by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden
In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s U.K. GM horror film Isaac, by Tariq Sayed and Diamondback Pictures.
Synopsis
After losing their first child to a genetic disease, grief-stricken parents Nicholas (Johnny Vivash) and Sarah Reeves (Kathryn Louise) enroll into clinical trials launched by GEO Group; an established cellular meat company using its technology to create GM babies.
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The Good
Joseph: Vivash leads a veritable acting clinic in Isaac as Nicholas, a desperate father doing whatever he can to save his titular son — who is no ordinary child, as the above synopsis hints at. As writer/director Sayed’s nonlinear approach unfolds, viewers learn from the start that Nicholas will go to almost any lengths to protect Isaac, and Vivash nails every nuance of emotion that is asked of him. We care about this anguished protagonist and want him to succeed. Louise offers strong support as his exasperated wife, as do Catrionna MacColl (well known for Luccio Fauci’s The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery) as a cold, corporate-speaking GEO Group representative and Bosco Hogan as a helpful, if shocked, retired physician. Sayed does an excellent job of getting an important message across in a manner that avoids being too sharp while delivering a chilling peek into a future that feels not too far away.
Mike: There’s a serious message to be taken from Isaac and Tariq Sayed does a good job of not hammering the viewer over the head with it. There’s certainly a moral and ethical matter when it comes to lab-grown meat — one that we’re not going to get into here — and when you add the Dr. Frankenstein God-complex horror of designer babies to the mix you’re really doing more than just dipping your toes into the gene pool, as it were. Yet Sayed keeps the implications of this at arm’s length and instead focuses on the unraveling of Nicholas, whose internal battle of love and grief lead to some decisions there’s no turning back from (and truth be told, almost make him as bad as the corporation that was playing God with their lab grown children).
While there are a few other characters, this is essentially a one-man show and Johnny Vivash does an admirable job as Nicholas who progresses through the stages of grief at his own pace, even — like most people — skipping a step and/or only briefly flirting with one or another, and expresses himself quite believably with each progression.
There’s also the matter of the non-linear storytelling which allows Sayed to jump right into the story and hook the viewer before getting into the act of world-building and setting the stage for what has to play out.
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The Bad
Joseph: I find no outstanding faults with Isaac. The pacing does slow down a bit at times but not terribly so, and a dream sequence — though effective and unnerving — feels stylistically different from the “real world” events on display.
Mike: The chief problem that Isaac struggles with is one of editing, as some scenes play on far too long that add nothing to the act of moving the story forward and only serve to pad the run time. Other than this quibble, there’s not much else to find at fault here, although the scenes that are padded happen rather frequently and at one point I started playing a game with myself as I counted the different angles shot of a car driving. The saving grace is that the scenery at least LOOKS nice.
The other issue some people might have is with Isaac himself, but I’ll leave that alone for what will be obvious reasons.
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The Verdict
Joseph: If people would have paid better attention to the cautionary fables of Rod Serling’s classic The Twilight Zone TV series, perhaps we would not have to be contemplating issues such as the ones brought up in Isaac. But contemplate them we must, and Isaac is an excellently crafted way to do that in cinematic form. Sayed’s debut feature, chock full of fine performances and delivering a riveting consideration of ethical dilemmas of the Frankenstinian sort using a decidedly different approach, gets a strong recommendation from yours truly.
Mike: Playing out like a padded up version of an episode of Black Mirror, Isaac is a well-presented cautionary tale of corporate greed and the ethical questions that arise with the horrific thought of “designer babies,” as well as the effects these topics can have on those involved. The serious subject matter is handled with very little political or righteous posturing which allows the viewer to become fully engaged with the plight of a father as his world is — literally and figuratively — torn apart around him.
Isaac
Directed By: Tariq Sayed
Written By: Tariq Sayed
Starring: Johnny Vivash, Catriona MacColl, Bosco Hogan
Run Time: 1h 24m
Rating: NR
Release Date: 2024
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