Flawed, but interesting...
In my opinion, some screenplays just shouldn't be filmed unless they have the right budget in place, and I'm afraid Hyperfutura fits into that category. This should have been attempted at the $200k range, not $40k. There's a reason Reservoir Dogs takes place, for the most part, in a single warehouse.
What tries to be a psychedelic, experimental, art/cult film, ends up a melange of stock footage and badly pieced together story fragments. It could have passed for an art film, if not for all that damn exposition and ADR (the worst offender was the ADR at the end, when they're on the beach. What could have been thoughtful was ruined by badly recorded, bad dialogue). Some of the footage should be left to speak for itself. By trying to explain the story through exposition, the psychedelic illusion is broken. The exposition was probably thrown in because, I can imagine, many people would complain that it makes no sense, but that's half the fun of a film like this. If you're going to leap into the rabbit hole whilst chasing the white rabbit, you can't clutch to the roots of coherency. You need balls to just let it be what it has to be, and this film fails because it sits in this weird limbo type area.
It's as if it's not sure what it's trying to be - is it decidedly silly like Army of Darkness, or is it a little more abstract and humorous like Brazil? Is it more thoughtful and ponderous like anything Richard Linklater did early on (I'm thinking Waking Life)? Is it visually abstract like David Lynch, or mentally abstract like Kaufman? This film flirts with all of these things, but doesn't really ever stand on its own. I sense this is because it's a new filmmaker, who hasn't found his voice yet. That being said, to be mentioned in the same paragraph as those filmmakers is a credit onto itself, if you weren't trying to be so different, somebody like me would have never downloaded it. I couldn't resist a dystopian future, with words like transhumanism thrown in, but it's a letdown when you don't deliver on that promise.
The meandering style could have been excused if some of the filmmaking itself was better. The cinematography isn't right for the film it seems to want to be, and some of the acting is played comically(though I was decidedly impressed by Karen Corona). Then you have tin foil props, out of sync dialogue, and a script in need of a few decent rewrites. This could have all worked if the film had a 'Dead Alive' tone, but it feels like you're seriously supposed to buy what's on screen, and there isn't enough suspension of disbelief for that. And when it comes to things like out of sync dialogue, it's just downright sloppy. It's not like it could have been missed by the Editor, editing is a long and tedious job, and you just know the editor saw the unsynced lines and decided to say '*beep* it'.
I don't mean this to sound quite as negative as it does, because filmmaking is harder than people really understand. As a first film, it's decidedly good, but it doesn't hold up for more mainstream audiences. That being said, I would watch this filmmaker's future efforts, and no doubt they'll improve by leaps and bounds. Once you can secure decent budgets, the craft itself becomes easier to focus on because you're not worrying about locations being secured, etc etc. I highly recommend writing toward a budget though, that way you have an idea of what you can get away with, and what just won't work (I'm thinking cramming a chipboard into somebodies loosely bandaged head just doesn't cut it for high-tek sci-fi these days).
As far as story is concerned, from what I did understand of it, I have a feeling it isn't quite as deep as it's trying to be. Some concepts from 1984 thrown into a cocktail of The Matrix, Donnie Darko, THX1138, A Scanner Darkly, etc etc isn't enough to gain yourself indie cred. Write some real characters before you attempt to explore the neural forests of the mind, and bend reality for your audience. Look at Being John Malkovich, would the audience care if we weren't interested in the actual characters, even as they go through this surreal experience? The characters need to be deepened, humanized.
If it was the level of bad I see from most first timers, I wouldn't have bothered writing all of this. There's potential in there somewhere, it just never gets a chance to shine. Some first timers get quite offended but honest feedback, but it works wonders at honing your craft provided you don't throw in the towel. I suggest the filmmaker keeps at it.
It can be argued that everything I have discussed could have been the very intention of the filmmaker, and if that's the case, I don't think it works yet, but if this film is what I think it is - a very ambitious attempt at making something interesting - then I congratulate the creators for their attempt, and look forward to future, slightly more polished, work. It's better to try and make people think than just make another cheap gangster/detective flick.
Just my 2 cents. Open to discussion.