The problem lies with what the violence is there to serve. “Love, Sex & Robots” doesn’t offer a single episode for anyone unable to attend R-rated movies by themselves, and that’s A-OK. Between a random flasher at a protest and two lesbians hooking up as a red herring, Fincher and Miller’s initial shorts treat their characters like objects - which makes sense in that this is all about the animation, but it also endows the whole thing with a gross male gaze problem. Fair enough: This is “Love, Sex & Robots” - isn’t a little risqué material expected with a title like that? But there’s no real love to be found here. Other episodes toss in naked women in similarly cavalier fashion. She then goes through her whole routine before the chase can start over again, and finishes the last half of the episode in an open bathrobe, which waves open to show off her naked body with every step. When she runs from home, she goes to work, and her manager scolds her into performing even though she’s on the run from a murderer. This woman is an exotic dancer at a strange club filled with leather-clad dominatrixes and a couch that functions as a stripper pole. What’s in between looks great - little words like “bam!” and “crash!” highlight the pursuit, while lines of objects and buildings shift every so often to hint that all might not be what it seems - but the visual style is tarnished by other choices. The whole short is a chase, and the ending is expected, but works well enough. ‘Society of the Snow’ Recreates Real-Life 1972 Plane CrashĬonsider “The Witness.” Its story is very simple: A woman spots her neighbor across the street brutally attacking and killing a woman. Some of those women were alive, some were dead, and some weren’t women at all, but each instance feels more gratuitous than warranted - and, combined with the violence, gore, and disturbing admiration of both, lends the series a sophomoric quality. For one, all of the shorts (Fincher doesn’t want them called episodes) are hyper-masculine to the point of creepiness five of the six include shots of a woman’s naked breast. Only one-third of the first season was screened in Austin Saturday evening, but the chosen entries shared enough unwanted aspects to dissuade further viewing. ![]() While there’s a lot to admire in the visuals - each distinct to their episode, with an enticing range of styles on display - the stories themselves are treated like an afterthought, and that colors everything an ugly shade of gray. Uniting animators from around the world for 18 standalone stories of various self-determined lengths, the Netflix offering intends to be a “global celebration” of the craft, as Miller said during the opening remarks of its SXSW premiere. Such is the case with Tim Miller and David Fincher’s series of animated short films, “Love, Death & Robots,” a project conceived with broad ambition and executed with a maddeningly narrow perspective. Good ideas wasted are often more infuriating than no idea at all.
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