Ephemera takes place in a strange future where a national security agent is left horrifically burned following a violent encounter. After undergoing an experimental procedure that gives her enhanced abilities, she returns to action determined to uncover who betrayed her and get revenge on those responsible.
This was a strange movie.
Bil Richardson wears several hats here, serving as writer, director and producer while also taking on a small acting role. Anita Shekar Akerkar also pulls double duty, playing both Ephemera and IVY.
I totally get what Ephemera is going for. It’s a science-fiction, cyberpunk action thriller with its sights firmly set on creating this huge, unconventional world filled with different genres and influences. There’s certainly no shortage of ambition or ideas.
Unfortunately, as a movie, I found it incredibly disjointed.
One of my biggest problems was the strange dubbing. Characters can be having entire conversations while their mouths barely seem to move, yet we’re hearing a load of dialogue over the top. It quickly became distracting and, at times, felt like watching a ventriloquist act.
The first fantasy fist fight we’re introduced to takes place on a rooftop at night in the pouring rain. On paper, that sounds right up my street. Unfortunately, it plays like a poor version of Street Fighter, with plenty of flailing around accompanied by what look like drag-and-drop clip-art flames. Instead of feeling like a finished action sequence, it looks as though we’re watching something still in the rehearsal stages, and it goes on far too long.
When the special forces/black ops team appeared, my hopes peaked. Finally, I thought, this could be where Ephemera finds its footing.
Sadly, the dialogue quickly killed that hope.
Lines such as “Fire at will!” followed by “Who’s Will?” feel like they’ve come straight from a child’s 101 Jokes book. The characters sound like NPCs from a 1990s video game. The intention may have been to embrace that heightened, slightly ridiculous style, but for me it falls completely flat.
And then things get even stranger.
There are robots. There’s a sword fight. There’s even a battle set in the Middle Ages. Ephemera certainly can’t be accused of lacking imagination, and individually there are ideas here that could have been a lot of fun. The problem is that everything is thrown together without ever feeling like it belongs in the same movie.
Don’t get me wrong, the central premise is great. A badly burned agent gaining enhanced abilities before setting out to discover who betrayed her and exact revenge? I’d watch that movie in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately, Ephemera comes across as a complete hangover sandwich of ideas.
There is, however, another side to this movie that deserves recognition.
After watching Ephemera, I learned more about the extraordinary circumstances surrounding its creation. Richardson spent nearly a year in hospital dealing with a major medical crisis. During his recovery, he began experimenting with stock footage as a way of keeping his mind occupied, initially putting together music videos before gradually moving into individual scenes. Eventually, those experiments developed into the idea of creating an entire feature.
That means Ephemera was essentially constructed in reverse. Instead of beginning with a screenplay and capturing the footage required to tell that story, Richardson was attempting to create a narrative around the material available to him.
Suddenly, a lot about Ephemera made considerably more sense.
It doesn’t change my experience of watching the finished movie. The dubbing still bothered me, the action sequences still didn’t work for me and, yes, it’s still a complete hangover sandwich of ideas.
What it does change is my appreciation for the person behind it.
Taking something that began as a creative escape during an incredibly difficult period and developing it into an 88-minute feature film takes an enormous amount of determination. Whatever my feelings about the end result, Richardson took an unconventional filmmaking experiment and actually saw it through to completion. That’s something I can absolutely respect.
It also leaves Ephemera in an unusual position. I can admire the story behind its creation far more than I admire the movie itself.
There’s imagination here. There’s ambition. There’s clearly a filmmaker determined to create something despite circumstances that could easily have stopped him from creating anything at all.
Unfortunately, none of that ultimately made Ephemera an enjoyable watch for me.
Thankfully, after 88 minutes, I was set free.
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