the peripheral movie review

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, prime video's the peripheral is a sci-fi slog.

Prime Video’s “The Peripheral” seems to have everything, except the intrigue to keep you watching. Its story plays with time travel, simulations and avatars, faceless robots, secret missions, and something about the apocalypse. But there’s also American veterans protecting their own in backwoods shootouts, a 21st century version of Boss Hogg, and invisible cars. There’s imagination in this story, with a budget to support it, but this sci-fi slog always finds a way to make these pieces cancel out each other when it comes to telling a curious story.  

Describing “The Peripheral” is its own exhausting task: based on the book by William Gibson , the series imagines a future (2090) in which people in the real world can be controlled by someone using a headset. In this case, it’s Flynne ( Chloe Grace Moretz ), back in 2030s North Carolina, who gets the headset from her brother Burton ( Jack Reynor ) courtesy of a mysterious Colombian company that wants him to try it out. Flynn works at a shop that 3D prints anything needed and has a bike that quietly cuts through the quiet Blue Ridge Mountain roads. Those are about the most intriguing facets about her, which is more than other fictional beings lost in the plotting’s gobbledygook.  

When Flynn puts on this headset, she enters into a simulation (appearing as Burton), which is a lot like a video game tutorial. A voice in her head tells her where to go and teaches her commands like “I have arrived” to open doors, while a desolate but noir-ready London carries itself ominously. With arrows gently flashing on the road, guiding her vehicle like a game, Flynne arrives to a mission that includes seduction, kidnapping, and learning that she can rip her skin off to reveal a robot hand. But this is a different feeling than just Flynn wearing a headset for her virtual reality gaming; the pain is real, like getting a kick in the stomach while plugged into the matrix in “ The Matrix .”  

“The Peripheral,” adapted by Scott B. Smith , isn’t content or focused enough with the intrigue of playing avatar inside sci-fi noir future. Instead it gets tangled up with an added conspiracy to have Flynn and Flynne killed back in the 2030s, which requires Burton to recruit his drinking and war buddies, including Connor ( Eli Goree ), who lost his legs and an arm, but rides around on a badass unicycle and gives cold glares when not disarmed by booze. A local drug lord and businessman named Corbell Pickett ( Louis Herthum ) is brought into the mix when some armed men with invisible SUVs and automatic weapons just don’t cut it.  

“The Peripheral” plays with two worlds, the present of North Carolina, where people drink beer while a dull yellow haze covers their daylight, and the future in cloudy London, where everyone looks as fancy as possible and casually use terms like “atavistic.” Neither world, despite the attention given to them by the production designers and costuming, feels more than a bit hollow, or anything other than an appeal to both the heady sci-fi fans at the same time as those who watch “Reacher,” “The Terminal List,” etc. And maybe worst of all, the series is full of gummy North Carolina and British accents, which gives little life to its reams of self-conscious exposition meant to make sense of what’s really going on.  

It’s all so cluttered, and so laborious by the writing and therefore even more laborious to keep up with. Worst yet, the emotional stakes are lost in the mess, despite the focus of a brother and sister relationship bonded by their care for their tumor-afflicted mother, and the respect the siblings have for each other. But it’s not until episode four that the series gives a sense of what’s really going on here, of what we should be afraid of, and does so with a flashy “museum” presentation that illustrates what catastrophic events happened before these stark 2090s. There’s repeated mention about Flynne’s first mission leading to the disappearance of a key figure from this future named Aelita West ( Charlotte Riley ), and a backstory with Flynne's mentor Wolf Netherton ( Gary Carr ), but it does not create the intrigue a mystery box like "The Peripheral" needs.  

The less dialogue-driven sequences don’t fare much better—“The Peripheral” inserts bits of action into the story, but they are continuously dull. Watching some men exchange bullets in the nighttime, with call-and-response editing, shares the same boring quality of when some hackers battle it out across different timelines, furiously typing on keyboards to a standard thriller’s score. It’s telling that the series wants to make a plea for being more exciting with these sequences but reveals how little else it has to offer when it comes to basic thrills.  

Despite being ambitious with its different pieces, if not overzealous in how it packs them all in, “The Peripheral” (with a backwards “R” in the title card, thanks very much) is wildly stuffy. The damage of this bland tone is far-reaching: performances become monotonous, the world-building doesn’t have a grandiose sense of growth, and the general wonder behind the time-jumping, body controlling premise of “The Peripheral” is lost. It’s as if the creators forgot that this is more or less all about a video game, and that we don’t play them for the cut scenes.  

Five episodes screened for review. "The Peripheral" premieres on Prime Video on October 21st.

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Amazon’s The Peripheral turns a piercing William Gibson novel into generic sci-fi

The new adaptation waters down the book’s bite in favor of more straightforward action.

By Alexis Ong

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Of all William Gibson’s books — most of which are considered unadaptable for so many reasons — The Peripheral is arguably the most well-suited to the screen as a series. On its face, the 2014 novel comes ready to go with a compelling tale-of-two-worlds premise: rural, small-town America meets a post-apocalyptic, nanotech-fueled London that follows the god-given European tradition of seeking to colonize anything with a profitable heartbeat. It’s got ordinary people getting mixed up in powerful secrets, recognizable near-future technology, and a trademark barrage of Gibsononian terminology — klepts, polts, neoprims — that you pick up along the way from context and extrapolation. The book is considered one of Gibson’s more accessible and engaging works; sure, some of it hasn’t “held up” well over the years, but (and this is a hill I will die on) cyberpunk and its offshoots aren’t genres meant to age like fine wines.

This review contains light spoilers for Amazon’s adaptation of The Peripheral .

Amazon Studios’ take on The Peripheral goes something like this: in the near-ish future, Flynne Fisher (Chloë Grace Moretz) is an average girl in a small town (probably in the Carolinas somewhere) who also happens to be pretty damn good at gaming. She and her brother, Burton (Jack Reynor), take freelance VR gaming jobs playing for rich people. Burton is an ex-Marine from an elite Haptics unit, a squad of his hometown friends who were all recruited together to exploit their ready-made sense of camaraderie. Their mother (Melinda Page Hamilton) is sick and blind, and Flynne, who works at a 3D printing shop, keeps things running while Burton and his friends drink beer and play with drones. Flynne’s world is a dramatized extension of present-day American capitalism, complete with predatory medical care, corporate infrastructure in rural areas where everyone relies on HeftyMart, and omnipresent drug manufacturers (“builders” in the book) in an age where anyone can print anything.

Flynne ends up taking a job playing a new experimental sim set in London that requires wearing a mysterious headset. She realizes a little too late that something feels off, and she sees things that she shouldn’t be seeing. She meets Wilf Netherton (Gary Carr), a contact for the shady Columbian company Milagros Coldiron that supposedly hired her for her gaming skills, and Aelita West (Charlotte Riley), a mystery woman with an axe to grind. When Flynne gets back to the real world, she discovers there’s a bounty put out on her family as a result of getting involved with this so-called game. As the characters scramble to gain a foothold in both worlds, it becomes clear that she hasn’t been playing a sim — it’s actually a version of the future (I would ordinarily not have chosen to put this so explicitly in a review, but marketing for the show straight-up gave away the reveal on social media).

• William Gibson interview: time travel, virtual reality, and The Peripheral

As with all adaptations, The Peripheral comes with changes; unfortunately, in this case, they’re to the detriment of the story. In the book, Gibson does a great job exploring celebrity and power and the delicate work of managing optics in a post-social media world — the complex art of seeing, watching, being seen, and being watched. He goes all in on the trends and cultural crutches we use to prop up our withered attention spans, and to this end, the book is packed with some truly awesome trainwrecks, like self-absorbed artists doing poorly thought-out stunts in spectacularly bad scenarios. The show keeps none of that. Wilf, originally a charming alcoholic mess of a publicist, gets downgraded to a generic fixer character who just sort of exists on the periphery of the rich and powerful. Several key characters get absorbed and combined into one. Flynne, deliberately a reticent, voyeuristic character in the book to underscore the larger themes at play, becomes a much more conventional, proactive heroine on screen, which makes sense if you’re playing to Westworld fans tuning into to see a new Dolores type making her way toward self-empowerment. 

