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Thursday, July 21, 2016

The Overlook Theatre Reviews: Dennis Iliadis', +1

of 5 viewers "Liked" "+1" (USA, 2013)
Here's what the creatures had to say:

Huntress - " +1 definitely has an original story. It even managed to make the huge party going crowd feel like they really did know each other, which is just a cool little bonus. This movie has some very intimate character development for a movie with so many characters. And, while some of those characters were a bit exaggerated, for the most part they felt authentic." - 4 Stars

Dabbles - "+1 Surprised me. LordBattle said we were going to watch a sci-fi movie, but this movie is an awesome example of sci-fi horror where ideas of science fiction fueled the story with fears of what if's and how's. The movie uses the idea of time echoes to play a game with the audience. It takes love, aspirations, even lust, to a form that almost decapitates it, showing both sides of the same coin. It also evolves to a point where we almost can't watch and are afraid of the outcome. Not saying it's like watching a train-wreck about to happen, but watching 2 forms of life occurring in front of you, and as an onlooker you have no control of your eyes. You could say this is also a coming of age story. Not going to reveal any spoilers but I can see an underlying symbol of who you were and who you are coming head to head in the world of this movie. Whoever prevails is the person who you will become." - 5 Stars

Lord Battle - "+1 is what the unfortunate viewers of Project X wish they were watching, as a large modern version of Can't Hardly Wait collides with a Sci-Fi horror concept that's ambitious to say the least. The thing is +1 not only delivers on its Sci-Fi horror premise but maintains its teen drama as well. I feel the need to mention that fans of hard science in Sci-Fi will scoff at the lack of exploration into why what happens happens, but haters of the Last House on the Left remake will forgive Dennis Iliadis after watching this one." - 4 Stars

The Great Hornito - "I went into the movie blind and the first 15 minutes or so I wasn't feeling it. It felt like it was going to be an over the top teenager party movie, but it turned out to be something entirely better. +1 is an excellent SciFi thriller that is really funny too. I would watch this film again, it's a really cool film to view with a group of friends." - 4 Stars

Drumachine - "A fresh take on the doppelganger idea. The themes are nothing new but they're delivered in an entertainingly chaotic package" - 3.5 Stars



The Overlook Theatre Final Rating*
(Below is for after you've seen the film)

Below is an exert from an article in Discover Magazine titled "The Real Rules for Time Travelers". This article is an interesting read that discusses how time travel would effect our reality. If you read the wrap-up to last weeks review of "Ctrl, Alt, Delete" then you already heard one theory and I thought it be interesting to see how the scientific community thought a phenomenon like the one in +1 would actually go down.

The possibility of changing our past—seems intractable only because it conflicts with our notion of ourselves as beings with free will. Consistent stories are possible, even in space-times with closed time-like curves.

To illustrate this point, imagine that you stumble upon a time machine in the form of a gate. When you pass through it in one direction, it takes you exactly one day into the past; if you pass through in the other direction, it takes you exactly one day into the future. You walk up to the gate, where you see an older version of yourself waiting for you. The two of you exchange pleasantries. Then you leave your other self behind as you walk through the gate into yesterday. But instead of obstinately wandering off, you wait around a day to meet up with the younger version of yourself (you have now aged into the older version you saw the day before) with whom you exchange pleasantries before going on your way. Everyone’s version of every event would be completely consistent.

We can have much more dramatic stories that are nevertheless consistent. Imagine that we have been appointed Guardian of the Gate, and our job is to keep vigilant watch over who passes through. One day, as we are standing off to the side, we see a person walk out of the rear side of the gate, emerging from one day in the future. That’s no surprise; it just means that you will see that person enter the front side of the gate tomorrow. But as you keep watch, you notice that he simply loiters around for one day, and when precisely 24 hours have passed, the traveler walks calmly through the front of the gate. Nobody ever approached from elsewhere. That 24-hour period constitutes the entire life span of this time traveler. He experiences the same thing over and over again, although he doesn’t realize it himself, since he does not accumulate new memories along the way. Every trip through the gate is precisely the same to him. That may strike you as weird or unlikely, but there is nothing paradoxical or logically inconsistent about it.

The real question is this: What happens if we try to cause trouble? That is, what if we choose not to go along with the plan? Let’s say you meet a day-older version of yourself just before you cross through the front of the gate and jump backward in time, as if you will hang around for a day to greet yourself in the past. But once you actually do jump backward in time, you still seem to have a choice about what to do next. You can obediently fulfill your apparent destiny, or you can cause trouble by wandering off. What is to stop you from deciding to wander? That seems like it would create a paradox. Your younger self bumped into your older self, but your older self decides not to cooperate, apparently violating the consistency of the story.

We know what the answer is: That cannot happen. If you met up with an older version of yourself, we know with absolute certainty that once you age into that older self, you will be there to meet your younger self. That is because, from your personal point of view, that meet-up happened, and there is no way to make it un-happen, any more than we can change the past without any time travel complications. There may be more than one consistent set of things that could happen at the various events in space-time, but one and only one set of things actually does occur. Consistent stories happen; inconsistent ones do not. The vexing part is understanding what forces us to play along.

The issue that troubles us, when you get down to it, is free will. We have a strong feeling that we cannot be predestined to do something we choose not to do. That becomes a difficult feeling to sustain if we have already seen ourselves doing it.

Of course, there are some kinds of predestination we are willing to accept. If we get thrown out of a window on the top floor of a skyscraper, we expect to hurtle to the ground, no matter how much we would rather fly away and land safely elsewhere. The much more detailed kind of predestination implied by closed timelike curves, where it seems that we simply cannot make certain choices (like walking away after meeting a future version of ourselves), is bothersome.
- Sean Carroll


- Lord Battle

The Overlook Theatre Materialized in a residence for a single feature on Thursday 7/14/2016
*Based on the star ratings turned in by character reviewers, others viewed and got to "Dislike" or "Like" but that does not effect the rating.

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