The Heart Machine is a clever little film, a long-distance relationship drama wrapped up in a mystery format. It's tonally interesting, moving into some dark places, but is above all an enjoyable yet forgettable indie film.

John Gallagher Jr. plays the main character Cody and Kate Lyn Sheil plays Virginia, Cody's girlfriend he met online. The premise of the film is simple: they've never met each other in the flesh, and Cody begins to think that Virginia may not actually be in Berlin - she might be in the same city as him!

It's rare to see a film use sound editing as a dramatic tool, and a nice touch. It seems like a fairly innocent uncertainty, but it also shows some darker obsessions under the surface. The main theme to the film stems from Adobe Audition, Skype and the internet in general: technology replacing relationships, leading to paranoia. Virginia is seen to be emotionally attached to Cody, but physically attached to "bodies" through Tinder. Technology behaves as the middle-man between actual human interaction - emotionless sex and sexless emotion has never been easier.

This "dark side" of Virginia is not dark, it's simply a grey and morally questionable aspect to one's character. Cody has his own - his obsession with finding Virginia moves from cute and understandable to creepy and psychopathic without one really noticing. He invites himself to a barista's house to spy through his text messages, he stalks a friend of Virginia's and seduces her to snoop through her laptop.

However, by the end of the film we do not see them as two morally reprehensible characters. Their motivations are clear due to good acting from the two leads, and a fairly focused vision from the director Zachary Wigon. The aesthetic of the film is interesting, further supporting my view that 2015 indie film cinematography is using more formal cinematic techniques rather than the handheld mumblecore aesthetic of the 00's. Wigon uses slow and long pans, 180 and 360, for an uneasy effect, not unlike in It Follows.

Despite all these positive aspects of the film, it was lacking. It had themes, yes, but it did not elaborate upon them. It had characters exemplifying extents people would go to, but the characters did not feel like people. Luckily, this film is enjoyable to watch and enjoy it's atmosphere.