Loud spectacle is traded in for morbid melancholia in Oscar-winning director Benjamin Cleary’s new science-fiction movie Swan Music, out on Apple TV+. Starring two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali as twice the variety of folks he normally performs in movies, Swan Music is a slow-burn meditation on loss of life, and an assured instance of the form of inward-gazing, mid-scale sci-fi that’s getting rarer by the 12 months.
The entire thing has the vibe of Taylor Swift’s Folklore documentary, if it have been shot inside an Apple retailer. Swan Music marries melodrama with cutting-edge concepts rooted in emotion, and blends a cottagecore aesthetic with Hollywood slickness.
After an Everlasting Sunshine of the Spotless Thoughts-inspired meet cute aboard a prepare, the film jumps forward in time by a number of years, when illustrator Cameron discovers that he’s terminally ailing, however decides in opposition to telling his spouse, Poppy. He hears of an experimental new process by which dying women and men can rent an organization to create clones that may take their place once they die, leaving their households none the wiser.
Crucially, although, not one of the ideas that Cleary presents within the movie are far-fetched; they’re, as an alternative, an extension of tech that already exists. We predict synthetic intelligence and microbotics are near-fantastical notions, however actually, they’re simply at a nascent stage proper now. That is splendid for sci-fi storytelling, as a result of this fashion, you don’t waste time attempting to persuade the viewers to purchase what what you’re promoting. Proof-of-concept already exists.
Swan Music sounds just like the Black Mirror episode Be Proper Again solely as a result of it’s. And like Be Proper Again, Swan Music additionally spends an acceptable period of time pondering over the ethics of cloning. However crucially, it flips the angle. Whereas Be Proper Again was an exploration of grief instructed from the perspective of a lady who loses her companion in a automobile crash, in Swan Music, it’s Ali’s Cameron who pre-empts his spouse’s anguish and decides to clone himself. Issues are difficult solely as a result of he doesn’t seek the advice of Poppy about his dicey choice.
We all know how, within the palms of a much less assured director, ethical quandaries akin to this will change into inadvertently problematic on display. We’ve seen the Chris Pratt-Jennifer Lawrence film Passengers.
Nearly everything of Swan Music’s second act is dedicated to Cameron second guessing his choice. When he comes face-to-face along with his clone—the person who will quickly take his place—he understandably freaks out. Over conversations with, effectively, himself, Cam begins to marvel if the brand new him is a greater individual than he ever was. It is a theme that was (partially) addressed beforehand in One other Earth, a real masterpiece of the style that sadly by no means bought its due.
Swan Music isn’t nearly as good, however because of Ali’s soulful twin efficiency, stellar manufacturing design, and Masanobo Takayanagi’s shiny cinematography, it’s a movie that would (fittingly) discover its viewers lengthy after its launch window.
Swan Music
Swan Music director – Benjamin Cleary
Swan Music forged – Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Glenn Shut, Awkwafina
Swan Music ranking – 3 stars
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