And then there’s London. In the fourth episode, Wilf reveals that an apocalypse-like series of events called The Jackpot — a domino effect of climate change, multiple pandemics, and thirty-two flavors of disaster — has decimated the future, so all the people that Flynne has been “seeing” on London’s streets are just technological placebos to ease the misery of Wilf’s empty reality. In the book, London is described as pretty much… London, except with the presence of structures called “shards.” In the show, we get colossal, overgrown, tacky Greco-Roman statuary dotting the city, surrounded by blocky clouds of what I can only imagine are the Assemblers (fictional nanotech being used to rebuild post-Jackpot society). It feels like a leftover mood board idea from Westworld like a crude afterthought tacked on to emphasize the idea that narcissists and oligarchs run the city. 

It is truly difficult to escape the Westworld comparisons while watching The Peripheral — with the flat-affect monologues and serene androids, it’s more of an extension of Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s world than a heartfelt adaptation of Gibson’s. This particular vision of The Peripheral has chosen, for some reason, to nuke the book’s most incisive social and cultural features and replace it with a tepid extension of the Westworld formula to presenting artificial life: a shallow, cosmetic exploration of lifeless dolls onto which we can project our hopes, dreams, and desires. It’s clear that London is a power fantasy for Flynne, Burton, and their friend Conner (Eli Goree), a triple amputee who is determined to find a way to live in the future in a peripheral body. But it’s a fantasy without the bite or weirdness or idiosyncrasies that made the source material so engaging, to begin with. It’s also a show that can’t handle the way Gibson writes relationships — not romantic ones but ambiguous, awkward, pleasantly tense friendships — so, of course, they make the main characters kiss. 

The meatiest part of the story (here’s a spoiler) is that Fishers’ world is simply one “stub” of many — a past history that branched off from reality when “continua enthusiasts” in the future found a way to exchange data with the past. It’s not time travel, but a way to influence things from afar (hence, the peripherals, cutting-edge artificial bodies that basically act as telepresence robots) like rigging the lottery or setting up a fake shell company to run a fake game. In the end, though, it gets flattened into a rote story about Flynn and Burton “leveling the playing field” and getting what’s theirs.

Book-Flynne’s original jaunt into London was as a security drone operator, where she gets to watch a very fancy party as an outsider who isn’t supposed to be there. There’s a fantastic Rear Window voyeur quality to the original incident that would have been dynamite to play out on screen. But instead, it’s translated into a basic Hollywood action sequence. Even the omnipresent Michikoids — ceramic robots that can morph into killing machines with unnerving spider-like eyes — feel like Westworld leftovers. “This ain’t just another sim,” I watch one character repeat after another as I reach for The Peripheral novel to remind myself that a better world exists. 

It’s not all bad, though. There are some truly entertaining moments in later episodes involving Flynne’s bestie Billy Ann (Adelind Horan) and an acerbic ex-hitman named Bob (Ned Dennehy) who gets hired to kill the Fishers. The scenes with Bob are a breath of fresh air, and I love how Alexandra Billings plays Inspector Ainsley Lowbeer, one of the strongest characters in the book who is woefully under-utilized in the show. The smarmy Russian Lev (JJ Feild), Wilf’s klept “friend,” exudes all the charm and confidence that should have rightly gone to Wilf. There’s also a brief moment when a body-mod specialist mentions the possibility of giving a client retractable titanium razor claws, which is a fun Easter egg for Gibson enthusiasts who yearn for a Neuromancer adaptation. Unfortunately, when Ash (Katie Leung) finally says what nobody wants to say — that Flynne’s “stub” of altered history is simply another form of colonialism where the rich and powerful of the future can act as imperialists — it feels much too late to throw that in as a hook. 

On the merits and methodology of evaluating book-to-screen adaptations, Sean T. Collins said it best in his review of the Rings of Power finale — that change is value neutral, and there shouldn’t be moral judgments levied on adaptations. Instead, says Collins, we should examine whether the new adaptation has elevated or improved upon the source material and whether this new visual version of the story has generally upheld the source material’s tones and themes. The first six episodes of The Periphera l have felt, at best, like a poor misunderstanding and handling of the source material where all the character and flavor have been strained out in favor of a much more familiar, easy action romp. The novel is a testament to Gibson’s strength as a keen observer of trends and linguistics and the way he can spin the future into sharp, clever setpieces that we can recognize without feeling too alienated.

I can’t help but feel that this was a wasted opportunity to bring to life a world that resonates so well with our current media landscape — a world begging for an adaptation that understands why we watch what we watch and do what we do.

The Peripheral is streaming on Amazon Prime Video on October 21st.

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The Peripheral Review: Epic Sci-Fi From the Makers of Westworld

The Peripheral, a big new sci-fi series on Prime Video, is a distinct adaptation of the William Gibson novel that's often confusing but mostly works.

"Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts [...] A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding." So wrote William Gibson in the 1984 novel Neuromancer, quite a while before 'cyberspace' became a common term to denote the shared unreality of our digital interactions.

Gibson is credited with creating the 'cyberpunk' aesthetic, merging cinematic neo-noir imagery with visionary science-fiction, relentless action, disgruntled and disaffected working class characters, and intellectual ideas into a truly distinct style. His work has been celebrated and influential, but aside from writing the screenplays for the abhorred Johnny Mnemonic and a couple great episodes of The X-Files , Gibson's vision has never been realized cinematically. The Peripheral , a new series on Prime Video , is here to change that.

A grand, mysterious, and unique show that certainly stands out in the televisual landscape, The Peripheral is a new project from Westworld masterminds Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, along with the brilliant director Vincenzo Natali, and stars Chloë Grace Moretz as Flynne Fisher, a young woman who, while trying to support her struggling family, finds herself swept up in a deadly battle for the future. While it may be occasionally confusing and bite off more than it can chew, The Peripheral does justice to Gibson's vision, creating a distinct, well-acted, and labyrinthine sci-fi mystery in the process.

The Strange Sci-Fi World of William Gibson's The Peripheral

The opening images of The Peripheral are stunning and set the tone, telling audiences that this is not their world. The camera moves through the smoke of launched cannonballs and heavy artillery, past archaic wooden sloops (those old-fashioned pirate ships), hovering over the water until it reaches a park bench occupied by a man named Wilf. Sitting on the sidewalks of London, Wilf watches this fiery orchestra of violence in what seems to be a tiny river carved out through the city. It's all very surreal and disorienting, and a perfect introduction to this world.

Of course, it's also confusing, even if it does mostly all come together in the end. Like much of The Peripheral 's first half, none of this introduction is explained well, and The Peripheral consistently drops you into already fleshed-out, pre-developed worlds where there is little to no exposition that would orient a viewer. While this may be frustrating or confusing to a viewer, if anything, it captures the true spirit of Gibson's literary work, which so often eschewed traditional explanations and were written as if from the future. Readers (and now viewers) simply had to become accustomed to this brave new world.

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If viewers are fine wading through the waters of this environment, they'll find themselves floating into the quiet life of the Fishers. Flynne may be the young, gorgeous daughter in the Fisher family, but she's certainly the most capable of the bunch. Her life in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains of 2033 is simple and somewhat depressing, taking care of her deeply ill mother and helping her snide, somewhat lazy brother Burton.

Flynne makes a little money in the usual ways of the 'convenience and hospitality industry,' but the biggest payoffs often come when she and her brother take on difficult missions in a completely virtual world. When the Fishers get access to a brand-new, off-market virtual reality headset, they discover a new way to make money. They just don't realize how incredibly dangerous it will become.

Virtual Reality and Time Travel in The Peripheral

Flynne thinks that she is participating in just another video game; in The Peripheral , just as in several other futuristic sci-fi titles (including Ready Player One ), achievements in VR games can be extremely lucrative. That is, of course, an idea that grows more and more realistic, as video games become highly profitable (something brilliantly satirized in the series Players ) while actual physical sports are increasingly looked down upon, whether for the neurological damage they cause players or the racial and financial disenfranchisement endemic in the industry.

