Review: The Manifestation (2024) dir. Geert Heetebrij

I’ve always found the crypto bro a bit unsettling. The (rare) unaware crypto bro is the worst of the sort: a smugness multiplied by their own depravity of self-knowledge that disgusts in both self-absorption and aesthetic value. The Manifestation, the directorial feature debut from the Dutch-born and US-based Geert Heetebrij, is the first film I’m aware of that has a little bit of fun with the crypto phenomenon.

Stay-at-home crypto trader Stephen (Jack Kesy) gambles with his and his wife Roni’s (Inbar Lavi) life savings and often ends up on the wrong side of the balance book. Listening to the advice of life coach and all things capitalist guru Michael (Usman Ally), he “manifests” Vronika (Lavi), the younger and red-dyed hair alter-ego version of his wife. And, as the cycles of gambling addictions always go, things don’t turn out so well for Stephen and Roni. (Vronika’s somewhat spooky turn sure doesn’t help.)

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