Automatons

I loved this film. Writer/director James Felix McKenney based this b/w Super-8 project on a faulty childhood memory and it screens like a dreamy low budget Pi channeled through the Twilight Zone by way of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Filled with mid-century gadgets, men-in-suit robots and robot puppets, Automatons is a parable about a lonely, heavily-mediated future. Going the standard low-budget route (mostly one set, a few actors, shot silent), McKenney turns his budget into an asset. The slightly-off but trying-hard lip sync and cheap but earnestly designed sets and costumes make the film come off like a dream of a B-movie yesterday that never was. There's not enough material to fill a feature and by minute 24 I was aching to get out of that one set. But that's OK, you can just fast forward to the end. Great music and sound design too. There's a dry sense of humor at work but it may be too dry for some tastes. Favorite image: the evil leader with a wrist communicator the size of a brick.