Genre: Sci-Fi

Director: Arvi Ragu

Cast: Christian James, James Russo, and Anirudh Pisharody

Studio: Glass House Distribution

Runtime: 120 minutes.

Release Date: Available on VOD May 4th, 2021

Rated: Not Rated

Reviewer’s Rating ★★★★★

Cerebrum, written and directed by Arvi Ragu, follows Tom (Christian James) who is in dire need of money. His financial stress leads him to signing up as a guinea pig in his father, Kirk’s  (James Russo) lab. Kirk, along with his assistant Bhuvanesh (Anirudh Pisharody) experiment with memory in an attempt to essentially back-up a person’s brain onto a physical hard drive in order to load it into someone else’s mind in an effort to cure Alzheimer’s. Their endeavors appear successful until Tom finds out he’s committed a murder that he has no memory of. Now he’s on the hunt to discover why, and if he was in control of himself at the time the crime occurred.

Ragu’s film has all the trappings that could make for an engaging science-fiction film and, at times, his grounded approach is rewarding; however, more often than not, I found myself quite bored while watching. Cerebrum has a high-concept plot with noticeable ambition in its writing, yet it often feels as though the momentum is held back by bland direction and paper-thin story development.

Despite a killer premise, Cerebrum constantly feels like it’s being stretched thin. After our introduction of the characters, nothing of note occurs until the crime midway through. This on its own wouldn’t be a critique if Ragu’s script spent time fleshing out the backstory of the experimentations and motivations of the mind-swapping, including the character development. Instead,  Cerebrum focuses too much on Tom recording vlogs about the experiments or getting into tiffs with his dad with the former making a bulk of the runtime, and the latter taking a sizable chunk.

On one hand, I do appreciate having the father-son story being at the forefront while keeping the science-fiction and murder mystery in the background. This could potentially lend itself to unveiling a more heartfelt experience but unfortunately, Ragu’s script never melds the ingredients in a way that feels fully cohesive. The process of memory transfers seems half-baked and, by the time the crime occurs, it lacks the weight it should have on the audience. It’s a shame because while I can see the vision Ragu is going for, his final product lacks the bite to make it shine.

At least the father and son dynamic of Cerebrum make for the most compelling aspects, mainly due to the talent on-screen. Russo and James’ performances work well to keep you interested,  especially from the latter.With the film’s focus primarily on Tom, the commendable performance by James makes you empathetic to his character. Since the focus is nearly solely on James and he carries the film by making his character surprisingly empathic to the viewer. While Russo shares considerably less screen-time, he gives a very sorrowful performance that adds more depth than what he is given. The two transform their characters from being ciphers that explain plot advancements to feeling like relatable people.

The camerawork does little to aid the pacing. The imagery lacks depth in the shots and the camera is often static. The framing of subjects in certain scenes look odd, including angles showcasing the tops of characters’ heads being cut off which lead to unintentionally bizarre shots. Combine that with the majority of the film overusing the same locations, you have a film that’s visually generic. Thankfully, the color-grading is unique, opting for hues of dry orange and yellow that give Cerebrum a grimier look than a typical science-fiction film.

Cerebrum has a lot of great ideas with some grounded performances to keep you interested just enough to keep watching; however,  by the end, I was, ironically, already forgetting what I had just watched. Give it a rental if you’re heavily into sci-fi but, for those that are not that keen of the genre, you’re better off skipping this one.

For more on Cerebrum visit:

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7933232/

Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cerebrummovie/ 

Official Website: https://www.cerebrummovie.com

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