The title character of After Yang, a sci-fi meditation as soothingly serene as a meditation app, is known as a “technosapien.” However to his homeowners, Yang (Justin H. Min) is a lot extra: a tutor, a babysitter, a surrogate sibling, a model of Wikipedia that may tuck you in. No marvel a malfunction in his mainframe creates such emotional confusion. When Yang goes darkish, little Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) responds as if her pet have been on the animal hospital, at the same time as her father, Jake (Colin Farrell), drags her alongside on a visit to the futuristic model of a Greatest Purchase.

There’s sufficient potential dread in that premise to energy a season of Black Mirror. However writer-director Kogonada (Columbus) is extra curious than pessimistic about how synthetic intelligence may rewire {our relationships}. He makes use of the investigation into Yang’s historical past, spurred by the playlist of Vine movies that make up his thoughts, to lift questions on reminiscence, humanity, and nature versus nurture. Of all of the metaphoric features the robotic serves, essentially the most shifting is his utility as a strolling, speaking expression of the adoption expertise for these born into one tradition and raised in one other.

If it is a dystopian imaginative and prescient, it’s a cosmetically interesting one, typically utilizing as little as stylish architectural design, heat gel lighting, and the reflection of metropolis lights on a windshield to recommend a melting-pot America of tomorrow. (“Ozu by Apple” may finest describe the aesthetic.) After Yang might be serene to a fault; solely the goofy synchronized dance routine of the opening credit sequence threatens to shake off the melancholic sleepiness. However simply as there’s a soul stirring inside Yang’s circuitry, the ghost of a full-blown tearjerker gusts by Kogonada’s machine. It’s there most clearly in Farrell’s strategically subdued efficiency, embedding strains of heartache beneath a sleekly unperturbed interface.