FANTASIA 2020 | "Lapsis" Is A Timely Cautionary Sci-Fi Feature
9/12 ForReel Score | 3.5/5 Stars
In Lapsis, competing with tech to earn a living is no walk in the park; it’s often a grueling trek through the wilderness. The premise here pits people against robots in a gig-economy that requires cables to be routed between large cubes in forested work areas. In an culture where workers are incessantly encouraged to “challenge your status quo”, director Noah Hutton has designed a world that is scary to think about, featuring parallels to our current world that may hit close to home for many.
Lapsis is about a delivery driver named Ray (Dean Imperial) who needs to find a way to pay for treatment of his younger brother’s ailment known as Omnia. When Ray is offered an inside opportunity to cable for a data transferring conglomerate for extra money, he takes on the challenge. This forces Ray to navigate the worlds of wilderness and tech - two fields he knows very little about. As he learns the new, often arduous, rules of this environment, he meets Anna (Madaline Wise) who helps him along the way. But when Ray is met with adverse reactions to his assigned trail name, Lapsis Beeftech, he learns that there is more to his role in this endeavor than he was originally led to believe.
It’s a precarious scenario that Ray finds himself in, where the only thing more ghastly than the exuberant cost of his brother’s Omnia treatment - a subject with it’s on subtext in the film - is the stringent conditions cablers are subjected to in order to earn their wage. The cabling job is pitched with sensational and trendy appeal. But with a GPS app constantly nagging about unauthorized rests periods, unplanned deviations, and cablers challenging their status quo, it’s easy to draw parallels between this line of work and that of real tech companies like Uber or Amazon.
Madaline Wise (left) and Dean Imperial (right) in Lapsis.
Lapsis even takes swipes at successful people who mistake hard work with privileged circumstances. While Ray outside of the cabling community is an average worker, his Lapsis Beeftech medallion in the cabling area affords him a wealth of currency and access to valuable routes that some take years to attain. Anna - subdued, strong-willed, and admirably straightforward - calls Ray out on this in a way that many struggling Americans would like to call out select millionaires and billionaires who were handed the success they enjoy.
Health care. Labor conditions. Privilege. Lapsis addresses a lot in such a concise story. And I’m happy to say the production enlists the right cast and crew to pull it off, because one thing robots and automation has not taken over yet is great and entertaining storytelling. This cautionary tale offers an opportunity to reflect on where society is headed, and if it looks as alarming as what occurs in Lapsis, then yes, we should be challenging the status quo.
Acting and Casting - 1 | Visual Effects and Editing - 2 | Story and Message - 2 | Entertainment Value - 2 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 1 | Reviewer's Preference - 1 | What does this mean?
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