movie review hypnotic 2023

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There’s a lot of empty space in “ Hypnotic ,” a doofy, though never boring sci-fi thriller about a Texas cop, played by Ben Affleck , who stumbles upon a conspiracy of mind-controlling crooks. Or he seems to stumble upon them. Reality buckles and warps around our troubled hero, whose daughter has already gone missing before the movie starts.

Now Detective Daniel Rourke (Affleck) alternates between chasing after and running away from an elusive mind-controlling “hypnotic,” played by William Fichtner . Fichtner’s baddy is the prime (and only) suspect in a weird bank heist that leaves Rourke dazed and clutching at a Polaroid of his daughter Minnie ( Hala Finley ). Some mysterious handwriting on the photo tells Rourke to “Find Lev Dell Rayne.”

Wide-angle photography also helps viewers to distinguish between “reality” as Rourke knows it and the “ Inception ”-style delirium that warps his (and our) perspective, often shot with spherical camera lenses. If you squint hard enough at “Hypnotic,” past the obvious twists and embarrassing dialogue, you might see flashes of a deeper story, though only if you’re a fan of multihyphenate filmmaker Robert Rodriguez .

Rodriguez (“ Alita: Battle Angel ,” “ Four Rooms ”) directed, scripted, and edited “Hypnotic” in Austin, Texas, after three production breaks and an insurance lawsuit. Austin was not Rodriguez or his production’s first choice of location (Los Angeles), nor was it their second (Toronto). Still, it’s hard to imagine how Rodriguez could have shot “Hypnotic” anywhere but Austin, especially because he’s filmed most of his projects in Austin during his 30 years as a filmmaker. Moreover, when “Hypnotic” is more about ambiance than story, it seems to reflect a crisis of imagination: what happened to the weird and vibrant Austin of Rodriguez’s memory? Did it ever really exist?

I don’t mean to over-sell the personal qualities that often skirt the periphery of Rourke’s quest for answers, but “Hypnotic” does try to lull viewers into a suggestive frame of mind, primarily by over-stating the facts of Rourke’s investigation. He teams up with Diana Cruz ( Alice Braga ), a “dime store psychic” (his words) who ferries Rourke around Austin’s shadier corners. Rodriguez’s fans might recognize a few key locations, like the Bone Shack barbecue spot from “Planet Terror,” where truckers and Texas Rangers refuel with breakfast tacos. Other Austin locations are only familiar because of the character actors lurking inside, like Jeff Fahey and Jackie Earle Haley . There’s also an Alex Jones-type paranoiac ( Dayo Okeniyi ) hiding in a lavishly decorated bunker. He can see fine, but still wears an eyepatch that he shifts from eye to eye to avoid detection by security cameras, because of their facial recognition technology, right?

The prefab weird-ness of this secret Austin, the city that Rourke never thought to investigate, inevitably proves to be as substantial as the movie’s canned and by-now-stale remixing of the genre tics and tropes that Christopher Nolan previously claimed in signature movies like “ Memento ,” “Inception,” and “ Tenet .” “Hypnotic” isn’t as polished nor as thoughtful as Nolan’s trendsetters. It’s also often distractingly stiff in its over-inflated visual compositions and robotic dialogue. A game cast, led by the thanklessly charming Affleck, does not add much value to this bald caper.

Still, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy watching Rodriguez clumsily apply his signature fetishes to “Hypnotic,” a movie where Alice Braga offers Ben Affleck a glass of clear moonshine whiskey and an unnamed Texas Ranger, with a white cowboy hat and matching suit, takes his coffee “black ‘n sludgy.” If you’re a Rodriguez fan, you might be charmed by these clumsy and perhaps over-confident personal touches. His humor is certainly corny enough to be an acquired taste, like when River, Okeniyi’s paranoid hacker, offers Rourke some “homemade Mountain Dew” after showing him his disturbed mind corkboard, which connects everything to hypnotics, from Brexit to the Pope. “My own brew, all organic,” River boasts about his DIY Dew. Rourke still declines.

Fans will recognize and appreciate the well-worn pleasures of this lightly seasoned genre exercise. Others will understandably laugh at Ben Affleck when he says things like, “Hypnotics did all this?!” Rodriguez also tends to linger on shots and story beats a little too long, presumably to ensure distracted viewers cannot miss overt cues. It’s hard, though not impossible, to be seduced given these trying conditions.

Look, the dramatic stakes could be higher, but that’s part of the fun with “Hypnotic,” a bombastic, pseudo-mindbending chase movie where A-listers mosey into an underwhelming twist. Your enjoyment depends on how badly you want to watch Rodriguez and the gang struggle to pull a well-beaten rug out from under you. “Hypnotic” may not be clever or energetic enough to keep your mind from wandering, but it is charming in its own stumbling way.

In theaters now .

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

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Film credits.

Hypnotic (2023)

Rated R for violence.

Ben Affleck as Daniel Rourke

Alice Braga as Diana Cruz

William Fichtner as Liv Del Rayne

J. D. Pardo

Hala Finley as Dominique Rourke

Dayo Okeniyi

Jackie Earle Haley

Kelly Frye as Vivian

Melanie Hawkins as Emily

Derek Russo as Tiny

Bonnie Discepolo

• Robert Rodriguez

Writer (story by)

• Max Borenstein

Cinematographer

• Pablo Berron
• Rebel Rodriguez

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‘Hypnotic’ Review: A Twisty Thriller Sends Ben Affleck on the Run

Alice Braga plays a psychic and Affleck a cop in this action-packed Robert Rodriguez picture that gets a little overly ambitious.

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By Glenn Kenny

Seasoned moviegoers complain these days that blockbuster franchises and formulaic streaming fare have all but squeezed out the midbudget character-driven drama. But it’s worse than that. The state of the biz isn’t doing wonders for tight, low-budget, midlength action thrillers with sci-fi or supernatural plot hooks, either. So on learning that, after almost a decade working primarily in television or on movies with a strong Y.A. slant, the dynamic director Robert Rodriguez has a Ben Affleck-led suspense thriller called “Hypnotic” in theaters, even a casual genre hound might cock an intrigued eyebrow.

Affleck plays Donald Rourke, a detective in Austin, Texas, who is traumatized by the kidnapping of his small daughter several years back. On a stakeout one day, he and his crew surveil a chilly-voiced older man (William Fichtner) whose cryptic words mesmerize several hapless bystanders and compel them to carry out a bloody bank job. Beating Fichtner’s character to the safe deposit box he is after, Rourke finds a Polaroid of his own daughter, with an enigmatic message scrawled beneath.

A phone message leads him to the psychic Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), who explains the existence of “hypnotics,” powerful beings who can control others with their words and thoughts. Conveniently, Affleck has a psychic block that prevents him from being affected. His partner doesn’t, though. After a grisly scene in which Rourke’s partner, now hypnotized, tries to sever his own wrist from a handcuff in order to kill them, Rourke and Diana have to flee to Mexico.

If the movie were just these two going from action set piece to action set piece with Braga’s character pulling Jedi mind tricks along the way, it would have been satisfactory. Rodriguez, after all, has always been a way-above-average camera director and action choreographer. But he’s going for something more ambitious here. When Rourke starts seeing a Mexican street extending into the air and curving, you grok that the director — who has his own studio in Austin, where this was shot — is going for a homegrown Christopher Nolan variant.

This is, arguably, biting off more than “Hypnotic” can comfortably chew, both conceptually and for the production. When Affleck is confronted by a posse of psychics wearing crimson sports jackets, for instance, you wonder if maybe he’s wandered into a convention of Red Lobster senior managers. As the scenario veers into familial-sentimentality-with-shootouts territory, the goofiness quotient increases. But the movie is, if nothing else, ruthlessly efficient enough in delivering its crowd-pleasing bits that truly starving suspense genre hounds, at least, won’t necessarily mind.

Hypnotic Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters.

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• Cast & crew
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A detective investigates a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program. A detective investigates a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program. A detective investigates a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program.

• Robert Rodriguez
• Max Borenstein
• Ben Affleck
• Alice Braga
• 363 User reviews
• 141 Critic reviews
• 53 Metascore

• Danny Rourke

• Randy Nicks

• Carl Everett

• Lev Dellrayne

• (as Ruben Caballero)

• Thelma Everett

• Minnie Rourke (10 yo)

• Minnie Rourke (7 yo)
• (as Ionie Nieves)

• Business Woman #1
• (as Bonnie Kathleen Ryan)

• Business Woman #2
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia The joke that the security guard tells his partner, about the man betting a bartender he can pee in a glass, is also featured in Robert Rodriguez's earlier film 'Desperado' in which it was delivered by Quentin Tarantino.
• Goofs A character's federal profile informs us that they cannot be influenced by other hypnotics. However, an after-credits scene reveals that they were influenced by a hypnotic to see one person as if they were another person. This is not a goof, because the information was fake; and it is easier to fool someone, if you convince them that they can't be fooled.

Diana Cruz : I love you.. don't ask me why.

• Crazy credits Final ending is shown in a mid-credit scene.
• Connections Featured in Kermode & Mayo's Take: Master Gardener, Hypnotic, the Gallows Pole, Shane Meadows + Sophie McShera (2023)

User reviews 363

• therealjaysmoke
• May 31, 2023
• How long is Hypnotic? Powered by Alexa
• May 12, 2023 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Bluerider Pictures
• Official Site
• Những Kẻ Thao Túng
• Austin, Texas, USA (Downtown)
• Blue Rider Pictures
• Double R Productions (II)
• Golden Liberty Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $70,000,000 (estimated)
• May 14, 2023
• $16,281,937

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 33 minutes

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Hypnotic Reviews

Do not expect too much from the film, and there's a chance you might just enjoy it. It’s silly and absurd.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 7, 2023

Rodriguez's spirit and good intentions seem to have been lost among medium budgets —but perhaps not quite generous enough— excessive seriousness, and convoluted plots in a sort of $65 million B-movie with Nolan-esque aspirations.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 21, 2023

A laughably bad, poorly acted movie. When nothing is real or as it seems, and you can’t trust anything you see happening, who cares? I certainly didn’t.

Full Review | Nov 20, 2023

Hypnotic is essentially a B-grade product disguised as a smart movie. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Nov 17, 2023

Essentially “Lobster Stuffed with Tacos: The Movie.”

