A Glitch in the Matrix is a documentary about simulation theory. What is simulation theory? The idea that the world we experience is actually an elaborate computer simulation by some far advanced civilization. It’s a scientific hypothesis that has no way to test or invalidate it so I was curious how they were going to make a full length documentary out of it. Wonder I might… because what they made was kind of a disaster.

So the film only spends a few minutes really doing any kind of deep dive on the theory… and it spends some hand waving minutes likening it to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Descartes’ Evil Demon argument, or the brain in a vat… but the doc does such a poor job making the connection, that unless you know what those thought experiments are, you ain’t learning it here. Which is a microcosm of the main problem with the doc… if you don’t know simulation theory, this movie isn’t going to teach you. If you do have an understanding of it, this movie is too superficial to add anything to even a minimal understanding.

It tries to use a speech given by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick in which he suggests his mind-warping books are actually a memory of an alternate reality (which isn’t really simulation theory but whatever). And it’s an interesting speech but as a lynchpin for a movie is flawed for one major reason: PK Dick was kind of certifiable. A drug addicted mess with paranoid delusions of persecution. A pretty brilliant idea man as evidenced by his body of work and the movies and tv shows that are based on them.

And those movies get a lot of attention in this doc… in fact, a ton of pop culture does. Because what else are they going to show about a theory that’s untestable? So we get a lot of footage of movies like Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and even Star Wars (which is about as far from simulation theory as possible). The funny and ironic thing is, the movie makes the argument that all the head trippy ideas in movies based on Dick’s work is somehow an argument for simulation theory… but the examples it shows are parts of those movies that were made up for the movie. Not at all in the text of the books themselves. Which wildly invalidates their argument. It’s kind of funny.

And, yes, they talk about The Matrix a lot… and that includes people who were influenced by that movie’s ideas. Now, The Matrix is a brilliant and awesome movie that borrows heavily (but does not invent) simulation theory. And I’m not sure the talking head interviewees are aware of that.

And that’s all the weirder since most of the interviews provided are clearly for people who have some level of mental instability in their lives. They spend time explaining how, at various times, they thought people on the street were NPCs (non-player characters) or that a road trip was an elaborate super advanced rear projection and that they never travelled anywhere (insert scenes of The Truman Show). It’s baffling how this doc uses the delusions of clearly sick people as an argument. Or maybe it’s a counter-argument. Who can say? The movie sure doesn’t.

So this is a disaster of a movie… and if, ironically, I wasn’t fascinated watching it, I’d have rated it worse. but that’s the thing… it’s not a boring movie. It’s kind of enjoyable to watch even as it teaches you nothing and gives you all the ammunition you need against it. Bad documentary, mildly entertaining film. Still a bad score though.

Score: 68