Empathy, Inc — Empathy, Inc( Blu Ray)
Empathy, Inc is the second film from young director Yedidya Gorsetman, and it was written by Mark Leidner who collaborated with Gorsetman on his directorial debut 2014 Jammed- which was seemingly a jam band festival set comedy. Empathy, Inc is shot in noir black & white, and some of the characters' interplay nods back towards Gorsetman & Leidner comedy begins- but these are decidedly low-key. What we have here is an often moodily shot present day Sci-fi film, that shifts from drama, concept heavy sci-fi, and towards the end slightly deranged, though largely gore-less horror territory.
The film focuses in on once upwardly-mobile, though-now-down-on-their-luck couple Joel (Zack Robidas) and Jessica (Kathy Searle)- the pair have had to move back in with Jessicas parents, after city investor Joel backed a tech company that was involved in fraud, and he is openly named in the fraud. One night when Joel's out for a late-night, solo drink after an argument with his in-laws, here he bumps into Nicolaus- a sleek & fast-talking African Americain who knew Joel in college. Nicolaus starts talking about the new tech start-up he’s involved with Empathy, Inc- which is basically just him & the bulky & bearded Lester (Jay Klaitz)- together they have created something they call VR-X, which means you can body jump into some else's body- the pair are marketing their service to executives who want to spend time in the body of someone less fortunate. After Joel experiences their set-up, which is a modified crash helmet, dentist chair, lots of wires, a PC & strange drug injection- he convinces his father in law to invest. But in the meantime, he becomes more & more obsessed with going back to the VR world- which initially finds him in the body of a junk addled & hand burnt man in a sparse room.
As one would expect with this type of high concept, yet largely low-key/ modern-day set Sci-fi film things are not what they seem…and Joel slow but surely gets more & more out of his depth. I won’t detail the plot more, as it’s very much a film you have to revel in its twists & turns. Sure at times some of these twists do stretch believability a tad, and some downright don’t add up, but if your willing to suspend you belief & let your self sink into the whole thing, it’s a rewarding film that nicely builds & builds with both mystery & low-key tension. The small cast is largely believable & relatable- the black & white stock initially felt a slightly pretentious choice- but as the film goes on it really works giving the whole thing a moody & edgy quilty- we get a nice & often catastrophic blend of low, and close-up face shots. And generally, you can certainly see subtle nods towards the likes of Cronenberg's early films, and Tetsuo- with its brooding shots of vapid office buildings & modified tech.
On the extras side, we get a director/writers commentary track- this is fairly low-key, yet chatty enough track. You pick-up a few interesting tidbits about the films production, actor choice, etc- but it’s large finds the pair commenting on the on-screen action & line delivery, which I’m afraid does getting a little trying over the films one hour & thirty-seven-minute runtime. Next, we get an around eight minutes of behind the scenes footage, and this is filmed in 360..so it gives this feature a nice edge. Next, we get around six minutes of deleted scenes, and a UK/ international trailer.
In finish Empathy, Inc is well put together & sleekly realized shot of present-day set Sci-fi film- at times it does become a little too dialogue-heavy, but I guess that the problem when you're trying to create impactful & believable Sci-Fi concepts on a very low-budget. I’ll certainly be interested to see what Gorsetman & Leidner do next- so all told another great pick-up from the folks over at Arrow Video.