Despite myriad prototypes for efficient artificial intelligence existing on-screen, humanity is in a furious race to develop a version of that phenomenon even stranger (and dumber) than fiction. We could have been using AI to cure cancer or send us deeper into space; instead, we’re teaching it Gen Z slang and asking it which aisle of the grocery store we can find pasta on. Chatbots are making us dumber, deepfakes make us less trusting, “AI overviews” make us lazier. Such dire straits make tales of artificial helpers that actually help feel almost quaint by comparison — but “quaint” isn’t quite enough for Taika Waititi, who takes a crack at cutesy near-future fable with Klara and the Sun. It’s a film that splices the cyberpunk worlds of Phillip K. Dick with the sunny-ish disposition of a Roald Dahl fairytale, but ultimately can’t part with its wisecracking long enough to unpack what that perfectly intriguing mash-up has to offer.
Waititi specializes in making the juvenile feel profound… or, at least, he did three or four films ago. The Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit tested the goodwill he’d earned with The Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Thor: Ragnarok, and most audiences balked. Thor: Love and Thunder only dug a deeper grave; Next Goal Wins, while worthwhile, was hardly a blip on the radar.
