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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Peter Bradshaw

Invention review – meta indie docu-fiction has a deadpan take on truth and healing

Towards the light … Callie Hernandez in Invention.
Towards the light … Callie Hernandez in Invention. Photograph: Courtney Stephens & Callie Hernandez

Here is a deeply strange but diverting indie experiment: a docu-fictional meditation on the nature of grief from director Courtney Stephens and her co-writer and lead performer Callie Hernandez. Hernandez plays Carrie, a version of herself, opposite deadpan cameos from various microbudget directors.

In the fictional part of the film, Carrie’s father has died; he was a quack doctor who attempted to market an alternative healing machine as part of a pyramid-selling scam, but who also had many friends and followers who were bowled over by his charm. The lawyer executing his will tells Carrie there won’t be any money left after all her dad’s debts are paid, but she does inherit the rights to the healing machine, and there is even a prototype in a safety deposit box for her to try out.

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