From the opening scene of Hi! You Are Currently Being Recorded, we are drawn into Anna’s routine walk through Los Angeles as though we share her sense of being watched. The silence of empty streets cracks under the weight of unseen eyes. Directors Anna Maguire and Kyle Garrett Greenberg refuse to hold back, keeping each shot long enough for tension to pool. What begins as a familiar evening stroll becomes a claustrophobic experiment in surveillance. Every misplaced footstep and lingering glance feels magnified, as if the city itself is listening.
Anna Maguire anchors the film with a performance that swings between laid-back chill and full-blown panic as she lights up a roadside joint in broad daylight. One moment she’s basking in sunshine with a goofy grin, the next she’s convinced a rustling leaf is proof her every move is being streamed. Her wide-eyed jumps at harmless flickers turn a simple walk into a baked nightmare you cannot escape. It’s absurd and hilarious because being stoned makes any trivial detail feel life or death, yet she’s right; between smartphones pinging our location, tracking apps charting our routines, and cameras in every corner, someone really is watching us all the time.
Visually, Hi! You Are Currently Being Recorded relies on static shots and tight framing to trap us in Anna’s perspective. The camera roams quietly at first, then locks on details we normally ignore: a flickering street lamp, the metallic edge of a fire escape, a car’s reflection in a shop window. These moments transform into portals of dread under such watchful framing.
Anna Maguire’s character starts to feel watched in Hi! You Are Currently Being Recorded, as her casual smoke turns into a moment of anxiety.
“What begins as a familiar evening stroll becomes a claustrophobic experiment in surveillance.”
Sound design magnifies every creak and whisper so a distant conversation feels like a threat, and wind through palm fronds carries an ominous warning. Even the soft rustle of Anna’s jacket seems heavy with an unseen presence. Precision editing weaves these elements into a living soundscape where silence itself becomes the film’s most unsettling note.
It speaks to that fleeting moment when you catch your reflection in your phone’s screen and suddenly realize you may not be alone. Clocking in under eight minutes, it avoids overstaying its welcome and lodges its whisper of paranoia in your mind.
Hi! You Are Currently Being Recorded is not a comfort watch and entirely earns its chills. Through disciplined direction, striking visuals, and immersive atmosphere, it makes familiar streets feel alien. The film holds a mirror to our screen-saturated lives and dares us to face the truth of our own exposure.
"…earns its chills."
