Where I Watched it: iTunes

English Audio Description provided By: Deluxe

Narrated by: Darren polish

This is one of those films i actually attempted to watch without audio description earlier in the year on Showtime, but it became abundantly clear to me really fast that this film was unwatchable without audio description. I still believe that, even after enjoying it with Darren’s narration. The film is just so entrenched in this indie science fiction world, it’s almost like a love letter to what could be, or what might have been.

Colin Farrell, who had the best year of his life, stars here as a father who finds himself in a predicament when an AI android that he had considered a member of his family, fails to work. He tries to take it in for repair, mainly because his daughter is so attached to the android, but things don’t look good. As we move through the film, it becomes an exploration of life, what life is, what it means, and what it could look like in the future. If we give something life, does it also die?

As Farrell explores these themes, he starts to uncover some more interesting and hidden truths about Yang, and it continues to push into that exploration of what these AI technologies of the future might be able to feel and comprehend on their own. It’s a terrific meditation on life, one that reminded me of several films, not just the obvious ones like AI, but also Tree of Life, which this film is structured rather similar.

Colin Farrell has just been such an outstanding performer in every single role he tackled this year, that to see him take on this quiet, thoughtful, rather family friendly essay on the future of artificial intelligence, just felt like not only did we get our cake, but someone brought along pie and cupcakes too, and now we have all these delicious variants of desserts to choose from. That’s the Colin Farrell of 2022, he was a cake, a pie, a cupcake, and an ice cream sundae all at once.

Darren’s audio description perfectly captures the cinematography of the film, and the inquisitive nature of the filmm itself. Whether Farrell is directly and openly discussing how to save Yang, or exploring the memories of yang through the eyes of Yang.

Final Grade: A