Even in 2018, scientists still understand very little about the human mind. We understand basic principles, but on a small scale, the specific functions of identity, memory, and personality remain a mystery.
A new Netflix mini-series places Jonah Hill and Emma Stone as subjects for scientists exploring those concepts. From acclaimed True Detective director Cary Joji Fukunaga, Maniacfollows Annie Landsberg (Stone) and Owen Milgrim (Hill) as they go through a pharmaceutical trial led by Justin Theroux.
"Once you begin to appreciate the structure of the mind, there’s no reason to believe anything about us can’t be changed. Pain can be destroyed. The mind can be solved," Theroux's Dr. James Mantleray tells Annie. These tests result in an artsy psychological sci-fi nightmare that includes puppets and jumps in time and space and reality.
We see Hill and Stone as test rats, as a happy '80s family, as Game of Thrones-esque fantasy characters, in cartoons, and in WWII-era war rooms. It looks, for a lack of a better term, like a mindfuck. It debuts on Netflix on 21 September.
Matt Miller is a Brooklyn-based culture/lifestyle writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, The Denver Post, and documentaries.
