Words Jim Roberts

In the not-too-distant future, loneliness has a cure: Artificial Friends aka AFs – humanoid companions built to observe, learn, and, above all, care for children.

Wednesday star Jenna Ortega’s Klara spends her days watching the world from a shop window, waiting to be chosen. Waiting for a human to pick her. Waiting to feel sunlight on her face. Her chance comes when she meets Mia Tharia’s Josie, a sick teenager whose mother – played by Amy Adams – brings Klara home to help heal a loss.

But Klara is no ordinary AI.

Solar-powered and endlessly curious, she’s a breath of fresh air for Josie, studying human behaviour with childlike wonder and slowly learning the complexities of human hearts and minds. And when Josie’s health deteriorates, Klara turns to the one thing she believes can save her: the Sun.

Adapted from Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling novel, Taika Waititi and co-writer Dahvi Waller deliver a tender, wry, and gently uncanny exploration of consciousness, emotion, and the meaning of love.

Can a machine become family? Or will a family teach a machine what it means to be human? Step out of the shop window and into the light with Klara as she discovers that being chosen is only the beginning.

Artificial Friends

AI is the topic du jour, but filmmakers have long been asking whether technology could ever become truly human.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Sixth Sense star Haley Joel Osment’s David is a robotic boy programmed to love who sets out on a heart-wrenching quest to become real in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi masterpiece.

Ex Machina

Alicia Vikander’s Ava turns a Turing Test into psychological chess, proving emotional intelligence can be replicated with devastating consequences for Domhnall Gleeson’s Caleb.

M3GAN

AI friendship turns fatal in this meme-fuelled horror. Jenna Ortega’s Klara loves just a fiercely – minus a thirst for blood.