Isa

The film premise really does start out really promising before it degenerates into a convoluted mess towards the middle from the storyline. Nothing is really resolved. Many of the characters actions simply fail to make sense most of the time excluding the main character. The supporting characters and the "bad guys" actions don't make sense (like actions people wouldn't do or think in real life) - if someone is kidnapped you call the damn police not just run off with a security guard especially if you end up finding where the kidnapped person is. The film doesn't get into why the antagonist even bothers doing what it does with their test group as opposed to using another range or how money is being made with this (what does stock market have to do with it when whatever they're trying to do isn't even finished?). Because the premise was promising I gave a 3 star but the delivery sapped the remaining stars this could have had.

This is a good movie. What makes it outstanding is that it addresses a not very popular yet but pretty urgent theme, and it does it from a an unusual perspective. As far as I know just can count one other movie about crypt-currency and it is a pretty bad one: In Time (2011, Andrew Niccol, Justin Timberlake). The comparison is very productive. Isa is subtle and intelligent. The subject is not explicit but, even so, it is delivered with ambitious and clever glimpses of a not-very-distant future.

The more explicit context of the film, Latino neighborhoods in the U.S. border (where, maybe, it doesn't makes full sense to "call the damn police not just run off with a security guard especially if you end up finding where the kidnapped person is"), reveals it's accurate prophetic character, the historic background about how money has always been made.

I am pretty sure the visual and sculptural metaphors are really meaningful and appealing to anyone that has been aware of the human crisis produced by forced labor and displacement. Maybe from that point of perspective, remembering also the beautiful low-fidelity special effects, I give a high score to the aesthetic values of the film.

Note: The expression crypt-currency is missing an 'o' after 'crypt'. This neologism was not allowed by the spell check but I hope this note will pass in case you want to goggle the subject.