Yes, I watched it after 13 hours on the interstate. And yes, the kids were making a racket in the next room. But the new Netflix movie by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, of Avengers: Endgame fame, would have been a disaster in even the most tranquil of circumstances. Screen it in a one-man space pod after an excellent night’s sleep. Nothing will alter The Electric State’s disorienting, tone-deaf incompetence.

The film tells the story of Michelle Greene, a teenage orphan who crosses a dystopian desertscape in search of her lost brother. Played by Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things, Michelle is neither likable nor believable as the spunky heroine the screenplay envisions. Instead, our protagonist moves sullenly from scene to scene, deploying sad or mad faces as events require. To say that the sentient machines with whom Michelle travels are the more interesting characters is like praising tax season as superior to actual death.