This supposed video game seems more real than anything else she's played, though. Flynne painfully comes to learn that she's not simply embodying a 'sim' in a completely fictional digital word; instead, she is actually connecting with a body nearly 70 years in the future, where a faction of individuals need her help. She can't exactly refuse — the moment she put on the headset, she put her beloved family at risk, and a bounty was placed on them from the future.

The Peripheral does an excellent job at not only visually distinguishing between the 'real' world and the virtual one of the future, but of also depicting the appeal and profitability of the VR world. Creating a semi-Southern atmosphere within the Appalachian region and the gorgeous, natural landscape of North Carolina, not to mention the trailer park chic of its setting, The Peripheral has a kind of working-class, redneck dignity which makes it extremely iconoclastic in the sci-fi landscape of polished, futuristic metropolises. This rural setting makes The Peripheral stand out.

Of course, the show also fashions a 22nd-century London, but even that futuristic world seems disheveled and greatly underpopulated. It's a desolated metropolis and provides a nice balance with the Blue Ridge mountains of the 2030s. The Peripheral alternates between Flynne's experiences in her time period and her experiences circa 2100.

Chloë Grace Moretz Leads a Committed Cast

There are a bevy of complications and subtleties which, while ultimately explained in a wholly suitable fashion, may nonetheless confuse or frustrate viewers. There is a lot going on in The Peripheral , with characters and entire action sequences existing without any explanation, so it demands the patience, faith, and trust of its audience. Like Gibson's oeuvre, it doesn't spoon-feed exposition, and is instead located in a fully developed world with or without any viewer to witness it.

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Chloë Grace Moretz does a great job as a young woman burdened with a demanding family but who is nonetheless tougher and more resilient than most of the people around her. She's beautiful inside and out here, creating a through line between the rural world of the 2030s and the stark urban world of 2100.

Jack Reynor is excellent as her brother Burton Fisher, a man who could strike the appearance of a scumbag if one jumped to conclusions or failed to probe deeper. A committed family member who is nonetheless enjoying a hazy and lazy rural existence in the woods, lounging by his trailer with or without his group of friends, making money in the most passive way possible. He is one of several characters in this film who are haunted by the specter of military involvement, one of the most subtle yet interesting thematic aspects of The Peripheral .

Vincenzo Natali Reunites With Westworld Creators for The Peripheral

Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy bring the same sprawling, intelligent sci-fi magic that they summoned with Westworld , and yet The Peripheral is fittingly much more human. It taps into the realism and humanity that is often looked over in Gibson's work, while also fully diving into his world with no compromise.

The great Vincenzo Natali (director of the philosophical masterpiece Cube , Cypher, Nothing , and more) directs the four best episodes here, bringing the same confident vision which elevated his episodes of Hannibal and Westworld . Natali knows Gibson's work very well and directs it with surprisingly literary intelligence that is in no way tampered by the complicated plot, intricate visuals, and sprawling scope. The Peripheral may have confusing moments and some frustrating sequences, but all in all, it's probably the best Gibson adaptation to date, and a worthy sci-fi successor to Westworld .

Produced by Kilter Films, Amazon Studios, and Warner Bros. Television, The Peripheral is available on Prime Video beginning Oct. 21st.

‘The Peripheral’ Review: Chloe Grace Moretz Shines in Gamer-Friendly Sci-Fi Series From ‘Westworld’ Team

The Prime Video series from EPs Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy is based on the William Gibson novel of the same name

If you have made it to Season 4 of “Westworld,” you’re familiar with executive producers Lisa Joy and Johnathan Nolan’s unique brand of non-linear storytelling. Mind-bending sci-fi, immersive technology, philosophy of the human condition and lots of robots. Their latest project, “The Peripheral,” based on the award-winning novel by William Gibson, follows a similar meandering journey. However, instead of AI gaining sentience and attempting to code themselves into humanity, “The Peripheral” follows a young human woman in a small town trying to navigate an uncertain world by peering through the eyes of a doppelgänger droid into the future.

“The Peripheral,” the first two episodes of which are directed by Vincenzo Natali, begins with an eight-episode season on Prime Video that takes place in two different timelines. One, in rural Clayton, South Carolina, in 2032 where cybernetics in the military is the norm and you can 3D print a knee brace at the local store faster than you can pick up your mail. The other narrative takes place in the year 2100, where people can render an entire humanoid robot “peripheral” run on AI as a companion or worker. The two timelines connect through Flynne Fisher (Chloe Grace Moretz) as a time-traveling gamer who gets tangled in a future web of conspiracy.

Flynne and her brother Burton (Jack Reynor) live on the outskirts of town in a house with their mom, who has lost her vision to a brain tumor and is bedridden. Flynne works at the local 3D print shop while Burton, an honorably discharged Marine, collects unemployment and veteran’s benefits from his time in an unnamed war. They earn money by power leveling VR games for wealthy gamers that want to quickly up their avatar’s stats. Flynne is a better gamer, and her brother knows it, which is why he often subs her in to up their earnings.

But when Burton receives a 3D printed VR headset that looks suspiciously like a SQUID from “Strange Days” to Beta test, the pair soon discover this is no game. With the device, Flynne transports her mind to a future where she gets to wine, dine and even kill via a robot body. After one particularly gruesome and traumatic trip through the “game,” Flynne soon realizes that she is not merely a player and the world sees is very real.

She has been unknowingly pulled into a conspiracy in a dystopian future in London, England, where they have the technology to create doorways to the past by hacking virtual reality tech, latching onto the human consciousness attached to it, and downloading said consciousness into a peripheral. A human from the past can pilot a “body” in the future.

But doors open both ways, and when an opposing faction from the future sends mercenaries to take out Flynne and her family back in her reality, Burton and his cybernetically advanced Special Forces team are surprisingly ready for them.

No one is who they seem in this series, including Wilf Netherton (Gary Carr), a man from 2100 who explains the truth to Flynne about what’s truly happening. Naturally, their interests align as they are both in search of answers. But the clock is ticking in more ways than one as more assassins and future tech infiltrates Clayton, and Wilf’s alliances begin to unravel.

In the six episodes provided to the press in advance, three factions are battling for control of society in the future. The klept , post-national Russian oligarchs wrestling for control; the Research Institute, responsible for all future tech worldwide; and finally, the military-style Metropolitan Police, led by Inspector Ainsley Lowbeer (Alexandra Billings), out to maintain order in this new society.

Moretz gives an incredible performance in triplicate as Flynne, the struggling small-town girl holding her whole family together, her future bionic self, and the bot that is essentially a computer running in safe mode when Flynne’s consciousness detaches from the mainframe.

“The Peripheral” is bolstered by other top-tier talents as well, including T’Nia Miller as Cherise Neulan, the severe and sartorially stunning head of the Research Institute, and Eli Goree, who plays Connor, part of Burton’s Marine Corps unit who became a triple amputee after coming face to face with the business end of an IED. Connor’s mental struggles with his physical loss while attempting to maintain his dignity are emotionally palpable.

The 70-minute premiere brilliantly immerses the audience in both universes, placing important details like easter eggs in the sets, scenery, and dialogue. Aside from the peripherals themselves, Burton’s team’s cybernetics also steal the show. As each member can hack nearby tech and “drift” in and out of each other’s consciousness.

In addition to Billings’ casting, there is a subtle transgender story here as well, since identity in the future appears fluid, and several characters effortlessly place their consciousness into various peripherals regardless of gender.

Despite the stunning cinematography and outstanding production and costume design, “The Peripheral” can be a little confusing if you’re unfamiliar with time-traveling tropes, virtual reality avatars, and gaming side missions. In other words, if you didn’t make it through “Westworld,” you will probably have difficulty understanding this series at first. But if you are a fan of cyberpunk crime drama anime like “Ghost in the Shell” or “Psycho-Pass,” or are looking for something to scratch that “Westworld” itch, “The Peripheral” is a joy to watch.

