Tilda Swinton narrates this oddball, meandering essay film. The focus is technology, and the visuals are made up of scenes that range from the dawn of film to the beginning of the sound era, all of them depicting newfangled inventions: telephones, telegraphs, visions of widescreen TVs, a wireless phone that has an antenna attached to an umbrella. Some clips feature recognizable faces such as Lillian and Dorothy Gish; most do not.

It’s a feast for fans of early film, but alas, the narration is inescapable. Swinton describes the fears (it mainstreams porn!) and the hopes (it links us all in one big, happy world!) of these bygone devices in a way meant to echo the way we discuss smartphones and social media today. There are some witty lines, but the whimsical conceit quickly becomes monotonous.