‘2073’ Review: Dystopia is Inevitable in Asif Kapadia’s Busy but Despondent Docufiction
variety.comJessica Kiang In “Amy,” Asif Kapadia‘s Oscar-winning gut-punch about pop icon Amy Winehouse (and to a lesser extent in biographical docs “Senna” and “Diego Maradona” too), the British director employs an emotional rhythm by which his subject’s tragic end seems foredestined right from the start.
Perhaps “2073,” his new hybrid docufiction is a natural expansion of that impulse — a blend of archival footage, CG enhancement and speculative fiction that applies similar retroactive dismay to a cautionary tale about a near-future dystopia, and the current rising tide of everything-is-terrible that may bring it about.
Unfortunately, what is highly effective as a biographical rise-and-fall tactic is far less so as a means to make a grand statement about imminent societal collapse.
It’s not clear quite who is going to be galvanized into action to avert catastrophe when according to “2073,” almost everything that will lead to civilization’s demise — from AI to climate change to technocratic mass-surveillance to anti-democratic authoritarianism to global migration and health crises — has already, hopelessly, happened.
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