I've had my eye on this one for a long time. The teaser trailer dropped this morning, with a theatrical release date of Feb. 13.
There are several touchstones for films I suggest for the movie ping list: recency (to push back on the "no good movies are made any more" thing); quality (audience and critical reviews from two genre festival screenings a month+ ago are strong), and "conservative" themes, broadly defined.
I've actually seen several good, thematically conservative 2025 releases that I'll mention some other time, but they fall into genres that never stir interest on FR. Lest you think sphinx has gone soft with his appreciation for introspective indie character dramas, I've been holding off until I found one that falls into freepers' strong suits. (Although if you are ambitious, hustle out and see Nouvelle Vague in a theater in the next couple of days, before Netflix dumps it into streaming. It is charming, very funny, and the most old fashioned movie you have seen in a long time. It really should be seen on the big screen, which demands that you pay attention, because it is subtle, witty, quick, with character driven and situational humor, most of which will be missed by channel surfing, couch potato, at home viewers who aren't paying attention.)
This one has possibilities: sci-fi; an action/drama/comedy/horror mashup; fast pacing; some very serious themes emergent in the chaos. By all accounts from the early screenings, the audience was laughing throughout ... with some snarking here and there from apparently woke types who sniffed that it was inappropriate to laugh at that. I am not going to go out on a limb and suggest that this rises to the level of Blazing Saddles and Tropic Thunder, but in the era of PC/woke Hollywood, I am all in for goring the sacred cows. At this point, at least in cinema, most of those are on the left.
I had made some inquiries on other platforms that deal with movies, and a little birdie closely connected with the project messaged me privately and said that was one of the reasons that EVERY major studio and all the streamers passed on this project.
Chew on that for a moment. This is Gore Verbinski's first movie in nine years, and his first independent film. He is best known for the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the first of which is a work of genius on the level of the first Star Wars or the first Indiana Jones. The second was ok; the third lost me; then Verbinski left and Disney ran Pirates into the ground with cash grab sequels, which is how Disney seems to ruin every classic franchise it buys. But the first was blazingly original, funny, action packed, and a children's movie that adults could enjoy.
Pirates was done with a big Disney budget and lavish special effects. GLHFDD is a pure indie film, supposedly with a very low budget, that has had to scratch for everything it earns. If it's good, I'd love to see it become one of those occasional indie surprise hits that comes out of nowhere, finds an audience, sticks around in the theaters, and becomes the hit that the big studios all passed on.
Some of the special effects look a bit retro to me. Some of this is almost certainly due to a limited budget, but given the themes of the movie -- and the current crisis in the industry -- Verbinski has been emphatic that no AI was used in this movie. In addition, the cartoonish characters that show up to defend the rogue AI will make a lot more sense when you learn who the genius who is about to unleash a humanity destroying apocalypse actually is. The enemy is not Skynet, and the man from the future isn't here to kill him. Just to save humanity ... and not all of his unlikely volunteers will survive the mission.
I'm going to stay out of spoilers; the reviewers -- both the critics and audience reviewers from the festivals have done the same -- but having read all the reviews and piecing together the hints, I think I have a notion of where this is going, in a chaotic, unpredictable way. Freepmail me if you want to inquire.
The film opens with Sam Rockwell's man from the future bursting into a nondescript Norm's diner in LA looking like, in the words of one reviewer, a "junkyard astronaut" or, per another, someone who had crawled out of a dumpster. He then goes on a frantic, extended rant to assemble a team of volunteers to help him save the world. He needs to find the precise combination of people to fight through the maze of obstacles that the rogue AI will throw at them. You see, he's done this 117 times before; this is #118.
Ok, a time loop is part of the mashup. But this time apparently feels different. He rejects some volunteers in hilariously blunt ways; they tried before, and they're worse than useless. But tonight, a woman who has never volunteered before will stop forward. And he agrees, for the first time, to take along a young woman who he had always rejected before because she scares him. Will they get it done this time? Will any of them survive? Watch the movie and see.
Last but not least, the storytelling is nonlinear. The throughline is a desperate six block sally to fight through the late night streets of LA to the lair of the threat, and do what needs to be done. But the story loops into flashbacks that reveal why these core characters are willing to risk their lives to follow the junkyard astronaut -- who they still don't trust and think may be mad -- on a lunatic quest. I'll just say that they are all HIGHLY motivated (for different reasons, naturally), enough so that all reviewers say you will be rooting for them by the end.
And these motivations connect to current day issues about which freepers wax indignant more or less constantly. The surrealistic and comedic future threats are extrapolations of things already happening, and some of them are not all that far off. So there is some very pointed social commentary here, and Verbinski is swinging at a lot of our usual targets. This may be a surprisingly conservative film.
It's based on a spec script that circulated several years ago, with all the big studios passing, so it's original IP. It is set in LA but was actually shot in Capetown -- part of the movie industry's movement away -- now a stampede -- from California.
Want to stick a thumb in the eye of Woke Hollywood? Go watch a true indie film that the studios and streamers wouldn't touch, and -- knees permitting -- see it in a theater.
I generally like Sam Rockwell in movies so i might check this out,
This interview is worth watching. The interviewer is charming and sensible, despite the heavily tattooed arm, which I wonder how she explains to her 12 and 14 year old kids.
Interesting. I look for anything off the wall instead of the usual hollyweird dreck.
I am actually looking forward to seeing "Rental Family". Also kind of dreading it because it is an interesting premise that I would hate to see be turned into the usual dreck.
Anyway will add this one to the list.
Marking.
The plot sounds like it was inspired by the “John Titor” time traveler claim circulated on the Art Bell show years ago.
Okay, I’m intrigued. I’m going to keep my eye on this one.