Appofeniacs review
Easily the most entertaining AI warning on the market.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Appofeniacs
Directed by Chris Marrs Piliero
Written by Chris Marrs Piliero
Starring Aaron Holliday, Jermain Fowler, Sean Gunn, Michael Abbot Jr., Will Brandt, Paige Searcy, Simran Jehani and Harley Bronwyn
Appofeniacs Review
Appofeniacs begins with some text defining what that word means. It’s helpful since it’s a word I’d never seen before. Apparently, apophenia is an actual word. Appofeniacs isn’t…but you’ll understand why they used it as this review (or…you know…watching the movie) unfolds. The only thing I knew about the movie going into it was that it was about the effects of deepfake AI. That came with a bit of apprehension attached to it. My mind immediately went to a bad place of what an independent movie lecturing about the potential evils of AI could look like. Even as someone who agrees with the premise. Let me begins this review by saying that the brief synopsis I had could not have prepared me for what Appofeniacs was planning to do with it.
This is a wild movie. While deepfake AI videos are the catalyst for an hour and a half of propulsive chaos…the movie doesn’t spend any time lecturing about AI. Instead, Appofeniacs is a non-stop thrill ride of carnage and death. Referring to this as a movie about the “dangers of AI” is so tip of the iceberg it almost feels untrue. What you’re really in for is a crazy run through interconnected stories where deepfake videos ruin people’s lives…and leave an unbelievable trail of bodies in their wake.
I’m sure the Tarantino comparison has been thrown around for Appofeniacs but let me try to use it in the way I think it fits best. If you’re of a certain age you might remember the post-Pulp Fiction runs of independent films wanting to capture that Tarantino feeling. Unconventional story structure…dynamic dialogue…spurts of unexpected violence. Most of those movies were, at best, extremely unmemorable. Appofeniacs feels like the best movie that would have come out in that era. It’s like someone finally got it right…it just took over three decades. That’s not to say that Appofeniacs is the next Pulp Fiction. There is no next Pulp Fiction. But it is the most entertaining movie that makes you recall Pulp Fiction that I can remember seeing.
Appofeniacs isn’t about the creation of these deepfake videos. There’s a scene where characters discuss their ability to do it…and we see a few moments spent making them…but most of the time is spent on the very wild fallout of their existence. It’s a brilliant move for a couple of reasons. First, hefty dialog about, or justification for, the creation of these videos would have slowed the pace of the movie. Second, it’s far more impactful to understand how easy these videos are becoming to produce. You can ruin someone’s life in a way that almost feels dismissible or forgettable. Or casual.
The “app” in Appofeniacs is a deepfake AI video generator that can make convincing videos with the ease of handing it some media and typing a scenario into it. That’s it. Just a few moments typing directly from the phone everyone is already carrying is enough to generate videos painting a stranger as a racist or of someone cheating on their significant other. Of all the movies to tackle how dangerous this technology can be… Appofeniacs does it best. Not only does it refuse to treat it as a complex topic, which makes it feel far more dangerous than trying to hammer that home would…it also uses it as the set-up for multiple bloody and wildly entertaining punchlines that deliver a movie you would enjoy if it wasn’t about deepfake AI videos in the first place.
Multiple stories cross over throughout Appofeniacs. Each one is kicked off by Duke (Aaron Holliday) and his deepfake videos. He treats it as a revenge scheme against the slightest perceived injustice…no matter how minor. A brief argument with a woman in a coffee shop? Ruin her life. Not getting what you want out of an interaction with a wealthy person? Ruin their life. The movie kicks off with a short, shocking opening scene where a woman who has had a deepfake made about her suffers the insane wrath of her jealous boyfriend. Later, we hear Duke laugh off the video he made of her…assuming he’ll enjoy a future social media update where he watches her break down in tears. He won’t.
The stories of the affected parties crash into each other throughout Appofeniacs. A seemingly disconnected story about a cosplayer and her open relationship with her husband gets violently destroyed by the clashing stories in the movie. That scenario repeats throughout the story…with characters affected by one plot finding themselves swept up in someone else’s. 90 minutes of violence kicked off by a loser and his phone. While that can easily be taken as a ridiculous leap from cause to effect…it’s how ridiculously bloody and entertaining Appofeniacs gets with that fallout, combined with the ease with which someone could set it off, that makes this a movie you just have to watch.
Scare Value
The choice to keep the deepfake AI commentary confined to the role of catalyst for what’s to come is what makes it so effective. You can walk away from the movie having had a blast watching the fallout and feeling like you haven’t been preached to…but, at the same time, the ease with which people’s lives are being ruined here will stick with you as a flashing warning sign. Appofeniacs is a bloody, wild time filled with death and destruction.
4/5
Appofeniacs Link
In theaters now – Fandango
