directed by:
Matthew Cathcart written by: Matthew Cathcart genre: Thriller, Sci-Fi |
If it is indeed true that ‘new media’ designed for the short attention spans of the modern age has got to have some sort of major action or plot twist occurring within about six minutes or less, then “WallDale” makes it crystal clear that you’re about to put in some major time before you get to that moment. It’s not a case of instant gratification when it comes to this film, so strap in.
If your head feels like it’s spinning at the start of “WallDale,” trying to keep up with all the new names and character introductions, don’t be too hard on yourself - you’re practically meeting an entire school’s worth of people right away, and it’s impossible to know who will be sticking around for the duration of this film. You’ll get about half an hour in and start to feel the restlessness kick in when Writer/Director Matthew Cathcart continues to bombard you with a ton of extraneous details and what feels like a very multi-pronged approach to establishing what this movie is actually going to be about. But, it’s not like this approach hasn’t been done before, right? While I was being somewhat serious in mentioning things take a minute or two to get going in “WallDale,” to be fair, you will find that your first major plot twist actually occurs about fifteen minutes in, which really isn’t too long to wait if you’re a reasonable person and you like your stories to properly develop. As to whether or not it’s executed to its maximum potential, that might be another story. Essentially, a momentary blackout occurs - like, an extremely quick one - and when the lights come back on, we’re down a student as a result of them having their throat slashed right there in a room with a ton of other people around. Is it met with the appropriate amount of shock and horror? Absolutely not - and that’s kinda weird, ain’t it? Everyone’s so freakin’ calm like they see bodies droppin’ like flies every damn day. From there, it becomes clear that they’re stuck in this room they’re in, with someone presumably being a killer amongst them, and they’re all somehow supposed to just go back to normal with a fresh dead body still cooling on the floor? For real - I had to wonder what the heck I was watching with “WallDale.” Everything seems so significantly strange that we have to assume there’s a reason for it being that way. While you might expect the scenario leading to some kind of “Knives Out” inspired whodunit, they eventually figure out how to open the doors, and everybody just basically leaves. Yes, you read that correctly…one of their friends was just killed, presumably by a person who was in the very room with them, and they’re just gonna wander away from that situation to go and get some fresh air. We’re told there was an ex-convict in the room. There’s also the newcomer Megan, who might have done the murdering too, or maybe it was one of the many other people in the room at the time. Wait - are we still interested in solving this murder that no one really seems too broken up about? Poor Bella, the kid that died…it’s damn near like she never existed at all with how little her friends and peers seem to show their emotions. Megan is obviously pretty suss…she’s new, yeah, but she’s also got a fairly bizarre personality that doesn’t quite lend itself to blending in, or even seeming like that would be her priority. Things get even weirder when they go back to the room that Bella was killed in…like, inexplicably weird. Hold onto your hats, because I’m about to unleash a major spoiler here - Nigel, the head dude in charge, gives the crowd of people a STERN TALKING TO and expresses his disappointment in the MURDER. Riveting stuff, I know! C’mon, Cathcart - what are we doing here, my friend? We’re going to go the ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed’ route? Really? Next thing you know, Nigel’s got handcuffs, and he’s making arrests. What kind of town is this exactly? We’ll get to that shortly. So…lemme just double-check and see if I’ve got this straight. There are three main suspects for the murder of Bella, in a room, about to be interrogated by Nigel. Nigel gets upset and has to leave the room, and his buddy wants the lot of three to understand that it’s just because this is personal to him? Have I got that right? He wants the potential MURDERER to show a little bit of sympathy to Nigel because of what he’s going through? We might have to just change the name from “WallDale” to “Nigel feels a certain type of way” instead. Then there’s the Bobby conundrum. Bobby that can survive SOME shotgun blasts at point-blank range, but not others. We eventually learn that many of these people we thought were people - are actually considered to be products and not people at all. At this point, which is still less than an hour into this movie, it’s as good an explanation as any other could be, I suppose.
All of “WallDale” is an immense stretch of the imagination & suspension of disbelief, and an intense struggle to stick with for the most part. Cathcart does have some good ideas, but man, oh man, someone watching over his shoulder so that he didn’t continue to go on so many inconsequential tangents - that muddled up the main storyline would have been brilliant. Like…you’ll eventually get an explanation (?) of Bella’s death around the same point in the movie as “WallDale” heads into its next hour…and…erm…it’s kind of a whole bunch of ‘this is what really happened even though you didn’t actually see any of this happen’ kind of stuff. But, yikes. We’re basically heading into the multiverse through multi-characters…and it’ll be a rough go for even the person who doesn’t miss a beat when watching movies. That’s the truth. “I know it’s hard to take, but I need you to trust me” sounds more like a summary of the whole film than merely a part of the dialogue. That said, I maintain that Cathcart does have some exceptional ideas at the core of this movie, but they’re extremely buried under a sea of unnecessary details, and not enough of the right ones to support the best of what he’s got with the strength they really need. The incorporation of AI & clones into “WallDale” is good, but it takes a long time to get to that point, and I’d suspect that by the time the audience gets there, too many viewers might have mentally checked out. Cathcart’s got a solid hour & twenty-minute long film in here somewhere, but right now he’s got “WallDale” expanded to a massive two & a quarter hours that’ll have you constantly questioning whether or not he’s using his time as wisely as he could have been. The low-budget nature of “WallDale” is a distant second issue compared to the constant confusion within the main story that Cathcart is attempting to tell. We end up in a quagmire of meta-based content that is trying to draw on our emotions, while removing any responsibility for the film to have any of its own, because we’re stuck in a loop of realizing that the characters are synthetic, yet armed with real feelings and thoughts that we’re supposed to feel attached to, even when they can’t be themselves. Everyone is someone without actually being someone at all. “WallDale” is so enormously ambitious that it seems to stifle the oxygen needed to turn this spark of an idea into the blaze it’s intended to become. With an hour still to go, you’ll feel like you’ve watched about four movies or been doomscrolling for days & days. To sum things up, we have to go with what we see, and not what’s implied. With a fairly significant overhaul, Cathcart has got something here - but as it stands, it’s a case of being too much & not enough at the same time. The acting is decent enough, but the massive cast is spread too thin for us to become invested in the characters - and the story of “WallDale” feels like it never finds the degree of focus it needs in order to make the impact that it should, or reveal the clarity this tale so desperately needs. I’m going with two stars out of five here - the restless feeling you get from watching “WallDale” never subsides, and the answers to this mystery can’t seem to come quickly enough - this all felt way more absent of its humanity than it seemingly intended to be. Ambitious but quite unfocused. |
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