A brilliant young mind becomes obsessed with the idea that he can save humanity from itself. ‘How so?’, you ask. In a hypothesis that sounds like something out of an episode of Black Mirror, by nothing short of ‘hacking’ the human mind itself. Well, young mastermind Mason certainly seems to have the ‘mad’ part down. But does he have the genius to back it up?

This debut feature film written and directed by Royce Gorsuch certainly isn’t short on ambition. While the budget is low, his story is an interesting one, set in a just-off-kilter-enough world and populated with amusing, slightly unusual characters. As Mason, Chris, um, Mason is a compelling anti-hero with acting chops slightly above the level we might be used to in this sort of budget sci-fi. Knocking around inside (the fictional) Mason’s head is the louder, more brash Finn, giving a Drop Dead Fred/Fight Club flavour which keeps the story and character interaction patterns on their toes.

This lightness of touch serves the film well when it comes to answering some of its more portentous, big sci-fi questions. And while Mad Genius doesn’t have the depth or strength in its writing to delve as deeply as it would like, one much prefers the flawed but kooky silliness of this to the grim and gritty Black Mirror rip-off it so easily could have been.

Mad Genius is far from original, and its story is balanced on some pretty dodgy, dopey sci-fi conceits, but it possesses a likeability and unusual nuttiness that serves it well. It’s not ‘mad’ enough, nor is it nearly ‘genius’ but it’s no slouch either.

MAD GENUIS / CERT: UNRATED / DIRECTOR: ROYCE GORSUCH / SCREENPLAY: ROYCE GORSUCH / STARRING: CHRIS MASON, SCOTT MECHLOWICZ, LEVY TRAN, SPENCER LOCKE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW