A winning performance from Ashley Hutchinson as a sardonic millennial who just wants to be left alone anchors “Discontinued,” an original and engaging take on the end of the world.
Writer-director Trevor Peckham mixes humor, poignancy and a dash of otherworldly what-ifs as the film examines the enduring question about people who don’t need people from the point of view of Hutchinson’s Sarah, a smart young woman who just doesn't see the point.
Sarah’s longtime BFF worries that she’s “fast tracking it to the cat lady phase.” Sarah lives alone and struggles to pay the rent with a job selling solar panels. She “enjoys being underemployed” she tells her mom, with typical sarcasm, over the phone. Her therapist isn’t much help, urging Sarah not to worry about things like climate change and nuclear disaster that she can’t control.
When Sarah reluctantly goes on a date with the insufferable Tucker (Michael Bonini), the night goes from bad to worse. Sarah plops in front of the TV and decides to end it all via her large supply of medications. Suddenly there’s an AI “guide” on television who later materializes at her door. Likably played by Langston Fishburne (Laurence Fishburne’s son), he’s a handsome, smooth talker who informs Sarah that every person on the planet has a guide visible only to them. Now that much of humanity is being “discontinued,” they must make the decision: should I stay or should I go?
The film takes an existential question about the meaning of life and works it into an accessible story. It’s not explained how people who decide stay manage to live but Sarah is fine foraging on her own. Until she isn’t. “Discontinued” isn’t your typical dystopian hellscape or post-apocalyptic nightmare. Instead, it takes us into a “normal” contemporary world through a refreshing protagonist whose experience and attitude will be relatable to many viewers.
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