What’s Aged the Best?
Eddie finding the drugs; writer satire; biohacker relevance; pill color scheme; Carl Van Loon's name; knockoff market; weight of the pill bag; NZT community; the premise and Vern's pitch
In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:42:32Read transcript
- Eddie finding the drugs is a classic what-would-you-do dilemma, and most people would try one.
- The film stealthily rips on unsuccessful writers; Eddie resembles late-2000s bloggers, and his sci-fi novel as a personal manifesto is bar talk.
- The film fits the biohacker era of the last 15 years, now a cottage industry, as the ultimate version of maximizing potential.
- When Eddie takes the pill the film turns up the contrast and maybe changes the stock, an effective trick similar to little tricks in Fight Club. — Chris Ryan
- Compared with Gordon Willis's Godfather II, it is way too bright.
- Carl is short for Carlos, so Van Loon can be imagined as a Mexican businessman, and Mora is a Spanish surname: a win for Latinos. — Shea Serrano
- De Niro's one great speech about Eddie's unearned powers is played as a clip; he seems on autopilot, maybe with cue cards, but nails it.
- A Limitless knockoff market of fake supplements and YouTube videos, like cure-all CBD pitches at a flea market, could also count as aged the worst.
- The weight of the pill bag found in the oven ages well, as do clever small setups like the stove search and Vern's line that the pill works better if you're already smart; taking it would just mean tweeting faster. — Shea Serrano
- Discovering the NZT community, with other users dead and the realization that Atwood is on NZT, is effective because the film doesn't belabor it. — Chris Ryan
- The premise ages great every year, and Vern's NZT pitch is the best: no notes.