Parents' Guide to Doors

Sometimes a bit inert and intermittently frustrating, this sci-fi anthology movie still has enough intriguing ideas and arresting visuals to make it worth seeing -- and worth thinking about. Doors is fairly cohesive for an anthology film, given that the three main stories take place in the same world and within the same situation, just at different times. The movie's wraparound segments and coda feature a podcaster called Martin Midnight, who snarkily comments on the events, although it becomes clear that the movie isn't really on board with him. Interestingly, sympathies here seem to lie with those who are more liable to try to connect and communicate than to blow things sky high.

The focus of the first segment is Ash, who is nonbinary (they correct a classmate with "I am not a her!"). The door in this episode speaks directly to them. The second segment is notable for its eerie dream logic, which depicts the ever shifting realities inside the doors that seem determined to test those who come inside. The third segment is the least dynamic but again seems to frown on violence and to champion connection -- although the final denouement suggests another direction. Doors falters mainly when it cooks up its absurd sci-fi exposition and when it focuses on the literal rather than the mystery, but fortunately, there's enough mystery to keep things interesting.