The Creator (2023)

This was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Visual Effects, which are often the lightest movies from an emotional and intellectual standpoint. In my house, we save these to watch once we get fatigued by the more challenging films. In this case, it is a timely addressing of the booming and more visible role of AI in real life. Our hero is Joshua, who as a human is supposed to be all for fighting for humans against simulants, but for a variety of reasons, he is torn. The US government is calling a young simulant a weapon, whereas the New Asian simulants call her their savior. He is not convinced by wither of them, but the more he gets to know about her the more empathy he feels for her and then the New Asians as well. This is at heart not a story about a war between humans and AI, it’s actually a redemption arc for a man who lost everything as a result of his loyalty to a government that is using fear as a means to control its citizenry. Sound familiar? Vote in November to avoid that recurring. It is less about the dangers of artificial intelligence and more about the growing lack of empathy in the US for those that are deemed foreign.