Horst_In_Translation Review of Sunspring

Sunspring (2016)

Stands out because of the concept (maybe the actors too), but not for the overall product

[4/10 · 27 May 2017]

"Sunspring" is a 9-minute live action short film from 2016, so still a pretty new one and these slightly under 10 minutes include at the very beginning and very end already a bit of a behind the scenes feature as it is explained how a robot named Benjamin wrote the script for that one. But the consequence is really that the script is a huge mess. It feels random and just isn't fitting in terms of story-telling. The actors are good and elevate the material, including Emmy nominee Thomas Middleditch from Silicon Valley who apparently found the project interesting enough to star in this little movie. Director is BAFTA nominee Oscar Sharp. So yeah it is a Sci-Fi film, so if that's your genre, then check it out, but don't expect too much. If not, feel free to skip it. I found the reference about if a robot can win a screenplay award pretty embarrassing as with the quality here he only wins it for being a robot and the concept and the headlines it may generate, but certainly not for the quality here. Then again I have seen many films with screenplays by humans with a equally bad writing, so maybe Benjamin did not do a job that bad really. But I still give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.