‘Minor Premise’ Review: A Minor Entry in the Sci-Fi Genre
Science fiction films that explore big what-ifs always come with a catch. In Eric Schultz’s debut feature, “Minor Premise,” that catch is addressed five minutes in. A neuroscientist named Ethan (Sathya Sridharan) attempts to emerge from the shadow of his late father — also a neuroscientist — with his own breakthrough in the study of consciousness, by altering the subject’s memory to create a more ideal self. “Isn’t that, like, unethical?” one of his students asks. It is, if not unethical, at least a dense concept, one the film is constantly defeated by.
Ethan retreats to his basement and turns to himself as a test subject. Predictably, things go very wrong: His consciousness splits into ten different personalities, some more aggressive and uncooperative than others, appearing for six minutes an hour. Those cycles fill out this lean thriller but make it repetitive and tedious. Ethan’s colleague and estranged girlfriend Alli
