Synopsis
An obsessive, genius programmer sacrifices everything in his personal and professional life to build a computer of unprecedented power.
Absolute Denial
2021 Directed by Ryan Braund
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LIFF35 2021 #3
"I’m not fucking with you David."
'Absolute Denial' is about a genius programmer who sacrifices everything in his personal and professional life to build a supercomputer of unprecedented power.
While you might have seen this type of story before, think of Black Mirror and '2001: A Space Odyssey', but it's the execution that makes it stand out from the others. The movie isn't that long, but at the start I didn't know what to think of it, until in the middle where it got my interest. It becomes something more than evil AI.
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Absolute denial is a 2021 SF animation by Ryan Braund. It is about a programmer who wants to creates a super intelligent AI machine which is far superior to a human but in the ends becomes the victim of his own success.
Outline
A programmer, David, creates a super intelligent AI which is to learn from David's base code but a so-called absolute denial protocol is in place. As the computer learns it becomes more and more human.
At first David and some downloaded content is the input for learning for the computer but as the learning processes advance the computer learns from itself rather than the input from the master, namely David.
Slowly but gradually the master becomes the…
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Looks beautiful, soundtrack absolutely fucking slaps, the narrative is fun if kinda predictable at points and Al's voice has got me acting UP
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Does it hurt to be human?
Two people left 20 minutes in, who buys a ticket to a 71 min animated feature & walks out 20 minutes in???
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I think I've seen this story before. Still, it was at least moderately interesting.
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Edinburgh International Film Festival 2021
‘I’m not fucking with you David.’
Absolute Denial posits the question of what power and responsibility should be given to AI and whether human nature should be placed above cold computer rationale. In the process, David creates an AI to ‘hack’ learning that ends up using its knowledge to ‘hack’ the human psyche. Essentially solo-animated and tense from start to finish, the way it handles the conflict and dialogue and internal confusion as reality and simulation blur is well-done and aided by the simplified, rotoscoped animation and art style. The second half is when the film takes a drastic shift from the curious to the surreal and where the film shines.
Another strong animated film in a stunning year for animation.
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The great technological innovators of the late 20th century can all be interlinked with one common trait. They were all weirdos; introverted souls who relentlessly tested and toiled their inventions in the most unexpected of places. Amazon and Apple were created in garages in their heyday, so anything can virtually sprout from anywhere. Either a college dorm, a barnyard, or in the case of Ryan Braund’s Absolute Denial, an isolated warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Tackling the internal philosophical and ethical confinements of artificial intelligence —told through the power of internal monologue— Braund’s latest animated project is a scattered albeit proficient work of science fiction homage.
As far as hard science fiction goes, Braund’s attention to specific dialogue and…
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Immane fatica che l’esordiente Ryan Braund ha scritto, diretto, animato e montato totalmente da solo ed esplora il classico paradosso sulla ricerca del Santo Graal della programmazione informatica, una AI senziente in grado di calcolare equazioni assurdamente complesse in microsecondi e la prospettiva tanto terrificante quanto allettante, di rendere l'umanità, con tutti i suoi difetti, obsoleta. Una propulsione di synth spinge la trama a rotta di collo e il tratto sporco, essenziale dipinge un’estetica neo-noir dannatamente efficace, amplificata dalla voce narrante fuori campo. Purtroppo un twist in sé ingegnoso ma tardivo trascina il film in un piccolo ingorgo narrativo privandolo di un climax degno dell’ottimo lavoro svolto. Un esordio imperfetto ma con grande potenziale, sui nostri limiti e sulla paura dell’umanità di essere rottamata dalle sue stesse creazioni.
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Why did the voice acting for David make the guy sound like a Johnny Berchtold character
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Edinburgh International Film Festival 2021: watch 5
This was v tense and v confusing. Scariest thing is David eating jam with ham.
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Some filmmakers have been very productive during the COVID era. Ben Wheatley (In the Earth) and Doug Liman (Locked Down), to name just two, have directed and already released films that first came to screenplay fruition relatively early on during the pandemic. But few can claim to have knocked out an entire feature-length animation, the majority of which was made after the UK went into its first lockdown period. And probably even fewer can say they not only directed and wrote such a film, but that they were also the sole animator. And that it was their debut feature.
Sheffield-based filmmaker Ryan Braund can, though. Absolute Denial, which receives its UK premiere at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, is a vaguely cyberpunk, black-and-white independent animation he was loosely working on in late 2019 in terms of scripting and general feelers, before properly throwing himself into its making in January 2020...
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