October 28th, 2014 
James Shotwell 
Film: LFO
Starring: Patrik Karlson
Directed By: Antonio Tublen
Mind control becomes a lot more complicated than one amateur inventor expects in the new film LFO.
It’s been awhile since a foreign film swept me off my feet in its opening moments, but over the weekend that exact experience returned to my life in the form of Antonio Tublen’s LFO. It’s a tale of a man who stumbles upon a way to control people using frequencies akin to those that impact people with tinnitus. His efforts are somewhat noble at first, but things quickly take a turn for the devious. By the time the police become involved everything has spun far out of his control, but for the sake of not ruining any of the film’s many surprises I don’t know how much more I can say.
LFO is lead by Patrik Karlson, a veteran actor with charisma to spare. His character, Robert, is one who has a curiosity about the way sounds affect the human mind that takes him to the point of insanity. Along the way, he loses everything and everyone he holds dear, keeping instead the ghosts of the life he thought he might have. To make up for this loss, Robert turns his attentions to his new neighbors, and soon he begins using them for his experiments. If you’re thinking this means sex, you’re not far from the truth.
There have been a number of films that attempted to tackle small-scale mind control, but few have come across with the comedic sensibilities that run rampant throughout LFO. Tublen’s scripts, coupled with strong performances from the lead cast, make for a quirky and altogether memorable adventure that maintains a sense of mystery far longer than one might expect. You know how things work, at least to an extent, but you do not understand the motivations behind everything that Robert does, or what exactly happened between him and his recently deceased wife. Her vision does not haunt him as much as it keeps him company, serving as a constant reminder that the genius in front of us is also a madman.
It would have been very simple for Tublen to make this story one that became incredibly dark at the height of the second act, but he chooses instead to keep things relatively light throughout. The story is not as much about what Robert can do with his power, but instead why he’s sacrificed so much to reach this point and what he will do now that all his work has come to a head. His experiments can only last for so long, and it’s clear that the rush he initially felt takes more and more to be recreated. For the first time I can recall in cinematic history, viewers actually witness someone becoming somewhat bored by mind control. He can never stop, however, because to do so would mean facing the damage his actions have caused (and no one ever wants to do that).
Most movies have one unique idea that the filmmaker hopes will help set their project apart from their competition. LFO actually has a number of crazy ideas at work at any given time. Mind control is only the tip of the iceberg, and it’s followed not far behind by ghosts, surreal sexual encounters, adult role playing, crime sprees, frenemies, and the aforementioned police presence. In all my years of writing about films I can honestly say I have never seen anything quite like this film. It has its faults, including a bit of drag in its second act, but in the end LFO remains a title every film fan should see at least once in their lives.
GRADE: B-
Review written by James Shotwell Follow @utgjames
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