Simulant

Rating: 8/10

Director: April Mullen

Style: Sci-Fi, Mystery, Thriller

Time: 95 minutes

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVU4oThGtVs

Review by Mike Szymanski

In today’s world where Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more part of the news and our culture, this movie “Simulant” can’t possibly be more relevant. More like a documentary of what is happening in the technological world today, this movie is a chilling look at what happens when the AI world gets too real and starts taking over.

Although it’s not quite ripped from today’s headlines, this movie is pretty close to the world that people fear. Some of this is even in the Writer’s Guild strike negotiations, the fears are real: such as AI writing movie scripts, creating short stories, and writing pieces of journalism.

It may be reminiscent of the “Terminator” movies, or a bit like “Blade Runner,” “A.I. — Artificial Intelligence,” “I, Robot” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Those movies all had a bigger budget, but this smaller version of the danger of AI intelligence has a lot more twists and turns, revealing the complications in clever ways.

There’s a guy named Evan (played by an absolutely handsome Robbie Arnell) married to Faye (played by the always reliable Jordana Brewster from the “Fast and Furious” franchise). A car crash leaves Faye a widow, but there’s tape of them discussing putting their memories into an adroid duplicate. Problem is, the Simulant Evan doesn’t know he’s a copy.

Faye contacts a rogue engineer named Casey (played by Sim Liu), who takes away the controls over Evan and that creates a few problems. Faye decides she doesn’t want the fake anymore.

But, Evan has evolved, and says prophetically: “Who you ARE can transcend who you WERE, if you let it.”

Talented name-to-watch director April Mullen made her splash in a revenge film between two timelines in “88” which she co-wrote and starred in as well. She also directed (and put herself in) the clever horror/comedy “Dead Before Dawn.”

Ryan Christopher Churchill wrote “Simulant,” and it’w his first feature-length script. Designer Ingrid Juke keeps the futuristic setting in the suburbs as realistic as possible with the encroaching AI invasion sneaking into daily life here and there.

The story centers on how Evan deals with his new knowledge that he is a creation, and that he is involved in a sci-fi murder-mystery.

Of course there are rules, and the Simulant rules are stated over and over, often in loudspeakers in the background. Not harming humans is an important precept, but of course, that has to get broken.

The company creating the Simulants is Nexxera, and the people working for them are a range of colorful characters. Some specialize in Simulant Abuse Cases and some are hunters for rogue Simulants.

This great indie film explores the true meaning of love, loss, love and loss again. Do you choose to love again? Do you make a choice to lose again?

The director says, “As human beings, we are motivated by two primary states: running towards pleasure and bliss or away from pain and suffering. Everything we step into can be boiled down to this simple concept. Suppose we could recognize these inherent motivations with every decision we face.

“Could we learn to push to a new level and grow into a further evolution of experience? An evolution that would allow us to see the strength we can achieve through the pain of loss,” she adds.

“As a director, I’m intrigued by these questions and the moral and philosophical dilemmas being presented to society as our world continues integrating more advanced AI into our lives. 

“Simulant speaks to society’s challenges when mixing primal human emotions like love and loss with advanced AI technology camouflaged in human form. I intend to plant the seeds of contemplation in the minds of audiences, igniting in them the spark to start questioning the philosophical gray areas around consciousness and the limits around their own capacity to feel pain and loss.”

“Simulant” was released in theaters and is now streaming on multiple platforms.