Pantheon, on AMC+

In Beautiful Dreamer, author Ken Liu previously introduced us to a terminally ill mother, who went to extraordinary lengths to maintain a presence in her daughter’s life. Yet, the science fiction means she employs, embarking on faster-than-light space voyages, so she could periodically revisit her daughter as she grew-up and had a family of her own, thanks to Relativity, maybe alienates them more than it brings them together. Perhaps, this might also be the case for Madison Kim, when her ailing father agrees to upload his brain to preserve his consciousness. Unfortunately, the Logorhythms Corporation is not a trustworthy steward of his uploaded intelligence in Craig Silverstein’s animated drama Pantheon, based on several Ken Liu short stories, which premieres today on AMC+.

Kim has had a rough time of it since her father David died, in a physical sense. His pal from Logorythyms convinced him to undergo the upload procedure, but Kim and her mother Ellen were told the process failed. Several months later, Kim starts getting emoji messages from someone who has personal family information. The angel-hacker also helps turn the cyber tables on the mean girls bullying her.

Convinced her father’s cyber-consciousness has been secretly imprisoned and exploited by Logorhythm, Kim reaches out to Caspian, an anonymous high school hacker and conspiracy monger with a keen interest in the company. However, unbeknownst to Caspian, Logorythym also has a sinister interest in him. In fact, he is part of a mysterious long-term project launched by Stephen Holstrom, the company’s late Steve Jobs-like founder.

Separately, none of the elements of Pantheon are entirely original, but the way Silverstein entwines and enmeshes them creates an extremely grabby story. The series delivers a fire-hose blast of paranoia, which maybe isn’t so unhealthy these days. We have seen plenty of online avatars before, but the way the show envisions the world of an uploaded intelligence is quite provocative and alarming. There are also subplots involving Indian programmers and tech tycoons that are extraordinarily dark and cautionary.

Kore-eda’s The Truth

Fabienne Dangeville was no Joan Crawford, but she wasn’t the paragon of maternal virtue her new memoir makes her out to be. Instead, she has always been more interested in career than anything else. That is how her daughter Lumir remembers their family history, but her memory is also subjective. No matter whose recollections are more accurate, family is still family in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Truth, the first French-language production from the Japanese auteur, which opens today in very select cities and also releases on VOD.

Lumir has returned to Paris with her TV actor husband Hank and their daughter Charlotte, to celebrate the publication of her mother’s book, but Dangeville’s reluctance to send her an advance copy has aroused her suspicions. Meanwhile, the great actress struggles to relate to her latest film role, playing the aged daughter of a terminally-ill woman, who has used the relativity of interstellar space travel to stretch her time, but as a result, she has been almost entirely from her husband and daughter’s lives. Frankly, she only accepted the part to work with Manon Lenoir, the daughter of a former friend and colleague, whom she may have done wrong, at least according to Lumir.

If that premise sounds familiar, it is because associate producer Ken Liu’s story “Memories of My Mother” was previously adapted as the short film Beautiful Dreamer before becoming the source of Kore-eda’s film-within-the-film. It is quite a unique distinction for Liu among his fellow sf writers, but it is easy to see how the themes of his story overlap with those of Kore-eda’s family drama (and his entire oeuvre).

Of course, patrons of French cinema will be much more interested in the first-time pairing of Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche as the mother-daughter tandem. They will not be disappointed. Admittedly, Deneuve is playing with her own image to some extent, but her grand diva act is certainly entertaining to behold. She also has some terrific scenes with young Clementine Grenier, as her granddaughter. However, Binoche is totally believable as the down-to-earth Lumir, who nurtures her resentments without wallowing in them. She plays Lumir as a functional adult rather than an over-the-top cliché. (Thank heavens, Meryl Streep is not in this film.)

Cinequest ’17: Real Artists (short)

Are all the screenplays slavishly written according to a pre-conceived “beat sheet” really so different from what the storied Semaphore animation studio practices? It certainly has produced hits, but it might be a bit much for aspiring animator Sophia Baker to take in when she interviews with the accomplished chief animator in Cameo Wood’s short film Real Artists (trailer here), which screens during the 2017 Cinequest Film & VR Festival.

Baker has always wanted to make movies—preferably for Semaphore. Anne Palladon appears to be willing to give her that chance, but she will have to do it the Semaphore way. What is the secret of their success? You will have to sign a NDA before she can tell you about it. Apparently, Semaphore is more “security-conscious” than Amazon, Google, and the now bankrupt Solyndra combined. It is safe to say their techniques are speculative, but not to a very great extent.

Real Artists is the second short adapted from a story by science fiction writer and translator Ken Liu, following last year’s Beautiful Dreamer. It is also one of several recent shorts using genre premises to explore big picture ideas, starring Tamlyn Tomita (from The Joy Luck Club amongst numerous other credits), like Seppuku. Frankly, she makes Palladon look like a tough boss, but perhaps a corporate leader you can believe in.

Neither the near-future technology nor the final twist are hugely shocking, but Real Artists comes in a super slick package and it really invites us to question the nature of the films we see. Arguably, in the focus-grouped world we live in, film production is already not so far removed from the techniques of Semaphore. It is also rather refreshing to watch Tomita and Tiffany Hines verbally circle each other as the co-leads.

For a short film, Real Artists boasts an impressive cast, along with Liu’s Hugo-winning pedigree. It also represents a lot of encouraging trends, particularly the adaptation of literate science fiction short stories that require little or no special effects. Recommended for sf fans and those who recognize any of the personnel involved, Real Artists screens this Thursday (3/2), Saturday (3/4) next Monday (3/6), and the following Friday (3/10), as part of this year’s Cinequest in San Jose and Redwood City.

DWF ’16: Beautiful Dreamer (short)

Science fiction often uses relativity to tragically separate people, as in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and L. Ron Hubbard’s To the Stars (the inspiration for the Chick Corea concept album). However, a terminally ill mother intends to use relativity to bring her back into her daughter life at key junctures. At least that is the idea. The reality will inevitably be much more complicated in David Gaddie’s short film Beautiful Dreamer (trailer here), which screened at the 2016 Dances with Films.

Amy’s mother is not alone. There are many incurable volunteers who have enlisted in her light-speed-traveling research program. She has only two years left to live, but she looks eternally youthful during her irregular visits home. In contrast, Amy and her father have lived and aged years at a time, without her. She will get to see Amy grow up and become a mother herself, but her daughter often resents her absence. Indeed, it is hard to give a simple yes or no answer to the question: was it worth it?

Gaddie and Steven Kelleher’s adaption of science fiction novelist and translator Ken Liu’s short story “Memories of My Mother” wrestles with some big ideas while requiring hardly any special effect, just careful casting. (Oddly enough, Gaddie throws in some unnecessary effects, which are probably a mistake.) It is really about the parental-child bond enduring under extreme challenges.

Lila Taylor, Caroline Bednar, Natalie Smith, and Lynn Cohen form the impressive relay team of Amys, smoothly passing the baton down the line. Jo Armeniox portrays the mother wrestling with the consequences of her decisions with quiet, understated power. Theis Weckesser also deserves credit for his acutely sensitive portrayal of Amy’s father.

This is one of the rare futuristic short films that is truly an actor’s showcase. Most of its speculativeness are probably mostly afterthoughts, but it is still striking the extent to which drones have apparently been integrated into this near-future world. Regardless, the mother-daughter separations and reunions are always quite moving. Recommended for fans of character-driven science fiction, Beautiful Dreamer next screens in July at the 2016 Big River Film Festival in Savanah, following its West Coast premiere at this year’s Dances with Films in Hollywood, CA.