Coherence (2013)

Simply A Masterpiece

Great Film overall

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I got into James Ward Byrkit's "Coherence" having heard it portrayed as intelligent (if low-budget) sci-fi, and am sorry to say that i found myself clockwatching at several points (not typical for me). All the more regrettable is that one of the reasons is the movie's putting me in mind of the 2009 British-Australian film "Triangle" which bears some resemblance in having a hot Melissa George wandering around a ship (and then back on land) with an axe, in a skimpy T-shirt, chasing herself; whereas here with "Coherence" we have a hot Emily Baldonu wandering around in a skimpy T-shirt with no axe, chasing herself... Admittedly, anomalous events in "Triangle" seem to be a time loop in which realities continually spring into existence and overlap, whereas in "Coherence" we seem to have repeat divergence into separate universes generated by a comet whose presence allows the realities to go on interacting with each other as they normally would not.But while "Coherence" focuses in on a suburban dinner party at night (and is staffed by not-very-well-known actors), "Triangle" has a pretty-deserted ship, with sun, sea and - significantly - seagulls. So maybe "Coherence" has better dialogue and is a bit more anchored in normality, but "Triangle" is more visually interesting and exciting and scary ... and (in my case, as in "reality" ... hopefully???) it CAME FIRST. All of that means that I'm being a bit unfair in comparing films, and that those with more limited sci-fi experience may indeed find "Coherence" a satisfying and novel watch; and it does OK with its premise, even if it is likely to lose most watchers on the detail, no matter how they try. But it is visually uninteresting, and hence a bit bland, and the gainsayers might always say: "why didn't everyone just lock their doors, stay in together, and sleep through to morning?" And there's no real answer to that...

I wish people would pay more attention to what motivated Schrödinger's analogy (describing the absurdity of the contemporary theory on quantum mechanics).Okay, I can accept that the characters are not savvy enough to talk knowledgeably about quantum mechanics, and the audience is equally ill-equipped to understand actual quantum mechanics... but, it seems the filmmakers themselves are ill-equipped to use anything but bad popular metaphysics. It's all just a pile of pseudoscience nonsense. Throwing "quantum" into a script doesn't make it science fiction. That's just the woo-ification of the word. Promoting the story as science fiction does no service to the audience or to science.But let's talk about the characters: why all the fear, paranoia, and hostility? Myself and people I know would have been filled with curiosity and wonder, had we been in the position of the film's characters. Are we supposed to believe that these characters are representative of average people, such as those of us in the audience? If so, it feels false, at best, and insulting at worst. Scripted hostility and paranoia tends to feel false to me in many films and shows, but it's even worse here. I think that the method of filmmaking used (notes and improv, rather than scripts) is exactly the cause: Instead of giving actors a well-drawn scripted story, with sensible character motivations, a room full of improv actors was forced to come up with their own interpretations based on a few daily notes given them by the director. It's no wonder that the notion of a room full of friends feels like a room full of isolated, disparate microcosms.The budgetary constraints are probably the major driver behind the contrived character behaviors: we can't have people engage in curiosity, because then the director would have to film the results. Instead, they're instructed to be fearful, so the director can keep the visuals simple and eliminate the need for extensive difficult in-camera tricks or expensive visual effects.I want to appreciate the effort and ideas tried in this film, but the end result left me irritated by the pseudoscience and the character behavior. This was not entertainment. It was an exercise in forcing myself to sit through something actively annoying. I could not identify with these paranoid and irrational characters. I would not have willingly spent an evening with these people in real life; watching them on screen for 88 minutes was more than enough. Was the filmmaker's goal to annoy the audience?There's no objective measure or accounting for taste, but seeing this film treated to praise such as "cerebral" (when that's not an insult, because anti-intellectualism) and "intelligent" just annoys me. It reminds me just how credulous and uncritical audiences are. In fact, there's a sad irony here: the characters, with their credulous consumption and regurgitation of bad pop science articles and woo are misinterpreted as "intelligent and aware" by an audience composed of exactly the same type of people.

'Coherence' is master example of what you can achieve with close to no budget, but enough inventiveness. Shot over five days with almost unknown cast (except maybe Nicholas Brendon from 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer') and mostly improvised scenes and dialogue. The writers (director James Ward Byrkit and Alex Manugian who also played the role of Amir) had only written just story and established rules while most of the witty dialogue were improvised by actors themselves, thus proving that the film doesn't need some superstars, but rather talented ensemble cast. Although the hand-held camera-work might seem to take viewer out of the story, it was just another way to give more room to the improvisation. Despite all of that the film manages to keep an eerie atmosphere, and the story movies on one continuous flow without getting sidetracked. The story also doesn't crumble into pieces under it's own ambitions. The twists hold together and actually makes sense. Although the final twist might seem to be rushed and thrown into there just for the sake of it, but it kinda fits and doesn't change the film's overall tone.'Coherence' is slow burning psychological science-fiction for a thinking person, and it holds up much better than most big budgeted pretentious science-fiction extravaganzas. Recommended especially for those who like independent sci-fi and/or films that take place in one room.

This is a great movie. Amazing story. It's been a while since i watched a movie this good