“The Peripheral” premiered on Prime Video on Oct. 21 with the first two episodes, with one new episode released weekly on Fridays.

‘The Peripheral’ Is a Grim Vision of the Future From ‘Westworld’s’ Creators: TV Review

By Daniel D'Addario

Daniel D'Addario

Chief TV Critic

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A gloomy, disconsolate future; the possibility of escaping it by plugging into a thrilling parallel world filled with danger as well as diversion; the emergence of real-world peril from that game. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

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The ambition here seems to be to rub our faces in the brutality of where humanity is headed. That’s been among the disappointments of “Westworld,” a onetime investigation of the potential of edge-case artificial intelligence that’s lost its soulfulness, and its nerve, as time has gone on. The moment I felt most connected to Flynne, a character whose traversing two realities barely ever registered as real to me, was a scene in which, in virtual-reality, she receives a prophecy about what lies ahead for her, and humankind. It’s bad news, of every possible stripe, so much so that the mind boggles; as with the rest of “The Peripheral,” it exists more as information than narrative. And it’s illustrated by a technically impressive shape-shifting orb that comes to emit smoke that obscures everything. “Make it stop!,” Flynne shouts. I knew exactly how she felt.

“The Peripheral” premieres its first two episodes on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, October 21, with new episodes to follow weekly.

Amazon Prime Video. Eight episodes (six screened for review).

• Production: Executive producers: Scott B. Smith, director Vincenzo Natali, Greg Plageman, Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, Athena Wickham, and Steven Hoban.
• Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Jack Reynor, Gary Carr , Eli Goree, Louis Herthum, JJ Feild, T’Nia Miller, Charlotte Riley, Alexandra Billings, Adelind Horan, Alex Hernandez, Katie Leung, Julian Moore-Cook, Melinda Page Hamilton, Chris Coy, and Austin Rising.

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The Peripheral Review: Amazon’s Sci-Fi Stunner Delivers a Potent High-Tech Buzz… But It Wears Off Too Quickly

Dave nemetz, west coast bureau chief.

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The Peripheral builds out a fascinating world in its premiere, with gleaming visual effects and ingenious high-tech gizmos. The “game” Flynne plays is just jaw-droppingly cool, complete with invisible cars and lethal stun guns. (During her first mission, she ends up in close-quarters combat with a robot chauffeur.) Writer Scott B. Smith’s credits are scant since the 1998 film A Simple Plan , but Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are onboard as executive producers — though that may serve as more of a warning to that show’s disgruntled fans than anything — and it’s based on a novel by sci-fi pioneer William Gibson, so it’s peppered with thought-provoking philosophical queries. (This is one of those shows that leaves us contemplating at every turn, “What is even real, man?”)

After the breakneck pace of the premiere, though, the whole story slows to a crawl in the next two episodes, trading in all that action for ponderous and confusing conversation. (I found myself writing in my notes, “Don’t go off the rails, please,” but it didn’t listen.) During the premiere, I felt confident I understood 80 percent of what’s going on… but that number started dropping precipitously after that. The further Flynne delves into the mysteries behind the game, the less interesting it all becomes. Will we ever get the answers we seek? Knowing the history of sci-fi TV, probably not. The Peripheral is definitely a cut above everyday science fiction, with intriguing concepts and sharp effects; like the titular device, its potential is enormous. But do we really want to play the game long enough to see if that potential ever gets unlocked?

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: The Peripheral is a cut above everyday sci-fi with cool futuristic effects, but it starts meandering after a stellar pilot.

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Sounds promising, although disappointing to hear eps 2 & 3 were a let down compares to the premiere.

This show seems like it was made to binge. Yet they are releasing it weekly. Which might kill any chance of a 2nd season. I will just have to wait to watch it then.

I can’t access the episodes, I’ve tried on my phone and on my tv. This has never happed before. When I go into the website it will play the trailer but on the episodes it says “0 episodes”. Not sure why, I live in the IS.

It starts Friday, but they usually show up on Thursday evening. Time depends on your time zone. I’m out west, so I see show up at 5PM.

“premiering this Friday”

It doesn’t get released until Friday, or if you’re on EST, close to midnight, tonight.

Thanks for the review. I read the book recently and am kind of on the fence about if I want to see the show. Would some plot points be clearer on television. The answer here is unclear, so I am leaning toward, get caught up on something else first.

This review seems to have been written by someone who is not very bright, and who doesn’t really grasp science fiction. The Peripheral is actually one of the best science fiction shows to come along in quite a while. It is not really hard to understand, nor is the second episode “ponderous and confusing” or “off the rails” unless you’re kind of stupid and not paying attention. It probably does help to have read the novel first, but even there, the author, William Gibson, likes to let the reader (or audience) figure things out as the story progresses without a lot of explicit explanations, but that does assume a modicum of basic intelligence in the reader. This is actually an excellent new series, with some fascinating depth to the story, for real fans of good science fiction. Not very bright novices may feel confused.

The virtual reality stories are kinda challenging to follow. That’s why the production team has to be careful about going too deeply into the techno stuff of it. I hope The Peripheral can strike a good balance between the easy to comprehend everyday reality and the mind-bending virtual universe. The old show Caprica was able to do so eventually but alas, just as we were getting a good handle on the story the show was cancelled

Was fine until episode 4 where you understand that all the story is written by followers of Klaus Schwab theory.

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'The Peripheral' Ending Explained and All Your Questions Answered

The season 1 finale dropped big twists, an ominous post-credits scene and just a couple of confusing plot points.

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Chloe Moretz stars as the sweet but powerful Flynne Fisher.

Prime Video's gung-ho sci-fi series The Peripheral booted up a mind-bending season 1 finale, to say the least. Flynne Fisher (Chloe Grace Moretz) made some literal life-altering decisions to protect her family, while alliances jumped train tracks in the far future.

It was action packed, exciting and just a tad confusing -- we'd expect no less from the time travel thriller. Let's dive into the biggest questions brought up in that twisty finale in the spoiler-packed section below.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Why does Flynne technically kill herself?

From the very first episode, the Research Institute (from future London in 2099, around 70 years ahead of Flynne's time) had a hit put on Flynne simply because she'd seen too much, thanks to the little "SIM" game the mysterious Aleita setup. She was chased down by the mercenary bounty hunters, Clanton County's local drug baron Corbell Pickett and retired killer Bob. She successfully left them all in the dust, yet Dr. Cherise Nuland, a prominent figure at the Research Institute, is relentless and finally plans to blow up a silo in Flynne's county that would assuredly wipe her and everyone she loves out.

Yet Flynne comes up with an ingenious plan to save herself and her town, even if it looks like she's out of the picture. In future London, she has Inspector Lowbeer lead her to a "stub portal" (a "stub" being an alternate splinter timeline), where she can create a new connection with her body in the past. She convinces Dr. Nuland that she's escaped for good by crushing the coordinates (enclosed in a fancy antique-looking watch) and wakes up back in the (fictional) mountain town of Clanton, North Carolina -- a reboot that creates a new splinter timeline, or stub, one Dr. Nuland won't easily be able to get her hands on.

Because this dooms her old un-piloted body to die from malnourishment while attached to the headset, Flynne decides to turn this condemned self into an opportunity. She has Connor shoot her to get Dr. Nuland off their backs, and to look like a favor from Inspector Lowbeer to Dr. Nuland, so that Nuland believes the inspector is an ally. Flynne then wakes up in future London, where she and Lowbeer reunite. Now they can begin working on their master plan: accessing the world-saving data in Flynne's brain that will help them prevent The Jackpot apocalypse (really a series of cataclysmic events, from bees dying to a global pandemic) from ever wiping out civilization.

That end stitch is where things become Westworld-level tricky. Because of the show's editing, it looks like the consciousness of the dead Flynne has been transferred to Flynne's peripheral (the future robot body accessed via the special headset). However, the past Flynne died without wearing a headset. The way this is possible might be that, because Flynne created a new base stub, she was only a pilot in her old body. When it died, she returned to her new stub, then from there, still wearing the headset, she could jump into her future peripheral. Good luck deciphering all that!

