Equals (film)

Equals
Teaser poster for Equals
Directed by	Drake Doremus
Produced by	Michael Pruss Chip Diggins Ann Ruark Michael Schaefer Ridley Scott Jay Stern
Screenplay by	Nathan Parker
Story by	Drake Doremus
Starring	Nicholas Hoult Kristen Stewart Guy Pearce Jacki Weaver
Music by	Sascha Ring Dustin O'Halloran
Cinematography	John Guleserian
Edited by	Jonathan Alberts
Production company	Route One Films Scott Free Productions Freedom Media Infinite Frameworks Studio
Distributed by	A24 DirecTV Cinema
Release dates	September 5, 2015 (2015-09-05) (Venice) July 15, 2016 (2016-07-15) (United States)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2 million[1]

Equals is a 2015 American science-fiction romantic drama film directed by Drake Doremus. Produced by Michael Pruss, Chip Diggins, Ann Ruak, Michael Schaefer, Ridley Scott, and Jay Stern, and written by Nathan Parker from a story by Doremus.

It stars Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart as two people infected with a disease that regains their ability of compassion and emotion in a dystopian world where emotions do not exist; additional roles are played by Guy Pearce and Jacki Weaver.

The film had its world premiere in the international competition section at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.^[2][3] The film had its North American premiere in the Special Presentations programme at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.^[4][5] The film was released on May 26, 2016 through DirecTV Cinema prior to opening in a limited release on July 15 by A24.^[6]

Plot

In a futuristic dystopian utopia, citizens, known as "members" live under the Collective, the legislative body who monitor the people's actions. Citizens are mentally stabilized and all emotions and most illnesses are eradicated, with emotion and sexual activity contrary to the society's rules, and conception is through artificial insemination via a conception summons.

Silas, a citizen, works as an illustrator for Atmos. Upon seeing two citizens detained by officials returning home, he is reminded of an epidemic of Switched On Syndrome (S.O.S), a disease that has 4 stages that regains those infected emotion albeit behavioral impacts as a side effect, and will lead to those eventually contained by the Defective Emotional Neuropathy Facility (the DEN), a Collective-led institution, if so deemed non-"productive". An employee commits suicide the next day falling to his death and everyone gathers behind the windows and wonders who he was. Silas notices fellow worker Nia thoroughly assessing the situation and ignores it. However, during the presentation of a spacecraft, he again sees Nia's facial expression betray her emotions and he then returns home.

During the course of the next day, Silas becomes distracted during a conference at Atmos, falls asleep more often, and experiences a nightmare for the first time. He subsequently goes for a check up and is befriended by an official named Jonas with stage 2 SOS. He becomes diagnosed with Stage 1 S.O.S and is given a prescription. Nevertheless, Silas progressively worsens, as his drawings become emotional and his interest in Nia grows, examining her work at night. One day, he follows Nia into the bathroom and comforts her. She reveals that she had S.O.S for over a year and three months and was hiding it because she was scared. He then kisses her but hears Leonard, the company manager, in the bathroom and converses with him. Leonard spots Nia's interface on and reveals that he has been monitoring Silas. Silas decides to get a job separate from Nia in a gardening section.

Leonard introduces Silas' replacement, Dominic, to Nia the next day. Nia, during a conversation with Dominic, suffers a slight anxiety attack during lunch break. At night while picking up their prescriptions Jonas invites Silas for a walk, and then discloses that he is part of a secret support group and offers help. He decides to go, where he meets fellow members Bess, Peter, Thomas, Gil, Max and Alice and learns that the DEN's patients half of the time, mostly through encouragement, commit suicide. Nia then shows up at his apartment and they have sex, agreeing to spend more time there. Thereafter, the Ashby ENI cure for S.O.S is announced and successfully created. Scared, the two decide to go to the Peninsula, a secluded, primitive section of land, to the bewildered support of the group, who warn them to never return if successful. Jonas gives Silas instructions to ask for Oliver, a pilot, to fly him to the Peninsula. Silas and Nia make plans to go to Wellington, the closest location towards the border, on Saturday. However, Nia gets a conception summons and goes to the clinic, where she discovers that she is pregnant and so is taken to the DEN.

