Quick Info
Coherence is one of those low-budget sci-fi films that sneaks up on you. It’s set mostly during a dinner party with a group of friends, and on the night a strange comet passes overhead, weird things start happening: reality begins to fracture, and everyone’s evening spirals into a maze of confusion and paranoia. The premise is simple, but it unfolds in these clever, unpredictable ways that leave you second-guessing what’s real.
What really stood out to me is how the filmmakers wring so much tension and suspense from such a small, everyday setting. The cast feels genuinely natural, partly because much of their dialogue was improvised, which makes the unraveling relationships add an extra layer of discomfort to the sci-fi weirdness. It’s not a movie about flashy effects or explosions - it’s purely about how people would actually react if reality suddenly didn’t add up, and it gets genuinely unnerving.
The downside is that the chaos can get a little overwhelming; in the middle third, things get confusing even for a movie that’s all about confusion. It’s the kind of film where you might want to rewatch or talk it through afterward just to piece everything together. If you like mind-bending stories like Primer or The Invitation (but wish it was a bit more accessible), Coherence is definitely worth a look.
