Film Review – Division 19

For “Division 19,” writer/director S.A. Halewood tries to extrapolate out current woes with celebrity and surveillance, taking viewers to the futureworld of 2039, where, according to the opening of the film, anonymity is a crime. We’re immersed in a society where everything is available for study, with consent or not, making daily life a commitment to voyeurism, which has turned into the national pastime. Halewood doesn’t go cute with the material, imagining a bleak community of submissive people and the rebellion that’s taking shape in the shadows. She has plenty there for a reasonably engrossing examination of government-branded consumerism and class divide, but “Division 19” doesn’t carry enough screen energy to bring such condemnation over the top. While primed for action, the feature isn’t interested in a visceral display of revolutionary interests, remaining talky with lukewarm dramatics. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com