Robot Stories Review

Review By Gloria Wong

Robot Stories, the feature-length debut of Asian American director/writer/actor Greg Pak, is a quartet of science fiction shorts about technology. In “My Robot Baby” a yuppie couple is given a robot baby for a week in order to measure their suitability for human child adoption. But when Marcia is left alone with the robo-baby for the weekend, she is confronted with her uncertainties about motherhood. “The Robot Fixer” is the story of an older woman who becomes obsessed with completing her estranged son’s robot toy collection. Pak plays Archie, an android office worker, in “Machine Love”. And in “Clay”, an aging sculptor confounds his loved ones (and his doctor) when he chooses not to digitize his consciousness before his body dies. On their surface, each of the shorts examines the relationship between technology and humanity. While the shorts may take place in a hypothetical not-too-distant future, like all good science fiction, they raise questions that obviously relate to our concrete present – most obviously, how is our idea of “the authentic” being affected by increasingly convincing digital simulation? A little too much like an Outer Limits marathon? Thankfully, the decidedly lo-fi Robot Stories stays grounded in its characters, and uses science fiction as a backdrop for its touching examination of humanity.

Showing tonight, Nov 6th, 9:30pm
at Cinemark TinselTown Theatres
88 West Pender 3rd Floor
Vancouver, BC V6B6N9

Robot Stories [Official Site]