NR

Runtime: 1 Hr and 31 Minutes

Production Companies: Foregone Film PSC, Fit Via Vi Film Productions, Lucky 13 Productions, Ottocento Films, SIPUR, Vested Interest

Distributor: Kino Lorber

Director: Paul Schrader

Writer: Paul Schrader

Cast: Richard Gere, Jacob Elordi, Uma Thurman, Victoria Hill, Michael Imperioli, Penelope Mitchell, Kristine Froseth

Release Date: December 6, 2024

As fun or scary as it is to ponder, we are likely not living inside the Matrix. But cinematically speaking, we are certainly living in a post-“The Matrix” world intoxicated by the possibility of a multiverse, as evidenced not just by noisy superhero fare and the Oscar-winning “Everything Everywhere All at Once” but also the more lush air of enchantment and doom pervading the German import “The Universal Theory.” Set against the ominous beauty of the Swiss Alps, the film is a post-WWII-set art thriller about a quantum physics wunderkind and a mysterious jazz pianist.

Call it blanc noir. Or hi-fi sci-fi. Or matinee fodder for the likes of Niels Bohr and Erwin Schrödinger. For sure, it’s a dreamy pastiche of the era’s moody, existential movies. Co-writer and director Timm Kröger effortlessly evokes the chilly unease of Antonioni, Welles and Tarkovsky while channeling plenty of Hitchcock vibes, mostly with an impressively full-blown orchestral score (by Diego Ramos Rodriguez) that could be a long-lost symphony of Bernard Herrmann’s. (Roland Stuprich’s black-and-white cinematography doesn’t hurt either.)

Kröger’s first scene is a cheesy ’70s talk show on which rattled-looking author Johannes (Jan Bülow) says his bestselling novel about parallel worlds isn’t fiction at all, a claim met with glib mockery from the host. We’re then transported to the monochrome widescreen of the early ’60s, when brainy, awkward PhD hopeful Johannes (looking much less splotchy) is working on his dissertation, traveling by train with his grumpy mentor Dr. Julius Strathen (Hanns Zischler) to a conference at a ski lodge.

Johannes’ overseer is no fan of “metaphysical rubbish,” which is where the young man’s energies are directed, particularly toward the universal wave function that suggests the existence of multiple realities. At the hotel, Johannes finds a like-minded thinker in Strathen’s old rival, the bombastic Blumberg (Gottfried Brietfuss). But he is also drawn to a coolly beautiful, enigmatic musician, Karin (Olivia Ross), who improbably knows his deepest childhood secrets and likes to say things to Johannes like “Leave me alone” seconds before cooing, “Be careful” and kissing him.

Something is genuinely off about the goings-on at the conference, from strange deaths and elevators that suddenly aren’t elevators, to a rash of scabby infections afflicting guests and the discovery of a subterranean tunnel. Not to mention, of course, the distinct possibility that no one is who they say they are. Or were. Or will be? (And you thought you had too many distractions when you were in school.)

You don’t need a master’s in wave-particle duality to enjoy the cosmic playground of coincidence and fate that Kröger has in mind. That being said, the director, a cinematographer making his feature debut, isn’t anywhere near David Lynch’s kind of subconscious-melting brilliance. “The Universal Theory” is overlong and ultimately a work more of the head than the heart, no matter how much that wall-to-wall throwback score swells with intention. The performances, too, are more likenesses than full characterizations, which, admittedly, is wholly in keeping with the perplexities being dramatized.

Kröger is nevertheless a gifted stylist with the language and pacing of classical movies. He knows how to play with that familiarity of composition and narrative just enough to have us riding his plot all the way to the end, when he leaves snowy Switzerland for the rest of the story (which includes a “film” of Johannes’ book that makes this life-is-simulation-is-cinema cycle mischievously complete). All in all, it’s a timeline — or two — of incident, regret, memory and ghosts (and movie love) that wouldn’t feel out of place on a double bill with one of Lars von Trier’s early-career sandboxes such as 1991’s “Zentropa.” Nothing in “The Universal Theory” is going to blow your mind, but as it plays its fastidiously crafted notes of conspiracy and chaos, you’ll know the idiosyncrasies of the art house are alive and well.

A still from ‘Black’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Tamil cinema’s tryst with high-concept thrillers is as rare as the occurrence of the Supermoon in Black — the new Jiiva and Priya Bhavani Shankar-starrer. The mind-bending thriller takes an intriguing concept and with able performers at the core, does a neat job of emulating the thrilling moments of Coherence, the 2013 Hollywood film on which it’s based.

In Black, Jiiva and Priya play Vasanth and Aranya, a couple who decide to chill at their newly constructed row-house villa within a gated community. But before the duo reaches the location where most of the film unfolds, we are told how back in 1964, a time-based strange occurrence happened during a supermoon. Unsurprisingly, the incomprehensible event occurs again and with no one to help, Vasanth and Aranya have to fight through what seems to defy the very law of time and physics as we know it.

With just two actors populating the majority of runtime, and almost the whole story evolving within the confines of a house in a gated community, the trump card of Black is how intriguing it is from start to finish. With scenes looping multiple times and considering the repeated sequences will have more scenes than what was shown the first time around, Black needed a strong technical team and debutant director KG Balasubramani pulls it off quite neatly along with cinematographer Gokul Benoy and editor Philomin Raj. The well-written screenplay neatly unfurls the questions in our minds even as the unravelling could have benefitted from better spacing.

After a series of shots establishing the personalities of Vasanth and Aranya, the relationship the couple shares and two annoying, unmerited songs, Black shifts to top gear the moment the couple occupy their new house. The film slowly amps up the thrills as the story progresses and despite having only two primary characters (unlike its source material), Black manages to keep us at the edge of our seats for the most part.

While the first half unravels at a break-neck speed, it’s in the second half where the shortcomings come in full view. There’s a scene where Vasanth, out of frustration, leaves his house dishevelled only for cops to think it has something to do with his missing wife. Though it might have felt like an organic scene while writing, it’s anything but that visually. The film’s most interesting aspect is the effect of the supermoon and how it casts a pitch-black force field within which our protagonists get trapped. Akin to a black hole, this field is so powerful that even light can’t reflect and acts as a portal to different timelines.

A still from ‘Black’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

But the explanation to this comes at the fag end of the film and while it can be brushed aside as a writing choice, this results in a buttload of exposition with terms like super-positioning and parallel reality to urban legends like the Bermuda triangle and thought experiments like Schrödinger’s cat thrown at us. While it might not hinder the experience of those accustomed to films on time-travel paradoxes, the references certainly overstay their welcome without much explanation to those alien to these concepts.

What makes it easy to look past these minor flaws, apart from the strong technical team, is the performance of the lead cast. While Jiiva makes a splendid comeback after a string of misses with a role that feels tailor-made for him, Priya scores in an equally important role as someone who asks the right questions to decipher the happenings to the audience without succumbing to the generic thriller trope of being the damsel in distress.

Despite reminding us of a slew of films and series on similar lines, Black does justice to the genre without taking its viewers for granted and spoon-feeding information. While the lack of a simplified explanation might be a common criticism, that’s what makes Black — along with titles like the Kannada film Blink which came out this year — stand apart from other films that lose their essence by challenging the audience’s intellect. A gripping screenplay, able performers and a strong technical crew, accentuate this well-written thriller; and Black manages to surpass its shortcomings and leaves us wishing we don’t have to wait for another supermoon for such flicks.

Black is currently running in theatres