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With: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, Justin H. Min, Orlagh Cassidy, Ritchie Coster, Sarita Choudhury, Clifton Collins Jr., Ava DeMary, Adeline Kerns, Ansley Kerns, Haley Lu Richardson, Takeo Lee Wong, Brett Dier, Eve Lindley, Nana Mensah, An-Li Bogan, Deborah Hedwall, Katie Honaker
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Written by: Kogonada, based on a short story by Alexander Weinstein
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Directed by: Kogonada
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MPAA Rating: PG for some thematic elements and language
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Running Time: 96
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Date: 03/04/2022
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Eye Robot
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Korean-born filmmaker and Ozu scholar Kogonada (Columbus) returns with this gentle, touching futuristic sci-fi tale. A beautifully mixed-race family, Jake (Colin Farrell) and Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith) and their adopted daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), have an A.I. robot called Yang (Justin H. Min), to act as an older brother to Mika and teach her about her Chinese culture. After being with the family for years, Yang suddenly breaks down during a dance contest. While attempting to have him repaired, Jake discovers that — because he was purchased "certified refurbished" — he was actually programmed with spyware. For years, Yang recorded a few seconds of footage, whatever he deemed interesting. Jake reviews the footage and begins to uncover a sweet, sad little mystery about who Yang really was. In Kogonada's previous film, he was focused on architecture and composition. Here, he allows the film to revel in those little snippets of observation, like Ozu's "pillow shots." In one scene, Jake talks about his business, a tea shop, with Yang, telling him about Les Blank's little seen documentary All in This Tea (2007), and doing a pretty good Werner Herzog impression. This is a quiet, lovely film, about connections and how elusive they can be. Mitski performs the beautiful song that the family discovers in Yang's memories.
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