Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016) – W. Herzog

The Werner Herzog documentary has certain well-known features:  importantly, the director narrates these films in his inimitable German accent, often appearing or at least conducting interviews from an offscreen space (as he does here).  His early docos often focused on visionary (or slightly cracked) individuals single-mindedly pursuing their dreams but since Encounters at the End of the World (2007), he has often cast his net more widely, choosing topics because of their intrinsic interest and then riffing on them.  He likes to go beyond the accountant’s truth to get at something more “ecstatic” which might sometimes be more poetic than strictly-speaking truthful.  That may have been the aim here in this wide-ranging review of the effects of the internet on human life, but things feel a bit looser and less focused (even for Herzog).  The film is broken into ten parts that use interviews with different people (some, like Elon Musk, may fit the mold of Herzog’s earlier protagonists) who have something to do with the cause and effects of the internet.  We are treated to brief but often stimulating discussions of: the start of the internet; the negative effects of trolling; the ways that the internet could still allow us to communicate on Mars (cue Musk); the future of artificial intelligence (and robot soccer teams); driverless cars; what would happen if solar flares disrupted the internet; the negative impact of hackers; the possible use of internet disruption and hacking in warfare (cold or otherwise); gamifying the cure for cancer; and so on.  Directly after the film, I felt it was a bit of a mess – but a lot of the content has stuck with me and generated new and different thoughts about the world and its fragility (mostly).  So, it must be a success, and particularly by Herzog’s standards.  But I also felt rather depressed about just how little I know about the world and the way that the internet has grown fundamental to it.  I’m not a luddite but I had hoped somehow that trying to keep things simple would mean keeping them safer and easier for me and my family.  But things have just moved too far and too fast in recent years.  Hell, I’m old.