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Nov 6, 2023

A narratively inert film that, despite having good performances, an appropriately intense soundtrack, and intriguing ideas, simply doesn't know what it wants. The only thing that “Hypnotic” manages to do is CONFUSE the viewer. Full review in Spanish.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 3, 2023

[Rodriguez] quickly reaches a dead end that leads him to have to explain each next step of the action with too many words. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 2, 2023

Hypnotic is another Robert Rodríguez movie with its feet firmly planted on the ground when it's time to shoot, but with its head in the stratosphere when conceiving the script, scenes, and dialogues. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 2, 2023

Rodríguez accumulates multiple situations, each one more absurd than the one before, which he intertwines with some action scenes resolved with much more skill than that applied to addressing poor Affleck's exploits. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 1, 2023

Let those of us who accept the real unreality of a Raymond Chandler Philip K. Dick, enjoy a Ben Affleck playing a metatemporal detective... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 27, 2023

The film articulates itself as a theory of mental power made from twists and turns that require a course final explanation. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 25, 2023

A poorly-written attempt at cerebral science fiction that collapses under the weight of its own stupidity.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Sep 15, 2023

It doesn’t even lean into its absurdity, blowing an opportunity to pitch a tent in Campville and inspire a few hoots.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2023

You can only chip away at reality so far until everything in 'Hypnotic' starts to feel sketched and feckless. Any type of resolution reads as either disingenuous or completely unearned, as viewers were never invested in the journeys in the first place.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 2, 2023

At one point, [Diana] tells Rourke that “pain keeps the mind awake” — and, while the excruciating script doesn’t seem to have that effect on Affleck, it’s hard not to find yourself a little enlivened by Hypnotic’s sheer absurdity.

Full Review | Original Score: 53/100 | Jul 27, 2023

"Hypnotic" is just not a worthwhile endeavor for audiences as the actors almost seem to not believe in the material. There's a better film somewhere here, but it's not the one we've been given.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

There were some plot holes, but I still had a fun time with it.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Jul 24, 2023

To many ideas that make everything an uninteresting story...

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Jul 22, 2023

Un-original in parts and a confusing storyline do not make for good watching… this is one too avoid.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 22, 2023

Hypnotic is as misleading as everything you see on the screen. I couldn’t help feeling bluffed in the end, sadly realizing how empty this experience was.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jun 25, 2023

‘Hypnotic’ Review: For His Next Trick, Robert Rodriguez Will Pull Ben Affleck out of a Funk

Boasting imagination and pure filmmaking ingenuity, the 'El Mariachi' director's new mind-bender (screened as a work in progress at SXSW) reminds what fun it is to watch the 'Argo' star in action.

By Peter Debruge

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Don’t trust anything you see or hear in “ Hypnotic ,” a noggin-jogging thriller with more twists than Minnie’s tightly braided ponytail. Who’s Minnie? She’s the girl who goes missing in the movie’s opening scene when police detective dad Daniel Rourke ( Ben Affleck ) looks away for a second. Or does she? Depending how your mind works, there’s a chance Minnie doesn’t even exist. The perp was caught, but Minnie’s body was never found — which is a clue that this wasn’t a typical disappearance.

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This much is fairly constant for most of the film, which premiered at SXSW as a “work in progress”: Affleck plays a shallow film noir archetype, the damaged detective, leaning more on his chiseled cheekbones than on deep character work, which is just as well, since the only psychology audiences need from Rourke is (a) that he misses Minnie and (b) that he’s a pit bull on any case, willing to ignore orders and endanger himself for whatever cause he believes in. Rodriguez and co-writer Max Borenstein (who penned the last few “Godzilla” movies) make that clear in the first reel, as he watches an impossible bank robbery unfold from a surveillance van.

The less you know going in, the more fun the movie will be. Hypnotics wear scarlet red coats, while the film’s more subtly clad femme fatale is a psychic named Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), who has special powers as well. Rourke’s right not to trust her at first, although Fichtner’s character — who might be this Dellrayne fellow — seems determined to kill her and Rourke, so sticking with her seems the better move for the time being. Fueled by a score from Rodriguez’s son Rebel, “Hypnotic” races along fast enough that audiences don’t have much time to dwell on the not-inconsiderable inconsistencies, though Rodriguez approaches the whole endeavor with a pure sense of filmmaking-as-play that won this critic over.

At a certain point, Rourke discovers (spoiler alert in this paragraph) that some of his experiences are “hypnotic constructs” — which means people aren’t who they appear to be, and entire situations that he (and we) have witnessed might have been no more than the power of suggestion. He might even be able to do these tricks as well, which puts “Hypnotic” in a very fun place (for most, and frustrating for others) where pretty much anything can happen. In some scenes, the horizon lifts and folds over on itself, à la “Inception.” In another, the camera cranes out to reveal that Rodriguez has repurposed a back alley from “Alita: Battle Angel,” and that everything’s a film set, though why that is and what it all means is best discovered on-screen.

The movie’s one-word title is a hat tip to Hitchcock, and the movie’s MacGuffin (that is, the thing everyone wants, while audiences amuse themselves with its pursuit) is an all-powerful hypnotic called “Domino.” The goal is first to find the puzzle pieces and then to assemble them into something resembling a coherent picture. While that plot engine is spinning overtime, Rodriguez returns to the matter of Minnie, whom Rourke never forgot about, and whose fate brings everything else into focus for a climactic surprise — namely, that for all the pyrotechnics and rug pulls, “Hypnotic” has mesmerized us into caring about these characters.

Rodriguez knows better than practically any filmmaker out there that movies are a form of hypnosis. It’s all sleight of hand, designed to make us care about a story and characters that don’t exist, so why not embrace that spirit in the execution? Most of the time, “Hypnotic” looks great (embracing the widescreen format, Rodriguez shared cinematography duties with Pablo Berron, who lit the atmospheric scissors scene), but occasionally, you can see the seams — which is fine, since it’s all a construct anyway. And just when you think the ride is over, along comes a last surprise in the credits, suggesting where a sequel might pick up.

Reviewed at SXSW (Narrative Spotlight), March 12, 2023. Running time: 89 MIN.

• Production: A Ketchup Entertainment release of a Solstice Studios, Ingenious, Studio 8 presentation of a Double R production. Producers: Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Racer Max Rodriguez, Robert Rodriguez, Guy Botham, Lisa Ellzey, Mark Gill. Executive prodcuers: Crystal Bourbeau, Vincent Bruzzese, Christelle Conan, Walter Josten, Christopher Milburn, Ben Ormand, James Portolese, Joshua Throne, Peter Touche, Jordan Wagner, Gareth West, Maitreya Yasuda. Co-producer: Justin Moritt. Co-executive producers: Ryan Basford, Court Coursey, Caylee Cowan.
• Crew: Director: Robert Rodriguez. Screenplay: Robert Rodriguez, Max Borenstein; story: Robert Rodriguez. Camera: Robert Rodriguez, Pablo Berron. Editor: Robert Rodriguez. Music: Rebel Rodriguez.
• With: Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, William Fichtner, JD Pardo, Jeff Fahey, Sandy Avila, Hala Finley, Ionie Nieves, Nikki Dixon.

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Hypnotic review – preposterous tosh from start to finish starring Ben Affleck

Affleck is in full frowny mode as a haunted cop on the tail of a criminal mastermind in a thriller that seems to revel in its absurdity

E ver wondered what would happen if someone stole a bunch of head-scratching mystery riffs from Now You See Me , The Adjustment Bureau , Memento and The Matrix , stuck them in a blender with an assortment of late-80s straight-to-video neo-noirs, and then pressed go without closing the lid, thereby causing the resultant volcanic eruption to merrily redecorate the world? Well, wonder no more, because here’s co-writer/director Robert Rodriguez with one he prepared earlier – splattering the cinema screen with all the colours of the daft, courtesy of an A-list star, a B-movie aesthetic, a C-minus musical score, and a D/E audience rating ( Hypnotic has already failed to mesmerise in the US). Rejoice, fans of big-screen trash, as Oscar-winner Ben Affleck invites you to join him on a journey that will test your head, and your mind, and your brain …

Affleck is in maximum frowny mode as Daniel Rourke, a detective haunted by memories of his young daughter’s abduction. The culprit pleaded “not guilty due to mental incapacity” after claiming to have no memory of the kidnapping, or of the child’s whereabouts. It sounds like a ruse, until Rourke finds himself playing cat-and-mouse with a criminal mastermind (William Fichtner) blessed with unholy powers of persuasion. “Are you familiar with the concept of hypnotic constructs?” asks Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), a “dime-store psychic” who delivers Basil Exposition-style speeches about “hypnotics” – people with “the ability to actually influence the brain over a psychic bandwidth. Telepaths just read the mind; hypnotics reshape its reality.”

Much of this dialogue, including the immortal line “He erased his own mind?!”, is at once overripe yet still oddly soft-boiled. As for the mise-en-scène, the early movements are all baked exteriors and strip-club-lighting interiors, with heavily coded reds, blues and greens. Later, when the big reveal happens, everything goes white, signalling that a light has been shone on all these mysteries – although it all continues to make no sense.

Rodriguez and co-scripter Max Borenstein, who wrote the 2014 Godzilla reboot and created the Minority Report TV series, go on a thematic shoplifting spree, snatching psychic pushes from Stephen King’s Firestarter , dozy psycho-crime plot twists from Primal Fear , and Philip K Dick false memories from Blade Runner, Total Recall et al. At times I was reminded of the 2015 thriller Solace , in which Anthony Hopkins helped the FBI by functioning as a sort of psychic satnav. Somehow, this is even sillier.

One minute Rodriguez is churning out sub- Inception world-bending hallucination scenes, the next he’s nodding his head toward Hitchcock as someone creeps towards a shower room brandishing a large pair of scissors ( Herrmannesque strings ahoy!). Affleck does a lot of eyes-closed, big-face acting to indicate just how conflicted his character feels, while Braga does an impressive job of not laughing while delivering lines such as “Pain can keep the mind awake”, or “He was already dead; I set him free”.

