"Black Mirror Lite"
That's not intended to damn with faint praise, by the way. SIGHT EXTENDED is an ambitious low budget SF movie that's bursting with ideas and has some excellent world building, and it's about to get a digital release.
Patrick (Andrew Riddell) has been suffering from agoraphobia following the death of his parents seven years ago. A virtual shut in Patrick lives his life through the augmented reality applications he's able to access through the special contact lenses he constantly wears. He regularly attends a virtual group for sufferers of the same condition and it's there that he's approached by Alex. Alex gives him a virtual key allowing him to access a program that leads to him getting his act back together, improving his self-image and even getting a date with the girl of his dreams. But can the good life last?
Early on SIGHT EXTENDED gives a nod to Antony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange by mentioning that novel's Ludovico technique and it becomes pretty apparent early on that writers-directors Daniel Lazo and Eran May-Raz have their fingers sufficiently on the pulse of popular culture, and especially the ins and outs of social media, that the 'five minutes into the future' world they create in SIGHT EXTENDED is all-too believable.
Taking the concept of 'what if you could make a video game out of day to day living' and applying it to the kind of character for whom it might not be a good idea at all makes for a fascinating 85 minutes. The realisation of the virtual world is a triumph of graphic design and the only real criticism of the movie is that some of the performances are rather awkward and as a result take you out of the action. However it would not be at all surprising if Lazo and May-Raz have a major studio knocking on their doors with plans for a big budget remake, so check this one out so you can say you knew their work before they were famous. Here's the trailer:
Daniel Lazo and Eran May-Rez's SIGHT EXTENDED is getting released on Digital platforms on Monday 12th June 2023
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