Film Journal 2023: Artifice Girl
Directed by Franklin Ritch
A stunning and sure handed debut that marries the intelligence of its questions with a simple but effective story structure. Best to go in as blind as possible, as I think the way plot unfolds is part of the beauty of the intellectual process at play here. It is an intricate dance between big ideas and broader realities regarding this world and the essential problem of the human condition, and the intimacy of the characters experiences of an uncertain, often feared and always changing world when it comes to technology and AI. The premise itself is intriguing, but it’s the developing relationships between the small cast of character that proves most compelling.
If one of its most pertinent questions is, what does it mean to feel, the Director uses this thematic interest as a way to explore what it means to be human, blurring the lines in all directions and unsettling our frame of reference. The film leaves plenty of ambiguity in terms of its humanistic convictions and it’s decentering of such assumptions of uniqueness and exceptionalism, but does so without letting go of the larger questions that bind the human will to either a creator or a process.
If you get a chance, this is a real gem hiding in the shadows of a strong first half of the 2023 film year.
The Stories of my Life 