09/03/2026

LYFE MONDAY | MAR 9, 2026

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Absurd, yet bracingly relevant

MOVIE REVIEW

Ű BY AMEEN HAZIZI

D IRECTED by Gore Verbinski and led by a jittery but commanding Sam Rockwell, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die feels like one long Black Mirror episode that decided to laugh at the apocalypse instead of drowning in it. The setup is simple. A man from the future walks into a Los Angeles diner at 10.10pm and announces that he is here to save the world. He needs a specific combination of random patrons to help him stop a rogue artificial intelligence from taking over civilisation. The catch is that this is not his first attempt. Chaotic good, as expected Rockwell really portrays chaotic good very well. At this point, it almost feels like standard practice for him. He is known for playing men who are slightly unhinged but morally grounded with such ease that you forget how difficult that balance is. His character is intense, frantic and strangely sincere. There is a desperation to him that keeps the film from becoming too smug about its own cleverness. The ensemble around him works well too. Everyone feels like a very specific type of modern person. A

o Verbinski’s digital satire feels chaotic, uncomfortably real

0 Cast: Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry, Tom Taylor, Juno Temple. 0 Director: Gore Verbinski E-VALUE 8 ACTING 9 PLOT 8

Calling out modern America Beyond AI, the film also gestures toward wider social issues in America. There is a sense of collective desensitisation. Tragedy feels processed, packaged and moved on from at alarming speed. People are not shocked anymore. They are tired. Numb. Verbinski has always used genre to comment on modern anxieties. A Cure for Wellness (2016) explored obsession with immortality. The Ring (2002) turned technology into a literal curse. Here, the threat is more systemic. It is not just one evil machine. It is a culture that allows it to flourish. Controlled chaos Structurally, it is interesting that the film feels Groundhog Day-esque but starts mid loop. We do not see the other timelines. We just hear about them. It adds to the exhaustion. This has happened 116 times before. It will probably happen again. Some elements are intentionally unexplained. Certain creatures,

teacher by phone-addicted students. A grieving parent navigating tech-driven solutions to loss. A woman who physically cannot tolerate constant connectivity. They are exaggerated, yes, but never cartoonish. Anti-AI without boomer panic The film is openly critical of artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms and generative content. But it never sounds like a scared boomer rant. It does not argue that technology is inherently evil. It argues that blind dependence is dangerous. The movie really shows the potential brain rot of endless algorithmic feeds, especially among younger generations. It depicts a society that is gradually becoming less empathetic. Side characters often feel distant and vaguely human-like, as if real life has been filtered too many times. It is funny in how extreme it goes. It is also eerie in how close it feels to reality. overwhelmed

visions and technological leaps are left ambiguous. You can overthink the logic if you want to. Or you can sit with the larger question the film keeps pushing. Are we comfortable letting algorithms dictate what we see, enjoy and value? Are we

willing to trade empathy and attention for convenience and curated feeds? Messy but sharp Not everything lands perfectly. A few character arcs feel predictable. Some narrative beats feel almost too convenient. But a lot of what happens genuinely feels unlike anything else in recent sci-fi comedies. Most importantly, it does not feel cynical for the sake of it. Underneath the absurdity is a sincere anxiety

Rockwell anchors this high-concept comedy about digital dependence and moral fatigue. about where we are heading and whether we still have agency. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is ridiculous, chaotic and occasionally messy. It is also bracingly relevant. Absurd, yes. But uncomfortably plausible.

A sci-fi ensemble that tackles empathy, AI and America’s digital burnout. – PICS FROM IMDB

Verbinski returns to sci-fi with a time loop satire about AI and algorithm culture.

Sci-fi without AI: Oscar-nominated Arco director prefers human touch OSCAR-NOMINATED animated film Arco tells the story of a young boy in a future where humanity lives in harmony with nature – far from the robots and artificial intelligence (AI) shaping our present. the technology. “Generative AI and other digital tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination,” it said in April. luncheon in Beverly Hills last month, said many conversations at the gathering had touched on the use of AI in filmmaking – a key sticking point in the writers’ and actors’ strikes that crippled Hollywood in 2023. a process that helps us to be “emotionally prepared when something serious happens to us in life, so we don’t fall apart.”

Too much of modern life is dominated by machines that can only regurgitate what has come before, said Bienvenu. “Today, there are people who wear clothes made by robots, and eat food made by robots – basically, they’re the poor. And now, this same group will be consuming fiction made by robots,” he said. The massive companies that make AI do not pay the true cost of their product, Bienvenu said, and something must be done to level the playing field. He suggested levying a tax on the huge volumes of water used by companies to cool their server farms, an amount one study published in December found exceeded the volume of bottled water consumed around the planet every year. “AI isn’t free. It has physical repercussions and impacts on our subconscious,” said Bienvenu.

“The Academy and each branch will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship.” Nobody really wants to use it The move came after a furore over the use of AI in best picture contenders The Brutalist – where Adrien Brody’s Hungarian accent was artificially smoothed out – and Dune: Part Two , in which certain characters had their eye colour changed. This season, two Oscar- eligible animated shorts openly acknowledged their use of AI, but did not get a nomination. For Bienvenu, the reliance on AI in the creative process is dangerous because it risks allowing the imagination to wither. “If we tell ourselves that the machine will do it for us, we never

For first-time director Ugo Bienvenu, who drew the whole film by hand, there was never any chance he would resort to using AI. “That’s why I make science fiction. It was to say to this generation: ‘Maybe there are other paths, maybe there are other things to imagine’,” the French director told AFP. The graphic novel illustrator, 38, said he is alarmed by society’s increasing dependence on AI, which he insists is inferior to the things it is being used to replace. “It’s like wanting to saw off your own leg just because you have a great crutch,” he said. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the body that will hand out Oscars in Hollywood on March 15, last year updated its rules to say it was neutral on

“Everyone is more or less on the same page. Nobody really wants to use it,” he said. Human In January, more than 800 creatives, including actresses Scarlett Johansson and Cate Blanchett, as well as director Guillermo Del Toro, published an open letter accusing AI giants of “theft.” The Mexican filmmaker, whose Frankenstein is competing this year for the best picture Oscar, in 2022 said animation created by AI is an “insult to life itself.” Bienvenu shares that alarm. “The real danger is that we become weaker intellectually. It’s not about protecting our jobs, it’s about what makes us human. Fiction is about sharing experiences,” he said –

make the mistakes that allow us to access our subconscious” where true creativity lies, he said. Bienvenu, who spoke on the sidelines of the Oscars nominees Bienvenu says he is alarmed by society’s increasing dependence on AI, which he insists is inferior to the things it is being used to replace. – AFPPIC