Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Brendan Gabriel Murphy
Starring: Shelley Hennig, Shiloh Fernandez, Henry Ian Cusick, Charlotte McKinney,
Tyrese Gibson
Brendan Gabriel Murphy's Fluxx (co-written with Keyaunte Mayfield) is an odd,
tonally jarring mix of genres. It appears at first to be a time-loop
thriller along the lines of movies like Triangle, The Final Girls and Happy Death Day. That initial setup might reel in horror fans, but I can't imagine
they'll be onboard with the soap opera-esque Hollywood melodrama
flashback narrative that constitutes the bulk of the film.
Actress Vada (Shelley Hennig) wakes fully clothed in the bath of
her luxurious home in the Hollywood hills. Seeming to have no idea how
she ended up in this situation, Vada receives a phone call from what
sounds like a young child who informs her that her husband has been
abducted and Vada will have to follow a set of instructions if she
wishes to ever see him again. When Vada exits the front door of her home
she immediately finds herself waking up in her bath once again. It seems
she is trapped unless she can figure a way out, but her attempts are
thwarted initially by "Raven", a Harley Quinn wannabe with a bad
Australian-or-maybe-British accent who forces her to play Russian
roulette, and later by a masked man wielding an axe.
The above setup takes up relatively little of the screen time with most
of Fluxx dedicated to detailing the rise and fall of Vada's acting career
and the collapse of her marriage. We watch as she leaves her controlling
boyfriend, chat show host Calvin Campbell (Tyrese Gibson), and
instantly embarks on a relationship with wannabe actor Trevor Pierce (Shiloh Fernandez). Vada uses her influence to get Trevor his break with a guest spot on
her daytime soap, but his career takes off just as hers begins to fall
apart, causing a riff in their marriage that drives her to become
increasingly dependant on drugs and alcohol.
Those who come to Fluxx for its time loop thrills will be baffled as to why the movie
forces us to sit through what plays like a cheesy made for TV biopic of
a fallen soap star. Cut out the flashbacks and you might have a decent
30-minute episode of a horror anthology show, but they simply don't add
enough to the plot to justify their existence here. Despite spending so
much time with Vada, by the end of Fluxx you'll likely still be confused as to how the movie wants us to
view her. She spends much of the time moaning about her situation and
blaming others, and you can see why her marriage fell apart, but it's
unclear whether the movie is on her side or not. Either way, her
character arc is a collection of tired "Hollywood chews you up and spits
you out" clichés.
As we watch Hennig play both Vada and the various fictional characters
of her movies and TV shows, the experience is akin to sitting through an
extended actor's show reel. You can see why Hennig was attracted to the
project, as it certainly provides ample opportunity to display her
range, which she does in convincing fashion. It also offers
cinematographer Kieran Murphy a similar chance to show
how malleable his talents are when it comes to lighting a variety of
disparate scenarios (a fake sci-fi movie within the movie is
particularly gorgeous). Hennig and Murphy will no doubt get more work
from this, but the audience is left to wonder how they might fare with
more substantial material.
Fluxx plays at the 2024 Vashon
Island Film Festival on August 8th.
