Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

CinemaDude1 If "slick" was all you needed to give a movie a high rating, FREQUENCIES would be right up there with the characters in the film who have the highest frequency numbers, because it is that -- as slick as KY Jelly. It has a clean, beautifully photographed look, attractive actors and an engaging love story that is initially quite involving, drawing us into the story very early on -- seems like an interesting, even quirky story unfolding....initially. It opens with the easily understood and familiar premise, a kind of caste system which seems intrinsically unfair and which thwarts a lover from reaching his beloved. In this version of unfair, unrequited love, there is a caste system based on of all things, some sort of frequency in their atomic structure of each individual makeup which is unalterable and which permanently relegates each to a specific level of "luck" or fate and lot in life, much like our present day SAT scores. And they are bound to it to the grave. What becomes immediately of emotional interest to the viewer is that this indelible frequency number (which right off the bat begs credulity of the highest order) not only marks their level of fate, but also predetermines who they can love (or not). Not an original cinematic concept by any means and we have seen it used as the foundation for love-stories in a myriad of other films, except here it becomes just too silly a device to be believable; their atomic frequency prevent them from even going near each other let alone touching or loving each other. The "science" behind this situation is just never explained so it remains glaringly bad science to the point that at times it's laughable. OK, let's live with that hard-to-swallow "frequency out of sync" device...it's only a means to move the meat of the love story and the conflict therein forward. But that's only the beginning of the nonsense as the director/write then begins injecting more and more absurd arguments about irrelevant concepts like fate and predetermination and free will and irony(?!), all supposedly controlled by a "Manual" that we are told, without any plausible explanation, pops up throughout the centuries -- a kind of DaVinchi Code, only it's about patterns and fate. It's represented by three hieroglyphic looking symbols that appear here and there, again without explanation, and also you see them crudely paint on the backs of their cellphones. Oh, and yes, the discovery of how to control the "side effects" of frequency mismatch is made by the lead male lover who happens to be a mathematical, druggie/genius (even though he's vibrating at the LOWEST frequency, i.e. bottoming out on the SATs) -- HE figures out that WORDS -- yes, just speaking words out loud, stops the bad side effects when two people of divergent frequencies dare to try to interact. But wait...what about those musical notes. Ooops, more on that later. Come to find out, if you take certain drugs -- lots of them...like mixing whole prescription bottles of them together, you can then speak certain words that a cellphone app will spit out which will quash the bad side-effects when individuals with incorrectly matched frequencies play hanky-panky with each other. Yah, that's right....it's the WORDS you speak that stop forks and knives from flying about when the lovers touch, but low and behold, another unbelievable discovery....it's MUSIC that will squash the flying utensils and vibrating doors and steam rising from the ground as well as cell app words. Will wonders never cease? In this movie, evidently not soon enough.The "science" here is absurd; the philosophical conundrums of free will vs. predetermination vs. patterns vs. irony (irony?...really?!) are all over the map; THEN the mean military arm of the government jumps in just to make things interesting (and less coherent) because now humanity as we know it is threatened if the control words are spoken out loud. All the scientists now have to do is figure out how to restore frequencies so that the evil caste system is back in place and we are all really just machines anyway...or are we? Yah...it is just as idiotic as it sounds. Not a shred of any plausible science or philosophy or physics while all the incessant mumbo-jumbo discussions that the characters spout on these "deep" (read pretentious) topics sound as infantile as those commercials for Cheese-Its where the 5 year old kids give their explanations of how the cheese gets into the crackers. None of this means a hill of beans to whatever is emotionally engaging of the plot -- the love story and the social ethics of a society with such an unfair way of predetermining citizens' lot or why any of this is happening. Instead the sci-fi simply consists of dialog that sounds like the screenwriters hadn't the foggiest handle on ANY of these topics. Nor do we care an iota about any of it as presented. While as a whole, this may have started off as a good attempt at a story that we COULD HAVE gotten emotional invested in, but one-third the way thru it they seem to have seriously lost their way and had no idea where they wanted to take the film. And that is sad because the film had great potential, but when you need to come in to save your splintered, unraveling, unresolved last reel with all this mess still flopping in the wind and you to have to bring in MOZART to tie up lose ends as well as turning one of your very minor supporting characters into an omniscient Star Trek-like "Q" as the denouement to the meandering, indecipherable last 20 minutes, well, you just wind up with a major disappointment.