Dr. Cherise Nuland and Grace Hogart, a researcher at the Research Institute.

Why does the Research Institute want to kill Flynne?

The Research Institute is intent on eliminating Flynne because of something to do with bacteria inside her brain. That whole "SIM" ultra-realistic game sequence in episode 1, where Flynne pilots her brother Burton's peripheral (the robot the headset connects to), turned out to be all part of Aleita's plan to steal and hide "the entire library" of files from the Research Institute. Aleita thought she could download the stolen files into Burton's haptic implants, storing them in the past timeline where they would be untraceable. Because Flynne doesn't have implants, the headset "translated the data into bacterial DNA," according to Ash. This data then began to "colonize" her brain. (That explains all the seizures Flynne was having.)

What data exactly? Data on something called a "neural adjustment mechanism," which sounds like a mind control doodad. In episode 5, Research Institute worker Grace naively reveals to Aleita that they're behind the haptic implants embedded in US soldiers in the stub, including Burton and Connor. These implants can "subtly goose" the subject's "neural chemistry" in the "compassion center" of the brain. The Research Institute thinks that, with this technology, it can prevent mob violence and influence society on a grander level. Grace lets slip they're already implementing some of these changes.

Dr. Nuland is intent on ensuring this information never reaches public knowledge, fearing both backlash and the increased risk of the technology being hacked and weaponized. For these reasons, she intends to do whatever it takes to destroy Flynne and the invaluable data in her brain.

Lev Zubov's green-eyed "technical" worker Ash, who uses "quantum tunnels" to communicate with the stubs, reveals she'd love to sequence the bacteria and present the data to the Neoprims or Neo primitives -- those who survived the Jackpot and aren't the biggest fans of the power structure of the future world. (It's possible these are Aleita's people, who all gouged out the implants behind their ears that are used to establish "neural links" with others and provide an "immunity boost," but also suppress memory.) Ash hopes the Neoprims can "burn the world down and build a new one in its place."

What's the Research Institute doing in Flynne's timeline?

In episode 7, Inspector Lowbeer lets Flynne in on the Metropolitan Police's intriguing intel. She reveals that Connor didn't lose his limbs in the Texas War in the original timeline, before Flynne's stub was created. The haptic technology he and Flynne's brother Burton are integrated with hadn't been developed for another couple of decades. In this original timeline, Burton -- fighting as a common soldier instead of an enhanced one -- was killed, while Connor survived unscathed.

Lowbeer says the Research Institute opened Flynne's stub and tinkered with it at least a decade earlier than Flynne had thought. The result is large divergences between the two timelines, the most pressing of which is the accelerated advent of The Jackpot apocalypse. Only Dr. Nuland knows why the Research Institute has pushed it forward.

Lev Zubov sipping all the tea.

Is Lev Zubov a bad guy?

He's rich, Russian and sports an impressive goatee, so he must be a bad guy, right? Yet early in the season, Zubov had been positioned as more of a good guy, working on the same side as his kind friend Wilf. Yet tensions soon begin to simmer in the Zubov compound until Ash reveals Zubov is a "killer." Flynne learns from Wilf that Zubov is interested in cloning -- another red flag -- and Zubov begins to both lie to Wilf and dodge his questions, including one about what Zubov's motivations and goals truly are. "Take some care of what you ask... I'd hate to stop thinking of you as a friend," Zubov says.

Episode 4 is when Zubov really kicks the hinges off his villain status. Because he can't bear the thought of other versions of himself living out there in multiple timelines, he paid assassins (via a "quantum tunnel" that allows him to communicate with the past) to murder his family around 70 years ago, in the splinter timelines.

At least Zubov reveals more of his intentions: All this time, he was paying Aleita to steal the Research Institute's data on how to open a stub, so that the Klepts -- wealthy families like Zubov's who benefitted from The Jackpot and became de facto rulers of the world -- can use the splinter timelines for their own immoral money-making means. For example, Zubov's brother Alexei uses stubs to test drugs on human populations in the past.

Of course, Aleita turned against Zubov after destroying an implant that had suppressed her memories. Now remembering that it was Zubov's father and the other Klepts who had eradicated her family and Wilf's along with 5 million others for fear of contagion, Aleita bands together with other children of the deceased to begin a war with the Klepts. All they need is the Research Institute's technology, the blueprints of which are stored in Flynne's head.

What does The Peripheral post-credits scene mean?

In a brief but sinister post-credits scene, we get a pretty clear idea of what Zubov's intentions will be in future seasons. Zubov and his wife head to an esteemed-looking lunch spot, where they discover three older men waiting at their table. Fearing the worst from the influential members of the Klept, Dominika bids farewell to her husband and quickly vacates the area.

Meanwhile, Zubov gets a lesson in cauterizing wounds from the Klept gentlemen, who imply that he needs to eradicate Aleita -- who could pose a threat to their status -- and her kind, just as the Klept slaughtered their families decades ago in the "transit" camps all over England.

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Chloë Grace Moretz and The Peripheral Cast and Crew Preview the Adaptation of William Gibson's Near- and Far-Future Tale

Executive producers lisa joy and jonathan nolan join moretz and her costars gary carr, jj feild, t’nia miller, and jack reynor, to introduce their prime video sci-fi drama..

TAGGED AS: Prime Video , Sci-Fi , science fiction , streaming , television , TV

With its cybernetic edge, potential for time travel, and a main setting 15-or-so years from now, Amazon’s The Peripheral is the sort of science fiction many are hungry for: a near-future story with wide, interesting implications. One of those is the very notion that humanity will survive to 2035, let alone an era in which a form of time travel is possible. And when Rotten Tomatoes spoke with star Chloë Grace Moretz recently, she suggested the series, based on a novel by William Gibson, has some hope buried in what could be perceived as a gloomy outlook.

“I would hope that something could happen similar to our story — that maybe we can have a little bit of more answers and a little bit of a roadmap to try to mitigate the impending doom that is the potentiality of what we’re all could be headed towards,” she said.

Moretz plays Flynne Fisher, a young woman living somewhere in the American south. While she toils away in a 3D printing shop, she also takes care of her ailing mother and helps her brother, Burton ( Jack Reynor ), when he gets high-paying gigs in a VR multiplayer game. As it turns out, she is more of a natural in game environments despite his military training, combat experience, and cybernetic implants.

Despite Burton being the face of their scheme, Flynne’s talent gains the interest of a peculiar client who sends her an advanced VR rig unlike anything seen before, which in turn appears to port her consciousness into a future London game scenario she can feel everything. Once there, she witnesses something that puts a target on her and her family.

And that’s just the beginning.

(Photo by Sophie Mutevelian/Prime Video)

Creating that first seductive look into Flynne’s work for the client was the responsibility of director Vincenzo Natali and his team, who knew it had to be “a highly aesthetic, almost magical kind of place where the technology is so sophisticated, it’s invisible. And when it is visible, it’s there entirely for aesthetic reasons.”

“It was made easy because the future London that Gibson posited in his book is seductive,” Natali told Rotten Tomatoes. “Like a kind of Disneyland for Flynne. But what I love about the book, and of course the series as well, is that when you pull back that patina, you find something that is a little more frightening, dark, and forbidding.”

But as the book was first published in 2014, a few updates to its darker elements were required. An emphasis on methamphetamines on the page becomes a focus on pharmaceuticals on screen, for example. Spearheading the work was showrunner Scott B. Smith.

“I think Scott and his team of writers really just took the spirit of Gibson’s novel and ran with it because it’s only gotten more timely,” executive producer Lisa Joy said of Smith’s work. “The events that Gibson postulates in this novel had literally come to pass by the time we were filming.”

Production commenced as the COVID-19 pandemic, a real-life event similar to one in the background of the novel, continued to rage on.

One character who may feel familiar to viewers coming with knowledge of the book is Wilf Netherton. Played by Gary Carr , he reflects a character with a different occupation from his novel counterpart, but, as Carr said, “some of the circumstances changed and some of the plot things, but his reactions to them is consistent.” It leads to someone who inspires empathy almost immediately, which is helpful as he soon becomes the viewer’s guide through the program’s seeming future state.

