It's 2019, and inflation in the U.S. is WAY up. Bills were passed to outlaw things like coins and gold, so the value of the dollar has plummeted rapidly. Buying a beer costs $90 while buying gas costs $150 per gallon. Washington D.C. (and presumably the rest of the U.S.?) is under the corrupt control of the Federal Reserve. Welcome to the world of Silver Circle.
Silver Circle's animation looks like a computer game from the late 1990s. Now, you must know that this is an independent film with a limited budget. Despite these facts, the film still won't appeal to many folks because of its primitive and amateurish look"”oh, how Pixar and DreamWorks animation have spoiled us! At first, the film's look was a bit jarring to watch, but its distinctness never took me out of the movie. However, its other elements did.
The voice acting is mostly poor. The emotions of each character don't come alive on screen. The dialogue is being read to you rather than falling off each character's tongue naturally. The film is earnest in its execution of drama despite its limitations. It plays imitator instead of emulator.
At the center, you have a story about a cop named Jay trying to solve a big case. The film uses a lot of "cop talk" and cop show plot lines you've seen before instead of giving you a sensibility of its own. The film also has a tired love story that is inauthentic, forced, and rushed. Although the film gives you the reason why, the barriers that arise and halt the relationship between the film's two leads are the exact reason it should have been delayed or even prevented in the first place.
The film's cautionary political tale, though intriguing, lacks the resonance needed to engross us into a fallen world. It's executed blandly without any intriguing twists, turns, or tension. Because of its visual limitations, a film like this must have a killer screenplay so it can lead the filmmakers into a new horizon of storytelling opportunities and not into a sunset.