Sunglasses are worn indoors, scenery is chewed through sucked teeth (hats off to a scene-stealing Jackie Earle Haley for adding a fleeting note of uncharacteristic understatement) and a chase scene climaxes with a white van banging into a golf cart as everything implodes in a sub- Truman Show mess. Meanwhile composer Rebel Rodriguez leads the audience by the hand, with tinkly keyboard cues telling us when things are supposed to be sad, thumpy bash-bash noises pumping up the action scenes, and big quasi-Zimmer honks reminding us that his dad is essentially doing Christopher Nolan on the cheap.

While the result may be preposterous tosh from start to finish (a nippy 94 minutes – hooray!), there’s fun to be had in scenes of a man attempting to pull his own hand off while under the influence, and in gunfights that turn into staring competitions and then end with everyone simply shooting themselves in the foot. Since Rodriguez’s back catalogue contains such knowing pulp as the vampire actioner From Dusk Till Dawn and the grindhouse pastiche Planet Terror , one presumes that he knows exactly how ridiculous this all is, and has his tongue planted firmly in his cheek throughout. Or maybe not. The fact that I’m not entirely sure simply adds to the guilty pleasure.

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Hypnotic (2023) - movie review.

In 2002, inspired by a restoration of Hitchcock ’s 1958 classic Vertigo , filmmaker Robert Rodriguez set out to craft his own Hitchcockian thriller. Rodriguez does Hitchcock? Count me in!

Some 20 years later, that passion project has come to fruition in the form of Hypnotic , a twisty-turney thriller that stars Ben Affleck as Danny Rourke, an Austin-based detective determined to find his missing daughter with the help of a local psychic Diana Cruz ( Alice Braga ).

While the film suggests an attempt to capture the essence of his earlier works by promising an intriguing cat-and-mouse game with hypnotherapy, shady characters, and reality-bending bank robberies in its DNA, in reality it ends up drowning in a sea of convoluted twists and turns that ultimately lead to an absolute mind-bending mess.

While on one of his stakeouts following a spate of bank robberies in Houston and Amarillo, Rourke suspects an inside job involving the theft of a single safe deposit box in an Austin bank. Close observation reveals an increasingly suspicious figure (played perfectly by William Fichtner ) who may be at the heart of the robberies.

Thinking he may be onto a lead in the case, Rourke unexpectedly breaks the stakeout and enters the bank, beating the mysterious figure to the vault and its contents that prove to be far more valuable than anything they could have imagined. As the robbery unfolds, all hell breaks loose in gunfire and chaos as we see the mysterious figure seemingly manipulate the actions of everyone around him. Everyone but Rourke.

Who is this mystery man, what exactly are his powers, and why does Rourke seem to be unaffected by them? With the help of the psychic Cruz, Rourke navigates the perilous shadow world in which nothing is as it seems.

One of the biggest issues with Hypnotic is something that also plagues many superhero movies; the lack of a tether to reality. Say what you will about that notion, but although Rodriguez , who also co-writes the film, has proven himself capable of creating fantastical worlds that exist in various states of reality, Hypnotic takes it to a whole new level of implausibility. Sure, reality – or the lack thereof – serves a critical function here, but the plot becomes so tangled and far-fetched that it becomes difficult to fully invest in the story.

Furthermore, the mind-bending, shape-shifting elements of the film, around which the entire plot is built, are way too forced and contrived. As executed, the attempts to delve into the depths of the human psyche and explore the power of hypnosis come across as shallow and insufficient. Instead of provoking thought and challenging our perception, these elements simply add to the confusion and contribute to the overall sense of disbelief.

Even the performances from the usually reliable Affleck and Braga ( The Suicide Squad ), fail to salvage the film. Affleck 's protagonist is annoyingly one dimensional and fails to elicit any emotional connection with the audience. Braga , despite her talent, is given little to work with and ends up underutilized despite her ample screen time.

Ultimately, Hypnotic falls way short of its potential. While it shows flashes of Rodriguez 's earlier, more successful works, it fails to capture any of the magic that made those films special. The lack of grounding in reality, the convoluted plot, and the forced mind-bending elements all contribute to a disappointing and frustrating viewer experience. Certainly not the steroid-fueled Hitchcockian thriller Rodriguez was going for. You’ll forget this one before you hit the parking lot.

MPAA Rating: R for violence. Runtime: 93 mins Director : Robert Rodriguez Writer: Robert Rodriguez; Max Borenstein Cast: Ben Affleck; Alice Braga; JD Pardo Genre : Mystery | Thriller Tagline: Control is an illusion. Memorable Movie Quote: Theatrical Distributor: Ketchup Entertainment Official Site: https://www.hypnoticthemovie.com/ Release Date: May 14, 2023 DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: Synopsis : A detective investigates a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program.

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Hypnotic starts with Daniel Rourke (Affleck), a cop in a therapy session. He’s dissociating, thinking about his missing daughter, but is brought back to reality when the therapist calls out to him. The trauma lies with the disappearance of his child in the park — when he turned away for one second, she was gone — so he harbors deep regret that he wasn’t more aware of his surroundings. With the case still open, the assumption is the daughter has been killed, but her body hasn’t been found.

When he’s done with therapy, Rourke meets his partner to stake out a possible robbery at the Bank of Austin, led by a mysterious man Liv Del Rayne (Fichtner), who they spot talking to a woman on a bench. With the cops unaware of what’s been said, the woman suddenly complains that it’s too hot, starts taking off her clothing and walks right into traffic, causing a pile-up that leads Rourke to find out there is a connection between Rayne and his daughter’s disappearance.

To learn more, Rourke seeks out Diana (Alice Braga), a psychic and hypnotic who can alter human reality with her words. She informs him that the man he’s looking for is one of the most powerful hypnotics on the planet, who cannot be caught using mere cop tactics. With this newfound information, two team up to get to the bottom of why Rayne has Rourke in his crosshairs, which might be the key to finding his kid.

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However, more often than not, his writing lacks the cohesion needed for strong storytelling. There is a tendency to overstuff with so many details that it borders on incomprehensible. Twist and turns are a staple of engaging suspense films, and collecting breadcrumbs to piece together the logic is what makes the genre so much fun. But there is such a thing about having too many twists and revelations, and in Hypnotic your head will spin a full 360 degrees trying to keep up with every new development that’s been presented. This keeps going right until the credits roll. When it was over, I had a realization that so much time was spent on collecting and processing new details that I forgot to enjoy myself.

Also, Affleck as a lead is not helping Hypnotic ’s cause as he sleepwalks through this. There’s no emotion, no inflection in his voice or tone; it’s all wooden and flat. Had the actor seemed more enthusiastic about the material that would have elevated the experience, but he never puts in enough energy to anchor the eccentricity of the story. Braga is the only one bringing tenacity to this, and maybe if she were the lead, I’d have an entirely different opinion.

I don’t want to be too harsh because the cut of Hypnotic from Sunday night is not a finished product. To its credit, the movie is never boring and has a solid concept that is solid enough to get behind, but it’s in desperate need of heavy tweaking to find some middle ground. Then again, I don’t see what more can be added to this film that won’t extend it beyond its current 2½-hour runtime.

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‘Hypnotic’: Ben Affleck’s sci-fi thriller builds to a slam-bang twist ending

William fichtner and alice braga offer great supporting performances in an uneven but at times mesmerizing and dazzling mind-bender of a film..

Ben Affleck plays a police detective whose hunt for his kidnapped daughter takes him into a world of mind control in “Hypnotic.”

Ketchup Entertainment

Arriving this weekend on Netflix: “The Mother,” with Jennifer Lopez playing an operative with a particular set of skills whose daughter is kidnapped.

Arriving this weekend in theaters: “Hypnotic,” with Ben Affleck playing an operative with a particular set of skills whose daughter is kidnapped.

It would be such a trip if the same actress played the daughter in both movies. Or if Lopez’s character crossed paths with Affleck’s guy in a diner while both were searching for their respective daughters.

But no such luck. These two films exist in separate cinematic universes, and while “The Mother” flies off the rails early and never regains its footing, “Hypnotic” is an uneven, at times mesmerizing and dazzling mind-bender of a psychological thriller that plays like a drive-in movie version of a Christopher Nolan film.

Veteran hyphenate Robert Rodriguez (“From Dusk til Dawn,” “Spy Kids,” “Sin City”) has delivered a stylish, gripping and cool sci-fi thriller, with Affleck turning in solid, low-key, brooding film- noir work and fine performances from an outstanding supporting cast led by the invaluable William Fichtner (“The Company You Keep”) and the always intriguing Alice Braga. This is a film that takes us through the rabbit hole on numerous occasions and keeps us guessing until a slam-bang twist ending that upends yet mostly justifies everything we’ve seen.

Let’s put it this way: Get your popcorn and your soda pop, and make your bathroom trip before the movie starts. If you miss even three minutes of this story, you might have to spend the rest of the movie playing catch-up.

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Affleck plays Austin, Texas, Detective Danny Rourke, whose 7-year-old daughter Minnie was kidnapped on a playground when he looked away for just one split second. The perpetrator was apprehended, but he pleaded not guilty due to mental incapacity, says he doesn’t remember the crime and has no idea what happened to Minnie after he took her. This is the first of many indicators something is … askew in this world.

In an intricately staged and thrilling bank-heist sequence, a man known as Dellrayne (Fichtner) displays an unsettling ability to essentially pull a Jedi mind trick on anyone with whom he comes into contact — controlling their thoughts and prompting them to take illogical, in some cases violent action. (Fichtner expertly imbues Dellrayne with a cool and calm demeanor that makes him all the more menacing.)

Just when it appears Rourke has cornered Dellrayne on a rooftop, Dellrayne takes a flying leap — and seems to vanish into thin air. What in the name of “Inception” and “The Matrix” and “Vanilla Sky” and “Memento” and “Limitless” and “The Adjustment Bureau” is going on here?! We know Rourke is a deeply troubled and messed-up soul, which has us wondering whether his experiences can be trusted.

Rourke’s detective work takes him to the storefront psychic Diana Cruz (Braga), who explains that Dellrayne is what is known as a “hypnotic,” someone who can control the thoughts of others, convince them they’re seeing things that aren’t real and even command them to carry out acts of violence or self-harm.

Diana herself is a hypnotic, and she senses that Rourke has the unique and rare ability to actually block hypnotic commands — but she cautions Rourke not to come face to face with Dellrayne again because he won’t be able to keep Dellrayne out of his head.

