Lizzie Borden

(On Cable TV, July 2022) I’ll maintain that utopia is a severely underused theme in Science Fiction cinema. Yes, it’s exciting to go dystopian and revel in grimy darkness—but should there be an equal thirst to show what we aspire to? Dramatically, utopias work really well when they’re threatened by their antithesis, so there’s no reason to explore good-and-evil by featuring a good world under attack. As Born is Flames begin, it feels as if we’re going to get something rare—a far-left progressive feminist utopia, ten years after a bloodless revolution that changed everything. Tell me more, I say—tell me how this happened and how much better this new world is, and how it’s being threatened. Make me believe in your ideal vision for the world. But after a promising first few minutes, reality sinks in—Writer-director-producer Lizzie Borden either doesn’t have the rigour, the intention or the means to deliver on the premise of those few minutes. Rather than present us with a post-revolution utopia, Born in Flames shows us the revolution—the listless jobless men rioting, the law-and-order forces oppressing minorities, the revolutionaries jailed and killed, and the violent takeover of the mass media. Well, OK, then—maybe it will be able to articulate the way to a better future… but no. Clearly produced by an amateur, cash-strapped, overly ambitious filmmaker, Born in Flames swings wildly from one thing to another—didactic manifesto piece at times, dystopian freedom-fighting drama the next, incomprehensible awkward collage throughout. I respect the ambition, but not necessarily the result: by the end of the film, it feels as if everything was thrown in the blender and the result suffers from a severe lack of focus. Knowing that the film was reportedly produced over five years with a $30,000 budget and many non-professional actors does help to understand how it ended up like this—how can you produce a coherent result under these conditions? Still, the potential for greatness in Born in Flames is scarcely realized. Seeing Eric Roberts pop up briefly and Oscar-winning director Katheryn Bigelow in a rare acting role is not quite enough to compensate for the colossal letdown. I could be glass-half-full and point out how rare Born in Flames’ viewpoint remains—but it’s a bit of a chore to sit through and frustrating throughout.