaca, where the chic sheep invest all their desires in the possibilities of space travel, and people are reduced to glass cases of emotion ready to shatter at a moment’s notice—in the form of plummeting to their own death.
While Andrew Niccol’s latter-day imagined futures in Gattaca and In Time are specifically attuned to contemporary anxieties about social control and exclusion, Equals merely reworks scenarios that arose out of specific 20th-century political anxieties.
Such pining gazes are a staple of film romances — and, though dressed in packaging purposefully reminiscent of the sparse, futuristic sci-fi ilk of THX 1138 and Gattaca, which also trifled with matters of the heart, Equals is a romance through and through.
Actually, the comparison “Equals” more immediately conjures is with Andrew Niccol’s “Gattaca,” that sleekly styled Ethan Hawke starrer in which members of a carefully monitored workforce contend with their own genetic limitations (certainly, the turnstile scanners, medical checks and killer cheekbones all check out).
Long since liberated from the shackles of the “Twilight” series, if not the condescension of much of the mainstream moviegoing audience, she aces the tricky feat of seeming utterly plausible in a thoroughly implausible context, bringing a welcome infusion of heat and unpredictability to the proceedings.
It also unintentionally resembles fan-fiction: With the former Twilight star self-consciously attempting to avoid making eyes at initially rule-following X-Men refugee Hoult, the movie becomes a sort of Bella And The Beast.
(A side note: Twilight fans will be happy to briefly observe Kristen Stewart—one of our finest young actresses—borrow mannerisms from her sex-starved days spent with a vampire.)
But this film is mostly a celebration of its two young, attractive stars, who’ve both swam in these forbidden love waters before, with Stewart’s fangbanger in Twilight and Hoult’s lusty zombie in Warm Bodies, and whose delicate features imbue the film with heightened sensuality.
Living in this society (dubbed The Collective) where sexual contact is forbidden are Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart (full marks here to Doremus for attempting to snag the Twilight teen audience).
It’s the Battle of the Franchise Superstars when X-Men’s Nicholas Hoult and Twilight’s Kristen Stewart — both stretching to play physically perfect specimens — take turns commandeering soft-edged closeups in this dystopian dud.
Think Alphaville and Gattaca.
Or better yet, “Sleeper,” in which Woody Allen summed up “Equals” in a single line when asked what he believes in: “Sex and death, two things that come once in a lifetime, but at least after death you’re not nauseous.”
Doremus draws heavily from Romeo & Juliet-style plot twists, but visually he pulls from the glass labyrinths of Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (2015) and the near-future world of Spike Jonze’s Her (2013).
On the bright side, however, the fashion’s not bad (much classier than those high-waisted trousers the future folk wear in Spike Jonze’s “Her”) and the architecture is downright fantastic, so there’s plenty to satisfy the peepers, even above and beyond this conceptual romance’s already easy-on-the-eyes (and even easier-to-market) co-stars.
Certainly not the Although great sci-fi from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" to "Her" comments on its times, "Equals" seems apart from them.
Its story is thin, and what little of it there is steals from a million different places (“1984,” “The Giver,” “Her,” “Romeo and Juliet”—you name it).
You’ve seen this brand of sterile, monochrome fascist compound before, in movies such as George Lucas’ “THX 1138” and Michael Bay’s “The Island,” which at least had the wisdom to spike the formula with motorbike chases, dead bodies and regular surges of adrenaline.
The futuristic dystopia of the arty sci-fi romance Equals will be familiar to anyone who's seen the likes of Gattaca, The Island, or THX 1138.
As Doremus (who wrote the story for Nathan Parker’s screenplay) introduces further layers, we become aware of certain cracks in the cosmos that thematically fall somewhere between The Island and The Matrix.
Rather like being trapped on the set of "The Island" with a pair of obnoxiously lovesick naifs and only the "Equilibrium" script to distract you, its few saving graces are some decent shot-making, a rather great score and the loveliness of its lead actors' faces.
After discovering and acknowledging their mutual affection for one another, Silas and Nia sneak around like two lovestruck teenagers, and director Drake Doremus (whose 2011 film “Like Crazy” was much better at dealing with issues of desire and its consequences) shoots their silhouetted love scenes like outtakes from Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis’ tryst from “Top Gun.”
The production, shot on location in New York's Duchess County, is meticulously realized and while aspects of the story recall other works (the aforementioned 'Walking Dead,' "Signs," "Breathe In" to name a few), it is entirely its own thing.
Their romance, sadly, is nowhere as nuanced as the forbidden affair in another similarly-themed sci-fi film Equals (2015).
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Directed by Michel Gondry
influenced Equals (2015)
Themes
Starring Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart as the star-crossed lovers, “Equals” is a riff on “Romeo & Juliet” by way of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” wastes DeHaan, it wastes Felicity Jones (“Like Crazy”) in a tiny role that promises to expand in later chapters, it wastes a way-cool secret laboratory in an abandoned subway station.
At times, the film reminded me of Mark Romanek’s terrific “Never Let Me Go.”
While Andrew Niccol’s latter-day imagined futures in Gattaca and In Time are specifically attuned to contemporary anxieties about social control and exclusion, Equals merely reworks scenarios that arose out of specific 20th-century political anxieties.
Written by Nathan Parker, whose script for “Moon” made an intriguing if ultimately problematic debut for director Duncan Jones, it’s a detour into the overly familiar territory staked out by Alec Niccol in films like “Gattaca” and “In Time,” and Doremus treats the threadbare story with a turgid solemnity that does neither the script’s pedestrian ideas nor its attractive stars any favors.
Almost everything else in the screenplay by Nathan Parker (who wrote “Moon,” Duncan Jones’ more successful exercise in minimalist sci-fi) is conveyed in terms that fall between the bluntly explicative and the ponderously symbolic.
Directed by Drake Doremus (“Like Crazy,” “Breathe In”) from a screenplay by Nathan Parker (“Moon”), the movie, shot mostly in Japan, is a paper-thin allegory set in a postapocalyptic time after war has decimated the world’s population.
Directed by the talented Drake Doremus (Like Crazy, Breathe In) from a script by Nathan Parker (Moon), the film isn't defined by its drab, hopeless trappings.
And the world they inhabit, thanks to tight scripting by Nathan Parker—who wrote the vastly underrated sci-fi film Moon—the lensing, with shifts from blue to warmer colors as their relationship heats up, and the architectural scenery employed, from Singapore’s Marina Barrage to its Henderson Waves bridge, gives the film a believably futuristic look.
The original story, according to the credits, is the director’s, but scriptwriter Nathan Parker isn’t able to muster any of the teasing complexities of his Moon script.
Scripted by Nathan Parker, who previously penned Duncan Jones’ excellent cloning tale Moon , this “what if?” conundrum is all too familiar.
If so, then there is a very good chance that you might get something out of "Monday," a tale of amour fou involving two people with the collective intelligence of a jar of pickles that comes startlingly close to making "Like Crazy" almost seem palatable by comparison.
As Doremus (who wrote the story for Nathan Parker’s screenplay) introduces further layers, we become aware of certain cracks in the cosmos that thematically fall somewhere between The Island and The Matrix.
She’s never been an overly expressive actress, and in films like Twilight and Snow White and the Huntsman, it’s often felt as though she’s holding something back.
As the story unfolds, they make contact with other outcasts, called “Defects” (including the Australian duo from Animal Kingdom, Guy Pearce and Jackie Weaver) who concoct an escape plan for Silas and Nia.
Drake Doremus attempted something comparably retro last year with Equals , which missed the mark despite some knockout design elements and compelling work from the consistently underrated Kristen Stewart.