When a man, known to others only as #000000014 (Melvin Gregg), wakes up alone in a mysterious room, he is forced to connect with others using only the simplistic computer system that has been provided. Entertainment is currency, and it’s how he will survive. Sharing content with everyone else is essential; will he be able to Share?
It’s made so clear that Share? is a satire, an odd one that is meant to analyze social constructs of the modern day. It does so by appealing to the emotions of everyone watching. Everyone in the film has a story, even if they don’t have a name. Viewers are able to attach themselves to the characters, able to understand and appreciate their struggles–and as Share? barrels forward, we are reeled further and further into the narrative, waiting for the next bit of something to happen, for the next big reveal. Writer-Director Ira Rosensweig does a wonderfully unique job of manipulating the emotion within the film to reflect something very familiar. Most viewers would be familiar with sadness, anxiety, and the like–but Rosensweig manages to create something that is much more closely connected to responses we have when scrolling through social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
With all of that said, it’s interesting that Rosensweig and his Co-Writer Benjamin Sutor are able to create emotion that feels incomplete, and that somehow feels far more visceral and real. The film is full of the diluted and fractured emotions that run rampant on the internet today. What Share? does really well is bridge the gap between the past and the present. Seasoned viewers will be able to make connections to the characters and their shared experiences, and the way in which Rosensweig and his team create and deliver emotion allows younger audiences to connect with the characters and their stories as well. Share? effectively conveys emotion in a series of ways that will allow it to be far reaching from beginning to end.
The entirety of Share? is shot at one, fixed angle, never veering from this or providing viewers the opportunity to see anything other than what sits right before us. In a way this works to remind viewers that they are ultimately being manipulated and forced into seeing and thinking exactly what it is that figures in the media want them to. Whether it’s political, racial, or something else entirely, many individuals that you see online and on television are presenting the world with their point of view, trying to sway the way that others think–and Share? does a brilliant job of bringing this sentiment to life by using that fixed camera.
Viewers effectively remain present in the same place throughout the course of Share?. While we move from room to room, we remain at the same height and in the same position throughout, keeping us fixed, with no wiggle room whatsoever. Through intimacy and a brilliant development and delivery of relevant and practical emotions, Share? reaches viewers throughout its entirety.
Directed by Ira Rosensweig.
Written by Ira Rosensweig & Benjamin Sutor.
Starring Melvin Gregg, Bradley Whitford, Danielle Campbell, Alice Braga, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
