Gore Verbinski's 'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die' is an AI satire that's both a personal and cranky work of a very angry filmmaker. It's a throwback to the days when mainstream artists would dare to throw a few ideas at the wall and see what sticks. The film tests the value of imagination, the real, human stuff AI could never hope to touch. It's ideologically flawed, structurally jumbled, and a little too enamoured by its dystopian predecessors, but it's also wonderfully personal and spiked, like an affronted hedgehog trying to repeatedly ram your shin. The film features a cat-adjacent monster with a silly and aggressively uncool design, which the reviewer found endearing. Sam Rockwell plays an unnamed time traveller in a plastic raincoat, who lectures customers about their excessive social media use. The film also stars recognizable faces like Zazie Beetz, Michael Peña, Juno Temple, Asim Chaudhry, and Haley Lu Richardson. Verbinski is known for his big-budget successes and failures, but this film showcases his darker, more idiosyncratic streak. The reviewer praises the film's genuine venom and the way it releases the filmmaker's pent-up frustration. The film's thesis is that AI is going to try to give you everything you ever wanted, but in the end, it's all a lie. The film is messy but honest, and it carries over the filmmaker's interest in the symptoms rather than the causes. The reviewer asks thought-provoking questions and encourages the audience to voice their agreement or disagreement in the comments. 'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die' is in cinemas from 20 February.
