Cinemavenger

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A Glitch in the Matrix

For obvious reasons, the phrase, "That meeting could have been an email." has become really popular over the past few years. A Glitch in the Matrix is a movie that could've been a 5-10 minute YouTube video.

Proving once again that ol' Cinemavenger will never fucking learn, I was actually excited to see this documentary about the effect that Simulation Theory has had on society. Simulation Theory, for all the non-nerds out there, is the theory that our reality is merely a simulation, essentially that we're all just characters in some much more advanced beings' version of a video game. The easiest pop culture reference is The Matrix films, hence the title of this doco.

A Glitch in the Matrix gets props for understanding that Simulation Theory didn't spring into being after The Matrix debuted in 1999. The "brain in a vat" thought experiment, Descartes' demon, and Plato's cave are all referenced, so at least the flick is honest about the fact that people have been questioning reality in this particular way for thousands of years.

With such a fertile philosophical, existential topic to work with, how did writer and director Rodney "Strangerfield" Ascher fuck up more than a midget dating a model? He presents his three, main interviewees via Animoji-style digital avatars. Because it's never explained (are they protecting their identities? hideously ugly?), and because the avatars are pretty basic even for 2021, it's more distracting than a pussy flash at a parole hearing.

For every thoughtful question, like whether the Mandela Effect means that there are alternate universes, which would make Simulation Theory more likely, Ascher asks his audience to lick a shitsicle like, "Are real world consequences the only thing keeping people from killing and fucking at random?"

Yes, you twat! Humans are animals, and as animals we're basically just killing and fucking machines. Haven't you ever been to a kid's birthday party? Or college?

Ascher tries to illustrate that question, and the potential dangers of Simulation Theory, with the case of Joshua Cooke, a teenager who became obsessed with The Matrix to the point that he believed he was living inside it and blew his parents away with a shotgun to prove it.

Which, much like A Glitch in the Matrix, ended up proving nothing. Fuck the red pill and the blue pill; this movie is the grey pill.

June 4, 2021