‘I’m Alive’ review: A moody, documentary-style ensemble drama digs deep into the Big Apple’s digital underground

One of the ironies about movies set in the digital age is that most of us now spend most of our time staring at screens, which is probably the last thing anyone wants to see on another screen.

Filmmakers such as Timur Bekmambetov, who has produced a range of genre-based “screen life” films, including Not a friend and Searchthey tried to incorporate this phenomenon into the aesthetic of the films themselves, which poses interesting challenges for directors forced to limit the action to a single virtual screening. But in general, films about people stuck in the digital vortex can be a bit exhausting, failing to provide the kind of escape that many of us watch in the first place.

The second documentary by writer and director Joshua Z. Weinstein, I am here aliveis a motion picture of sorts, though it expands that concept into an ensemble piece set during a long, dreary night in New York City. The film follows four characters, most of whom are glued to their phones or screens for long periods of time, and offers a realistic view of what it’s like to be young and financially disabled in today’s Big Apple, where online transactions and communications have replaced doing things in the real world.

Even when they are not in the process of dying, people enter I am here alive She seems to float in a pixelated mist, as if what matters most to her is somewhere in the cloud and not on the sidewalk. That’s certainly true for many people in their 20s in today’s day and age, especially since the 2020 pandemic took away much of their best teenage years. But this doesn’t necessarily lead to great drama, nor something that’s fun to look at.

Weinstein, who also serves as DP, gives his film a moody, dark look that’s closer to 1976 than 2026. He also portrays the racially diverse cast with a lot of sympathy. However, none of this prevents this short film, which chronicles the events of several characters caught in a digital stasis, from becoming a rather sobering experience.

Having started out in the documentary world, Weinstein showed how well he could immerse himself in a particular New York City community with his 2017 feature debut. Menashea poignant, small-scale Yiddish-language drama set in the Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn. The manager applies a similar approach to I am here alivewhose online depiction of the city’s subways feels so authentic that it could have been a documentary, too. And perhaps it should have been so, because dramatic instances are low here, as are the cinematic stakes in a film mostly confined to screens and cramped spaces.

Working with an ensemble of non-professional actors, all playing compelling characters based in part on their own lives, Weinstein weaves the young cast into a cinematic thriller. Short cutsA style structure that follows a quartet of people who mysteriously cross paths in the city between 6pm and midnight.

The protagonist of sorts is Majora (Cheyenne Gallagher), an avid gamer with a major case of agoraphobia that keeps him trapped inside Queens’ digital den for most of the film. While some people—including billionaire teacher Marc Andreessen, who we see in an interview clip at the beginning of the film—might see such online purgatory as a model of progress, Majora is aware of its problems and spends his time helping kids in similar situations, especially a fellow New Yorker (Alex Fox) who is contemplating suicide.

Majora’s Tale tells the story of other people his age navigating the Naked City, finding solace and sadness in constant connection: There’s Crystal (Crystal Figueroa), who lives in a women’s shelter and is trying to launch her own reality dating show inspired by… Flavor of love; Felix (Caleb Zuzga), who is looking for a rich sugar daddy to fund his need for lip injections, jaw and cheek fillers, and other facial procedures; and Eddie (Eddie Torrinegra), a Latino immigrant who films upbeat content on Facebook when he’s not delivering food around town. (There’s also trans model and beauty influencer Emira D’Spain from The next generation of New York City Fame, but its plot is practically non-existent.)

I am here alive It cuts between different characters as if they were in a multiplayer game about trying to make it in the Big Apple, struggling to pay the rent in a city that seems lonelier than ever, at a time when the wealth gap has risen to levels not seen since the Gilded Age. The problem is that the game they’re playing isn’t engaging to watch, even if it is a depressingly honest reflection of what things are like nowadays, leaving us to wonder: whatever happened to sexy New York City? On the city? Or even who Midnight Cowboy? And where’s Travis Bickle when you need him?

Weinstein’s film is depressingly realistic, perhaps more so than some of us would like to believe, as it depicts how Big Tech’s algorithms have destroyed what was once a great place for great movies. People in I am here alive So addicted to their screens for personal and professional reasons, they can no longer experience New York at all. And even when they try it, they do so through another screen. If the director offers a glimmer of hope at the end, explaining how at least one character manages to see the light of day, his film intentionally leaves us in the dark.