ScreenLife film creation, the process of telling a movie story entirely through the characters’ computer screens, is the type of gimmick that is usually bad in theory and is worse in practice. There is Smart exceptionsBut the pandemic year we spent watching mediocre TV produced over zoom and how much time many of us are still professionally obliged to spend on video calls enough to see them for pleasure to sound like a scary suggestion.
The format is best known for the films “unfriendly” and “search” as both were Produed by Timur Bekmambetovwho has entered the screenlife story. The niche mogul is also behind ”Life chop“Ronan Corrigan’s directorial debut that tries to give FaceTime screens and disagreements” Ocean’s 11 “treatment.
For Kyle (Georgie Farmer), the Internet is the ultimate playground. Smarter and savvies about digital spaces since virtually everyone else he meets online, he spends his days discovering fraud online and fools them back before they have a chance to hurt anyone. He is Robin Hood of Shitposting, but the 17-year-old feels ridiculous (but related) pressure to achieve something massive at the age of 19, when so many of his heroes launched their own technical startups. The only problem is that he has no ideas that match his ambition.
If you can’t build anything, you might as well steal from others, and he and his disagreements Alex, Sid and Petey will soon come with a plan. The chaotic billionaire and clear Elon Musk Stand-in Don Heard (Charlie Creed-Miles) have recklessly talked about his crypto investments, which led Kyle to believe that there is a way to track down his wallet and steal his funds with only publicly available information. They Quickly devise a scam that starts with building an online presence for a fake modeling agency, Signing His Daughter (Jessica Reynolds) as a client (Which Requires Her Father’s Signature SINCE SHE’S UNDER 21), Using the Personal In Hack Into DO HACK INTO HACK TO HAC Card, Perusing His Notes App To Find His Passwords, and Opening His Crypto Wallet and Transferring $ 100,000 Worth of a Memecoin Into Kyle’s Account.
It goes without problems, but they suspect that there is much more where it came from. Four are soon in Cahoots with Don’s foreign daughter, who quickly caught on his plan and gets his help stealing another $ 20 million from him. A larger plan requires greater logistics, and when they are physically forced to break into his office (of course, appear over Facetime screens), they attract the type of law enforcement attention that can track their adult lives before they even have a chance to start them.
The screenlife format will not be for everyone, but “Lifehack” differs from its increasingly repetitive predecessors with the joy and energy it captures in its polymate characters. To Kyle and his thieves bands, the internet is not an insulation chamber, it is the place where they really feel most at home. Zippy editing and an energetic score ensures that film Never stalls long enough to feel like doomscrolling, and the characters’ lack of life experience allows them to turn even the most serious subjects into a big joke. It sometimes plays as a far -reaching disturbing version of Harmony Korine’s “baby invasion,” Sucks you into an addictive rhythmic crime that develops against a background of thousands of Reddit tabs and JPEG miniature pictures.
I doubt ScreenLife will ever exceed Gimmick status. Film guests have always looked at the cinema for escape from everyday life, and many of the most everyday parts of our lives are found in these hollow digital communication methods. But “Lifehack” can be very convincing in its argument that younger generations can feel different. The Internet is the closest that these teenage cybertieves have for a real life, and Corrigan’s dopamine attack on a movie is a genuine portrait of the most vivid they have ever been.
Rating: B.
“Lifehack” premiered at SXSW 2025. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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