Slice of Life

Scott Hardie: “It was ok.”

I happened upon this wordless Croatian sci-fi film on YouTube, and since wordless European films are apparently my jam these days, I figured, why not. It's billed as a tribute to classic sci-fi movies, but the aesthetic is almost completely borrowed from one film, Blade Runner. I was more impressed with it afterwards, when I read online that it was shot entirely using old-school in-camera effects like miniatures and forced perspective without any CGI; it's not easy to create the convincing illusion of a vast cityscape, but this little movie pulls it off. But while watching it? The story is derivative and feels like an excuse to show off the effects, and the written on-screen text consists almost entirely of gratingly old clichés. It's better thought of as a demo reel to earn the special effects team better projects in the future than as a film for mass consumption, I think.

− May 10, 2025 • more by Scott • log in or register to reply