You won’t need to click all the pictures with bicycles inside them to get into the spiffy sci-fi Dutch short I Am Not A Robot, written and directed by Victoria Warmerdam. Lara (Ellen Parren) is at her job, busy doing a sound mix of a choral version of Radiohead’s song “Creep.” Suddenly, she gets an error message with a request to complete a Captcha to prove she isn’t a robot.
So, Lara clicks all the pictures of the cars but is asked to do another. She then clicks all the pictures with bridges, but it still brings up another Captcha. As she can’t get access to her work, she calls up the customer service department. They run her through the troubleshooting, which, of course, she has tried already. After everything had been done, the customer rep’s only suggestion was that maybe Lara would be a robot. Having to click on a test to prove she is human enough to be allowed access, Lara fills out a questionnaire. The results reveal an 87% chance that Lara is a robot.
“Lara… gets an error message with a request to complete a Captcha to prove she isn’t a robot.”
Warmerdam ensures that I Am Not A Robot‘s 22-minute runtime runs like clockwork. The premise unfolds with a natural ease that feels like comedy while it simmers but soon boils over with dark science fiction. Everything in the middle feels just right as the temperature rises, maintaining a conversational pace as one’s world is ripped apart.
This is all very funny, which may be even funnier until it is not. The look is phenomenal, with that famous Dutch interior design flair firing on all cylinders. Parren does an exceptional job of playing a humorous situation as cold as a church fence iron.
It’s exactly how a story like this should play, as it goes deeper into the aluminum woods than Making Mr. Right. Warmerdam starts us at Andy Dick and takes us to Philip K. Dick. I Am Not A Robot will manipulate the gravity in your head in a most amusing way.
"…will manipulate the gravity in your head in a most amusing way."
