Blu-Ray Review: A Glitch In The Matrix

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What is this thing we call reality? Is it real? Your mom will probably tell you that it is real and you need to get your ass out of bed and mowing the lawn. But is she really your mother? Is that really grass? When does it grow? What’s the point of it all? Well those are a few of the questions explored in A Glitch In the Matrix that does a deep dive into simulation hypothesis.

The movie starts off submerged in simulation with quite a few people being interviewed while covered in computer simulated avatars. Which is a perfect place to start since the computer and Virtual Reality have been able to create simulated realities. When you put on a VR headset, you are transported into a separate space. The film uses the movie The Matrix as an example of simulation since Keanu Reeves discovers his reality is all a lie and he’s really in a nightmarish hellscape attached to a giant computer and being used as a human battery for the evil overlords. Is this the true reality gets pushed quite a bit by the people in the film. Another major element in the documentary is video from Phillip K. Dick’s speech in France. During his talk, he describes being able to peek into other realities. This is what led him to write the novels that became Total Recall, Blade Runner, Man In the High Castle and Minority Report. He didn’t imagine these scenarios, he saw them in person in these alternate realities. So in a sense, Phillip K. Dick wrote non-fiction.

The dark side of people believing Simulation theory gets shown when a rabid Matrix fan tells us about the day he thought the movie was real. But instead of merely playing a videogame, he gets a shotgun and blows away his parents. It’s extremely chilling. The filmmaker illustrates the audio by creating a 3-D version of the crime scene. We’re given the killer’s view of the last minutes of his parents’ lives. This makes the theory a bit dangerous when people can use it to disassociate themselves from reality. While life seems like a videogame, you can’t treat people as Non-player Characters.

As someone who has worked on simulation programs including PreCog360 that used 360 photography to give people a sense of a city before they travel there, this film is enlightening and scary. One of the odd VR research projects that we had proposed was get someone messed on pills or booze, put a VR headset on them and make them experience things such as swimming with a whale or skydiving. Days afterward we’d put them on a lie detector and see if their mind would swear they really experienced these moments in their hazy memories. We could not get backing for the experiment Scientists somehow don’t like getting people drunk or high. When we proposed it to research think tanks, we were seen as mad. There was a fear of getting real data if VR could be used as a way to sneak memories into a brain. Could Simulation Theory be inflicted on people as a tool or even a weapon? Maybe someone will do this in a sequel to A Glitch In the Matrix.

The movie is another strange dip into conspiratorial subcultures from director Rodney Ascher. His previous documentaries including Room 237 about the clashing conspiracies people swear Kubrick had in The Shining. The El Duce Tapes about the outrageous rocker who pioneered nasty entertainment that’s taken over the cable dial. A Glitch in the Matrix is an enthralling look into people dealing with what really is reality in their life. Some swear it is a simulation as coincidences just happen when they think of things and they just happen. I’d be more into this thought if all the people who made things happen were also winners of the Powerball. That’s the reality I want to live in.

A Glitch In the Matrix is available on Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming and OnDemand.

Magnolia Pictures presents A Glitch In the Matrix. Directed by Rodney Ascher. Featuring Nick Bostrom, Joshua Cooke, Erik Davis, Paul Gude, Emily Pothast and Chris War. Rating: Rated Not Rated. Running Time: 108 minutes. Release Date: June 1, 2021.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.