Director: Jérémie Périn
Cast: Moria Gorrondona, Kiff VandenHeuvel, Josh Keaton, Sarah Hollis
Have I Seen it Before: Nope. Damn near missed it in the theaters, to boot.
Did I Like It: The film has ambitions, but I can’t help but feel as if those ambitions just aren’t met. I know I’m supposed to be so thrilled that any independent—to say nothing of foreign—animated film, but I can’t quite co-sign here.
It’s animation style is anything but revolutionary, and in fact at several points drifts into the sloppy territory of a less-than-stellar video game or early computer animation effort meant for 90s television. Characters—yes, including the human ones—occasionally glide as if they were programmed, less than walk in a believable fashion. I might even be able to get over that—as it is a relatively rare occasion—but in a film that is this focused on who is a robot and who isn’t, I’m surprised more people weren’t distracted.
I’ll be the first to admit that complaint is more than a little bit picking at nits. but the story that’s delivered to us by the animation is wanting. A melange of warmed over Philip K. Dick tropes can be entertaining enough, but it is unfortunate that its most intriguing sci-fi concept is the least examined portion of the whole movie. People can copy themselves into various types of of robots after they die, and those robots can carry on their lives. There is no Blade Runner-esque uncertainty as to who is a robot and who isn’t, but the questions of the uniqueness of the self is buried under an avalanche of self-driving car chases. Ultimately, the film’s inner core of warmed over noir-isms left my attention—and consciousness—wandering, and I did so want to enjoy this film more than I did.