Friday, February 3, 2023

After Yang (2021)

IMDb plot summary: In a near future, a family reckons with questions of love, connection, and loss after their A.I. helper unexpectedly breaks down.
Directed by Kogonada. Starring Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja.

After Yang is a sci-fi drama set in a future in which families can purchase robot/AI siblings for children adopted internationally. These siblings are programmed to serve as a connector to those children's biological heritage. The story takes off when Yang, one of those AI siblings, shuts down unexpectedly, and the owner runs around to various places trying to see if they can get him fixed. This sounds like the recipe for a potentially high-stakes, action-packed story, but this film keeps it all extremely quiet. It becomes a sort of meditative look at humanity, family, and memory, seen through Yang's memories, which have been extracted from his body. It's very interesting to see a sci-fi take on a sort of dreamy memory play, but I found myself drifting in and out of interest. The world was interesting enough that I wanted to dig into the details more deeply, and instead the movie deliberately skirts them. Once I settled into the vibe that the movie was going to give me, I found a lot to like about it, and pieces of this are definitely going to stick with me, but a part of me still wants to see the movie I thought this was going to be.

How it entered my Flickchart:
After Yang > King Kong Escapes
After Yang < Anna Karenina
After Yang > The Romantics
After Yang > Ghost World
After Yang < Manhattan Murder Mystery
After Yang < Leave No Trace
After Yang > Kind Hearts and Coronets
After Yang < VeggieTales: Lyle, the Kindly Viking
After Yang < The Lost City
After Yang > The Village
After Yang > A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit
After Yang < Wonder Man
Final spot: #1139 out of 3759, or 70%.

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