'Fluxx' Review: A Stylish Psychological Descent into Madness
- Romey Norton
- Aug 20
- 3 min read
By Romey Norton - August 20, 2025
Independent cinema often thrives in the spaces where genre bends and blurs, and Brendan Gabriel Murphy’s Fluxx is no exception. Released May 30 in 27 U.S. theatrical markets via boutique distributor The Forge, this award-winning psychological thriller plays like a fever dream; equal parts mystery, nightmare, and Hollywood satire.
What is the film 'Fluxx' about?
Fluxx tells the story of Vada Pierce (Shelley Hennig), a once-famous starlet trapped in her Hollywood Hills mansion after her husband (Shiloh Fernandez) disappears without explanation. What begins as a claustrophobic missing-person thriller quickly fractures into something stranger and more ambitious. Masked intruders stalk the shadows, memories refuse to stay linear, and time itself splinters as Vada tries to determine whether she’s under attack, losing her mind, or both.
"Fluxx is a film about identity and control in an increasingly disorienting world,” Murphy has said. That disorientation is the film’s greatest asset and its central gamble. Much like Vada, the viewer is never sure where the ground lies. Some will find that exhilarating; others may grow impatient with its refusal to offer easy answers.
Most of the story revolves around flashbacks, tracing Vada's acting career rising to a certain level, her relationship with her husband, and tries to tell the audience why she feels so stuck in her house and can't leave.
It’s easy to see why Shelley Hennig walked away with the Best Actress award at the Mammoth Film Festival. As Vada, she gives a performance that is both fragile and ferocious, balancing starlet glamour with a childlike raw vulnerability. She’s grown since her cheesier days in Teen Wolf.
Shiloh Fernandez is a solid support as the enigmatic husband. Although his screen time is limited, he still has a strong and charming presence on stage. Together, his and Hennig’s scenes are fierce, filled with high emotion and tension. Henry Ian Cusick and Tyrese Gibson bring gravitas to smaller roles, while Charlotte McKinney provides a knowing counterbalance, playing into and against Hollywood archetypes.
As the story continues, the film’s multi-genre approach, from thriller, horror, mystery, and even surrealist fantasy, sometimes threatens to overwhelm its narrative core, but the commitment to style keeps it compelling. There are times when the film feels like it is dragging, but then it throws in something exciting, like a well-choreographed fight scene. So if you start to feel disengaged, keep going.
Still, this is not a film for viewers seeking tidy resolutions. Fluxx thrives on ambiguity, and its nonlinear narrative may frustrate those expecting a traditional thriller structure. The questions the film proposes are intriguing, but its answers are either predictable or lack substance for you to care about.
After nearly 100 minutes of runtime, I was left feeling the filmmakers were playing the whole time. The are some dramatic twists towards the end, all leading to an explanation but not an answer - if that makes sense. If not, well, that’s the point.
Is 'Fluxx' worth watching?
Fluxx is ambitious, stylish, and unsettling. It joins the growing wave of boutique-distributed genre-bending indies that demand patience and reward active engagement. This film is for an audience who appreciates bold, unconventional storytelling.
For those who enjoy cinema that challenges perception and bends reality, this is a must-see. For others, it may feel like a puzzle box without a solution. Either way, it announces Brendan Gabriel Murphy as a filmmaker unafraid to take risks and Shelley Hennig giving the performance of her career.
'Fluxx' releases on digital platforms August 26
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