Self/Less. 2015. USA. Directed by Tarsem Singh Dhandwar. Screenplay by David Pastor, Àlex Pastor. With Ryan Reynolds, Natalie Martinez, Matthew Goode, Ben Kingsley. DCP. 117 min.
A wealthy architect dying of cancer purchases a new body through an experimental consciousness-transfer procedure, only to discover the violent origins of his second life. Tarsem’s first studio genre film since The Cell finds the director working within commercial thriller conventions while maintaining his signature visual sophistication. Shot in New Orleans and surrounding Louisiana, the film explores questions of identity, mortality, and the ethics of technological transcendence through the lens of a paranoid action narrative. Though the project represents Tarsem’s most narratively conventional work, his formalist instincts elevate the material beyond standard sci-fi premises, using architectural spaces and clinical design to visualize the protagonist’s psychological fragmentation.