Matthew Spence’s Edinburgh Film Reviews

This film is a linear, time line, documentary that covers the band, the ‘Gorillaz”. The documentary depicts the creators of the “Gorillaz” in real life and shows the different ways the “Gorillaz” create their unique music. The other critical aspects in this documentary are showing how the band is created through animation, the real life reactions of the band members themselves, and how hard they work to achieve exactly what they want.

Personally, I favored this documentary for the fact that I already like their music. I have never had the privilege to see the people behind the scenes to know what they are like. I also find it very interesting on how they created their music using many different sounds. Their instruments come from all around the world, which gives them a very unique sound. I would recommend this documentary for any “Gorillaz” fan.

Trees: 3/5

A linear documentary about how a Japanese scientist experiments with how a human reacts to a machine, or android that is made to look like a human or a pet. The scientist makes a geminoid or “exact copy” of himself and he and his team’s task is to program the geminoid to make it behave as if it were the scientist. He finds he cannot be the judge of his own behavior for he does not realize what he does unconsciously, forcing him to rely on his team to help fill in the gaps. There are two main studies done during the documentary, one of which is about a pet seal for elderly people and for those who may not be lucid. The other study is seeing how the scientist’s wife and daughter will react to the geminoid.

I found this film to be quite fascinating as I have always been intrigued about the creation of an android. I believe such technology is amazing and this film has just proven to me how amazing it can be, however it also shows how uncanny it can be as well. The fact that the small android pets have improved the lives of the elderly and those who aren’t lucid, is quite intriguing. The studies have shown that those who have the pet machines, have had increased brain activity. The reason for this is because the androids are giving those people something they have not had in a long while, the ability to care for something, and actually getting a positive response from it. Brain activity is increased because they are usually alone, or have very little daily contact with others or loved ones.

The Human android study on the other hand is another story. Even though the scientists put a lot of work into creating the geminoid to be as human-like as possible, it gives many people the sense of unease including myself. During the case study with the scientist’s family, the daughter did not like the geminoid and would rarely talk with it for she had a very uncanny feeling towards it. However, the daughter did agree that the geminoid did look and sound like her father. I tend to disagree with the daughter, the androids still do not look or behave very human-like. There still needs to be much improvement to android movements before any person can be fooled that it might actually be real. Until this is achieved, there will never be a human-like presence with an android, which is the scientist’s goal. I would recommend this film for those who are also interested in android technology.

Trees: 3/5

This film is about an Iranian man and his family who are poor and struggling, not just with money, but also between themselves. The father, Karim,(Reza Najie) struggles at his job as an ostrich farmer and is fired after one escapes. He begins the ups and downs of obtaining different jobs throughout the city of Tehran. Each time Karim does well he is rewarded, though each time he is greedy, bad things happen to him. As Karim begins to get better items for himself and his family, he becomes greedy, which results in the loss of all of his recently acquired possessions in an accident. The accident finally shows him his true wealth, his family and friends.

I like this film for its usage of Karma. He becomes overwhelmed with greed as he tries to earn more money becoming more forgetful of his family and neighbors. A good example of his greediness is when his wife tries to give a door that he had bought to the neighbors. He becomes quite upset and tells his wife she has no right to give away the things he has promised for another.

There are two shots in the film that I thought were extraordinary, the close up shots and the aerial shots. First, I felt the close-up shots were great for showing facial features and character reactions. The close-up shots of Karim did a great job showing how hard he struggled throughout the story. Secondly, I believe the aerial shots were done very well. They are both portrayed in a desert landscape or barren nothingness which Karim was surrounded by after each wrong doing he did.

Trees: 3/5