Front Row Geek: Lunopolis: Conspiracy Dreams Created With Care

Lunopolis: Conspiracy Dreams Created With Care

W.B. Preston

(– ***Spoilers For The Above*** –)

Lunopolis is on the of the best films I have seen in quite some time. Let me calm your excitement now, this is not a movie I would call a crowd pleaser, in fact, it at times seems to prefer to scare off any popular audience it may have won with its first thirty minutes of run time. Its narrative jumps from shaky cam thriller, to conspiracy documentary, to science fiction action film. I, finding great enjoyment in a good old fashion conspiracy theory, found this film to be at the apex of films based on the subject. It not only excels at creating, or recreating, a believable world of conspiracies for its theorists to inhabit, it pays homage and touches on all the “real” conspiracies that have preceded the film. Director Matthew Avant has clearly spent a lot of time delving into the world of conspiracies and folding them into his own story, in a gorgeous documentary style film that lags a bit in the middle,but bring everything together in a satisfying, and dramatic conclusion.

There is an imaginative quality to the film, a sense of wonder and excitement that is greatly missing from Hollywood film making. The film unfolds from beat to beat, with genuine surprises and holds your attention to the mystery as we travel with the protagonists, and learn only what they themselves learn. It sounds simple enough, but it seems Hollywood has forgotten how valuable mystery is to any medium of storytelling. This is not a problem here, as we learn more about the story and the world in which Lunopolis takes place,that world unfolds unto us and builds a huge story that could be a 200 million dollar blockbuster itself, though we will have to settle for this low budget version for now.

The effects are sparse, I’d say probably averaging one per act, but when they occur they are filled with meaning and beautifully rendered. The designers get it right, partially because of a small budget, but partially, i’d like to think, because effects are more effective when serving the story rather than themselves. That is to say, when a story is engaging in and of itself, the use of cgi or what have you, are not the sole reason for the films existence. Therefore if the storytelling is sub-par, I don’t care how amazing your visuals are, your movie will still be sub-par. Whereas if the story is good, but the cgi is lacking or few, the film will still triumph, as I will have been entertained,and vindicated and rewarded for watching your film. Hollywood seems content with tricking audiences to go see movies based on marketing that focuses on cgi, rather than on great characters and competent storytelling. This has been met with varying degrees of success, some huge highs, but also some lowest of lows.

All that to say that this film, exceeds where most Hollywood films fail. It’s thoughtful, well crafted, well written, created with care, and does not rely on cgi. Instead it relies on the curiousness of people, which unfortunately will not yield much in terms of profit, however I for one hope Mr. Avant to make another film asap. Until then, I’ll have to settle with watching Lunopolis again. Which is available on Netflix streaming right now.

4 out of 5 stars

@WBPreston_

Frontrowgeek

@frontrowgeek