Here we’re using “future” to speak about a future after Flynne’s 2035. To executive producer Jonathan Nolan, Gibson’s ability to postulate both a near future and something more far flung was part of his attraction to the material.

“[Gibson] has been able to understand not just what technologies are possible, but how they will affect us. How they’ll hit us. How they’ll impact society. How they’ll change society,” Nolan said.

In the 2035 part of the program, both Flynne and Burton offer a viewpoint into how society could change in just the short span of 13 years. While she grew up in a world of VR combat, Burton experienced a form of real world combat that was augmented with cybernetics, drones, and other tactics that are still a form of science fiction — or is it science eventuality ? — today. That difference means that while he respects her abilities, “Burton, by nature of his time spent in the military, tries to take the initiative a lot,” according to Reynor. “[But] Flynne kind of says to him, that’s not always the best course of action.”

It proves to be a sibling relationship augmented by competencies which, to our eyes, are still futuristic. “They’re a pair and they have to trust one another,” Reynor continued. “And throughout the course of the season, you do see their relationship come under pressure and be tested by these circumstances.”

One of those pressures is Corbel Pickett ( Louis Herthum ), a man of influence in Flynne’s town whose true nature is revealed across the season. But as Joy teased, “For a man like Corbel Pickett, power is the point.”

“It’s not that he’s not likable to, say, his wife. It’s not that he has a worldview that is insane within his way of seeing the world as a game, where power survives. His moves are completely correct,” she said. But as Flynne does not see the world as the same sort of game, his usual approach to things may not be as effective — especially as the Fisher siblings have some surprising resources. But to Joy, their emerging conflict forms “a morality tale of the future” dependent on two questions: “What are the things that we want to fight for and what are the things we want to shape our goals based on?”

And depending on the way the show’s further future state works out, Flynne may come to understand how those questions are answered. But first, she must deal with Lev ( JJ Feild ) and Dr. Cherise Nuland ( T’Nia Miller ) — two highly skilled and effective people who already know how her story played out even as they begin to interrupt it.

Lev presents his skills by making people comfortable in a “Louis Cyphre” sort of way.

“I want him to be delicious and attractive in terms of, ‘I want to be in a room with the guy,'” Feild explained. In teasing the character, the actor mentioned Lev has a history with Russian oligarchs — “As Gibson wrote, a Russian oligarchy was taking over the world, pretty fricking spot on,” he added — and depends on setting people at ease even if he ends up a potentially devilish character.

Granted, that devil quality remains to be seen.

“He has friends, these beautiful characters like Wilf,” Feild pointed out. “[But] how does a man like that bridge both worlds?”

One thing that sets Dr. Nuland apart from Lev, though, may be her recognition of the stakes involved.

“[It] feels like the whole of humanity rests on her shoulders, and she’s working tirelessly day and night,” Miller said. “She has no personal relationships — she has no relationship apart from her work. That is her everything she eats, sleeps, drinks, loves. It’s who she takes to bed at night and who she wakes up with in the morning.”

At the same time, don’t take Nuland’s apparent dedication or Lev’s attempts to put people at ease as evidence of their goals. Much like Flynne, the viewer must navigate a set of what Miller called “head-f— games” to determine who and what they really are.

Dealing with those games and the Peripheral, the titular device that allows her to interact with the far-future characters, also puts Flynne in another precarious position.

“I think with her headaches and whatever it is that’s happening in her body throughout the show, I can’t say that from the start of the show to the end that she really does get much sleep,” Moretz said. “I feel like I don’t ever get it either. So, I feel like there’s a lot of similarities between Flynne Fisher and I for sure.”

Nevertheless, Joy maintained that Flynne’s fatigued, but tireless fight for the future is also a positive aspect of the series.

“As long as there are individuals like Flynne and communities and families that are just trying to have each other’s back and survive and live a decent life, there is hope for humanity,” Joy said.

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The Peripheral

Set in the future when technology has subtly altered society, a woman discovers a secret connection to an alternate reality as well as a dark future of her own. Set in the future when technology has subtly altered society, a woman discovers a secret connection to an alternate reality as well as a dark future of her own. Set in the future when technology has subtly altered society, a woman discovers a secret connection to an alternate reality as well as a dark future of her own.

• Chloë Grace Moretz
• Jack Reynor
• 406 User reviews
• 42 Critic reviews
• 2 nominations

• Flynne Fisher

• Wilf Netherton

• Burton Fisher

• Cherise Nuland

• Corbell Pickett

• Ella Fisher

• Jasper Baker

• Tommy Constantine

• Billy Ann Baker

• Conner Penske

• Aelita West

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia The Peripheral is based on a 2014 science fiction mystery-thriller novel of the same name by William Gibson.
• Connections Referenced in Crain & Co: College Football Needs a 12-Team Playoff (2022)

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• Runtime 1 hour

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Peripheral Reviews

British sci-fi horror about the connections between a writer and her computer, from director Paul Hyett.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 10, 2021

The script shimmies into Cronenberg/Raimi terrain throughout the second act and momentarily improves, but instead of running fearlessly in this exciting new direction, it backtracks onto a more budget-friendly path.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 3, 2020

As tech horror continues to develop and reflect contemporary concerns, this love letter to Cronenberg is grim but stylish, and well worth a watch.

Full Review | Jul 31, 2020

Peripheral is a multi-faceted story that will satisfy fans of the body horror subgenre, but also many writers may find themselves identifying with the existential crisis that Bobbi finds herself in that may be driving her mad.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2020

Building on the premise of a writer struggling to complete the followup to their debut novel it also acts as a meditation on the writers process, fame and the interference of technology and corporations on our lives.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 3, 2020

Even when too much stuff is being thrown at the screen, it's hard not to admire Peripheral for trying.

Full Review | Oct 9, 2019

A story that works well within the confines of its limited location, crafting an unnerving and claustrophobic atmosphere, Peripheral is a sci-fi body horror that will get under the skin.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 12, 2018

Peripheral is a fascinating study of the impact technology can have on our lives and the power of ego when fame is the result of success.

Full Review | Nov 9, 2018

The ink-stained results, messy and unnerving, are an introspective oddity and a dystopian satire of the individual's place in a closed political system. It's easily Hyett's finest film.

Although the plotting isn't as tight as it might have been throughout and there are times when the film relies too much on pre-established tropes, it's a smart piece of work.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 6, 2018

Home » Movies

Peripheral review – more style than substance, but with a great electronic soundtrack and a satisfying ending

I like a good sci-fi horror: Videodrome and Hardware were two coming-of-age films for me. So Peripheral , the latest film directed by Paul Hyett ( Howl , Attack the Block ) drew me right in. It’s about Bobbi Johnson, a young author struggling to get going with the draft of her second book when her publisher persuades her to try some new “hardware” (instead of her beloved but archaic typewriter) which will give her a leg up. But as she gets closer to her deadline, she and her new hardware (with its various add-ons and upgrades) become steadily more connected.

Hannah Arterton ( Safe ) played Bobbi, and being on the screen nearly all the time, she did well in holding the film together. She was believable as both a creative and a Luddite, as someone wary of her fame and confident with her work; and Arterton was just as strong when her character wasn’t, when her deadline and her cabin fever became too much. If only the quality of the dialogue hadn’t come close to tripping her up once or twice.

As well as her deadline, Bobbi found herself under pressure from almost everyone else in the film: her number one fan/apostle Shelly (Rosie Day, The Seasoning House ), and her publisher Jordan (Belinda Stewart-Wilson, The Inbetweeners ); her ex-boyfriend Dylan (Elliot James Langridge, Northern Soul , Hollyoaks ), and even her most-admired writer Gilmore Trent (Tom Conti, Shirley Valentine ). The only person who seemed more laid-back was the bloke who came to install all her kit… but maybe he provided a more subtle influence, on behalf of the company.