The mysterious Dellrayne (William Fichtner) seems to have the ability to control others’ thoughts and actions.

“Hypnotic” is filled with a number of memorable set pieces, as when Rourke takes a call from Dellrayne, who plants a seed in Rourke’s head about killing Diana, leading to a nail-biting sequence involving a pair of scissors that seem to have a mind of their own.

The more Rourke learns about Dellrayne and other hypnotics, the less certain he is about his own story, his own path. He knows he was married, and he knows he has a daughter, and he knows she was kidnapped. But how does he fight through the psychological mazes constructed by Dellrayne, if indeed Dellrayne is really the one pulling the strings?

If this sounds vague and more than a little confusing, welcome to the “Hypnotic” experience. We see everything through Rourke’s eyes, meaning we’re often as lost and confused as Rourke is — until the scales begin to fall, and it all makes sense.

Well. Most of it.

Flickering Myth

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Movie Review – Hypnotic (2023)

June 26, 2023 by Robert Kojder

Hypnotic , 2023.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez. Starring Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, William Fichtner, J. D. Pardo, Jeff Fahey, Hala Finley, Dayo Okeniyi, Jackie Earle Haley, Kelly Frye, Melanie Hawkins, Derek Russo, Zane Holtz, Ruben Javier Caballero, Ryan Ryusaki, Sandy Avila, Ionie Olivia Nieves, Corina Calderon, Nikki Dixon, and Bonnie Discepolo.

A detective investigates a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program.

Hypnotic is what happens when a filmmaker – in this case, writer/director Robert Rodriguez – known for style and almost no substance, let alone over substance, attempts to craft a mindbending thriller that, more than anything, feels like he binged Christopher Nolan’s filmography and tried to cram as many of those elements into his hypnosis centered action mystery.

A more direct assessment is simply saying that Hypnotic is lousy; it’s a true mess that is so determined to fake viewers out and pull the floorboards from underneath them that by the time the film reaches its third act, the only question worth asking is how anyone is supposed to care about any of this considering that every grand reveal somehow undercuts a sense of danger, logic, coherence, and fun.

It would be one thing if those twists were bonkers enough to the degree that all of the above doesn’t matter. However, nearly everything in Hypnotic is derivative of something better. What’s more frustrating is that Robert Rodriguez doesn’t even seem interested in putting his stylistic flair on the proceedings. Of all the things I could rip on Hypnotic for, that might be the most disappointing aspect; I wouldn’t even believe someone who told me Robert Rodriguez wrote (okay, Max Borenstein was also a co-writer) and directed this before being made aware of the fact.

The thriller stars Ben Affleck as Detective Danny Rourke (delivering a performance as confused as everyone watching), investigating a string of bank robberies connected to the kidnapping of his young daughter (Hala Finley). The man responsible for snatching her in broad daylight at the park has no recollection of ever doing so. Meanwhile, the shady government agent Dellrayne (a somewhat intimidating William Fichtner, which is about the most praise I can give anything here) appears to be hypnotizing others to either enter the bank vaults or cause distractions (a woman starts undressing and walks into traffic for just one of many unintentionally hilarious moments).

The puzzle brings Rourke to fortune-teller Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), who explains that telepathy is merely reading minds, whereas hypnosis involves staring at someone and unlocking someone with them (either through emotions or trauma) and then being able to manipulate them into doing one’s bidding. Cinematically, it amounts to goofy stares and characters unnaturally suddenly complying (also for reasons that will make your eyes roll into the back of your skull). Aside from one day leaning into some gnarly gore, Robert Rodriguez seems actively disinterested in giving these mechanics visual excitement or even a sense of humor. Nevertheless, they team up as she explains to Rourke that he is a dangerous agent in charge of an advanced mind control program. Throughout all this, Rourke also discovers he knows the power of hypnosis.

Robert Rodriguez does attempt to stylize hypnotizing by presenting it as an alternate reality construct, but the dark and muddled visuals are unpleasant to look at, while the creative art direction itself reminds one of a bootleg Mirror Dimension from Doctor Strange or a Christopher Nolan movie without a moderate budget. Still, that would be forgivable if the plot had something going for it beyond recycled clichés, predictability, actors who seemed to care about the material (to be fair, they were probably lost during shooting), or a single memorable bombastic set piece.

There is also no way to recommend Hypnotic for people to simply see the twists since they aren’t that clever and, more than anything, somehow water down whatever small reason there is to care about anything. The real power of hypnosis comes from Robert Rodriguez being able to get this movie made.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★  / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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Review: The ridiculous ‘Hypnotic’ allows Robert Rodriguez to play in his cinematic sandbox

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There’s something strange about “Hypnotic,” the new action thriller from writer-director Robert Rodriguez . There’s a sheen of inauthenticity to the trailer for this film, which stars Ben Affleck as a detective working a bank robbery while wracked with guilt over the kidnapping of his young daughter. Indeed, for the first 30 minutes or so of “Hypnotic,” something rings false — it feels like Rodriguez sloppily executing a sketchy exercise in the tropes and aesthetics of a detective noir. But then you realize that’s by design.

Because things aren’t what they seem in “Hypnotic,” as Det. Danny Rourke (Affleck) discovers when he descends down the rabbit hole of this inexplicable bank robbery, one that ends with him finding a Polaroid of his missing daughter in a safe deposit box. He follows the signs to a local psychic, Diana Cruz ( Alice Braga ), who unloads a baffling spiel about the “hypnotic constructs” weaponized by a mysterious man at the scene of the robbery whom they’re calling Dellrayne (William Fichtner), based on an inscription found on the Polaroid.

Thus unfolds Rodriguez’s “Hypnotic,” a mashup of “Inception,” “The Truman Show,” “Rashomon” and “X-Men.” After a few years directing TV and music videos, the film feels like Rodriguez getting back to his genre and indie roots, while working in his backyard of Austin, Texas, serving as director of photography (with Pablo Berron), editor and producer alongside his writing and directing duties, as he frequently does.

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Some three decades after his breakout feature, “El Mariachi,” Rodriguez is still making films with the same run-and-gun indie ethos, and “Hypnotic” is indeed a refreshing reminder of that, as well as of his innate facility with cinematic style. “Hypnotic” sees Rodriguez playing with discrete aesthetics for the different spaces of this story, shooting on location and utilizing distinct lighting schemes and color-grading, demonstrating his ability with camera movements and shot compositions that signify a true filmmaker behind the lens.

But then there’s the matter of the script, co-written with Max Borenstein. The writing can only be described as complete mumbo-jumbo — there’s so much explaining, truly reams of exposition, and yet not nearly enough. Poor Braga is left to rattle off absolute nonsense regarding a secret government program to develop “hypnotic constructs” and the psychically gifted people being turned into weapons. And yet, there is little attention paid to the emotional underpinning of the story that would make us care enough about these people, and without that, it all feels so flimsy. The story is insanely, and impossibly, twisty, extending even after the credits have started to roll (please, no “Hypnotic 2”).

Affleck also seems completely at loose ends here. Perhaps he just wanted to go play in Rodriguez’s sandbox for a bit, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but his performance is utterly inert. He employs his gravelly Batman voice to mutter the noir-ish one-liners given to the grieving, grizzled, hollow-cheeked Det. Rourke. He’s not a man of action, but rather reaction, haplessly buffeted by the forces around him, expressionless, arms akimbo, standing around like a character in “The Sims” — which should be a tell as to which way the wind blows in “Hypnotic.”

As a film fan, you have to respect the continued indie spirit with which Rodriguez works, grinding out these projects outside of the traditional Hollywood system and forging his own path in the industry. It’s fun to see him color in new shades of film genre, but the script and performances in “Hypnotic” are too laughably absurd to take seriously.

Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

Rating: R, for violence Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes Playing: Starts May 12 in general release

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hypnotic’ on Peacock, in Which Poor Ben Affleck is Trapped in a Miserable Sci-Fi Thriller

Where to stream:.

• Hypnotic (2023)

• Ben Affleck

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Ben Affleck is in full mope-and-mutter mode in Hypnotic ( now streaming on Peacock ), a sci-fi thriller about high-powered mind-control agents who are part of a conspiracy to, I believe, make Affleck even more glum. The film is from director Robert Rodriguez, whose stock has been on a general decline since he jumped the Sharkboy 18 years ago, although he remains fairly prolific, perhaps because he doesn’t vet the pile of screenplays in his drawer for quality. Case in point, this ridiculous thing, which functions better as an Affleck meme factory than a comprehensible story. 

HYPNOTIC : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: It’s notable that the Wikipedia entry for Hypnotic warns us that its plot summary may be “too long or excessively detailed,” but that seems necessary considering how absurdly twist-riddled and overcomplicated this story is. I hereby pledge to do my best not to spoil anything or make it sound more interesting than it really is. We open in the midst of a therapy session where Austin Police Detective Danny Rourke (Affleck) goes over with the shrink how traumatized he is by that one fateful day when he briefly looked away from his daughter Minnie (Ionie Olivia) while she played in the park, and then never saw her again. He blames himself, and his marriage fell apart in the wake of the apparent abduction and likely murder. A suspect was lassoed but no body was ever found. The girl has been gone for a few years, and now Rourke never ever ever ever ever ever smiles – or poops, it seems.

The only thing Rourke does is throw himself into his work, and much to my dismay, we never get to see his apartment, which I imagine adheres to the Depressed Movie Detective Template and is therefore furniture-deficient but cluttered with Chinese-takeout boxes and half-empty beer bottles. All the more reason to just put in a zillion hours of work every week, I guess. He and his partner Nicks (J.D. Pardo) get a tip that a safe deposit box is about to get stolen, so they pile into a surveillance truck and stake out the bank. Rourke spots a gentleman outside the bank and immediately identifies him as suspicious, likely because he’s played by notable character actor William Fichtner with a big scar running down his face (and here I’d assert that it doesn’t take a big-shot cop to assume that notable character actor William Fichtner with a big scar running down his face is a suspicious gent). Rourke makes his way into the bank and beats notable character actor William Fichtner with a big scar running down his face to the safe deposit box, which contains only a polaroid of Minnie in it. The plot, it thicks!

