BABY INVASION

 “Just pretend it’s a fucking video game. Act like you’re in a movie or something.”

This quote from Spring Breakers feels like it leads directly into this heavily experimental film. In Baby Invasion, an independent Japanese game developer has been working on a video game that is supposed to be indiscernible from real life. In the game, players commit random crimes while their faces are scrambled to look like babies. While Baby Invasion is in an unfinished state, a Russian group hacks the software and releases the game worldwide. Chaos erupts. A good deal of people, put into a trance by the game, go out and re-enact crimes from the game.

What happens when you stop being able to discern real life from violent video games? How does spending all your time playing violent video games affect the way you see others and the world around you? How does it affect the way you interact with others and your ability to emphasize with and relate to others? These are all questions raised by Baby Invasion’s central conceit, unfortunately the film itself doesn’t really bother to explore these questions.

Imagine if you took all the scenes of crimes in Spring Breakers and cut out everything else. The result would be Baby Invasion. The set-up isn’t bad, but that’s literally all there is to this film. After the opening minutes, the remainder of the film consists of two lengthy robberies/murders. There is no plot, no characters, no character development, and seemingly no script.

There also appears to be very little to no in-camera/natural audio. Most of the auditory landscape consists of a never-ending thumping techno house score by Burial. The music drowns everything else out, and can get very old or annoying fast. On it’s own, the music might be ok but as an underscore to a theatrical film, it fails hard.

For most of the runtime it will be hard to tell if you are watching people playing the Baby Invasion game or actually acting out crimes from the game in real life, but that’s kind of the point. The film offers very small hints to what is going on, but it’s mostly left to audiences to decipher for themselves.

The one thing Baby Invasion has going for it is its consistently trippy and psychedelic visuals. Yes, it would appear Korine and crew relied heavily on AI while making this film, but you can’t argue with the results. The end product is definitely unlike any movie you’ve ever seen. This is one movie that is best viewed while under the influence of mind-altering substances.

Baby Invasion feels very similar to Spring Breakers. I LOVED Spring Breakers. I did not love this film. The lack of plot, characters, and a rooting interest mixed with the unending techno house score might prove to be too much for some (I’d dare say most). I imagine many will claim this film is aimless, without substance or merit. They’d be mostly right. There is a method to Korine’s madness, as per usual. It’s all in service of that central question: What happens when you stop being able to differentiate real life from violent video games?

Baby Invasion is interesting but tedious, lively but dull, thought-provoking but empty. It might be worth a watch if you like experimental films or are just looking for a flick to trip to, everyone else will find Baby Invasion to be a test of their patience.

2 STARS