The Man from Toronto (2022 film)
2022
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Jun 17, 2022 · “Spiderhead,” the latest film from Joseph Kosinski after last month’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” agrees with me, because with its many similarities it even has its mad scientist—played by a winking Chris Hemsworth—grooving to pop music. But the individual significance of "Spiderhead" is a larger issue, and it's ultimately not nearly as ...
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In a state-of-the-art penitentiary run by brilliant visionary Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth), inmates wear a surgically attached device that administers dosages of mind-altering drugs in exchange...
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Spiderhead Reviews. All Critics. Top Critics. All Audience. Verified Audience. Bhuvanesh Chandar The Hindu. This dystopian sci-fi thriller has everything in its arsenal to pull off something...
Jun 16, 2022 · ‘Spiderhead’ Review: Prisoners of the Mind. This latest Joseph Kosinski film — set in a penitentiary that dispenses aphrodisiacs and fear-inducers — couldn’t be more unlike his “Top...
- A sci-fi prison drama with some engaging ideas.
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By Siddhant Adlakha
Updated: Jun 15, 2022 4:49 pm
Posted: Jun 13, 2022 6:42 pm
Spiderhead debuts on Netflix on June 17, 2022.
From director Joseph Kosinski, Spiderhead is a contained story with a unique tonal approach to familiar sci-fi ideas. It’s a tale of experimental, emotion-inducing drugs, and the inmates who sign up to be pharmaceutical guinea pigs, and it has a tactile quality — in line with Kosinski’s stellar Top Gun sequel — at least at first. While it eventually loses itself down a disappointingly conventional path, it remains intriguing for long enough to be a worthwhile watch.
Written by Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Spiderhead opens in a futuristic white room, where a man named Ray (Stephen Tongun) is told simple jokes and puns over a microphone from behind a two-way mirror. He chuckles, perhaps a little harder than you’d expect, but when the disembodied voices trade in their joke book for facts about genocide, Ray is overcome by fits of riotous laughter. This bizarre introduction, revealed to be an experiment for a laughter drug, brings us into the Spiderhead, a prison testing site on a lush, isolated island, where charismatic tech leader Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth) runs novel drug trials with his diligent assistant, Mark (Mark Paguio).
However, Spiderhead isn’t your average incarceration facility. It’s an upgrade of sorts, where convicted felons who signed up are transferred from gen-pop, and have the option of living in an open-door community (albeit one without much sunlight), with large rooms, common living spaces, and fully equipped kitchens. It looks more like a Norwegian prison than an American one, but what makes it unequivocally American is its unapologetically capitalist function. The prison’s incarcerated bodies are at the mercy of an anonymous, unseen corporate board, who use them to test various mood-altering substances. These drugs are inserted into their systems via compact cartridges permanently affixed to their lower backs, and controlled by an app on Steve’s smartphone. Where things get hazy is that no experiment can be run without the prisoners’ consent, but the film seems to ask, both loudly and early: how willing can their choices really be?
To make matters murkier, the prisoners’ day-to-day demeanors are mostly chipper. Jeff (Miles Teller) happily prepares hors d'oeuvres with Lizzy (Jurnee Smollett), whose flirtatious interactions imbue the film with a lively energy, matched by its upbeat editing and music choices. Steve, who’s seemingly at the mercy of higher powers himself, even mingles with Jeff and Lizzy; they all appear to be friends. The experiments Jeff partakes in mostly concern a drug that makes him see beauty in ugly surroundings, followed by another that makes him more verbose so he can better describe what he sees. He’s not entirely dissatisfied with his position, given the traditional alternative.
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An original sci-fi film about prisoners, experimental drugs, and the nature of consent, Joseph Kosinski’s Spiderhead begins as an engaging sensory experience, led by Chris Hemsworth as a slimy tech mogul and Miles Teller as a willing inmate. Despite a few too many conventional turns, it remains a worthwhile watch.
- Siddhant Adlakha
Jun 13, 2022 · Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller in Netflix’s ‘Spiderhead’: Film Review. Jurnee Smollett also stars in Joseph Kosinski's darkly comic thriller based on a George Saunders short story.
Jun 16, 2022 · There’s something devious about the playfulness of Netflix’s Spiderhead. The sci-fi thriller, led by a dapper Chris Hemsworth, takes place at a remote prison slash research center, where ...
