The Sunset Special is a frankly singular, maximalist experimental film. No, AI has nothing to do with this grandiloquent bonfire, but no one will hold it against you for thinking so. The illusion is staggering.

Proudly sporting a deeply unsettling digital aesthetic and centered around virtual disenchantment in the age of late capitalism, the film presents itself as a sort of nightmarish rendition of a fantasy that may never have existed. Two characters find themselves on an island in the middle of nowhere, itself dotted with hideous skyscrapers, under a pixelated pastel sky, practically alone in the world. A woman has lost her daughter and a man complains about the poor state of public transportation. The perfect vacation, indeed.

Some will laugh nervously and others will likely frown at the sight of these lifeless 3D characters, but don't let the accumulation of glitch and psychedelia mislead you about the (presumed) shallowness of the message. The approach of the artist, Nicolas Gebbe, is total and thorough. Accompanying this film is a sequel made two years later, an installation, a website, and an interactive virtual environment; all of which breathe life into a multitude of reflections on the duality that makes up our modern neuroses. Where does our collective obsession come from—this desire to project our ideals into a digital environment fundamentally incapable of embodying them? The dream of the Web and the WWW has transformed into an actual nightmare zombifying everything on its path. This virtual world is no longer ours. Was it ever?

Jason Todd
Programmer and filmmaker

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