Also notable about notable character actor William Fichtner with a big scar running down his face? He has the crazy ability to look at a person and manipulate their perception of reality. For example: He looks at a woman and says it’s really hot out here when it’s not really hot out here, and the next thing you know, she’s pulling off her top and cracking open a hydrant to cool off. As you’d imagine, this complicates things a bit. Rourke gets to investigatin’, and his investigatin’ leads him to a psychic-readings storefront where he meets Diana (Alice Braga), a Person Of Interest, and they barely introduce themselves to each other before notable character actor William Fichtner with a big scar running down his face mind-controls a dude to crash through the building on a motorcycle, which is just a terrible way to attempted-murder someone. This sets off a series of events that I won’t get into, because NO SPOILERS and all that, but I will say, after a while, it makes you feel like you’re trying to capture every member of a flock of wild geese as they flap and squawk and scatter in all directions.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Nothing like ripping off Inception 13 years after Inception , possibly with the hope that it’s been so long, nobody will notice that it’s a ripoff of Inception . But I noticed! I also noticed that it kinda rips off The Game , too!

Performance Worth Watching: If you watch Affleck closely while he’s being deadly serious, you might see him trying really hard not to laugh.  

Memorable Dialogue: Diana crafts a metaphor to describe where Rourke’s emotions exist in his brain: “Yours are locked inside a vault buried in a bunker 10 feet deep.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Hypnotic is a classic cheater plot where the concept can be used to explain away whatever chintzy-ass lame-o random sorry excuse for a twist Rodriguez dreams up. See, this is a movie where Nothing Is As It Seems, where sometimes what a character sees is All inside His Head, narrative chicanery that’s sub-It Was All A Dream dreck. Give it to the movie for being unpredictable; take it away for being nonsensical and arbitrary, as if Rodriguez is making up the internal “rules” of this world as he goes along.

All this would be less maddening if the movie gave us more than a few nifty shots – Rodriguez’s directorial style seems to emphasize visual efficiency over crafting any memorable sequences, whether they’re rooted in action or character development. It doesn’t even lean into its absurdity, blowing an opportunity to pitch a tent in Campville and inspire a few hoots. And Affleck – well, he looks profoundly uncomfortable with the material, donning a mean mug that’s possibly the funniest in Hollywood, intentionally or otherwise. The film’s visual effects look incredibly cheap, especially considering its reported $65 million budget; for some sequences where the mind-controllers eff with reality, the edges of the screen warp and distort like we’re watching high-school a/v interns gussy up a public-access television broadcast. There’s a low-angle shot where Affleck concentrates really really hard in an attempt to use some super brain powers, and his forehead balloons until he looks like a bulb-headed Karloff Frankenstein. It was the only time Hypnotic inspired a response other than restless indifference – I laughed my ass off.

Our Call: I’m afraid Ben Affleck is more meme than man now. SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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In Theaters

• May 11, 2023
• Ben Affleck as Danny Rourke; Alice Braga as Diana Cruz; JD Pardo as Randy Nicks; Dayo Okeniyi as River; Jackie Earle Haley as Jeremiah; William Fichtner as Dell Rayne; Jeff Fahey as Carl; Zane Holtz as Trout; Ruben Javier Caballero as Watkins; Kelly Frye as Viv; Sandy Avila as Thelma; Ryan Ryusaki as Bong; Hala Finley as Minnie; Corina Calderon as Maria

Home Release Date

• May 30, 2023
• Robert Rodriguez

Distributor

• Ketchup Entertainment

Movie Review

Police Det. Danny Rourke only looked away for a second. But it was long enough: Minnie, his daughter, was gone.

They said that a man named Lyle Terry did it. But authorities detain and question Terry about Minnie’s whereabouts, he claims no recollection of kidnapping anyone. No one believes him. And sure, Rourke blames Terry. Ultimately, though, he blames himself for that mere moment he looked away.

The only thing Rourke can do is focus on what he can fix right now, which happens to involve a call to stakeout for an impending bank robbery. The hidden officers focus on an older man who seems to be the ringleader of the heist, a guy leading people who seem to be total strangers to each other in order pull off the crime.  

Soon, Rourke discovers that the man is after a safe deposit box. And all it contains is a photo of Rourke’s daughter with the phrase “Find Lev Dell Rayne” on it. He and two officers chase after the ringleader, cornering him on the roof of a parking garage. But the two officers hesitate when the man looks at them.

“What are you waiting for—cuff him!” Rourke yells.

“They’re no more conscious than Lyle Terry was,” the man says, before commanding the two officers to shoot one another to death, which they do without hesitation. And then, the man is gone, and Rourke is left with more questions than ever before.

Who is Lev Dell Rayne? How did the robber force complete strangers to do his bidding—even to the point of death?

And why is this man after his daughter?

Positive Elements

Ultimately, Rourke does most of what he does in order to discover where his kidnapped daughter is. Though he doesn’t understand much of what is happening, he continues to fight and search for answers, hoping that each clue will bring him back to his daughter. Some other people help Rourke in his pursuit, too.

Spiritual Elements

The movie suggests that there are many people known as hypnotics : individuals with the ability to “influence the brains of others,” forcing them to do whatever is commanded of them.

While this hypnotic ability is generally explained as little more than a genetic trait, there’s certainly a supernatural element that comes with their influence on others. For instance, hypnotized people can be commanded to kill themselves or others against their will, and we’re told that they can’t emerge from that hypnosis until they complete the command that’s been given to them.

We see a psychic who offers hypnosis and tarot card readings. She uses a crystal ball to perform a reading. Something is described as a “Holy Grail.”

Sexual Content

A woman is hypnotized to believe that it’s extremely hot outside, and she strips to her bra to try to cool down. A man and woman kiss, and the next scene implies that the two of them went quite further. Rourke is seen shirtless. A woman showers, but nothing is seen.

Violent Content

Many people die in Hypnotic , and some of those deaths are the reason for this film’s R rating.

A hypnotized man is commanded to kill someone. When he’s handcuffed to a bar, he tears at the cuffs to try to get to his target, and we see his hand being almost entirely severed in his attempt to get out of the handcuffs—all in gory detail. Another hypnotized man violently jams his head into a metal spike in order to kill himself.

Plenty of people are shot and killed—and some are hypnotized to kill themselves or others around them. Many headshots are shown, complete with a spray of blood and a camera shot focusing on the resulting wound. We also see people get hit by cars, and other cars crash into each other. One of those car accidents hurls a person through the windshield and onto the pavement. Someone blows up a couple people with a bomb.

Rourke’s daughter, Minnie, is kidnapped. Rourke fights against an angry mob of people, and one person is hit with a bat. Someone is tased.

Crude or Profane Language

The s-word is used five times. “H—” is uttered nearly 10 times. We also hear the occasional uses of “a–,” “b–ch,” “b–tard,” “p-ss” and “d–n.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Rourke drinks moonshine.

Other Negative Elements

We hear a joke about urination.

Hypnotic is frustrating.

The film establishes an interesting premise: a criminal using hypnosis in order to compel others to assist him in his nefarious schemes. The problem, however, is that much like the victims in this story have no recollection of what happens following the crimes they’re induced to commit, Hypnotic likewise leaves its viewers feeling confused after a viewing, too.

Many plot twists occur during the film’s hour-and-a-half runtime. Almost all of them are explained away with a half-hearted, “Oh, what you saw earlier was actually hypnosis, so ignore that.” And though I’m sure the plot twists were supposed to make me feel as paranoid as anyone would be when dealing with someone who can influence your perception of reality, instead they left me frustrated and waiting for the next time the movie would tell me that what I just watched didn’t actually happen.

But that’s just the plot. I also need to mention the content-based issues. Most of those come from the film’s violent scenes, where we see plenty of hypnotized people forced to severely injure or kill themselves or others around them. Some of those deaths are quite gruesome. Swearing (primarily in the form of the s-word and “h—“) is also present, and there’s brief sexual content, too.

The hypnotics in the film might be able to compel others to do whatever they desire. But Hypnotic simply couldn’t hold my attention.

Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”

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Hypnotic review: an overcomplicated sci-fi thriller

“Hypnotic is an ambitious but ultimately lackluster sci-fi thriller from director Robert Rodriguez and star Ben Affleck.”

• An admirably ambitious plot
• A memorable opening bank heist
• An overly serious tone
• On-the-nose writing throughout
• Too many mind-numbing exposition dumps

An eye opens. A pen taps against a notepad. These are images synonymous with the concept of hypnotism, so it only makes sense that they’re the first things viewers see in Hypnotic . The new film from Alita: Battle Angel and Spy Kids director Robert Rodriguez is a neo-noir thriller about a detective who finds himself trapped in a conspiracy involving a handful of powerful “hypnotics,” aka, people with the ability to alter others’ perceptions of reality. At least, that’s what Hypnotic appears to be on the surface.

There’s much more going on in Hypnotic than meets the eye — too much, in fact. The film, which Rodriguez has reportedly been tinkering with for around 20 years, is deeply indebted to the kind of brainy, puzzle box thrillers made by directors like Christopher Nolan ( Insomnia ) and Alex Garland ( Men ). Hypnotic , to its credit, wears its influences on its sleeve and even goes so far as to create images that feel like they could have been pulled straight out of Nolan’s 2010 blockbuster, Inception .

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The problem? Rodriguez is a far different director than Nolan, Garland, or any of the other contemporary filmmakers he tries to pay tribute to in Hypnotic . Rodriguez’s films have never been known for their narrative ingenuity or ambitious plots. He’s a scrappy filmmaker who works best when he’s producing lighthearted genre fare, which is why it’s so disappointing that everything in Hypnotic is played with such a straight face rather than a playful wink.

Based on a screenplay by Rodriguez and Max Borenstein, Hypnotic centers on Danny Rourke (Ben Affleck), an Austin police detective whose daughter, Minnie, was kidnapped several years prior to the events of the film. When he and his partner, Nicks (J. D. Pardo), get a tip one day about a potential bank robbery, their efforts to stop the heist are thwarted by Dellrayne (William Fichtner), a man who has the power to make others do whatever he wants, including kill themselves. Following his discovery of a mysterious clue, Affleck’s Rourke sets out to find Dellrayne in the belief that he may have the answers necessary to uncover the truth behind Minnie’s disappearance.

