Review of Equals (2015) by Brett B — 13 Jul 2016

EQUALS is beautifully photographed, and boasts a pair of quite strong central performances, but even those attributes aren't enough to override the feeling that nothing terribly new has been brought to the table.

What we're dealing with here is yet another portrait of a sterile future of bland and nondescript conformity, where a transformational "awakening" on the part of a few characters upsets the status quo - as such, to say that EQUALS liberally draws from classic science fiction of the likes of LOGAN'S RUN and THX-1138 would be an understatement.

Visually, however, the movie is engaging in its usage of color, long lenses, and idiosyncratic framing; also, the costume and production designs work hand-in-hand to give this odd society a slick futurism which compliments the cinematography.

Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart deliver controlled performances which gradually open up to allow for more emotional engagement, and both are very solid. There is a definite sensuality - even eroticism - in the way the characters discover their feelings for each other, and this is effective stuff because it appears as melancholic and bittersweet, rather than salacious or overly titillating.

In the final analysis, there's just not much freshness to be found here (at least in terms of the premise or the structure), though it's a perfectly fine encapsulation of the classic sci-fi ideas it's playing with.