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Rent or buy it on most major platforms.<\/a><\/p>\n This thoughtful release<\/a> is the latest in a long \u2014 and ever-growing \u2014 line of science-fiction movies considering whether or not artificial intelligence can develop self-awareness and feelings. Directed by a filmmaking duo calling itself hazart, \u201cA Hard Problem\u201d looks at what it means to be alive \u2014 which, naturally, also involves what it means to cease to exist. Ian (Johnny Berchtold), after the death of his mother, Mary (Jennifer Pierce Mathus), is left to sort her belongings. The willowy young man is adrift and forlorn, which seems like a legitimate response, but actually isn\u2019t: He\u2019s a synthetic \u201cartificial parallel\u201d of the actual Ian, who died of cancer, and was created to assuage Mary\u2019s grief. Logically, Ian should be taken out of commission since his purpose is gone. But gradually both he and Olivia (Catherine Haena Kim), a representative of the company that built him, realize that shutting down a parallel is more fraught than turning off an appliance. Considering that people now clone their pets, the issues raised in this elegantly directed, acted and designed (far from a given among modestly budgeted indies) movie are a breath away from coming true.<\/p>\n Rent or buy it on most major platforms.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Most time-travel films incorporate jokes about someone encountering strange items for the first time. Luke Higginson\u2019s comedy dispenses with them quickly: Casper (the New Zealand actor Rhys Darby), who has landed in contemporary Canada from a far-off future, discovers a library, smokes a cigarette. Similarly, the film does not spend all that much time mining the way that Casper and his new friend, the cooler-than-thou punk Holly (Gabrielle Graham), make money by betting on sports and buying lottery tickets.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the mysterious Doris (Janine Theriault) dispatches other time travelers with what looks like a big electric stapler. Slowly, the story moves on to its real point, as Higginson drops clues \u2014 Casper informs Holly that contrary to pop-culture belief, there is just one single \u201cmushy blob of reality\u201d and not multiple timelines, and all the portals of the future lead to the same destination in time. While the final explanation is darker than you might have expected considering the fairly goofy tone of the proceedings up until then, Darby (best known for \u201cOur Flag Means Death\u201d and \u201cFlight of the Conchords\u201d) makes a meal out of the most innocuous lines and situations, and confirms that he is a comic force to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Just as there are cozy mysteries, there is cozy sci-fi, a subgenre of which Marc Turtletaub\u2019s movie is a prime illustration. When a spaceship crashes into his backyard one night, Milton (Ben Kingsley) reacts with a mild \u201cOh my.\u201d In quick order he joins forces with Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin) to keep the alien\u2019s presence a secret and help him repair his ride. The aged trio bond over the silent visitor, whom Milton and Sandy call Jules, but it\u2019s really their shared isolation and loneliness that keeps their newfound friendship going.<\/p>\n They don\u2019t see their kids enough (except for Milton\u2019s daughter, played by Zoe Winters), their pets are getting older, their mind may be going, and until Jules turns up, it feels as if all they have left is being their town\u2019s cranks (or eccentrics, for those feeling generous). \u201cJules\u201d never makes older people the butt of the humor, and instead casts a gentle eye on three prickly individuals. And not only does the movie never lapse into sentimentality, but it displays a deliciously macabre sense of humor \u2014 Jules needs a very particular kind of fuel to power his vessel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The title of this Spanish Amazon original suggests a story about A.I., or maybe something touchy-feely involving Goop. But in Daniel Benmayor\u2019s movie, there is a key definite article that makes a big difference: The Awareness is a mysterious organization said to manipulate the higher spheres of politics and business for nefarious purposes. Then again, maybe it isn\u2019t. Much of the story pits the Awareness against the equally mysterious Agency as we try to figure out who the good guys are. Caught in the middle is Ian (Carlos Scholz), a young man raised by his father, Vicente (Pedro Alonso, who portrays Berlin in the Netflix series \u201cMoney Heist\u201d and its new spinoff, \u201cBerlin\u201d). Ian has the power to suggest incredibly detailed hallucinations, which he and his dad use to commit petty thefts. Despite Vicente\u2019s attempt to keep Ian\u2019s existence a secret, they are spotted by the sleek Adriana (Lela Loren), who explains the whole Awareness\/Agency business. Well, sort of.<\/p>\n As befits a movie influenced by \u201cThe Matrix\u201d and the outer reaches of superhero lore, the tone is both utterly serious and utterly silly. Ian\u2019s \u201cneurotrophic factor\u201d is said to be off the charts, for example, and despite his moniker, a so-called perceiver (\u00d3scar Jaenada) does not star in a Las Vegas mentalist show but tries to control the world. Perhaps I was fooled by one of Ian\u2019s visions, but I went along for the ride.<\/p>\n\u2018Relax, I\u2019m from the Future\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Static Codes\u2019<\/h2>\n