fastforward666 Recommended to me as interesting, intelligent movie. I watched it twice. At first, I wasn't impressed, but it looked OK. As I fell asleep for 10-15 minutes somewhere in the middle, I decided to give it another try. Especially after reading praising reviews here which made me think I probably lost track with the story during these missing 10-15 minutes, or something crucial to understand the concept. Unfortunately, after a second chance, it was even bigger disappointment. Movie starts promising, in pretty ordinary, casual setting. A young girl and a boy got introduced after some unknown important test where both scored extreme yet opposite results. Then, strong reactions happen upon their contacts, followed by weird events, so they cannot stay close to each other more than 1 minute. Fairly interesting indeed. Also, camera work is really good and quite artistic. Unfortunately, that's all about it. Slowly, movie takes confused and dull rather than interesting route.Frequencies suffers from style-over-substance and trying-so-hard syndromes. There is just too much of everything. When it tries as romance movie, it fails because of general mechanic flow and "scientific" coldness. "The higher the frequency, the lower the empathy" - as main female character was described could explain that, but however, it's no excuse. Flat, emotionless movies are not good no matter the genre and lack of any sentimentality in drama and especially romance is just a failure.Then, it tries at social commentary, with very poor results. Standard concepts of social control and mental manipulation, perhaps the social effect of modern technologies are perpetuated... but in so superficial and obnoxious manner. Basically, a social commentary just for the sake of it. Also, since government agents or whatever got introduced in the story, the movie really drags in unneeded nonsense and becomes difficult to follow.Self-help and (anti) psychiatry themes are covered. For instance, the negative frequency of main guy "not in sync with nature" and main girl's way too high one which prevents her to "feel" can also imply mental disabilities like autism. The problem however is lack of transparency in these subjects, as it never goes beyond simple implications. Seems that atmosphere was clearly set at inoffensive and "positive", to prevent cool and "smart" tone of the movie. Possible mental disabilities got masked, characters typically presented as "genius". Minor scenes which imply autism by displaying repetitive behavior still stay neutral, in a way of some "cool" screen shots. A scene where the couple was prescribed with "dose of Mozart and Brahms" is just so damn namby-pamby and downright stupid. Even most characters were named by gifted scientists or composers (Newton, Tesla, Strauss etc.) for totally unclear and bizarre reason. Red flag for pretentiousness risen! Oh, and that notorious aspect, the flirt with (cough!) existential philosophy. Without doubt, this is where Frequencies is at the most pretentious and where it failed to lowest. Philosophical phrases are extensively used throughout entire movie, in most laconic way imaginable. Such desperate desire to appear so intellectual is just annoying. So, philosophical catch-phrases are constantly thrown everywhere, but in fact, the initial idea of the whole movie hardly have some(if any)depth. The premise goes literally like this: there are people who emotionally cannot get together(because of their extremely opposite "frequencies"), they are not "destined" to be (add there many boring contemplations about fate, shown in the movie), some words can change that (certain tones may change "frequencies"), but these words can be also used as a tool to manipulate and control others, while certain music (like Mozart, doh!)is antidote (it brings all humans at the the same "frequency") and can unify whole mankind on subconscious level (add there that inane social commentary part)… It's perhaps interesting, but no need for some extra intelligence to realize how naïve and flawed this "theory" is. However, this "theory" is not the issue, but lack of content around that idea in the movie.At this point, Frequencies enters New-Ageisms (Scientology?) and perhaps cyber occultism? Like a magic formulas, some meaningless words are used to manipulate people and get them instantly act. There are digital devices who generate these "magic" words. Meh, come on! The way these ideas got executed in the plot is absolutely lazy, random and stupid. Good science fiction IS based on science, but this is just childish "futuristic" fiction. There is even some device with video transmission of future events, another idea thrown in the plot for no actual reason? Oh, my… On top of all, the most horrid side are tendencies at artistic and even avant-garde. There's numerous flaws in plot, atmosphere and even acting, yet whole package fools out with faux "unconventionality". Frequencies pretends to be intelligent, but ends as mumbo jumbo. It tries as artistic movie, but ends as arty-farty one. It's often suggested as atmospheric, "visual" movie. Well, camera is classy, but it's still far from good atmospheric movie. Lynch's Eraserhead or Tarkovsky's Stalker are examples of atmospheric masterpieces - where actual story was secondary, moving at very slow pace, while visual side was primary. That sometimes seems to be the case with Frequencies. It's visually strong but only in technical terms, because unlike these two movies it cannot express anything emotional or captivating. While it's story is not that buried, it also moves in much faster pace. But, clocking at 100 minutes, Frequencies looks long-winded, like there is about 30 minutes more than needed.So finally, the movie just died under all that mess. Near the end, I simply started to ask - what's the damn point of all this? Seems that directors were also aware that it got lost along the way. Even the closing scene with two main characters clearly ends in that fashion. Frequencies is nothing but superficial effort to be extraordinary, original, smart, artistic. Result is pretentious and faceless movie. It's blueprint of all wrong in modern art - made out of boredom, with desire to impress but nothing to express.

A_Different_Drummer Some movies require you to take the "reviewers rule book" and toss it.This is one of them.The writer/director Darren Paul Fisher appears to be one of those rare auteurs who releases a work every four or five years and then disappears or hibernates or goes back to his home planet.This is an extraordinary film. Even now I not sure if this is a love story sugar-coated with one of the most complex metaphysical scripts of all time, or a metaphysical script grounded in a wonderfully odd love story.However, as one of the main characters quips in the very last scene, "Does it even matter?" The film is mesmerizing and engaging and challenging. It makes the MATRIX look like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. The scenes in the present with the adult cast are perfect and flawless, but the flashbacks with the child actors are beyond even that, they are hypnotic.A great film by a gifted auteur. Memorable. Enjoyable. Astonishing.Highly recommended

Lele ...but you have not to "understand".Many dialogs are just for fun. The things they write down when they are "studying" an antidote for the Manual are meaningless, just as OXV. The central idea is great: spoken words do modify reality. And this is true. For instance if I say: "My sister has a breast cancer", people around me say "Oh, please don't even name it!". Here, in Italy, this superstition is largely diffused. They are afraid that saying the word, a bit of the real thing could damage them.Think of magic formulas and let's ask the reason why "bad words" are bad. Another great theme is destiny. The way they tell the love story of the two kids is more unique than rare! The part I loved more was the "experiments" of the girl and her "notes" she wrote down since she was a child :)The cinematography is amazing, acting was pretty fine and script was outstanding.9/10