LAPSIS

US, 2020, 105 minutes, Colour.

Dean Imperial, Madaline Wise, Babe Howard, James McDaniel, Frank Wood, Arliss Howard.

Directed by Noah Hutton.

Certainly an intriguing title. What could it mean?

This is an arresting first feature film by documentary maker, Noah Hutton.

Hutton creates a world in towns and countryside of upstate New York. Seems ordinary enough at first. There is Ray (Dean Imperioli), middle-aged, running a delivery service, very much concerned with his half brother, Jamie (Babe Howard) who is suffering from Omnia, a.k.a. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Ray would like to make more money so that Jamie could get the best treatment. Ray has some connections, often chats with Felix, who runs a bar (and who has some dubious associates).

However, there is an odd sequence with someone trying to set up a television set to show the credits for the film. Then there is a lot of talk about Quantum, the newest technology, which everybody needs adapting to for their mobile phones to run properly. This Bewildered As Ray a bit.

Then, this familiar world takes on something of a guise of a parallel world, not entirely an alternate world. We learn more and more about Quantum, about of its offering opportunities for ordinary citizens to make some money, laying Quantum’s cable through the countryside, a lot of it inaccessible, even difficult for hikers. The name of this cable-laying vocation is CBLR.

As said, Quantum makes this seem a parallel world – but, with technology corporations, media promotions, takeovers and amalgamations, and the revelation that there are huge seeming monoliths in the woods, will this be the actual world? Quantum power storage - and also little mini machines scratching through the countryside, laying cable, finding some of the terrain difficult, overtaking the cablers in order to cut off their income. The challenge for the cabler is to overcome (or, despite temptation), to destroy these little machines. Everything is controlled by apps, even the time taken for rest. The cablers camp out at night, form something of a community. And there are drones in the air, ready to cop drop more cable when requested.

This is in the world that Ray never imagined working in but, having checked Jamie into an expensive institution, and Felix giving him a special medallion to qualify him as a cabler, off he goes, trudging, puffing, earnest to finish his route, encountering some ordinary and some odd characters on the way.

The film spends quite a time out in the countryside, perhaps a bit repetitious and prolonging Ray’s experience.

And the question is, how would we feel if we were a cabler, controlled by the corporation, at its beck and call, minimal remuneration, capitalism rampant? Well, we might rebel, to say the least. And not just against the tech development corporations, but also manipulations and scams in healthcare!

And that is what is happening towards the end of the film.

And who or what is Lapsis? Actually the cabler’s name, originally from the inventor of the code who has now betrayed the company.

Some commentators have been critical of the ending – and, one is tempted to be critical because the film just seems to stop. But, maybe the filmmaker wants to make the point that there are no final victories, that we do what we can, a win here, a loss there…

(Noah Hutton has interesting credentials: he comes from a filmmaking family, actor Jim Hutton his grandfather, his parents Timothy Hutton and Debra Winger. And, included in his cast is his younger half-brother, Babe Howard, and his stepfather, Arliss Howard as an eccentric doctor on the phone.)

1. Title? Intriguing? The explanation? The code inventor? Codename?
2. The ordinary American settings, the town, jobs, deliveries, airports? Homes? Hospitals and institutions? The musical score?
3. The contrast with the out of doors sequences, the mountains and hills, nature? At home with nature? Sense of menace?
4. The ordinary world, yet a parallel world?
5. The film and its ironies, the emergence of satire, critique, expectations of a better world? The blend of the ordinary, the comic, intrusion of the sinister?
6. The critique of capitalism, technical developments in corporations, monopolies, pyramid schemes, exploiting the workers, criminal manipulation?
7. The world of technology, the opening credit and the machine to watch the film? All the discussions about the need for quantum, and his not being up-to-date? The plan to lay cable? The idea of CBLR? Recruiting workers? The apps, the information, the control? The drones, dropping cable from the sky? The workers, camaraderie, rivalries? The pay and the promise, special routes? The machines, their rivalling the humans, passing and overtaking, the threats to pay? The huge cube centres and the linking of the cable to the centre after six success with the root?
8. Ray, his appearance, age, not married, his delivery work, ordinary? Hopes for the betterment? His care for Jamie, Jamie and chronic fatigue syndrome, the need for care, out on the hike with Jamie and finding it hard, the institution, the plans, financial burdens, his agreeing?
9. Ray, the contact with Felix, the discussions, Felix and the information about CBLR, the medallion, the secrecy? Ray and his applications, travelling in the car, the other CBLRS, getting his orders? The allotment of the various routes, the payment for each route? Ray, the cart, the cable, the line, the terrain, the mountains, difficulties, need for rest, the app urging him on? Achieving routes? The offer of the high-paying route, his questions, phoning Felix? Felix and his friends and demanding a third of the fee? His decision to take the root?
10. Ray, his visits to Jamie, the phone calls, the doctor on the other end of the line, and his massage, suggestion for further treatments, further payments? Ray and his return, the receptionist, not allowing Jamie out, Ray’s disguise, the two escaping?
11. The range of people that Ray met on his tracks, help, advice, the camping, the tents, going to the canteen, the food, discovering he had many points? His puzzle? Anna and her lying sleeping, the encounters, the discussions, explanations, her help? The mischievous children and stealing from him? The barriers across the path?
12. Anna, the explanations, the issue of his codename, the unfolding of the story about the code establisher, betrayal?
13. Ray, getting Jamie out of the institution, collaboration with Anna, a gathering all the other protesters, who work in the unions, five years of work, the meetings, the sabotage, the communications and success? Putting the machines out of action?
14. The visit to Frank, his background with cabling, his retirement, the medications, the payment? The sinister atmosphere?
15. The rebels, their success? How temporary?
16. A satiric parable about corporations, capitalism, ordinary citizens as victims, the possibility of rebellion and success – even if temporary?