Infinity Chamber

Infinity Chamber [2016] is the feature film debut of writer/director Travis Milloy. Christopher Soren Kelly stars as Frank, a man trapped in an automated prison managed by an artificial intelligence named Howard (voiced by Jesse D. Arrow) that he must outsmart to escape. The film also stars Cassandra Clark and Cajardo Lindsey.

“Would you like some coffee?” Infinity Chamber is far away from a wholly original concept, but it takes familiarity and twists it on its head just enough to keep things interesting. The film is full of ideas, subtle world-building, and developments that keep things moving along at a brisk enough pace yet nothing ever feels very intriguing. The mystery behind Frank’s imprisonment and the way the main mechanic begins to unravel the story work to an extent so long as you’re along for the ride. By its end, however, nothing much feels accomplished or even really conveyed. It feels more like a lower budgeted episode of a Black Mirror wannabe without any of the gut-wrenching cleverness.

“Thank you, Howard.” The production design is nice for the shoestring project that this is, and there are some decent effects that work mostly due to their minimalism. There are a few moments that do not pass, including the not well-hidden use of shining a laser pointer at an object to give it the effect of scanning. You can appreciate the clever tactic but it feels more like something teenagers would need to resort to for their home movie and less like a necessary workaround for a feature. The vast majority of what goes on in the chamber itself is all very maintained and handled consistently, it’s readily apparent this is where there was the most control during shooting. Some scenes that happen externally from this main location hurt a bit in the sound and lighting department.

“My job is to keep you alive.” When it comes to poor lighting much can be forgiven with a compelling enough story and driven performances. Sound, however, is the one thing that will make or break a film regardless of the quality of anything else. Here, specifically in scenes involving a coffee shop, there’s an abundance of painfully apparent ADR that stands out aesthetically and really warps what might have been much better performances on the day. The few performances that there are in the film are mostly passable with fairly decent thrown in from moment to moment. Unfortunately, one bad egg brings a cringe-worthy performance to each scene they’re in which roughs up the edges of what is a fairly smooth (if not entirely polished) product all around.

An acceptable enough freshman outing with decent ideas
and design, but lacking in anything worthwhile
or memorable enough to stand out amongst anything else.