A Glitch In The Matrix: Review

12th March 2021

A Glitch In The Matrix: Review. By Luke Foulder-Hughes.

A Glitch in the Matrix was a documentary that’s premise I found very intriguing, the whole theory behind life being a simulation is something that I’ve never really considered being a possibility, so this documentary was a chance for me to learn more about a topic that I’m open to knowing more about. However, after finishing it, I had no more information about this theory than I’d had prior to viewing.

A huge issue I had with this documentary was that it didn’t use experts on its subject matter, opting for people who had no real evidence or proper reasoning for believing that we live in a simulation, relying on nothing more than conspiracy theories.

This made the film feel like a feature length YouTube video from Shane Dawson, especially backed up when they actually used a clip from a Tana Mongeau video. The problem with this is that these videos are mainly for entertainment purposes, whereas A Glitch in the Matrix takes itself way too seriously to be viewed in this way so there’s no way it can be enjoyed casually.

Another negative problem I have with it was the overuse of clips from Elon Musk, a man who I personally do not admire whatsoever, and the usage of these made the film feel like an homage to him, which doesn’t really work with the subject matter and felt very forced and unnecessary to the documentary as a whole. This left a bad taste in my mouth, and went hand in hand with the use of clips from Rick and Morty, a show I like but once again was completely unneeded and were chosen over using videos that may scientifically work with the theories.

Something I can say that I found impressive was the animation, they used animation over the faces of the guests and to tell some stories and it looked very clean and it was obvious the animators were at the top of their game. It’s good to see great animation in a smaller scale, independent documentary as with a lower budget you’d expect that the level of animation would take a hit. I also quite liked that a lot of the reasoning for their theories were based around a film I really like, The Matrix (hence the title). From the first time I watched the Wachowski Sisters’ masterpiece, the themes it presented intrigued me, and whilst I felt this film didn’t explain these theories well, I enjoyed hearing the thoughts of the people on the documentary.

In all honesty, this documentary felt like it was made for an audience that likes people like Elon Musk and are interested in conspiracy theories, neither of which resonate with me very much. I did enjoy very brief moments in A Glitch in the Matrix, however overall I found it very boring and uninformative, particularly through its reliance on coincidental evidence as opposed to scientific evidence, which I find necessary for every documentary unless it is done for entertainment over trying to sway the audience to this point of view.

A Glitch in the Matrix is available on Dogwoof on Demand now and DVD and Blu-ray released on 10 May 2021.

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