REVIEW: PSYCHE

PSYCHE is a psychological, sci-fi, arthouse thriller (with mild horror undertones) from writers Gibran Lozano & Stephon Stewart, and directed by Stewart.

It opens with text about the nature of Limbo, some narration, and then with that scant information we are thrust directly into the story of Mara (Sarah Ritter) who wakes up in a desert-like otherworldly place, after being (dumped, maybe?) in what looks like a body bag...or a shroud.

She is then met with a self-activating computer in the form of a small black box with a screen & keyboard and is given the command of "Press spacebar to play." The story unfolds from here in a non-linear fashion, and takes on the form of a journey or odyssey with the final destination being unclear.

The film is essentially a meditation on the meaning of life, and provides exactly zero easy answers, and really only asks vague and ill-defined questions. The film is really an experience rather than a straightforward story, but it is gorgeous, with wide and weird vistas and ruined remnants of recognizeable modern civilization scattered here and there. Mara is effectively a one-person show for the entire film (with a few exceptions) and Sarah Ritter absolutely delivers the goods.

The movie is somewhat evocative of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and also the Fallout series, with its ranging landscapes and mostly non-sequential storytelling. Now, it's not going to be for everyone, as I think you need a certain mindset to appreciate the material, and I for one thought that the overall stakes in the film could have been higher. However, across the board from the technical side, the production design, and the performance side, PSYCHE is a great film to watch.