Everything Beautiful is Far Away

Oh, where to begin. First, it's not a good movie in any usual sense of the description, but, depending on your own interest and tolerance level it may be an acceptable use of 91 minutes. But, you'll need a VERY high tolerance level for this one. There's a lot of expected, unnecessary suspending of disbelief going on here. There are spoilers ahead. If you're looking for a sci-fi /fantasy movie with a disembodied female AI character that is leagues ahead of this, go watch "Her".Some of the pros are: Julia Garner as Rola. She's lovely to look at and I see hints of a potentially good actor, but the movie gives her no opportunity to show it. It's just unfortunate the film give us no reason to care one bit about her other than her attractiveness, the likability of her on-screen presence. Some of the cinematography and direction does her justice and accentuates her mysterious, moody, maybe brooding look, but oftentimes it doesn't keep up that tone. Another positive is *some* of the cinematography of the desert. There are some beautiful shots that look like a modernist painting. But mostly, there just doesn't seem to be enough in the setting to keep coming up with interesting, inspiring views. I also happen to like the quirky disjointed and dissonant music score. I think it gives the right tone to the soundtrack.The MacGuffin, of the film: the robotic head Susan, is a clever concept in that the writer and director can insert the viewpoint of a synthetic AI without having to deal with an entire body in special effects or CGI. But as written into the storyline it falls flat. Lernert carries this robotic head for almost a third of the movie before it is powered up for the first time, and then only for a moment where the characters are given a bit of useful information to push the narrative forward. Truly a MacGuffin moment. We have little to no idea why he's carrying Susan, where she came from, who made her or what special power if any she has to benefit the main characters. Susan is essentially an Amazon Echo "Alexa" inside an amimatronic head. She spouts platitudes and facts. It's not terribly interesting to me. This is clearly seen near the end when our pair approach the Crystal Lake. Susan says, "In the desert it is easy to get lost. The dunes can look alike. And the steps you took to get somewhere disappear. But, with good direction, you can find your way." Oh, really? Ugh. Banal.Now for some of the Cons. There are so many. The movie expects the viewer to suspend her disbelief so much without explanation that it just becomes annoying and untenable. The first goof, if you could call it that, is the voice-over on the title sequence scene that comes from Susan, the robot-head. She is explaining what happened to her body and why Lernert has left the city for the desert. She goes on to say Lernert promised to rebuild her body but she says, "This was 982 days ago". How can a robotic AI that requires power to think be "narrating" an explanation as if it were happening in the present? Susan is powered off and has no experience of day 982 or any other while off as we learn later in the film. Also, Lernert's first dialog is to the powered-off Susan when we are ostensibly learning some truths from Lernet, that he has a strong fondness for Susan and that he will do everything he can to rebuild her. As we later find out, he was never intending to rebuild her, so why does he lie to a non-functioning Susan-head?The dialogue is abysmal. There are long uncomfortable pauses after one character questions another, seemingly for dramatic effect, but nothing in the writing sets up any drama so we don't care one bit what the other character's answer is. Even less so, when there is none, a shake of the head, or a single word exclamation. After just saving Rola's life, Lernert explains the difference between the poisonous root Rola ate and the nearly identical edible root. After, he asks her name."So, you got a name?" he says.Rola: blank stare. L O N G blank stare.Lernert, " O.K.""My name is Lernert, this is Susan. What's your name?"Rola: "What's with the head?"Lernert: " I told you this is Susan. Now do you want to tell me your name or do you want to pretend we never met?"Rola: "We never met." And she gets up and leaves.Oh. My. God! At least throw in a sarcastic yell from Lernet, "OK, well, YOU'RE WELCOME FOR SAVING YOUR LIFE!"Throughout the movie, Lernet conveniently finds water and food throughout an arid desert. His water needs are taken care of by a magical pipe and spigot with a ratcheting handle on top. Jam it into the ground, spin the crank, open the tap and voila! fresh clean water! And if you get no water from that spot, you must "walk 10 paces" and try again. Oh, ok. Riiiiiiiight. And, somehow in this desert grows root vegetables that require constant watering in a fertile soil in our world, but apparently not in his world. Then there's the fact that there is garbage strewn across the desert. Seemingly every day, they run into another pile of possibly useful debris, including a small fusion reactor that's half full and which would operate a hovercraft for 15 years. Hmmmm alright. Sure. Why not? Oh, then we also have poor sweet Rola who looks as though she's 100% northern Norweigian. She couldn't possibly have any fairer skin, yet she seems to be completely unaffected by the blazing, blistering sun in the desert. She looks like she has just stepped off a catwalk in Paris. Speaking of the desert, what desert is so apparently cool that the characters can wear full pants, shirts and long-sleeve jackets? Apparently it's blazing hot because Susan continually admonishes them to stay hydrated, yet we never see a bead of sweat on them. If it's so hot and she's so concerned about hydration, she should be suggesting they hike early morning and late afternoon and even into the night and rest during the day.That brings me to the third out of three characters - The Stranger. Played by C.S. Lee. What a waste of Lee's talent. It has to be one of the single most pointless scenes and interactions in cinematic history. From 42:10 to 42:49 there's a full 39 seconds of brutal and unexplained silence between Lernert/Rola and the Stranger when they meet. They stand there, staring at each other for no apparent reason. Lee utters a total of 24 words in the movie "Hi. Hi. About three weeks. I didn't like where I was. I don't like where I am. So I keep walking. Does it matter?" Ugh. No, it really doesn't matter.How about a few more? Near the end, they approach the "Crystal Lake". It's a long shot with a zoom lens. There's easily 1000 feet of dune and rock between them and the sea, yet Lernert drops Susan and all his belongings and runs to it. From later shots looking back at land, you see there is a sizeable rock formation, a mountain range, that rises from the sea to the dunes. It must be a 500'-1000' drop in elevation at least. Yet Lernert dumps all his equipment a good hour's hike away. Ok, big reveal: The "Crystal Lake" is an ocean. Ummm.... yeah, ok. Do they not know what an ocean is? Why are they calling it a lake? Then we see Lernert fishing in the surf. Whaaaat? Where'd the rod and reel come from? He pulled it out of his ass apparently, the same way the rest of the movie was created. Nothing is ever explained.Yes, the movie tries to make a few statements on life, the meaning of humanity, maybe a comparison of character between Lernert and Rola. But in the end we're given no reason to care, no pathos, no conflict, no explanation of their predicament. There's no story arc, no resolution of conflict. Nothing learned of any significance. Any meaning or lessons the movie could impart are so far away, they're lost like a distant ship on the ocean barely visible in the mists and fog.

