The Meteor
On The Level (Experimental Visions) • 29-Apr-2014
An alternate history, or impending future, that imagines a catastrophic meteor strike in Kansas triggering odd disorders for those who breathe in a mysterious green mist. We're given three such stories, one of a Texas man who finds himself with superhuman strength, another, of a Brooklyn photographer who becomes invisible, and lastly, a California teenager who has the sudden ability to read people's minds. Told entirely with voice-over and found footage, it makes a convincing impression re: humans in crises. Despite the sci-fi premise, there is a very real nostalgia at the film's core. "I wanna be somebody again, but it's never gonna happen," says the invisible photographer, now in Hawaii, living an okay life but missing his family and his photographs. And the teenage girl, who once hated being with her dad on business trips, now relishes the opportunity to be alone in hotels, free from the burden of knowing what people actually think. "I'm realizing how dumb all my friends are, and how gross all guys are, how much I disappointed my dad." The human aftermath just as destructive as the extraterrestrial impact. Raving gangs terrorize anybody exposed to the mist, believing the meteor hole a gate to hell. A doomsday scenario demonstrated on an individual scale, made plausible by the truthful-sounding manner of speaking. Director Charles Griffin Gibson voices each of the characters and demonstrates great nuance finding three distinct personalities, making them funny & vulnerable.
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