I have spent a little bit of time checking out some series on Apple TV lately, but I haven't really bothered checking out the film side of the platform just yet. Today I got a bit curious about what the quality of its films might be like compared to the series, and one film in particular stood out a bit more to me: one featuring Tom Hanks. Hanks was once a massive actor, but now a bit more aged he seems to have taken a bit of a step back, acting rarely or generally just appearing in rather niche titles that don't really make it in front of anyone's eyes. It was the fact that this film featured Tom Hanks in a science-fiction setting that had me really curious, something a lot more different to his prior works that were certainly more simplistic and grounded. An older Tom Hanks surviving in a post-apocalyptic wasteland just seemed too interesting to pass up. Even if I didn't have many expectations from it. Not only was seeing something with Hanks interesting, it was the futuristic setting that sold me even more. A genre that is quite hard to pursue and is rarely acknowledged despite the creativity it holds in the design options.
Futuristic settings should be ripe in creativity, where our most creative designs in architecture and technology can really flourish. Even in character design things can become very fun. Yet it's rarely taken advantage of in most science-fiction settings, instead giving us lazy looks at reality with a few touchscreens and neon lights here and thee. Finch's cover immediately caught my attention with its general designs, showing that it would feature more of the artistic side of things, a little more than the minimum that other films use.
And post-apocalyptic titles are an underappreciated genre these days. Especially ones that focus on having a central survivor protagonist that just has to deal with their hardships and adjust to the struggles of this life. Human perseverance that refuses to accept defeat against the odds. A difficult way to tell a story still, but when done well, very fun and simplistic.
This post will contain some spoilers regarding the events that take place in the film, so you've been warned!
Finch
If you ever have seen Netflix's Love, Death and Robots series, Finch seems like a full feature adaptation of one of its short stories. Being a story that focuses on the many questions of life that may come for an artificial intelligence. In a quick summary of its story, an aged and dying survivor in the future lives with his dog; this man an inventor that has managed to build and maintain systems to keep the two alive, but early on its established that this human doesn't have a whole lot of time left. He's clearly sick with something and is preparing for the time in which he can no longer look after the dog and will inevitably die. With much love for his four-legged companion, he creates a robot with an artificial intelligence, set with multiple directives to ensure it behaves accordingly. The two most important: never harm a human, and to look after the dog at all costs. This of course setups up the adventure to come, as this robot has to learn what it means to be alive, to understand the human mind; also while taking into consideration the mind itself as something that can be taught.
While these films are often a challenge for studios due to the higher demands in budget, and the reliance on special effects to portray their worlds, Finch seemed to handle this quite well, especially when it comes to interiors, and set pieces. Much of the lighting has a nice edge to it, making the metallic and electronic have more weight to it all. With this, it also means the film can draw in the audience's attention and hold it away from the cheaper sides of it all. Essentially hiding the cheaper sides of things in the dark, and only lighting what's necessary. I quite liked how this was done, it even reminded me of Blade Runner's filmmaking approach utilising rain. Alongside this is the use of what seemed like anamorphic lenses, I doubt they were in fact anamorphic, but instead just very wide cinematic lenses with very shallow depth of field. These were mostly used up-close on fine details, pulling out the mechanics of the robotics in an interesting way. Sometimes cheaper films and series use these to hide cheapness, in some aspects it felt this way, but with the aforementioned additions, it looked pretty good and worked in its favour.
For much of the narrative, the story is about Finch teaching the robot how to behave and gain certain survival skills, much of this is due to Finch not being able to let the upload process reach completion, instead reaching about 70%, leaving behind many things that the robot must learn by living, containing a lot of basic information regarding history and locations, but not much about the self or emotion. This is where much of the film pushes into the idea of self-discovery, what it means to learn and be alive. Even down to finding his own name. Though the film doesn't push the whole idea of human values and deep human development all too much, there's a lot of fun to it, a lot of little jokes and humour in how he has to establish himself in this new life; alongside Finch and a scraggly dog.
The film being in constant motion helps it remain fresh, as the values side is mixed with the exploration of this wasteland, as they move from one place to another and escape the harsh weather that brings destruction. At the same time, Finch's health continues to be an issue, adding to the drama and giving us something to really care about; that dynamic of Finch as a dog owner trying to ensure his pet and friend gets a chance at life after he's gone, health failing in the meantime as newly-named Jeff tries to adapt and gain responsibility himself. I do think a downside to the film is that it has a pretty long runtime for what it offers. Sometimes it doesn't feel necessary, but sometimes it does feel like it was just enough time. I didn't really notice how much time was passing while watching it, but I did have moments in which I felt that the film had scenes that just didn't really offer much in terms of world building or growth, perhaps an editing and directing problem as the pacing is shifted in ways it doesn't really feel like it needed to.
I don't think this ruins the film at all. If anything it just showed that it is a lower budget film, having certain hiccups and moments in the pacing that are there more to just reduce the expenses a little while keeping the runtime at a more attractive blockbuster expectation. Still a fun watch when you don't have much to do. It's a slow, gentle adventure for the most part. A bit of a cozy watch. I do recommend it if you have the time. But perhaps you won't pay full attention to it. Especially with how the film uses a lot of interesting real locations, some being very brutalist in the architecture, small areas of cities, little context as to what happened, but with signs of something bad all around.
Finch is one of many stories on what it means to be human. On the realisation of loss, the passing of time, and the acceptance of death. It's quite gentle in this. Even with the perspective of Jeff, a learning life that is slowly coming to terms with it all. Admiring the beauty in it all in the process.
