Creative Control

Movie Information

The Story: A pill-popping advertising executive gets involved with a new form of "virtual reality" in the course of his work. The Lowdown: You'd be hard pressed to find a better looking movie and a more interesting premise. But, dramatically, the film suffers from unlikable characters and a certain smugness.
Score:

Genre: Drama Satire
Director: Benjamin Dickinson
Starring: Benjamin Dickinson, Nora Zehetner, Dan Gill, Alexia Rasmussen, Reggie Watts
Rated: R

creative_control_0_0

 

Whatever else co-writer, director and star Benjamin Dickinson’s Creative Control is, it is one of the most gorgeous-looking films out there — shot in gleaming black and white, with occasional touches of color in moments of fantasy (not unlike Coppola’s 2009 Tetro). It has a coolly classical, formal filmmaking style that is seductive, to say the least, though it’s not really enhanced by the overly familiar doses of Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart on the soundtrack. (This may be a comment on the superficial nature of the characters.) It is more than a little indebted to Kubrick on many levels, especially in its visuals. (There is a direct, if thematically vague, reference to The Shining at one point.) OK, at this point, I seem pretty sold on the film — and, in one sense, I am — but its vaguely sci-fi premise (set in “near-future Brooklyn”) becomes off-putting pretty fast.

 

90

 

Worse, the film doesn’t provide a single likable character, making the whole thing as hard to care about as it is easy to admire. What we end up with is a kind of Scenes from the Lives of Upscale Brooklyn Hipsters, with all the substance that suggests. That it attempts to satirize these barely futuristic hipsters would be more convincing if the satire had any teeth. But it’s too dispassionate for that, while seemingly too much a part of the very thing it purports to find, at best, ridiculous and, at worst, one huge void. It doesn’t help that Dickinson wears so many hats in the making of the movie that it feels a little like a vanity project, though that may be peculiarly apt in a film that devotes a great deal of its time to high-tech masturbation.

 

e3c798d9934cd3733c33922ecf7454f2e9b96848_jpg_cf

 

Dickinson plays David, an excessively groomed, pill-popping advertising man who is coping with a demanding client over the ad campaign for something called Phalinex — an inhalable (read: vapable) anti-anxiety drug with a laundry list of side effects. The scenes where they shoot and reshoot the commercial — accentuating more and more keywords with each take — actually are pretty funny. (It’s no surprise that Dickinson’s background is in TV commercials.) But this is almost a side issue, since the film is mostly about Reggie Watts’ (played by Reggie Watts as a wigged-out, latter-day Steve Jobs — 1960s burnout variety) new invention, Augmenta. This is the latest word in virtual reality, rebranded as “augmented reality.”

 

5

 

Naturally, David falls prey to the device’s temptations to live vicariously, which here never amounts to much more than wanking fantasy dalliances with his rather repellent best friend’s (Dan Gill) much-cheated-on girlfriend Sophie (Alexia Rasmussen). Unsurprisingly, David quickly — too quickly — neglects his yoga instructor girlfriend (Nora Zehetner) and starts having trouble separating his augmented fantasy sex life from reality. How well this will work for you is going to depend a great deal, I suspect, on how much you can identify with the characters.

 

BenjaminDickinson_AlexiaRasmussen_CourtesyofGhostRobot_0

 

On the one hand, it feels a little like Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (2015) and a little like Spike Jonze’ Her (2013). On the other hand, it has a lot in common with such 1960s advertising satires as David Swift’s Good Neighbor Sam (1964) and Michael Winner’s I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname (1967) — being neither as funny as either, nor as truly corrosive as the latter. At best, it’s a beautiful-looking mixed bag that is more interesting than successful, but it is interesting and beautiful, and worth seeing on that basis. Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language and drug use.

 

SHARE
About Ken Hanke
Head film critic for Mountain Xpress from December 2000 until his death in June 2016. Author of books "Ken Russell's Films," "Charlie Chan at the Movies," "A Critical Guide to Horror Film Series," "Tim Burton: An Unauthorized Biography of the Filmmaker."

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

One thought on “Creative Control

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.