This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Project Greenlight has been rebooted on Max with Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani, and Gina Prince-Bythewood, shepherding its filmmaker, Meko Winbush, into premiering her movie, Gray Matter, on the streaming service. And while the ten-episode documentary on the making of the movie is fascinating and gives aspiring filmmakers strong advice on what not to do when making a movie, and the difficulties each production can face, the finished product itself leaves little to be desired.

It’s interesting to watch the documentary before watching Gray Matter, as there is a strong realization from both Rae and Winbush that the movie isn’t exactly very good when screened for the first time in front of producers. And yet, it is released on the platform for the world to see. The film does have an interesting high-concept premise, focusing on a world where psionics exists. Psionics are human beings who are born with psychic abilities, able to manipulate time and space, and memories, frequently using telepathy, and can also teleport from one place to the next. Basically, they’re the equivalent of Charlie McGee in Firestarter, but without the fire starting.

It follows Aurora (Mia Isaac), a psionic who has a hard time controlling her abilities, living in a secluded part of her town with her survivalist mother (Jessica Frances Dukes), who teaches her daughter how to hone in on her powers. Aurora has recently befriended Isaiah (Andrew Liner) and escapes her house when her mom isn’t around to hang out with him. One night, her powers grow out of control, and Aurora accidentally kills Isaiah, leading her to teleport inside a facility run by Derek (Garret Dillahunt), who is also psionic. He tells Aurora that plenty of psionics are living in the world, and he built his facility to help them control their powers. Predictably, Derek’s agenda is much darker than this, and he has been looking for Aurora’s mother for a long time.

Now, Aurora will try to escape the facility, but it seems much more difficult than it is. Then the film becomes a quasi-riff on Alain Resnais’ Je t’aime, je t’aime, where time and space become completely warped, and Aurora can’t discern what’s real and what’s not. And while the ideas are interesting enough, and the world of the movie seems rich and lived-in, the film itself is terribly predictable and way too dull for viewers to engage in its story actively. When Dillahunt’s Derek shows up in the movie, you immediately know he’s the film’s bad guy, as he sits in front of Aurora with a stoic demeanor, bald head, and perfectly-fitted clothes. You can’t trust him from the get-go, and it makes the reveal fall completely flat. If you’ve seen any movie where the protagonist is “abducted” into a facility, not remembering what occurred before, you know the person running it can’t be trusted. As much as Dillahunt seems to care about his character, he’s riddled with clichés and can never act past them.

Frances Dukes’ arc is also terribly clichéd, one of the overprotective mothers who think she helps her daughter by shielding her from the outside world. Of course, we all know how that will go down, though it’s less predictable than Derek’s. Besides, she does give a rather impassioned performance as Aurora’s emotional anchor, and you feel for her when she realizes how powerful her daughter may be.

As Aurora, Mia Isaac steals the entire movie and is the only reason why anyone should ever bother watching Gray Matter. Isaac has been one of the most exciting up-and-coming actors working today with Hannah Marks’ Don’t Make Me Go and Quinn Shephard’s Not Okay. Both of these movies weren’t very good, but Isaac gave her all with both performances, giving some of the best, if not the best, breakout work you’d see in 2022. Unsurprisingly, she’s the best part of Gray Matter, carrying a lot of emotional weight through Philip Gelatt’s uninspired screenplay. She is poised to be a star, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

It’s a shame that Isaac has been stuck in movies that don’t favor her. Aside from her and Frances Duke’s performances, Gray Matter is pitifully forgettable. The action scenes aren’t very interesting, the film is lethargically paced, and you can see everything coming a mile away, despite its somewhat intriguing premise and concept. Had Gray Matter been less unsurprising in its story beats and character arcs, it might have been an enjoyable feature debut from Meko Winbush. Unfortunately, it’ll only be remembered as yet another Project Greenlight blunder.

Gray Matter is now available to stream on Max.