Hover is a 2018 comedy set in the near future, where an environmental strain has caused food shortages around the world.
It’s not all that hard to believe the future of director Matt Osterman‘s latest sci-fi drama Hover isn’t too far off, one where drones are the law of the land. That’s easily the first hook, and admittedly a solid one that is loaded with far corners to explore, but this often clever look into one disturbing possiblity unfortunately doesn’t strike nearly as deeply as it seems hopeful of doing.
In a time not so far away, a mega-corporation called Vastgrow is capitalizing on a worldwide food shortage, including droughts that have devastated farms in the United States. Developing hi-tech drones to maximize what agriculture remains, their newest line of airborne machines is a line of military-esque sentinel drones that patrol the fields, protecting crops, property, and families in their service. Meanwhile, in this age of depression, assisted suicide has become legal with a company called Transitions sending agents to people’s homes to do the deed. One of them is Claudia (Cleopatra Coleman), a young woman with a secret of her own who makes a dangerous discovery and a possible conspiracy that links both operations.
Written by Coleman, Hover is a curiously staid production, one that might feel a little exploratory at first, but weirdly ends up like the director, the writer, and the composer (Wojciech Golczewski) were all given different notes about the tone of the film. Set up and filmed like a techno thriller, the writing is only superficially engaging, often hinged on exposition, while the music ho-hums along in low placid earthy digital tones that often don’t quite fit the action on screen. All of this is very much an issue, but at the same time it’s hard to dismiss Coleman’s efforts, both as the star and writer.
Her story has a very dark edge that has truly effective moments, such as a scene where she administers the Transitions’ peaceful passage program to an ill man while his family looks on, her assistant Tania (Fabianne Therese) making a crucial error in the setup (or does she?). This is a hugely compelling moment that teases at something deeper but is mostly avoided. It’s one of a handful of pots on the stove left unattended.
While advanced self-driving cars are pretty much the only real clue to the timeline, Hover does manage to feel at least believable, skipping the temptation to get all whacky with its future landscape. That’s good. It’s just too bad there is no energy to the otherwise high-quality production, one that spends much of its time in low gear before trying to go big in the end with an inevitable drone frenzy with poor CGI and splatters of cheesy head bursting violence.
I appreciate what Coleman is aiming for, but it seems her initial idea was sacrificed for more traditional action sci-fi fare, ending up less impactful than it could be. I’m willing to bet, she’s got better still on the way.