Worth: $13.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Mark Deans, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price, Simon Laherty. Belinda McClory
Intro:
… In The Loop bickering provides the film with most of its dark humour …
Back to Back Theatre is a Geelong-based company, whose crew of neurodivergent and disabled artists have been pumping out plays for the last 30 years. Based on their internationally performed play, The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes, Shadow marks their first foray into longer form filmmaking – the film even won an Audience Award at SXSW 2022.
Like the play, most of Shadow’s cast and crew are neurodivergent and/or disabled, giving the film a lens through which many will not have gazed.
Directed by Bruce Gladwin, a group of activists have gathered for a meeting to save the world from the impacts of Artificial Intelligence. For all of the champions of ChatGPT and the like, there are just as many vocal naysayers, questioning the tech’s endgame. That’s where our disabled activist protagonists come in.
With a documentary crew and journalist following their every word, Sarah (Sarah Mainwaring), Scott (Scott Price), and Simon (Simon Laherty) know that this is their moment to make an impact on the world, not just for neurodivergent people, but for everyone. It’s just a shame then that they can’t get out of each other’s way.
The first obvious roadblock is the machine brought in to provide live captions for everyone in the room. Sarah finds subtitles offensive, something that tries to smooth out blemishes that aren’t there. As Shadow progresses, the contraption – voiced by Belinda McClory – becomes much more of a threat than anyone could imagine; something that everyone might notice if they weren’t all going up against each other.
As self-appointed leader, aka ‘Mayor of the Town’, Simon is in a battle of influence with reluctant facilitator Scott, who is getting drunk off the power. Like a bearded ball of anger, he shakes his fist at everything, from Simon’s mispronunciation of the land’s traditional owners, despite the latter’s admitted difficulty with speaking, through to how others want to label themselves. And despite being the seeming voice of reason, Sarah is not against faking a full-on breakdown if it gets the room on her side. Hell, the whole room appears to patronise Mark (Mark Deans), deciding that he needs to be talked to in words of one syllable; something which Mark lets slide, as long as he can get to the buffet before anyone else.
This In The Loop bickering provides the film with most of its dark humour, particularly when Shadow turns its attention to atrocities and abuse that have happened to their community over the years, from the Magdalene laundries to Mattel’s dubious toy manufacturing. As Scott lists the numerous games made through essentially slave labour, the whole thing descends into Simon ticking off which ones he’s played, and which are the best.
That aside, this is why Sarah and co. are worried; they have seen and been part of what happens when you’re deemed intellectually inferior; the name-calling, the looks. As the film puts it: “When artificial intelligence overtakes human intelligence, how will people be treated?”
For all the film’s strengths, including an emotional score by the Luke Howard Trio, Shadow does lose its way, particularly in the final third. Which is a shame given that the film runs just under an hour. Once AI begins to literally interfere with their meeting, Shadow doesn’t seem to know where to go and simply pulls the plug on the narrative. That said, it’s a minor quibble and could be more of an indication of wanting to be in the central trio’s company for longer.