I’m not going to pretend Peripheral was an original film; like several titles I’ve reviewed recently, there were obvious influences and inspirations in both style and content… and I must say the style was more interesting (although it did steer a little close to pretentious at times). My first thought as the story got going was that if Cronenberg had adapted Limitless instead of Neil Burger, it would have looked like Peripheral : twisted technology, with an erotic angle, as well as the drugs and hallucinatory visuals.

The visuals and the music are what kept me engaged. Surreal colors flowing like blood between organs, or like signals between neurons took over the film as the computer developed; especially interesting because it wasn’t clear whether these represented Bobbi’s feelings or the computer’s. Their abstract nature certainly indicated (along with an odd plot development towards the end) that not everything we saw was truly happening; I might have had a problem with how over-the-top and futuristic the hardware looked if it wasn’t for that (the neon/transparent/bleeping features likely symbolizing what a radical change of working style this meant for Bobbi).

The music by Si Begg ( Lovesick , The Virtues ) was superb, though. His electronic score drew me into the story, into Bobbi’s frame of mind; and it fitted well with the way she was drawn steadily closer to the technology.

The ideas in Peripheral , about people’s connections with each other via tech, and the way companies can influence people were drawn out well through the story. But the dialogue left a great deal to be desired: sometimes it felt like sentences just didn’t fit together, or that pieces of the script had been cut out to make it fit the desired length. It really could have done with being redrafted – or at least smoothed out – once or twice more; which is a real shame, because the cast was great, and the production cleverly done.

There lay another little problem, unfortunately: although the sets and effects were carefully and cleverly done, sometimes they seemed a little too polished, making the sci-fi elements a little too unreal. Perhaps that unreal texture was deliberate, but personally, I prefer my sci-fi to be more gritty and grimy (like in another British film from a couple of years ago, Await Further Instructions ): if I can feel it more, I can believe it more.

I won’t leave you with a down note, though: I liked Peripheral ’s ending a lot.

Article by Alix Turner

Alix joined Ready Steady Cut back in 2017, bringing their love for horror movies and nasty gory films. Unsurprisingly, they are Rotten Tomatoes Approved, bringing vast experience in film critiquing. You will likely see Alix enjoying a bloody horror movie or attending a genre festival.

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‘Film Geek’ Review: A Cinephile’s Guide to New York

The director Richard Shepard details his lifelong obsession with movies in this enthusiastic video essay.

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By Calum Marsh

Richard Shepard, the director of the black comedies “Dom Hemingway” and “The Matador,” is a lifelong cinephile with a voracious appetite for movies.

“Film Geek,” a feature-length video essay composed primarily of footage of films that Shepard saw growing up in the 1970s in New York City, delves deep into his obsession. In a voice-over, he recounts his childhood, when he was “addicted to movies, to watching them, to making them.” He is enthusiastic, and the movie aspires to make that enthusiasm infectious.

I appreciate Shepard’s affection: I also grew up loving movies, and I found his wistful reminiscences of being awed by “Jaws” and “Star Wars” relatable. But Shepard’s level of self-regard can be stultifying. For minutes at a time, he simply rattles off the titles of various movies that he saw as a child. I appreciate that seeing “Rocky” made a strong impression on him. I did not need to know that he lost his virginity in the apartment building where John G. Avildsen, the director of “Rocky,” once lived.

“Film Geek” has been compared to Thom Andersen’s great documentary from 2003, “Los Angeles Plays Itself,” and on the level of montage, they share a superficial resemblance: “Film Geek,” like Andersen’s essay film, is brisk and well edited.

But “Los Angeles Plays Itself” is also a thoughtful and incisive work of film criticism, whereas Shepard describes movies in clichés, when he describes movies at all. More often he is talking about himself, a subject of interest to far fewer viewers.

Film Geek Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters.

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Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg review – rockn’roll ‘muse’ in the spotlight

Documentary tells the melancholy story of the model and actor at the centre of the 60s music industry but also weirdly peripheral to it

A nita Pallenberg endured many things, including the condescension of being labelled “muse” to the Rolling Stones. She became the girlfriend of Brian Jones who abused her, married Keith Richards who neglected her and then co-starred in the movie Performance with Mick Jagger, who fell unrequitedly in love with her. Now this documentary tells Pallenberg’s strange, sad, melodramatic story, with Scarlett Johansson voicing Pallenberg’s memories from her unpublished autobiography entitled Black Magic, discovered in manuscript after her death in 2017.

Born to a wealthy, cultured German family in Rome, Pallenberg did a bit of modelling and was then discovered by director Volker Schlöndorff. After she played a few minor movie roles, including opposite Jane Fonda in Barbarella, Pallenberg was cast in another role by the Rolling Stones: the exciting but pointless real-life part of uber rock chick, putting her at the very centre of the 60s rock’n’roll scene but also weirdly peripheral to it. In the strangest way, she behaved as a kind of cipher for the Stones’ competitive sexual relationships with each other. She was considered ephemeral, disposable – and, indeed, heartlessly disposed of; she was pressured by Richards into giving up her work acting and modelling, exhausted by abuse, drugs and depression, and often left on her own while the Stones went off on their neverending money-machine tours.

This film in fact contains some of the most chilling footage to be seen in any documentary: Richards playing live in Paris having just been told that their baby son Tara had died of cot death syndrome , but determined that the show should go on. Pallenberg was devastated, but Richards’ mother Doris claimed Anita was an unfit parent and it was decided their daughter would live in England with her grandmother, while their son Marlon stayed in the US at the family home in upstate New York from which Keith was so often absent.

Tara’s death may not have been Pallenberg’s fault, but the same can’t necessarily be said of the death of a local 17-year-old called Scott Cantrell who hung out at Anita and Keith’s Long Island house; he shot himself in the head there while emulating the Russian roulette scene in The Deer Hunter. This documentary tells us Anita defiantly declared that she regretted nothing. (But some viewers might ask: what about Scott?)

Near the end of her life, Pallenberg was hailed as an icon by Kate Moss who based her own look on Pallenberg’s 60s style. Maybe Pallenberg could have made it in acting but the lure of mega-celebrity was too enticing … though in this film, nothing about mega-celebrity looks fun.

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'Oppenheimer' Review: Christopher Nolan Delivers His Most Colossal and Mature Film Yet

Cillian Murphy is remarkable in a film that feels like what Nolan's entire career has been building towards.

The Big Picture

• Christopher Nolan's twelfth film, Oppenheimer , is a culmination of his remarkable career, showcasing his talents and techniques in storytelling, editing, and building tension and anticipation.
• Cillian Murphy gives an incredible performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer, portraying the complexities and emotions of the character through subtle mannerisms and expressions.
• Oppenheimer boasts an exceptional cast, with notable performances from Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and Florence Pugh, although Nolan still struggles with providing substantial roles for female characters.

Few filmmakers have had the rapid, impressive rise to success that Christopher Nolan has had over the last 25 years. Out the gate, Nolan has been ambitious, making twisty, unique films like his debut Following and his breakthrough Memento despite extremely small budgets. Within a decade of making his first film, he would revitalize action movies, origin stories, and superhero films with both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight —still widely considered the greatest superhero film of all time. In his first dozen films, Nolan has taken us deep inside the mind ( Inception ), to the darkest reaches of space ( Interstellar ), and explored war in a way we’ve never seen before ( Dunkirk ). While his experiments haven’t always been entirely successful, like with his last film, 2020’s Tenet , it’s hard not to admire Nolan’s attempts to push the boundaries of what film and storytelling can do on such a large scale .

Nolan’s twelfth film, Oppenheimer , feels like the culmination of everything the director has done so far in his already remarkable career . From the multiple timelines of Memento and Dunkirk , and the staggering abstract footage in Interstellar , to his ability to build tension and anticipation through stunning scores and impeccable editing, Nolan uses all of the talents and techniques that have made him such a noteworthy auteur to bring to life the extraordinary accomplishments, pains, and life of J. Robert Oppenheimer ( Cillian Murphy ). In bringing this expansive and gargantuan true story to the screen, Nolan has created not just one of his best films, but easily the most mature film of his career.

