Ethereal Match
- Tagline
- When the game transcends time, every play is a ghost from the past.
- Description
- Set against a backdrop of the Revolutionary Era, 'Ethereal Match' weaves the gritty aesthetic of cyberpunk with the unexplained mysteries of the supernatural. In this pedantic sports drama, Mew Jackman stars as a former criminal turned chef, whose life takes a surreal turn when an ancient game resurfaces in his cybernetic city. Alongside Jackman, Ian Solem plays a mysterious con artist whose motives are as shadowy as his past, and Alan Almond portrays an assassin whose targets are not of this world. Directed by the visionary Paul Thomas Anderstork, 'Ethereal Match' pitches the characters in a game where the stakes are eternal, and every move is a dance with the paranormal.
- MpaaRating
- R
- PopularityScore
- 9.40
- ReleaseDate
- 06/09/2022
- Genre
- Sport
- Director(s)
- Cast
Critic Reviews
4.50
In 'Ethereal Match', one finds themselves ensconced in a perplexing narrative that endeavours to merge the incongruous genres of cyberpunk and supernatural sports drama. Director Paul Thomas Anderstork exhibits an ambitious, albeit muddled vision in his latest offering, where the gritty veneer of his cybernetic cityscape fails to mask the film's intrinsic thematic dissonance. Mew Jackman's transformation from criminal to culinary expert is a performance that, whilst competent, demands a suspension of disbelief that not even the most ethereal of matches can justify. Ian Solem's portrayal of the enigmatic con artist is as opaque as the narrative's own understanding of its supernatural elements, leaving the audience grasping for substance that remains perpetually out of reach. Alan Almond's assassin, a character intended to personify the intersection of the arcane and the technological, instead manifests as a trope-laden caricature, his actions as predictable as the film's attempts at profundity. The MPAA's 'R' rating serves as a mere footnote to a film that is haunted more by its unrealized potential than by any ghost from the past. In a game where every play should resonate with the weight of history, 'Ethereal Match' stumbles, unable to reconcile its own rules with the storied past it so desperately wishes to evoke.