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Virtual Reality Trumps Human Connection In Comedy 'Creative Control'

By Joel Wicklund in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 18, 2016 6:36AM

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David (Benjamin Dickinson) is immersed in augmented reality in "Creative Control." (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.)

Smart and stylish, Creative Control is very much a movie of the moment. With technology and marketing increasingly the twin engines driving modern life, this witty and beautifully filmed satire targets how each affects personal relationships with their promises of immediate gratification and transformation.

Set in a Brooklyn of the very near future, the movie follows David (director, co-writer and star Benjamin Dickinson), who works in the creative department at a trendy advertising agency. He's been put in charge of marketing Augmenta, a breakthrough augmented reality system that works through Google Glass-styled eyewear.

As is often the case with new tech, Augmenta's potentially mind-blowing capabilities are first utilized for pornography. Testing the product, David creates a sex fantasy avatar using the image of Sophie (Alexia Rasmussen), a cute twenty-something who also happens to be dating his womanizing photographer pal Wim (a very funny Dan Gill). But fantasy intrudes on real life when David pursues Sophie, despite his long-term relationship with yoga instructor Juliette (Nora Zehetner).

Comparisons to Spike Jonze's Her (in which the lead character falls in love with a feminine operating system) are inevitable, but Creative Control is less about human-to-machine interaction than human-to-human interaction distorted by non-stop artificial stimulus. What the movie does share with Her, as well as Alex Garland's far more ominous Ex Machina, is serious consideration of our increasingly intimate relationship with technology.

Creative Control also has a broader view of what's ailing us. Glib New Age philosophizing, omnipresent anti-anxiety medications, and faux intellectual marketing jargon all take well-deserved shots in this mirror of an increasingly narcissistic society, forever searching for easy answers to life's dissatisfactions.

Dickinson, a veteran of commercials and music videos, skewers "pitch meeting" culture with precision. The casting of actual media and tech figures like Gavin McInnes (co-founder of Vice) and Jake Lodwick (co-founder of Vimeo) adds interesting wrinkles to an often-unflattering view of that world. Playing himself, comic and musician Reggie Watts (the proposed spokesman for Augmenta) brings a welcome note of absurdity to the process.

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Reggie Watts cyber-conferences with David in "Creative Control." (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.)

Outside of the workplace, Dickinson paints a portrait of brittle relationships among his privileged and self-centered characters. To some degree, he's exploring the same upscale, New York-obsessed territory as Woody Allen, though in a very different and much more vital vein. Allen (who is quoted praising the film on its website) has been almost hiding from modern culture since he first started making films. Dickinson tackles it head on.

Dickinson also shows a lot more visual imagination than perennially stodgy Woody. The nods to Michelangelo Antonioni and Stanley Kubrick may be a little too film school-centric for some tastes, but with so many recent films relying on cell phone aesthetics—jerky, handheld camerawork mainly capturing actors above the shoulders—it's a pleasure to watch a movie where every shot is so artfully composed. Dickinson and cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra's eye-catching black-and-white imagery might be accused of being too cold, but it suits the fragile, fussy egos of the characters perfectly. Modest but convincing special effects enhance the movie's minimal science fiction content.

Gill, Zehetner, Rasmussen and other cast members all get moments to shine, but the real casting coup is Dickinson himself. It's a dicey choice for a virtually unknown director to take the lead role in his own film, but he plays David with just the right combination of understatement and edge. The jaded ad man may be a pretty shallow, unsympathetic fellow, but the clinically fashionable milieu of his world helps you understand how he got that way.

This is the Wheaton native's second feature and it's getting a much bigger push than his debut (2012's First Winter) after being picked up for distribution by aggressive newcomer Amazon Studios. Amazon also produced Spike Lee's controversial Chi-Raq, which was a mess, but at least an ambitious one. This time out, they got ambition and superb execution. Creative Control announces Dickinson as a genuine talent worth keeping an eye on.

Creative Control. Directed by Benjamin Dickinson. Written by Dickinson and Micah Bloomberg. Starring Dickinson, Nora Zehetner, Dan Gill, Alexia Rasmussen and Reggie Watts. Rated R. 97 mins.

Opens Friday, March 18 at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago and AMC's South Barrington 30. (Benjamin Dickinson will appear to introduce screenings and host Q&As for select Music Box showings on Friday, March 18 and Saturday March 19. Check the theater's website for times.)