Wake-Up Call
2016 · 8m · Reino Unido
Directed by Luke Angus
Genres: satire, sci-fi, thriller
Tones: absurdist, dark, provocative
A new technique is discovered that lets people work while they sleep; what starts as an effective means of escaping the tedium of daily routines soon spirals out of control and puts the population on autopilot.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Finally, a sci-fi satire that doesn't genuflect to uplift—it watches productivity culture literally lobotomize itself and finds the horror genuinely funny. Most scouts would call this bleak; I call it honest.
Angus positions himself in the lineage of Gilliam and Cronenberg, though the execution feels more sketch than symphony; the absurdist escalation is well-calibrated, but the film's restraint—or perhaps its budget—keeps it from the formal risk that would elevate it to genuine provocation.
The film pivots entirely on a single sustained visual gag: watching people move through their daily motions on autopilot, their bodies executing tasks while their minds are elsewhere, and that choice—treating sleep-working as pure physical repetition—makes an eight-minute concept stick in your ribs.