Along the way, Rourke crosses paths with Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), a small-time hypnotic whose relationship with Dellrayne may hold the key to tracking him down and stopping him. The further into his mission he gets, however, the more Rourke begins to question his own reality. Behind the camera, Rodriguez visualizes Rourke’s increasingly loose control of his senses via a series of action sequences in which the world seems to fold in on itself and the walls around him seem to bend and transform.

Despite their obvious debt to Inception , these moments of visual experimentation and disorientation help elevate many of Hypnotic ’s second-act set pieces. While the film’s contrast-heavy color filters often make it look far too much like a car commercial, too, Rodriguez succeeds at keeping Hypnotic ’s visual energy up even in the moments when its script seems to be on cruise control. Along with 2019’s Alita: Battle Angel , the film ranks squarely as one of Rodriguez’s most visually accomplished efforts in recent memory.

Narratively, Hypnotic is a multi-layered puzzle of a film that never quite hits the highs that it so clearly wants to. Part of that is due to the film’s overreliance on exposition dumps and Rodriguez’s unerringly clichéd, on-the-nose dialogue. Most of the film’s narrative issues, however, stem from its insistence on overexplaining every single one of its beats and third-act twists, of which there are many. The film makes less room for ambiguity than even the most exposition-heavy Christopher Nolan movie, a fact which only sucks even more of the life out of Hypnotic ’s overambitious story.

The film’s narrative missteps aren’t helped by how seriously it treats all of its twists. One game-changing moment in the film’s final third has the potential to be the kind of tongue-in-cheek turn that can lift an entire movie up from mediocrity to absurd fun, but Hypnotic fails to lean as far into the ridiculousness of its story as it should. Even Affleck, who brings his trademark smirk to some of Hypnotic ’s later scenes, gives a performance that feels too wooden to move the film far enough away from its own overly self-serious zone.

Affleck isn’t the only actor who’s left stranded in Hypnotic . Alice Braga, William Fichtner, and Jackie Earle Haley are all accomplished, charismatic performers, but none of them manage to strike the right tonal balance with their performances. Like her director, Braga plays Hypnotic ’s story with far too somber a tone for her character’s arc to be taken seriously. While Fichtner has the most fun of anyone in Hypnotic , too, he’s never on-screen long enough to get the chance to chew up the scenery as much as he might have liked.

These mistakes all connect back to Rodriguez’s own, fundamental misunderstanding of his strengths as a filmmaker. If Hypnotic is his attempt at playing in the same sandbox as directors like Garland, Nolan, and David Fincher, then it’s a reminder that he’s far more effective when he’s working in the same lane as directors like Avatar: The Way of Water ‘s James Cameron and Last Night in Soho ‘s Edgar Wright, both of whom are capable of bringing the kind of wry, winking attitude to their genre work that Hypnotic could have benefitted from. As it is now, the film isn’t so much mesmerizing as it is forgettable.

Hypnotic is now playing in theaters.

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Where to Watch 'Hypnotic': Showtimes and Streaming Status

When can you see Robert Rodriguez's hypnotizing thriller?

Robert Rodriguez is inviting audiences to become enchanted by his all-new detective thrill ride, Hypnotic , which is set to debut later this week. Rodriguez has become one of the most versatile and unique filmmakers working in the industry today, best known for excelling with a low budget. The acclaimed director has worked on everything from family-friendly science fiction like the Spy Kids franchise all the way to gritty adult action films like the El Mariachi trilogy. The latter is what Rodriguez is taking advantage of for his next movie, Hypnotic , which he has described as "a Hitchcock thriller on steroids ." Starring Ben Affleck as a detective obsessed with finding his missing daughter, he learns he may find answers from a mysterious man named Dellrayne ( William Fichtner ), who somehow has the ability to hypnotize average people to do his every whim. Hypnotic sort of made its big screen debut at SXSW 2023, where Rodriguez treated audiences to a work-in-progress build of the movie. However, the wide release of the upcoming feature film is just around the corner, so those who were present at the film festival will be able to see the completed final product. To learn more about the upcoming thriller's showtimes and streaming status, here is where and how you can watch Hypnotic this week.

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What is the Release Date for Hypnotic?

Audiences in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore will be able to experience what Robert Rodriguez has been crafting this week on Friday, May 11th, 2023. Other parts of the world won't have to wait too much longer with later release dates. This includes Iceland on May 24th, the United Kingdom and Ireland on May 26th, Turkey on June 2nd, Hungary on June 8th, and Russia on July 6th.

Is Hypnotic in Theaters?

Not to be confused with the Netflix film of the same name, Hypnotic will be premiering exclusively in theaters starting May 11th, so you'll need to find a theater near you that's playing the film if you hope to see this Hitchcockian combination between Inception and Jessica Jones unfold.

Find Showtimes for Hypnotic

To find out if Hypnotic is playing in a theater near you, check out the following links below for showtimes:

• Official Site
• AMC Theatres

When Will Hypnotic Be on Streaming?

Difficult to say, as Hypnotic is an independent project with no major distributor. Due to that, it is anybody's guess which streamer will become the home of Hypnotic once its theatrical run concludes. Most blockbusters typically come to streaming about ninety days after theatrical release. Still, since Hypnotic is a smaller independent production, we could see it come to streaming sooner than ninety days.

Related: New 'Hypnotic' Poster Shows Ben Affleck as a Detective With Nothing to Lose

When Will Hypnotic Be on DVD and Blu-ray?

Hypnotic will likely be available to purchase on DVD and Blu-ray close to the film's arrival on streaming. We can also expect to see the movie be available to rent or buy via Video on Demand around the same timeframe.

Watch the Trailer for Hypnotic

The debut trailer for Hypnotic was released by Ketchup Entertainment on April 3rd, 2023, and thrusts audiences right into the mind-bending noir thriller. Things start off in typical detective noir fashion with the main character Danny Rourke (Ben Affleck), who is regaling the traumatic experience of losing his daughter in a therapy session. Rourke still hopes to find his daughter one day, but copes with the loss by thrusting himself into his work. One day, while working on a case, Rourke finds a lockbox with a Polaroid of his daughter. The man who allegedly placed the image there is Dellrayne, who seems to have the ability to hypnotize people to do whatever he wants. Desperate to stop this dangerous individual and discover what happened to his daughter, Rourke becomes determined to track down Dellrayne and discover what he knows.

What is Hypnotic About?

The official plot synopsis for Hypnotic reads as follows:

Determined to find his missing daughter, Austin detective Danny Rourke (Ben Affleck) instead finds himself spiraling down a rabbit hole while investigating a series of reality-bending bank robberies where he will ultimately call into question his most basic assumptions about everything and everyone in his world. Aided by Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), an unnervingly gifted psychic, Rourke simultaneously pursues and is pursued by a lethal specter (William Fichtner) - the one man he believes holds the key to finding the missing girl - only to discover more than he ever bargained for.

More Robert Rodriguez Movies You Can Watch Right Now

If you want to see other engaging action films from Robert Rodriguez's prolific filmography, check out the following movies below.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996): It's no secret that Robert Rodriguez is close friends with his directing peer Quentin Tarantino , but rarely does he get to direct his friend as a major character in his feature works. A fantastic exception is the cult-classic From Dusk Till Dawn , which sees Tarantino paired with George Clooney for a bloody and entertaining supernatural buddy cop film. Following two criminal brothers who are trapped in a shady truck stop, they find themselves becoming unlikely vampire hunters when they learn the town they're in is infested with notorious bloodsuckers.

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Frank Miller's Sin City (2005): Arguably Rodriguez's most stylistic film, every frame of Sin City looks like it flew right off the pages of a comic book. The Frank Miller graphic novel adaptation is legendary for its black and white aesthetic paired beautifully with splashes of color, bringing this deliciously dark ensemble vision a visual triumph. The fact that a film the looks this good cost only forty million dollars to produce makes the film's success even more impressive.

Machete (2010): Though Danny Trejo , a regular in Robert Rodriguez's filmography, plays a character named Machete in the Spy Kids films, he is not the same person we see in Machete . This vengeful former government operative proves his namesake by slaughtering those who wronged him with reckless impunity. Rodriguez is no stranger to action, but with Machete , he borders on satire in the best way to bring Danny Trejo's over-the-top action star to life.

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The Best Cinematography of 2024 (So Far)

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Four months into 2024, and it’s already shaping up to be an exceptionally strong year for cinematography , with several standout films that represent the art form at its apex. Perhaps what’s most welcome about these films is their variety, not only in terms of genre and tone but also budget and position in the marketplace. From the studio system, we have Greig Fraser’s extraordinary work on “Dune: Part Two,” which doubles down on the ambition and tactile detail of Fraser’s work on its predecessor (for which he justly received an Academy Award) to create one of the most flat-out beautiful epics since the glory days of David Lean. From the world of low-budget, independent filmmaking, we have “I Saw the TV Glow,” where cinematographer Eric Yue designs a meticulous and expressive visual corollary for his protagonist’s inner state.

Somewhere in between “Dune” and “I Saw the TV Glow” in terms of resources, “Civil War” captures both epic sweep and internal agony in its portrayal of journalists trying to survive as America battles itself; Rob Hardy’s cinematography alternates between realism and surrealism, horror and poignancy, and clarity and confusion as he finds the precise visual language to convey the emotional and physical chaos of both his fictional world and our real one. Also in the independent realm but operating at a very different emotional and visual register, Rose Glass’ “Love Lies Bleeding” reunites the director with her “Saint Maud” cinematographer Ben Fordesman and proves that their debut collaboration was no fluke — theirs is a partnership as artistically fruitful as the one between director Wim Wenders and cinematographer Robby Müller, the latter of whom is a clear influence on Fordesman’s eerie night exteriors.

This year has also brought us the equally enchanting and brutal action of “Monkey Man,” with Sharone Meir’s layered cinematography adding depth and texture to Dev Patel’s directorial debut, not to mention extraordinary foreign imports in the form of “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell” and “La Chimera.” And then there’s Scott Cunningham’s stunning imagery in the nearly unclassifiable “This is Me…Now,” Jennifer Lopez’s self-financed cross between autobiography and fantasy that traverses one disparate style and genre after another as Lopez jumps from settings inspired by science-fiction and film noir to riffs on classic Hollywood musicals and comedies. The only thing these films have in common is that they have nothing in common — aside from their passion for filmmaking and supreme audacity. Christian Blauvelt and Bill Desowitz contributed reporting to this piece.

