This excellent theatrically self-distributed (in '04) real indie feature is available on DVD.
Check out Matt Zoller Seitz's (filmmaker, blogger, & print film reviewer- currently at New York Times) review of Robot Stories here.
Here is a sample from the review (from an edition of the New York Press newspaper):
"In some ways, "Machine Love" is the most daring of the four segments. Like other memorable recent sci-fi and fantasy blockbusters–including A.I. and The Return of the King–it presents a simple concept and unabashedly emotional characters without fashionable ironic distance. The main character is a humanoid robot named Archie (played by Pak himself, in an opaque yet moving performance that seems to absorb and then radiate the emotions of whichever characters happen to be in the room with him). Archie is a docile sweetheart who aims to please, programmed to learn from his coworkers, absorbing both their physical skills and their value systems. But he quickly grows to find them disappointing, even repulsive, and falls into a funk. Soon, he’s a robot version of a beleaguered Franz Kafka hero, or the title character of Herman Melville’s "Bartleby the Scrivener"–an emotionally closed-off thinking man, subjugated by others who have not a tenth of his self-awareness."
And here's the official website for Robot Stories, for further exploration.
- Sujewa
Check out Matt Zoller Seitz's (filmmaker, blogger, & print film reviewer- currently at New York Times) review of Robot Stories here.
Here is a sample from the review (from an edition of the New York Press newspaper):
"In some ways, "Machine Love" is the most daring of the four segments. Like other memorable recent sci-fi and fantasy blockbusters–including A.I. and The Return of the King–it presents a simple concept and unabashedly emotional characters without fashionable ironic distance. The main character is a humanoid robot named Archie (played by Pak himself, in an opaque yet moving performance that seems to absorb and then radiate the emotions of whichever characters happen to be in the room with him). Archie is a docile sweetheart who aims to please, programmed to learn from his coworkers, absorbing both their physical skills and their value systems. But he quickly grows to find them disappointing, even repulsive, and falls into a funk. Soon, he’s a robot version of a beleaguered Franz Kafka hero, or the title character of Herman Melville’s "Bartleby the Scrivener"–an emotionally closed-off thinking man, subjugated by others who have not a tenth of his self-awareness."
And here's the official website for Robot Stories, for further exploration.
- Sujewa
