I Love My Robot Boyfriend!
“I Love My Robot Boyfriend” is a short film that gives us an insight on today’s culture regarding what expectations we set up for significant others. The short film is light hearted and can be enjoyed by anybody of any age. For a student film, I think this accomplishes a lot regarding the technicality aspect of filmmaking and pulls off some ambitious sequences that are a ton of fun to watch.
When the film opens we are introduced to Shelly, a teenager who is on top of the world when it comes to science, as she works on what is to become a robotic human who has potential of being the perfect man. The only problem is: he becomes annoyingly obsessive. Shelly has to deal with the outcome of creating the perfect man and overcome obstacles of being embarrassed in public and even at her own home. It’s no coincidence that this film nods towards the novel “Frankenstein” as the main character is named Shelly (Mary Shelley; the author) and she has to deal with her own creation (much as Doctor Frankenstein had to with his monster). The short film makes the story modern and switches up the role of the creation to represent the flaws of the dating culture.
The one thing that stood out to me the most was the cinematography of this piece. There are scenes that are extremely well lit and adds a lot of unique atmosphere to the story. It gives the overall tone an ominous science fiction feel that feels almost a nice nod to 1950 flicks. There is one sequence that I really enjoyed and the way they pulled it off is quite incredible seeing as how much preparation it must have taken them. It’s a musical number where they sing and dance in the middle of an arcade on a date night. The camera choreography and the lighting really amped up the costumes and made it feel old school. In fact it reminded me a lot of the movie “Grease” in that regard; which is one of my favorite musicals.
It’s funny how much we would like to be with the perfect looking person who also has a perfect personality. What this short film does is show us that without the personality, the perfect looking person isn’t even perfect. It shows us we have to have flaws in order to be human, which is an element in life that would be hard to replicate when you’re an AI of some sort. Humans aren’t calculated beings. We learn through experience. What this robot of Shelly does is calculate everything she would like. He’s too perfect for her own expectations. It’s a nice wake up call and reminder that even the most perfect person in our eyes will always fall short and have flaws; which in the end is okay to have.
Overall I really enjoyed the story of Shelly having to deal with her own creation. It was a trial that has errors and she has to figure out a way to deal with somebody that’s “perfect”. It’s well crafted from start to finish. If you’re familiar with the story of “Frankenstein”, then you have to check this out.