In an almost panic Silas visits Jonas about the situation, who tells him to stay calm and go back home. Depressed, Silas goes home and becomes saddened. Bess, upon hearing from Jonas and seeing that Nia was Stage 4, takes her to a room with Jonas and Max and brief Nia on a deceased Stage 3 S.O.S patient, Eva. They then help her to fake her death by switching identities implants with Eva, so that Eva is considered alive and Nia is considered dead. She is successful and leaves the DEN but doesn't find Silas at his apartment. Meanwhile, Silas finds out that Bess, Jonas and Gilead were betrayed by Max, and were given the cure. He goes to the DEN where they tell him Nia died and so he contemplates suicide on a roof top, but gets the cure instead. He returns to his apartment and finds Nia alive and that his treatment for SOS was in vain. He remembers her, having loved her and their escape plan but doesn't remember feeling it. The next morning with Nia heartbroken they take the Wellington train. With some measure of empathy for her, and through the physical contact of holding her hand, Silas comforts Nia giving her hope as the ride to freedom together.

Cast

Production

In October 2013, it was revealed that Drake Doremus would be directing the film, with Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult starring.^[7] In June 2014, Guy Pearce joined the film, also announcing the screenplay of the film was written by Nathan Parker, with Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer, Ann Ruark, and Jay Stern producing, while Chip Diggins will produce under Route One, while Mike Pruss, Lee Jea Woo, Choi Pyung Ho and Russell Levine will executive produce.^[8] In July 2014, Kate Lyn Sheil, Aurora Perrineau, and Jacki Weaver, joined the cast of the film.^[9][10][11] Initially, the project was set up at Indian Paintbrush.^[12]

Filming

Doremus, Stewart, Hoult, and producer Michael Pruss attended a press conference in Tokyo on August 2, 2014 to announce the start of the film.^[13] Principal photography began on August 4, 2014 in Japan and continued until August 28, after which production moved to Singapore for another three weeks.^[14] Filming wrapped in Singapore on September 26, 2014.^[15]

Costuming controversy

In August 2016 Abby O’Sullivan protested the fact that she had to share costume design credit with Alana Morshead, Doremus' girlfriend who had previously worked as an actress and stylist and was not involved in the manufacturing or production duties involved with the film.^[16]

Release

In September 2014, the first image from the film was released.^[17] Equals was sold by Mister Smith Entertainment to over 35 territories for distribution at Marché du Film during the Cannes Film Festival.^[18] On July 29, 2015, it was announced that Equals was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival and had its world premiere on September 5.^[19] On August 18, 2015, it was announced the film was selected to have its North American premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.^[5] On October 16, 2015, it was announced A24 Films alongside DirecTV Cinema had acquired the distribution rights of the film.^[20] The film was released on DirecTV Cinema on May 26, 2016, before opening in a limited release on July 15, 2016.^[6]

Reception

The film has received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes currently gives the film a rating of 32% based on 66 reviews with a weighted average score of 5/10. The site's critical consesus reads, "Equals is a treat for the eyes, but its futuristic aesthetic isn't enough to make up for its plodding pace and aimlessly derivative story."^[21] Metacritic assigned the film a normalized score of 43 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews ".^[22]

Peter Debruge of Variety, giving the film a positive review, said "Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult play citizens living in an emotion-free future who struggle to understand the attraction they feel for one another in this stylish, if simplistic sci-fi romance."^[23] While, IndieWire gave the film a C- and called that "the real wonder and marvel and breathless mystery of Equals may be that something so dazzlingly white can be so very dull."^[24]

References

External links

• Official website
• Equals at the Internet Movie Database
• Equals at Box Office Mojo
• Equals at Rotten Tomatoes
• Equals at Metacritic
• Equals at AllMovie