Reflective Encounters

“Video games continue to grow more cinematic, more immersive, more realistic. In Happy New Year, Jim the fabric of the film itself becomes a computer game, specifically Red Dead Online, a role-playing game in which players adopt the personae of cowboys in a stark Western landscape. However, the story isn’t focused on the game’s characters so much as two players with the usernames J1M (Jim Muzungu) and M0rt3n (Morten Hakke) are heard communicating in dialogue through voice-over. They ruminate on the game and their own lives, spiralling down a rabbit hole of despair at the realisation of the damaging extent of their immersion within the virtual world.

The film is directed by Andrea Gatopoulos, born in Pescara in 1994, who until the age of 18 spent much of his time as a pro gamer. The film’s bleakness and reflection on the distinction between gaming life and real life comes directly from him, especially as someone who broke away from this world to focus on a career in filmmaking. It’s clear that, for Gatopoulos, the lines blur in both directions, that real life itself can often feel scripted into a routine like those of the non-playable characters in the online landscape.”

— Lillian Crawford