MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: ROBOT DREAMS (2023)

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Like just about everyone with an interest in the movies, I'm watching more films on DVD and going out to movie houses a lot less. Convenience trumps the better experience.
Of course, you lose audience interaction and the poor film now has to compete with all the comforts of home.
It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
The ease of instant movie gratification risks turning an art form (well, sometimes) into little more than low-grade eye-candy & mindfodder. So, maybe it's worthwhile to write a bit down on what we're all viewing, just to keep fully engaged.

DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
God help us.

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Friday, May 31, 2024

ROBOT DREAMS (2023)

Officially released Stateside last year (no doubt for Oscar® consideration), but not in general release till now, this dialogue-free hand-drawn feature from Spanish writer/director Pablo Berger must be the most endearing, ultimately thoughtful & touching, animation since WALLACE & GROMIT stop-motioned into our hearts back in the ‘90s. Wonderfully funny, too, but just as often tough-minded on love, life & loss. A wise fable on happiness qualified as a lonely Manhattan dog in graffiti-clad ‘80s NYC (no humans; just anthropomorphic animals) finds happy couples wherever he looks, while he's stuck with tv dinners and cable tv. And that’s where he sees an ad for a companion robot. Soon, the pair bond, an instant match, but then lose each other after an oceanfront beach visit leaves Robot behind a locked/patrolled boardwalk gate. Closed for the season until Memorial Day. Yikes! Attempts at rescue prove hopeless with each side going from hope to abandoned acceptance, then on to dangers and even new partners in spite of remembering that first love. Phenomenally well-observed (period NYC perfectly caught - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/04/movies/pablo-berger-robot-dreams-movie.html) and so delightful that the seriousness of the situation and a melancholy manner sneak up on you, leaving you smiling and a touch devastated. Youngest viewers may need a nudge to explain some frequent unannounced jumps into and out of dream sequences*, but just about anyone other than snarky teens will be enchanted. Heck, them too, though they may not admit it.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Kids will likely spot Dog & Robot watching THE WIZARD OF OZ and note a parallel between Robot and the Tinman who both rust up and lose a limb. If they haven’t seen WoO, you might have a nightmare to deal with.

CONTEST: In addition to the WoO quotes, one sequence prominently pays homage to two classic stunts from Buster Keaton silents. Name the situations and the films they come from to win our usual prize: a MAKSQUIBS Write-Up of your choice.

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ERNST LUBITSCH

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Friday, May 31, 2024

ROBOT DREAMS (2023)

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