What Only Cicadas See - Review

The real epidemic of film is not the overuse of AI as a plot device, it is the countless film reviews that start their criticism with that exact sentiment, “AI seems to permeate every plotline in modern cinema”, “Another Hollywood film tackling the morality of AI use”. I will not fall into that camp, because the AI plotline in What Only Cicadas See is not the standout element for me; that would be the peaks and valleys of its technical presentation compared to its performances. A gloriously sun soaked rural Florida mixed with some of the most bizarre acting choices I have seen in a long time.

What Only Cicadas See starts off really strong with an ominous shot of a titular cicada buzzing in the breeze. We then meet Mara (Mary Pursell) and Tariq (Omar Moustafa Ghonim), two true crime creators with a great logo and some nice merch to go along with it. They’re editing a piece when Tariq’s phone buzzes with a notification from Echo (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson). Echo is an AI assistant which Tariq has modified to give him a voice. Mara is against Tariq’s ethos initially, pushing back on a new idea he has had; rather than reporting on cold cases for their channel, why not follow ongoing investigations with Echo’s assistance. After a little convincing, Mara is on board, and they set off throughout Florida, following a string of odd murders that seem to have a connection. With each local or witness they meet, both they and Echo get closer to the truth. However, when Mara’s past comes back to the surface, she pursues the case even harder, getting deeper into the complicated web of this small town.

Before I slightly rant about the odd choices in this one, I think it is pretty faultless on the technical side. The cinematography is really stunning, paired with a stylish and effective colour grade. The work of cinematographer Steven Schloss is particularly great in how they chose to shoot the driving scenes. There are a good few of them in this film, and have a very strong possibility of becoming tedious, but Schloss shoots them from lots of interesting angles, which allow the story to continue without becoming mundane in look. Robert Dankowski’s colour grade is great here too. They really push the bright sun in the outdoor scenes, and let the darker scenes be dark, without crushing any of the blacks down. They do a great job of preserving skin tones, but it comes at a slight cost of harsh tracked shapes around the characters’ faces at times.

The soundscape by Buck Snow and their team is also impressive. They fill the space with cicadas and a warmth felt through the audio. The treatment of Ólafsson’s voice as Echo is also great, not pushing too far into robotic that it is comical, but just not quite human. I’m sure that is a nice mix of performance

from Ólafsson and the sound team, but either way, it was effective.

Now, the story. I like the concept, and was intrigued by the conclusion of the film, I just didn’t connect to it. There is a lack of motivation for me. The film runs for just under two hours, and we spend too little time at the beginning establishing Mara and Tariq. I didn’t really get a feeling that they needed to use Echo to do their next project, they don’t push that their views are dropping or they are getting bored of the format enough to justify it. The motivation issue continues further into the film as the pair learn more about the truth of the murders. When Mara’s personal connection to the crimes comes into play, her character completely changes, and Pursell’s performance becomes bafflingly unhinged. When we meet Mara, she is pretty level, maybe even uninterested. You can see the room for growth in how she begins her journey, but she quickly becomes invested in the case, and then all of a sudden becomes manic and genuinely seems possessed by something. This may be a choice that has gone over my head, but I could not see the motivation for such a crazed and drastic change to her demeanour. I also found some of the people they meet along the way to be quite odd in their delivery. I did find Ghonim as Tariq to be pretty consistent throughout. He does lack motivation but stays pretty level headed for

the film, only showing more intense emotions in fitting scenes.

The mystery of the film is kept well hidden but doesn’t come from nowhere, which I liked. Echo’s learning of new details and connections as the two progress gives the story a nice pace to it. While I think we could have cut some of the longer scenes in the middle to give space to the beginning, I didn’t find myself bored watching this. There isn’t a reliance on overexplaining the plot to the audience, because the characters learn all the info we do in real time.

What Only Cicadas See makes some bold choices, some that worked really well for me, and some that did not. However, I would always prefer a film and its actors take bigger swings that might work than just phoning it in in fears that what they’ll do won’t work. It's choices like these that make it memorable, and hopefully push the cast and crew in front of an audience that responds well to what they create, letting them create more.

What Only Cicadas See is set to release in 2027.