Review of Anon (2018) by Troy K — 14 May 2018

We're living in an era where we do almost everything online. We shop online, we listen to music online, communicate with our friends online, post everything from photos of what we're eating online, to when we hang out with friends or our significant others.

In short, the more technological advances and the internet becomes even more a part of our lives, the more we'll leave a digital footprint for some...unsavory people to pick up on and, unfortunately, use for their own benefits, whichever those may be.

I've always believed the need that, unless you're clearly doing something illegal, we should be allowed to have our own privacy to browse what we want and do what we want online. There's nothing wrong with anonymity in a world that, really, seems to be stripping away that anonymity one layer at a time.

Remember the NSA scandal from a few years ago or the recent Facebook scandal. Unless you know how to cover your tracks, chances are that someone can see everything you do online. Of course, anonymity can also be toxic in that someimes some fucking assholes hide behind anonymous accounts, without a profile photo, in other to harass others because, essentially, they have no life.

I have no problem with these people being exposed, to a point. You're using it to try to cause harm, in some cases, and you don't have the balls to do so using your own name and pic? Fuck that shit.

There's no problem with being anonymous if you're trying to just keep to yourself. Regardless, that's neither here nor there. It was only, really, a matter of time until this type of semi-dystopian (though it doesn't really take place in one) movie came along, using our obsession with the online world in order to tell a story about the morally ambiguous about whether or not it's a good idea (it's not) for the government to be able to see everything we do, with this implant in your eye (imagine Google Glass or something), where you do everything from.

You call people from this, make transactions, play games using this device, etc, etc. Basically, it seems, that everyone has this by law and the government can see absolutely everything you do. If you commit a crime, you are immediately told by this implant to turn yourself in and everything you see and do is stored in your implant, so Sol, a police detective, can look back and see exactly what happened at the moment in time, in case you were doing anything illegal.

Imagine 1984 for the modern age, except not as good or as socially relevant. The story is fairly simple, there's this anonymous hacker that can alter the record of anyone, if you pay enough. She can make an affair look like you were just spending a night relaxing at home.

A drug purchase is made to look like regular stroll and so on and so forth. So, this woman's clients' start being killed. But, since the murdered people have their mind's eye (that's the name of the device) hacked, they can only see from the killer's perspective, not their own.

So, obviously, this makes identifying the killer impossible. Look, here's the thing. This is a movie that's definitely got the potential to, at least, be somewhat intriguing. I don't think anybody ever expected this movie to go into 1984 territory in its exploration of its dystopian themes and how this mind's eye thing, quite literally, invades your life whether you want it or not.

You can't even jerk off without knowing that somebody is watching you. I mean, what's the fucking point, right? The movie doesn't really touch on those ideas. There's a conversation between Sol and Anon, I guess is her pseudonym, right before the movie ends where they discuss if it's right or wrong and it's something an amateur filmmaker would come up with.

There's no subtlety or nuance. There's no shades of grey, it's just black and white. I've never liked the idea of the government spying in on its citizens, but I can't deny that sometimes online anonymous community are just absolutely toxic and need to be done away with.

I'm not saying I agree with the mind's eye implant, because I don't, I feel like it's an egregious invasion of privacy and knowing that someone, somewhere might be looking through my eyes during my most intimate moments, that's just completely unacceptable to me.

That's neither here nor there, but the movie does as little as possible with this. Here's the thing, though, the film deals with the investigation into this series of murders and they spend a lot of time trying to get a look into Anon's mind's eye.

They achieve this, somehow. And, after that, it's just a lot of...looking. Just sitting there and...looking. Anon goes to the bathroom and everybody...looks. Anon wipes her ass and everybody...looks.

It gets to be a little, no, a LOT boring to just watch these detectives, really, sitting around and doing nothing, hopeful that Anon will slip up and give them a clue as to her whereabouts. Even outside of the investigation into Anon, there's just a lot of.

..looking. People just sitting and...looking. There's also the commercial interests involved, people who don't give a shit about the people that are dying, all they care about is the fact that Anon is making their system useless.

But this isn't really used that much, so I have to wonder why it's even there. There's no real roadblock the asshole in question sets up for them. He just cares about why Anon is anonymous and how he can change that, but he doesn't impede the investigation in any way.

It goes on as it should, so, again, one wonders what the point of it all was. Look, I'm giving this two stars and, maybe, I'm being generous, but I had no problem with this movie. I really didn't.

I mean I DID have problems, but it's not like I hated my experience fully. I just wish the movie capitalized on its concept more instead of it just being a boring police procedural with a futuristic twist.

The acting is fine. I like Clive Owen, but there's no denying that he's quite bland. I feel like he can be charming in a deadpan manner if he so wishes, but most of the times I feel like he'd just rather be doing anything else.

Like getting a prostate exam, as an example. Doing cocaine off a hooker's ass, though, to be fair, wouldn't all of us rather be doing that? Seriously though, guy is as uninspired as ever here.

There's a few moments where he tries, but those aren't enough and they certainly don't outnumber the bits where he looks like he'd rather be anywhere else than where he is. Amanda Seyfried is always good, but there's nothing to her character.

I feel like everything about this movie is a missed opportunity, honestly. There's nothing unique about this, given that 1984 and Minority Report are still in existence, but there's still a good idea here that's squandered under a bland narrative.

Watchable, but not really worth watching. There's better movies out there that are worth your time.