‘Civil War’

Cinematographer Rob Hardy and director Alex Garland have consistently created some of the most provocative and visually exquisite genre films of our age ever since they began working together on “Ex Machina,” but with this dystopian extravaganza they’ve topped both themselves and just about everybody else. The “Civil War” of the title is largely abstracted from current events and divorced from political particulars, but the parallels and resonances remain obvious and pervasive; the imagery, which is somehow both dreamy and harshly realistic, perfectly conveys the screenplay’s unsettling combination of recognition and dislocation. Hardy’s lighting and lens choices continually walk a fine line between clarity and obfuscation, creating moments of concrete realism that are quickly yanked away in favor of snippets that fail to give the viewer the full picture of what’s happening. Like the movie’s characters, we’re constantly recalibrating our knowledge of the situation — just when we think we have a grip on it, a new mystery arises. Hardy and Garland’s thoughtful choices about where to show us everything and where to direct our eye to the smallest detail in the frame are vital factors in the film’s overall impact; it’s both beautiful and horrifying, something that could be said of each meticulously lit and composed frame. — JH

‘Dune: Part Two’

Greig Fraser won the Oscar for his breathtaking “Dune” cinematography, but that movie was just a warm-up for the epic filmmaking on display here; not since “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Doctor Zhivago” has the “bigger is better” approach to cinema been so satisfying. Which isn’t to say that this sequel’s pleasures all have to do with scale; Fraser is as detail-oriented as he is broad in his vision, and some of the most striking effects in “Dune: Part Two” are its smallest ones — the way the light hits two lovers’ faces or the creepy black-and-white eyes and skin of the characters in a fascist world. Yet it’s Fraser’s IMAX photography of gorgeous desert landscapes that lingers in the mind; it takes a certain amount of bravery to invite comparison with David Lean, and an even larger amount of talent to actually earn that comparison as Fraser does here. — JH

‘Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell’

Not since the early films of director Apichatpong Weerasethakul and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom has slow cinema been this visually hypnotic. There is a spirituality and mystery in the way director Thien An Pham and cinematographer Dinh Duy Hung capture the rural Vietnam landscape and villages. Long meditative shots blur the line between documentary and the surreal in part because of an intense beauty that is elicited from hazy, rain images of ordinary life. — CO

‘I Saw the TV Glow’

After cinematographer Eric Yue’s lo-fi mastery on display in last year’s “A Thousand and One” and this year’s “I Saw the TV Glow,” it is not unwarranted to draw a connection to the early Sundance films of cinematographers Bradford Young and Reed Morano. Owen (Justice Smith, Ian Foreman) is painfully isolated, existing in a seemingly fragile cocoon. Yue and director Jane Schoenbrun’s lens choices and compositions create an almost horror-like sense of anxiety and danger, as if Owen’s ordinary suburban surroundings might shatter his fragile shell at any moment. But Yue also wraps the young protagonist in an expressionistic, at times theatrical lighting that supplies a heightened sense of reality and, at times, a glimmer of hope. The emanating glow of the TV and the Day-Glo images that pop against the film’s near-constant state of pre-dawn hazy darkness hint at a dimension on the other side and also dizzying nausea (Yue described it as being like eating too much cotton candy at an amusement park) with its use of colored lights. As sinister and, at times, ugly and uncomfortable as the film is, like the best of David Lynch, there is beauty and mystery in the grainy celluloid images Yue and Schoenbrun have created. — CO

‘Love Lies Bleeding’

After “Saint Maud” and now “Love Lies Bleeding,” Ben Fordesman and Rose Glass are among our favorite new cinematographer-director pairings, with a film that captures the essence of the ’80s crime film by finding the perfect mix of the grungy texture and colorful, electrically charged imagery that matches the film’s violent and sexy energy. Channelling Robby Müller via “Paris, Texas” and “To Live or Die in L.A.,” Fordesman proves up for the task in finding sculpted natural light and mirroring the way sodium vapor pours into the darkness of night. — CO

‘Monkey Man’

Dev Patel’s action-packed directorial debut,  in which he stars as Kid, a lowly yet scrappy street fighter who takes on the sinister elite of the fictional Yatana, is like a cross between “Oldboy” and “Man From Nowhere.” For Patel’s avenging angel, he took inspiration from the ancient legend of the Hindu deity, Hanuman, the invincible Monkey God. They filmed mostly in Batam, Indonesia, where cinematographer Sharone Meir (“Whiplash”) had a massive and layered visual landscape to work with. The flashbacks with Kid growing up as a child with his mom (Adithi Kalkunt) in the forests near their rural village are enchanting; the underground fight club scenes where Kid wears a monkey mask and throws matches as a human punching bag are nightmarishly brutal; and the exclusive Kings Club is a model of elegance. It is within the multi-level Kings Club where Meir captures the mythic power and intensity of Kid as the underdog fighter, who transforms into a fists of fury legend. The camera is tight and intimate, always with Kid’s POV, and the shots are often long and chaotic. The standouts are the first bathroom brawl with corrupt cop Rana (Sikandar Kher) and an exploding aquarium, an elevator fight with lots of knives, and the Kings Club VIP bar fight with an army of Rana’s bodyguards. — Bill Desowitz

‘This Is Me…Now: A Love Story’

Jennifer Lopez self-financed this autobiographical fantasy-musical-romance when she couldn’t find any takers among legacy media companies (the film was ultimately picked up by Amazon), and her financial risk was everyone else’s gain; unencumbered by any sort of corporate oversight or marketplace concerns, Lopez created the most deliriously inventive, intensely personal, and downright spectacular synthesis between pop music and film since Prince brought us “Purple Rain” and “Graffiti Bridge.” A cinematic allegory for Lopez’s fraught journey to find love with Ben Affleck (who appears here in a mind-blowing cameo as someone decidely  not Ben Affleck), “This is Me…Now” is essentially a series of breathtakingly elaborate musical numbers in different genres and styles — there’s a sequence straight out of “Singin’ in the Rain,” another that looks like a Wachowski movie on amphetamines, elements of lyrical romantic comedy, violent domestic drama, and so on. Each of these styles is handled beautifully by cinematographer Scott Cunningham and director Dave Meyers, music video specialists who know how to distill the emotional content of any given set piece into the most dazzling visuals possible; this movie looks like it cost about 10 times its $20 million budget, with one jaw-dropping painterly image after another. Cunningham shoots the movie like a cinematic chameleon, facilitating all the excess and ambition of Lopez’s extravagant vision in a glorious collection of self-contained short films that cumulatively add up to the wildest, most entertaining, and most audacious film of 2024 thus far. — JH

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How to Thrive as You Age

Got tinnitus a device that tickles the tongue helps this musician find relief.

Allison Aubrey

After using the Lenire device for an hour each day for 12 weeks, Victoria Banks says her tinnitus is "barely noticeable." David Petrelli/Victoria Banks hide caption

After using the Lenire device for an hour each day for 12 weeks, Victoria Banks says her tinnitus is "barely noticeable."

Imagine if every moment is filled with a high-pitched buzz or ring that you can't turn off.

More than 25 million adults in the U.S., have a condition called tinnitus, according to the American Tinnitus Association. It can be stressful, even panic-inducing and difficult to manage. Dozens of factors can contribute to the onset of tinnitus, including hearing loss, exposure to loud noise or a viral illness.

There's no cure, but there are a range of strategies to reduce the symptoms and make it less bothersome, including hearing aids, mindfulness therapy , and one newer option – a device approved by the FDA to treat tinnitus using electrical stimulation of the tongue.

The device has helped Victoria Banks, a singer and songwriter in Nashville, Tenn., who developed tinnitus about three years ago.

"The noise in my head felt like a bunch of cicadas," Banks says. "It was terrifying." The buzz made it difficult for her to sing and listen to music. "It can be absolutely debilitating," she says.

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Tinnitus bothers millions of americans. here's how to turn down the noise.

Banks tried taking dietary supplements , but those didn't help. She also stepped up exercise, but that didn't bring relief either. Then she read about a device called Lenire, which was approved by the FDA in March 2023. It includes a plastic mouthpiece with stainless steel electrodes that electrically stimulate the tongue. It is the first device of its kind to be approved for tinnitus.

"This had worked for other people, and I thought I'm willing to try anything at this point," Banks recalls.

She sought out audiologist Brian Fligor, who treats severe cases of tinnitus in the Boston area. Fligor was impressed by the results of a clinical trial that found 84% of participants who tried Lenire experienced a significant reduction in symptoms. He became one of the first providers in the U.S. to use the device with his patients. Fligor also served on an advisory panel assembled by the company who developed it.

"A good candidate for this device is somebody who's had tinnitus for at least three months," Fligor says, emphasizing that people should be evaluated first to make sure there's not an underlying medical issue.

Tinnitus often accompanies hearing loss, but Victoria Banks' hearing was fine and she had no other medical issue, so she was a good candidate.

Banks used the device for an hour each day for 12 weeks. During the hour-long sessions, the electrical stimulation "tickles" the tongue, she says. In addition, the device includes a set of headphones that play a series of tones and ocean-wave sounds.

The device works, in part, by shifting the brain's attention away from the buzz. We're wired to focus on important information coming into our brains, Fligor says. Think of it as a spotlight at a show pointed at the most important thing on the stage. "When you have tinnitus and you're frustrated or angry or scared by it, that spotlight gets really strong and focused on the tinnitus," Fligor says.

"It's the combination of what you're feeling through the nerves in your tongue and what you're hearing through your ears happening in synchrony that causes the spotlight in your brain to not be so stuck on the tinnitus," Fligor explains.

A clinical trial found 84% of people who used the device experienced a significant reduction in symptoms. Brian Fligor hide caption

A clinical trial found 84% of people who used the device experienced a significant reduction in symptoms.

"It unsticks your spotlight" and helps desensitize people to the perceived noise that their tinnitus creates, he says.

Banks says the ringing in her ears did not completely disappear, but now it's barely noticeable on most days.

"It's kind of like if I lived near a waterfall and the waterfall was constantly going," she says. Over time, the waterfall sound fades out of consciousness.

"My brain is now focusing on other things," and the buzz is no longer so distracting. She's back to listening to music, writing music, and performing music." I'm doing all of those things," she says.

