Robot Dreams, 2023.

Directed by Pablo Berger.
Featuring the voice talents of Ivan Labanda, Graciela Molina, José Mediavilla, José García Tos, Esther Solans, Tito Trifol, and Rafa Calvo.

SYNOPSIS:

Adapted from Sara Varon’s graphic novel, Robot Dreams tells the story of Dog, a lonely soul who decides to buy himself a new companion in the shape of Robot, delivered in parts for home assembly but soon lovingly transformed into a fully functioning friend. 

Set in an alt-world ’70s New York where humans have been replaced by anthropomorphised-animals, yet birds are still birds, it’s little wonder that Dog is having a loneliness enforced existential crisis. Whether he catches a glimpse of the loving cross-breed couple across from him watching a movie in each others arms, or his own sad reflection as he turns off a television dominated by representations of companionship and love, nothing is making this puppy’s tail wag.

That is until he orders a mail-order robot, who looks a little like Futurama‘s Bender, but comes without the attitude. In fact, his presets are perfect for Dog, as the two form a montage-heavy friendship of hand-holding and happiness.

As with all great stories of love, for that’s what this is, their Earth, Wind & Fire accompanied friendship rusts to a standstill when a trip to the beach triggers a forced separation that brings a level of anxiety and longing usually reserved for Oscar nominated dramas.

As you can probably tell, Robot Dreams isn’t your run-of-the-mill animated buddy-movie for the sprogs. Largely dialogue-free, littered with deadpan comedy, and with a funk soundtrack that’ll have you humming ‘September’ as you bask in the same kind of melancholy glow brought on by Celine Song’s similarly themed Past Lives, Pablo Berger’s friendship-fable doesn’t shy away from the hard truths of loneliness, and being a grown up navigating the trials of life.

That’s not to say that this is a depressing tale, it’s quite the opposite. Robot Dreams offers up a message of hope. Sadness acts as a comma to a lot of what befalls Robot and Dog, but the full stop is a note of optimism. Robot’s locked-in months spent trapped on a beach in isolation are bleak, but his relationship with a family of nesting birds is joyous, if fleeting.

And therein lies the film’s overriding message about on the brevity of life and living for the now, which Pablo Berger wraps in a beautifully realised world of animation that feels creatively fresh in a saturated genre.

Never showy, it’s the small touches that charm; Robot’s pencil line mouth, Dog’s wagging tail, or the moment he uses a towel on the beach to remove his swim shorts. As well as addressing the grander themes, it also perfectly captures the minutiae of life.

At 104 mins it is slightly too long, especially considering the vignette-style structure, which can’t help but make things feel repetitive by about the half way mark, but it ends in a way that’ll double the size of your heart and make you feel great about life….for a short while at least.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Matt Rodgers – Follow me on Twitter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

Listen to Steve & Andy this Friday from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm as they review the Young Women and the Sea. Discover the jounrey of the first women to swim across the English Channel!

Listen live at kslnewsradio.com/listen/

2/5 stars

Exploding onto the screen like the bastard son of a dozen 1980s action movies and an arcade full of beat-’em-up video games, Boy Kills World is a whirl of blood-soaked martial arts and jet black humour that barely pauses for breath.

Over the course of two hours, Boy tears through the hierarchy of a near-future dystopia in the hopes of destroying the regal Van Der Koys, responsible for murdering his family.

The hook to Boy Kills World is that, because of his debilitated senses, Boy narrates his every waking moment through an incessant internal monologue, in a voice lifted from his favourite childhood video game, Super Dragon Punch Force 3.

Comedian and voice artist H. Jon Benjamin (Archer, Bob’s Burgers) provides Boy with the vocal identity for his relentlessly self-aware, comic-book-style voice-over.

Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen) rules with an iron fist, staging an annual “culling”, whereby a dozen enemies of the state are ceremonially executed in front of the people.

Such a fate befell Boy’s own mother and sister, and he has spent the years since living in hiding, honing his body into a lethal weapon under the brutal tutelage of Yayan Ruhian’s unforgiving Shaman.

Once Boy is set in motion, there is no stopping the swathe of bloody carnage he unleashes.

First-time writer-director Moritz Mohr shot the film in South Africa, which lends it a visually distinctive otherworldliness, but beyond this cosmetic exoticism, Boy Kills World ploughs a painfully familiar path.

Its sustained tone of fast-paced choreography, splashy violence and knowingly irreverent humour soon becomes exasperating, leaving it with no other option than to barrel towards a wholly predictable finale.

Skarsgard’s performance must be commended for its physicality, but ultimately Boy Kills World becomes as much of a physical ordeal to watch as for its hero to survive, and will surely prompt all but the most resilient of viewers to tap out long before justice is served.