Levels

Levels is a 2017 psychological thriller film directed by Rungano Nyoni and starring Osric Chau and Katie Engel. The story revolves around a man named Phil, who resides in a seemingly ordinary suburban neighborhood. However, the tranquility of his life takes a drastic turn when he witnesses his girlfriend, a woman named Katie, brutally murdered by a group of nameless assailants in a park. The police investigation into Katie's murder is half-hearted at best, and when Phil confronts the detectives in charge, he realizes that they are pushing him to drop the matter. Feeling frustrated and powerless, Phil turns to alternative solutions to uncover the truth behind Katie's murder. In an attempt to gather clues, he starts by retracing their last steps and questioning the witnesses. However, for reasons that remain unclear, Phil's ordinary reality begins to warp and distort around him. The world starts to change, seemingly based on his reactions to the event. Color schemes shift, buildings alter their architecture, and the very truth of reality is called into question. As Phil navigates this new warped world, he begins to confront the fact that nothing, including his memories of Katie, is as it initially seemed. Enter Mike, a possibly hallucinatory stranger who lives in an adjacent apartment. Mike's seemingly innocent demeanor hides a darker reality, and their conversations shed more confusion than light onto the truth. Despite this, Phil remains determined to find the answers he seeks, pushing Mike to acknowledge that reality may not be as fixed as one's perception makes it seem. Just as Phil and Mike start to form an uneasy alliance, Phil discovers more about his own forgotten past and the reasons behind his association with Katie. This fragmented puzzle slowly starts to fit into place as he finds a pattern relating to this new altered reality. Levels shows that the memories can be illusory and that truth can be hard to capture. As the story comes to a climax, the shifting sands of reality prove to be a poignant metaphor for the disorienting effects of trauma and grief on the human psyche. Reality blurs, and our perspectives blend. Katie's actual nature and the truth of her relationship with Phil are laid bare. Phil becomes immersed in a subjective interpretation of her murder – a reality born out of his perception, bereaved mentality, and all things conjured through their life together. The line between truth and what has been pieced together progressively during his frantic and guilt-filled search proves morally equivocal. Levels offers no definitive explanation or conclusion to Phil's ordeal. All we are left with is the futility of searching for the authentic truth and the disconcerting uncertainty that arises from living beside a constantly shifting past.