The Fix
Written and Directed by Kelsey Egan
Starring: Grace Van Dien, Daniel Sharman, Keenan Arrison, Tina Redman
Unrated
Runtime 98 minutes
Available digitally November 22

by Kevin Murphy, Staff Writer

How much would you change yourself to survive an increasingly toxic climate? Your behavior? Your body? How much of what makes you you? That becomes the question at the center of The Fix, which sees the nepo baby model Ella (Grace Van Dien) take an experimental home-brewed treatment, mistaking it for a new recreational drug. This causes an escalating chain of mutations that breaks the brittle ties she has to many others and forces her to grapple with what about herself, aside from her looks, is worthwhile. 

The world of The Fix is a typical sci-fi dystopia, established using shorthand: the air has become poisonous, pharmaceutical companies are making bank off of a half-measure treatment, and the gap between the haves and have-nots is not just material wealth but the existence of hope. It doesn’t take much to take this familiar setting and update it to modern fears, either, as there’s plenty here that is heavily influenced by the COVID pandemic and the pursuit of any kind of protection from it, which separates it from some of its pre-pandemic influences. Writing for this and Kelsey Egan’s previous film, Glasshouse, were done during lockdown in 2020, and it shows. Similarly, it taps into the escalating climate crisis and the generational impact that it has and will have. All of this makes for solid worldbuilding, but it doesn't function as much more than that, as the film doesn't use this to say much more than a basic condemnation of environmental destruction and unjust class structures. 

It's not surprising that a considerable amount of this carries a young adult science fiction vibe which sometimes works for this story and sometimes doesn’t. It fits the scenario well enough, but the dialogue gets clunky, as does the backstabbing in the relationships shown in the film, both romantic and platonic. If not for the light violence and frequent swearing, this could be a straightforward teen-oriented work not far removed from many others in the vein (and wake) of The Hunger Games (2012). 

Where this film shines most is in its body horror and how that transformation strips Ella of the only thing she considers of any value in herself. Her entire life has been based around her modeling career and the legacy of her model mother, and very few people value her for anything beyond those two things, so the increasing mutations that she experiences are not just altering her physically, but shattering her identity. There are two scenes that really embrace this, and the second one is the most crucial of the film because it presents the characters with a kind of innocence and hope that had been absent for so long. These transformations look good as well, and the effects work here is as strong as it needs to be in order to sell many of the changes that Ella undergoes.

I’d like to take a moment and point out some older works that feel relevant here. The movie hovers just above the level of being a feature-length episode of the sci-fi anthology series The Outer Limits (1963-1965), and there are three specific episodes that came to mind while I was watching it. Don’t mistake this for any kind of criticism–I’m a fan of that show and I like how The Fix does such a good job of recapturing some key elements of those episodes and presenting them with more visual polish than the series did. 

The downside to these connections is the acting, which feels flat throughout. Grace Van Dien has good physicality that makes up for it, but most of the cast are lackluster for a lot of the runtime between moments where they deliver more solid performances. Not even Clancy Brown is an exception, and I know him to be far better than what’s on display during his brief screen time here. None of the performances here are poor; it just feels like nobody is able to shine. If anything, this solidifies the connection between this film and those TV shows that feel like its predecessors, placing an emphasis on the shocking nature of the events being depicted over how well those narratives are portrayed on a dramatic level, even when capable actors are featured.

Overall, The Fix is exactly as it seems on the tin, for better and worse. It offers another example this year of an up-and-coming South African film industry (with Cape Town also providing the backdrop for Boy Kills World), and along with her previous work it presents a lot of promise for Kelsey Egan’s next project. Within the framework of older stories it presents something very accessible that’s relevant to the current day and our fears of disease, environmental destruction, and the drastic measures that might be necessary to survive a dying world. Although it does not explore these deeply enough to make a strong or unique statement and lacks the dramatic punch necessary to make those ideas hit, it still offers an enjoyable small sci-fi work.