Director-producer-writer-star Jamie Grefe would like to trap you in his Laserium. This is a YouTube video where two women find themselves trapped in a “futuristic” reality game show with a maniacal director controlling their fate. They must escape or die. Grefe plays the show’s director. The women are Sarah (Sofia Papuashvili) and Emily (Emerald Flower).
The set is an old warehouse full of theatrical fog and crisscrossed with laser pointers. It has pretensions of being something like the Star Trek: The Next Generation holodeck, but this location looks more like a children’s model. The bulk of the runtime is taken up with random, non-sequitur improv scenes, interspersed with Grefe presenting “behind-the-scenes” moments with the actors and crew. There are no apparent rules to the reality show, and the stakes continue to escalate to a duel via Russian roulette with what looks like a real handgun.
The submission notes included this item: “This feature was shot in one day, which added momentum and energy to the project. Though there was a project outline, it was not referenced on-set, and aside from the ending, all scenes were guided by Grefe as the shoot unfolded with no preparation from cast or crew.”
“…two women trapped in a ‘futuristic’ reality game show with a maniacal director …”
The entire endeavor is improv, with no script and no narrative arc. Mostly what we are asked to endure (for 102 minutes) is Grefe stomping around doing his version of “acting,” which largely consists of berating people like an angry mannequin. It is as exquisitely uncomfortable to watch as it is pointless. The two women seem anxious to be in any kind of filmed media, and go along with his abuse like Weinstein victims, perhaps thinking it will advance their careers. The ever-present fog (even in the dressing rooms) makes it impossible to see what is going on (not that you’d want to).
A technical note about weapons: Grefe has the women use a modern semi-automatic weapon for Russian roulette. The game is in not knowing whether the next shot has a chambered round. Anyone who has handled such a weapon (or watched a John Wick movie) knows that’s not how clip-fed semi-autos work. A spring pushes the next round up, ready for the chamber. There’s no question whether the next round is live… it is, and will be until the clip is empty, and yet the characters pass the gun back and forth “firing” it until there’s a live round. This is just dumb. Why not grab a prop revolver? I mean, throw us a bone here.
Laserium is not a film. There’s no script. The dialogue is hammy and the improv sucks. There are no sets. There is no lighting. There is no narrative structure. It is a self-indulgent experimental workshop exercise with no purpose or conclusion. There’s nothing positive to say about it. I’ve no idea why Grefe would slap credits on it and call it a movie. A talented editor could cut it down to a 10-15 minute short and edit out the parts where Grefe is talking, and you would possibly have something a viewer could stomach. At the very least, you’d know it would be over soon. If you’ve time on your hands and are feeling self-loathing, go watch Laserium as penance. You’ll see something so devoid of value and so poorly executed that you’re bound to feel better about yourself by comparison. Go in forewarned, however, that this is 102 minutes you’ll never get back.
"…a self-indulgent experimental workshop exercise with no purpose or conclusion..."
