With it’s straight-faced documentary presentation and found-footage aesthetic, it may take a minute or two before you realize that Till Nowak’s The Centrifuge Brain Project is hell-bent on taking you for a ride—literally. What seems like a conventional profile of a high-tech research institute quickly transitions into a joyous visual spectacle—an Escher-inspired, mad-scientist fueled jaunt through the world of amusement park insanity. Yet, despite all its fun—its playful visual joy—the film’s presentation is decidedly stoic.

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