Can Sam Rockwell Save Us?

A person walks right into a diner sporting a transparent plastic raincoat, mismatched footwear and what appears like a suicide vest. He claims to be from the long run, despatched again in time to avoid wasting humanity from the approaching and inevitable AI rebellion. This matted evangelist is performed by Sam Rockwell within the wild-eyed “Is he deranged or is he the only sane one here?” mode of many a Terry Gilliam character (suppose Robin Williams in “The Fisher King” or Bruce Willis in “12 Monkeys”). He’s a bum-prophet — the type who goes out half-Croc’d, smelling of rubbish — looking for heroes to avert the apocalypse.

What are the percentages that this crackpot may discover the right mixture of troopers and suckers for his quest among the many late-night crowd at certainly one of L.A.’s timeless-looking Norms joints? “All of this goes horribly wrong!” he bellows — that means Life As We Know It — as he gestures to a restaurant stuffed with weirdos, most of whom are mesmerized by their smartphones on the expense of human connection. Their skepticism is completely comprehensible (we really feel it, too, because you’d must be a bit loopy your self to observe such a pacesetter), however the film doesn’t go away room for a lot doubt: Rockwell’s Man From the Future actually is from the long run.

The rowdy return of “Pirates of the Caribbean” director Gore Verbinski (coming off practically a decade in director’s jail), “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is an unapologetically irreverent, wildly ingenious, end-is-nigh tackle the time-loop film — name it “Terminator 2: Groundhog Day” — besides that right here, Rockwell’s dizzy protagonist is aware of what it takes to cease the cycle. He simply hasn’t come wherever near doing so within the 117 makes an attempt he’s made to date. This man has tried so many mixtures of the obtainable gamers, however one thing feels totally different about this specific run-through.

For starters, a girl he’s by no means tried earlier than volunteers for the primary time: That can be Susan (Juno Temple), whose backstory and motives will likely be revealed in one of many film’s a number of timeline-rewinding vignettes. What’s extra, a cosmic indicator suggests he also needs to embrace Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), a nihilistic millennial in tear-smeared make-up and a tattered blue princess costume, regardless that her death-wish power freaks him out. The Man From the Future is evident: Sacrifices should be made, not everybody will survive, however nothing wanting the destiny of humanity is at stake.

Kooky but charismatic, this sky-is-falling staff captain faucets 5 extra diners to spherical out his group, together with schoolteachers Mark and Janet (Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz), a schlubby Boy Scout chief (Daniel Barnett) and two wild-card picks (Asim Chaudhry and Dominique Maher), at the very least certainly one of whom doesn’t reside lengthy sufficient to benefit the backstory therapy. Half the comedy comes from Rockwell’s exaggerated impatience with the folks he’s attempting to avoid wasting. That handheld clicker tied to his vest? It’s not a detonator however a reset button that may flash him again to the second he walked into Norms (or so he claims).

If “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” seems like a online game, that’s no accident. The title displays an change between characters in “Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate,” whereas “Mass Effect 2” additionally begins with selecting a staff of gamers to avoid wasting the world. From “The cake is a lie” to “No future,” Matthew Robinson’s hyper-referential script is stuffed with inside jokes for avid gamers. Or, to take it one step additional, the film invitations us to query whether or not its actuality is the truth is a simulation, taking part in off Elon Musk’s idea that the 2 will ultimately be indistinguishable. You’ve gotta admit it’s odd the way in which what these folks say impacts how the world responds, introducing slight variations to every iteration.

Never predictable (or protected) in his decisions, “MouseHunt” architect Verbinski has been sorely missed. It takes a virtuoso of his caliber to execute on the film’s intricate “Everything Everywhere All at Once”-level creativeness, even when the gonzo concept man right here is definitely Robinson. The author’s uncanny edgelord satire consists of the meme-ready, glitter-squirting equal of the “Ghostbusters” Marshmallow Man; a service that clones the victims of all-too-frequent faculty shootings; and a swarm of device-addicted teenagers (Midwich cuckoos, actually) who mindlessly recite, “Thank you for your service,” to anybody in uniform.

Such impertinence is sure to offend some audiences, at the same time as others (Ernest Cline readers or Scott Pilgrim followers, for instance) embrace it because the uncommon movie that will get the post-ironic perspective they discover on social media and in on-line boards. The title’s a reasonably good clue to its tone. Channeling the flip, “Can you believe this guy?” mojo he delivered to “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” Rockwell makes an amazing avatar for the cavalier stance that nothing issues once you get limitless lives — a harmful mentality among the many gamer era.

Whereas Rockwell’s co-stars are interchangeable by design, it’s onerous to think about any of this working with one other actor in his position. Still, it’s virtually perverse to course of a film lecturing us concerning the hazard of screens, even when the extravagant “Akira”-like climax makes the rogue AI appear very harmful certainly. “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” repeats as soon as once more the trope of an omnipotent bald baby whom individuals are attempting both to guard or destroy (the mission right here is solely to put in security protocols within the self-generating AI). Fittingly, after the back-to-back flops of “The Lone Ranger” and “A Cure for Wellness,” this daring challenge represents a redemption-seeking do-over for Verbinski too. Here’s hoping it really works.