When the buzz comes back into focus, Banks says a refresher session with the device helps.

A clinical trial found that 84% of people who tried Lenire , saw significant improvements in their condition. To measure changes, the participants took a questionnaire that asked them to rate how much tinnitus was impacting their sleep, sense of control, feelings of well-being and quality of life. After 12 weeks of using the device, participants improved by an average of 14 points.

"Where this device fits into the big picture, is that it's not a cure-all, but it's quickly become my go-to," for people who do not respond to other ways of managing tinnitus, Fligor says.

One down-side is the cost. Banks paid about $4,000 for the Lenire device, and insurance doesn't cover it. She put the expense on her credit card and paid it off gradually.

Fligor hopes that as the evidence of its effectiveness accumulates, insurers will begin to cover it. Despite the cost, more than 80% of participants in the clinical trial said they would recommend the device to a friend with tinnitus.

But, it's unclear how long the benefits last. Clinical trials have only evaluated Lenire over a 1-year period. "How durable are the effects? We don't really know yet," says audiologist Marc Fagelson, the scientific advisory committee chair of the American Tinnitus Association. He says research is promising but there's still more to learn.

Fagelson says the first step he takes with his patients is an evaluation for hearing loss. Research shows that hearing aids can be an effective treatment for tinnitus among people who have both tinnitus and hearing loss, which is much more common among older adults. An estimated one-third of adults 65 years of age and older who have hearing loss, also have tinnitus.

"We do see a lot of patients, even with very mild loss, who benefit from hearing aids," Fagelson says, but in his experience it's about 50-50 in terms of improving tinnitus. Often, he says people with tinnitus need to explore options beyond hearing aids.

Bruce Freeman , a scientist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says he's benefitted from both hearing aids and Lenire. He was fitted for the device in Ireland where it was developed, before it was available in the U.S.

Freeman agrees that the ringing never truly disappears, but the device has helped him manage the condition. He describes the sounds that play through the device headphones as very calming and "almost hypnotic" and combined with the tongue vibration, it's helped desensitize him to the ring.

Freeman – who is a research scientist – says he's impressed with the results of research, including a study published in Nature, Scientific Reports that points to significant improvements among clinical trial participants with tinnitus.

Freeman experienced a return of his symptoms when he stopped using the device. "Without it the tinnitus got worse," he says. Then, when he resumed use, it improved.

Freeman believes his long-term exposure to noisy instruments in his research laboratory may have played a role in his condition, and also a neck injury from a bicycle accident that fractured his vertebra. "All of those things converged," he says.

Freeman has developed several habits that help keep the high-pitched ring out of his consciousness and maintain good health. "One thing that does wonders is swimming," he says, pointing to the swooshing sound of water in his ears. "That's a form of mindfulness," he explains.

When it comes to the ring of tinnitus, "it comes and goes," Freeman says. For now, it has subsided into the background, he told me with a sense of relief. "The last two years have been great," he says – a combination of the device, hearing aids and the mindfulness that comes from a swim.

This story was edited by Jane Greenhalgh

• ringing in ears
• hearing loss

Neil Young Stuns at 2024 Tour Launch, Unveils Lost ‘Cortez the Killer’ Verse

By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

In typical Neil Young fashion, virtually nothing was revealed about his 2024 U.S. tour before it kicked off Wednesday night at San Diego’s Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre, other than the fact he’d be backed by Crazy Horse , and that Micah Nelson would be taking over guitar duties from Nils Lofgren. Would he pull a Greendale and debut an entire rock opera nobody had ever heard? Would he focus the set around the three new studio albums he cut with Crazy Horse between 2019 and 2022? Might he repeat the concept of his 2023 solo tour by spotlighting obscure Eighties and Nineties album tracks and skipping most of his hits?

They jammed for six minutes before Young sang the opening lines, igniting the crowd into a frenzy, but the big moment came near the end, when he began singing completely unfamiliar words. As he teased earlier this month , it was the legendary lost segment of the song that failed to record during the 1975 Zuma sessions because the console briefly lost power. Young recently found the lyric manuscript, and worked out where they originally fit in the song.

“I floated on the water,” Young sang. “I ate that ocean wave/Two weeks after the slaughter/I was living in a cave/They came too late to get me/But there’s no one here to set me free/From this rocky grave/To that snowed-out ocean wave.”

It was a remarkable moment to witness. After 49 years and over 540 live performances, the world finally got to hear the song as Young originally wrote it.

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Young was talking about “Scattered (Let’s Think About Livin’),” from 1996’s Broken Arrow, which was the newest song they played all evening. The rest of the set was music recorded when Briggs was alive, largely between 1969 and 1979, beginning with “Don’t Cry No Tears.” He followed it up with a triple shot of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere : “Down by the River,” “The Losing End,” and the title track. And it was a particularly mesmerizing “Down by the River” that stretched out for 16 blissful minutes.

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After the Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere mini-set, the quartet (Crazy Horse 4.0?) kicked into one of the greatest renditions of “Powderfinger” I’ve ever heard, thanks to improvisational guitar work prior to each verse by Young and Nelson. What came next was a 16-minute “Love and Only Love,” the band walking offstage, and then Young strapping on an harmonica rack for solo acoustic renditions of “Comes a Time,” “Heart of Gold,” and “Human Highway” that had the entire amphitheater singing along.

The band returned to wrap up the night with “Don’t Be Denied,” an autobiographical tale that carries a lot more emotional weight when Young sings it at age 78 as opposed to 28, and a thrashed-out “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black).”

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He might duplicate this exact set when the tour continues the following night at the same venue. He might not repeat a single song. He may even perform a complete classic album, which is something he started doing late last year. The joy of seeing Neil Young is that you never have any idea what’s going to happen once the lights dim.

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Evil Does Not Exist is an eerie, modern-day fable by Oscar-winning director Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Eerie and entrancing in equal measure, this contemporary sylvan fable from Ryusuke Hamaguchi is one of the most deceptively beautiful movies of the year so far.

Its glacial, near-wordless opening act documents the routines of Takumi (Hitoshi Omika), a widower keenly attuned to a lifestyle of quiet subsistence. In the icy mountains surrounding Mizubiki (a fictional Japanese village that's driving distance from Tokyo), Takumi spends his days chopping wood for his hearth and gathering crystalline spring water for the local udon shop.

Hamaguchi's depiction of this picture-book idyll gently unravels: first, with the distant gunshots of unseen deer hunters; second, with the realisation that Takumi's forgotten to pick up his daughter Hana (Ryo Nishikawa) from school again.

The film's story soon comes into focus with the announcement of a more pressing existential threat: the creation of a glamping site in Mizubiki for nearby city-slickers.

While the set-up suggests a familiar David-versus-Goliath battle across city lines and class divisions, the resulting social drama fractures into a series of unexpected, increasingly precarious turns – all culminating in a disquieting finale that evades straightforward interpretation.

At the centre of Evil Does Not Exist is an extended community meeting between the village's inhabitants and two representatives of the proposed development, Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani; Happy Hour) and Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka). In a brief dig at showbiz, it's revealed that both are employees of a talent agency whose boss is looking to cash in on a pandemic subsidy; needless to say, they're in embarrassingly over their heads.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's films share a keenly observational quality. His previous feature, Drive My Car (which took home best international feature film in 2022 and earned the very first best picture nomination for a Japanese film among its four Oscar nominations), follows another quietly grieving widower who directs a production of Uncle Vanya.

The auditions and rehearsals in the film are played out with a documentary-like attention to procedure that often recalled Louis Malle's recording of Vanya on 42nd Street.

The community meeting in Evil Does Not Exist has a similar effect in its unfussy filming, which employs longer takes and minimal camera movement — though the spectacle of Mizubiki's inhabitants excoriating the agency's ill-conceived plans crosses over into cringe comedy.

Beyond the inherent contradiction of conducting a serious dialogue about glamping – a deeply unattractive portmanteau with no Japanese equivalent – the session sees arguments erupt over fire risks, promises of boosting the local economy, and the amount of sewage that should be allowed to pollute a town's fresh water supply.

While there's more than a tinge of schadenfreude to the near-ritualistic humiliation of the representatives, it's undercut by a disheartening inevitability. Impassioned pleas are stonewalled by feeble pledges to take feedback on board; the conversation is all but a formality.

The film isn't unsympathetic to Mayuzumi and Takahashi, though, whose actions drive the film's second half. Hamaguchi understands that his audience's perspective (as well as his own) is better reflected by the hapless urbanite reps than a self-sufficient survivalist like Takumi.

Evil Does Not Exist can be funny in the director's signature offhand manner – a quality evoked from the title itself – and its commentary is made stronger by his resistance to caricature. Even its most overt antagonist, a team project leader fluent in corporate speak who's glimpsed calling into a Google Hangout from his car, is presented with a scathing accuracy.

As the film progresses, concerns over the immediate threat posed by the agency are eclipsed by a troubled reflection on Mizubiki's delicate ecosystem. The camera lingers on the mountain's suffocating vastness, its rotting animal corpses and its piercing thorns, lacing the lush imagery with a subtle but unmistakeable menace; the methodical pacing gradually oozes with dread.

Evil Does Not Exist was initially conceived as a visual accompaniment to a live performance by musician Eiko Ishibashi so, unsurprisingly, her music is intrinsic to the film's uniquely haunting tone. Initially recalling the sonorous string compositions of Max Richter, the score descends into jarring dissonance and incorporates sparse electronic sounds. Just as important to the score is the film's sudden, razor-sharp cuts, which mercilessly disrupt its lull.

At times, the film recalls The Curse, Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie's recent Paramount+ miniseries. Despite being completely different in tone, both narratives of class warfare, guilt and a perversion of the natural world are approached with a refreshing strangeness. Such themes have become rocket fuel for the recent cultural landscape, yet rarely is this material allowed to feel genuinely, menacingly abstract.

It's hard to imagine that Evil Does Not Exist will attain the status of Hamaguchi's previous Oscar darling film – which is precisely what makes the film so exciting. It's a daring creative pivot that spells out a rich future for the director.

But for all its surprises and enigmas, it's not an inaccessible film. Audiences who let themselves submit to its irresistible, hypnotic rhythms will be rewarded by a film that inspires genuine contemplation, however troubling its conclusions may be.

Evil Does Not Exist is in cinemas now.

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