This is an "End of the World” movie, but not of the awfully boring and incomprehensibly popular dystopian kind. Much rather an intelligent fairytale about people, whose do not ask from the modern world's uniformised life. They're walking through the desert seemingly without purpose.Lernert (Joseph Cross), is a prepared and practiced traveller, who have a "company", which is a robot head, named Susan (Jillian Mayer as the robot's voice), without body and battery, what is needed to "her" operation. So, Lernert is a lone walker, who searches around the abandoned desert campsites for batteries. At nights, he writes an illustrated novel, about a lonely samurai, and thinking about, who is he actually.One morning he finds a passed out young woman, who ate a root, which is the most important nourishment for them, but she consumed a wrong kind of roots. Lernert immediately helps her, soon the girl get well, and waking up. The young man try to talks to her, he asks her name, but doesn't get answer. The girl wanna go onward alone, mostly because she saw Lernert talking to Susan while he carefully cleanings the robot head.But the girl isn't such prepared and practiced into the desert walking, like Lernert, therefore she returns to the young man. This time, she reveals her name, which is Rola (Julia Garner). They're go onward together. Rola doesn't like Susan too much, "who" can functioning a bit, when Lernert find a charged battery. Rona sees that Lernert how much love his robot, and thinks that isn't natural, still she doesn't mentions this to the guy.Rona is cute, girlish, so, curious. One evening, when Lernert sleeps, she searching the young man's backpack, and find the booklet, into which Lernert writes his fiction. Rona understands this young daydreamer, than whom she thinks more maturely. She can respects Lernert’s knowledge about the desert, while feels some affection for him. Rona decides, to talks Lernert about the mythical "Crystal Lake", which might be their destination... (The story isn't ending here, of course, but I don't wanna write the whole plot!)One point their travel disrupted by a stranger (C.S. Lee - who is the only one supporting actor in this production), but he is wanna be alone, therefore after a short conversation with Rona, he goes on the own way.In my opinion, this is a heart warming story. Slow paced, wonderfully filmed, thought-provoking. Rona and Lernert both wondering who they really are and meanwhile slowly they like each other. Because the human is a social creature, and even if you walk away the limited and crowded modern life, you need company. As Susan declares "I don't thinking. I compute." The robot head was just an allowance for Lernert. While Rona is a real human being, with bright mind, keen eyes, warm heart, and with the appearance of an angel!This is an unusual film, but at the same time a pure sensation! On the one hand, because of the impeccable acting of Julia and Joseph, and on the other hand, because of the great implementation.Not an accident, that its creators got no less than four awards at three different Film Festivals! Pete Ohs, who written by, directed, produced. Andrea Sisson as co-writer and producer. Christian Sorensen Hansen as cinematographer. Saul Germaine as producer.This DVD release looks a bit cheap, but it works perfectly: the image quality is very good by this outdated format, and I'm very glad to got my copy, in pristine condition!

Those looking for an adrenaline rush, T&A or action can give this a skip. It's a bit more cerebral than average sci fi fare. The characterizations are well-thought out, well-directed and well acted. The lead male character is likeable enough yet not charismatic. The female lead is attractive and appealing but in a non-sexual way, which allows one to focus on who she is rather than her gender. The low-key adventure shared by the two along with the robot head they haul with them is slow-moving, leaving plenty of time to think about what is going on... which is the purpose of the presentation.There are some who rate this low, but that's through no fault of the movie. It's just not their kind of entertainment... and they don't seem to realize that. This is excellent science fiction in every way. No there are no giant robots, no huge space battles, laser sword or blaster fights, no monsters, no special effects to speak of. This is simple humanity on the edge, people existing at the simplest level... and coping with a post-apocalyptic environment on a daily basis.Good sci fi movies aren't always about CGI and fast-moving action. Sometimes they're just about people.