Oppenheimer

The story of American scientist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.

In telling the story of Oppenheimer, Nolan returns to a technique he used in Memento , by showing one man’s experience through varying timelines. Like that film, one timeline is told in color, while the other uses black-and-white photography. In the color timeline, Oppenheimer explores his past through his perspective via a hearing where he must run down his years running The Manhattan Project and the creation of the first atomic bomb, his communist ties, and his affairs, all while the people from throughout his life come to testify about his actions. In the black-and-white segments, Nolan follows Lewis Strauss ( Robert Downey Jr. ), as he discusses his involvement with Oppenheimer over the years, all during Strauss’ questioning to secure the nomination for Secretary of Commerce. Through these dueling timelines, each showing important moments from different perspectives, Oppenheimer peels back multiple layers of Oppenheimer, a man who did unbelievable things, and then feared the potential of what his research could eventually bring.

Cillian Murphy Gives One of the Best Performances Ever in a Nolan Film

Murphy, who has been a supporting player in five of Nolan’s previous films, finally gets the starring role here and the result is incredible . Oppenheimer is shown as a relatively quiet man, and despite that, Murphy allows us to see every moment of trepidation, every moment of fear for what his ideas could eventually mean, and every glimmer of joy at some new revelation, all through tiny mannerisms and the worry in his eyes. Murphy is beautifully restrained here, and even though his actions are world-changing, we can feel the implications of Oppenheimer’s achievements simply through a look in Murphy’s eyes, or the way he hesitates in a sentence. After years of working with Nolan, Murphy's take on Oppenheimer will go down as one of the best performances ever captured by Nolan’s camera.

'Oppenheimer' Boasts One of the Best Casts in Modern Film

While it might sound like hyperbole, Nolan has gathered one of the most unbelievable casts in modern film , a flabbergasting amount of talent that puts actors like Oscar-winners Rami Malek , Gary Oldman , and Kenneth Branagh in small supporting roles, but gives actors like Murphy who might often be put in more minor roles into greater positions. While there are too many exceptional performances to point out, it’s excellent to see actors like Alden Ehrenreich , Benny Safdie , and David Krumholtz get major positions in this film, and it’s wonderful to see Josh Hartnett and Jason Clarke in substantial roles. Even though there are plenty of great actors in blink-and-you-miss parts, Nolan does all he can to give as many of these performers at least one scene that will stick with the audience long after the movie is over.

But it’s Downey Jr. who makes the biggest impression of the entire cast , other than Murphy’s Oppenheimer. While Oppenheimer mostly wears his feelings on his sleeve, Downey Jr.’s Lewis Strauss keeps his secrets close to his chest, making him an absorbing counter to the title character. His more subjective take on Oppenheimer’s life and career gives us a perspective we rarely see in films about real-life personalities, and Downey Jr. gives one of his best performances as well, and it’s wonderful to see him explore this type of role after years in the MCU pipeline.

Also noteworthy is Matt Damon as Leslie Groves, who puts Oppenheimer in his position at The Manhattan Project. The relationship between Oppenheimer and Groves is one of the most complex in the film , and it’s fascinating to watch how it shifts over the years. Plus, if you’re making a film about an impossible goal that needs to be met in a shocking amount of time ( Ford v. Ferrari , The Martian , Air ), there’s no better person to call than Damon.

Alas, Nolan still has problems with substantial female roles , and that does continue in Oppenheimer . Like many of the male scientists, the apparently lone female scientist—played by Olivia Thirlby —doesn’t get as much screen time as she deserves. Similarly, the women in Oppenheimer’s life certainly should’ve received more attention, however, that doesn’t stop Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, and Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer’s on-again-off-again partner Jean Tatlock from making the most of their time onscreen. Pugh only gets a few scenes, but her impact resonates with Oppenheimer long after his last scene. Blunt’s role is far more substantive, as we see her beg Oppenheimer to fight back as he’s raked over the coals by his own government. It’s hard not to relate to her utter rage at his treatment, and her frustrations over her position in life show sides to Blunt that we’ve never seen before from her.

Christopher Nolan's Script and Directing Are Stunning

But beyond this embarrassment of riches that is this cast, it’s Nolan that truly makes Oppenheimer a gargantuan achievement , and how he’s able to find just the right people to work with—both in front of and behind the camera—to make this phenomenal vision come to life in all its glory. This all, naturally, begins with Nolan’s script, based on the book “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin . In bringing this 700+ page book to the screen, Nolan has crafted an incredibly dense script that never manages to feel too convoluted or overwhelming—a feat in itself, considering how many timelines and characters are thrown into the mix. It’s almost akin to what Tony Kushner had to cram into Lincoln by adapting Doris Kearns Goodwin ’s “Team of Rivals.” There is so much life and story to be told here, and the fact that Nolan can navigate all of this succinctly and without getting in over his head is astounding.

Behind the camera, again, Nolan is returning to some of his old techniques and talents, but in a way that feels more refined and careful than ever before . He knows he can impress—he’s done that before—but now, he knows how to utilize these skills in a way that puts story first, not as a way to awe the audience. All of these tools come together to the point that it almost feels as if Nolan’s entire career has been building to this film. Oppenheimer allows Nolan to be bombastic, but never over-the-top in a manner that distracts from the narrative. The performances and Oppenheimer’s troubled story is more important than the technical achievements Nolan creates, and while he has frequently felt like he’s the true star of his own films, he knows how to stand aside here to let the story take precedence over bombast.

This, of course, doesn’t happen without an incredible team behind him, and Nolan has gathered remarkable support in telling this story. Hoyte van Hoytema , who Nolan has worked with since 2014’s Interstellar , knows exactly how to beautifully shoot every scenario Nolan throws at him, whether it’s New Mexico at dusk, two lovers having a conversation in a dark hotel room, or the explosion of bombs and stars in shocking fashion. Every frame is breathtaking, and just when you think you’ve seen all the tricks Nolan and van Hoytema have up their sleeves, they shock with another . The way the two build the tension leading up to the dropping of the first bomb is astonishing, but just as monumental is the way the camera shakes around Oppenheimer when the repercussions of his research become too much for him to handle, almost as if the world around him could come crashing down, as that could both literally and figuratively be happening at any moment.

Oppenheimer ’s ever-present score by Ludwig Göransson accompanies nearly every moment of the film, knowing exactly when to pull back, or when to provoke the audience with the sounds of a ticking clock or static underneath the onslaught of an orchestra fully enveloping the viewer in sound. Nolan and van Hoytema’s visuals are always impressive, but it’s Göransson’s score that takes Oppenheimer to another level , and continues to prove that he’s one of the most exciting composers working in film today.

But Oppenheimer ’s success since this summer has also been a welcome change for the box office landscape . As franchise films have waned in their popularity over the course of this year , it’s been exciting to see a film like Oppenheimer (currently the fifth highest-grossing film at the domestic box office in 2023), which relies on great filmmaking and excellent performances to gather a crowd. While Marvel and DC films have failed to meet expectations, Nolan has shown that all an audience really wants is to be told a fascinating story that they’ve never seen before on the screen, and hopefully, studios in the future will learn the right lessons from Oppenheimer ’s success.

Oppenheimer is a towering achievement not just for Nolan, but for everyone involved . It is the kind of film that makes you appreciative of every aspect of filmmaking, blowing you away with how it all comes together in such a fitting fashion. Even though Nolan is honing in on talents that have brought him to where he is today, this film takes this to a whole new level of which we've never seen him before. With Oppenheimer , Nolan is more mature as a filmmaker than ever before, and it feels like we may just now be beginning to see what incredible work he’s truly capable of making.

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a tremendous accomplishment for the writer-director, a massive film that feels like Nolan's most mature work so far.

• Christopher Nolan brings a scope to the biopic that makes this story grander than other films in the genre.
• Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, and Robert Downey Jr. lead an incredible cast that brings this story to life.
• Everything from Nolan's directing to Ludwig Göransson's score are pitch perfect, making one of the best films of 2023.

Oppenheimer is now available to stream on VOD in the U.S.

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