Electroma

Can you hear me God, it’s me, Robot.

By Carrigan Denny-Brown

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Ever since the invention of the toaster, we mere human beings have romanticized the robot. The prototypical robot will say cute things like "affirmative" when it talks, probably won't have elbows and will pop a piping hot microwave dinner out of his belly if you tell it to. We humans are smitten. But how do the robots feel about it all? Do they even feel at all?

These are the type of cheeky existential questions tackled by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, the geniuses behind the musical outfit called Daft Punk, in their debut as directors. Their full-length feature film, Electroma, is a sci-fi/art-house journey—following two robots across the mythic American landscape on a quest to become human.

But thank you very little Mr. Roboto, the robots in Electroma are hardly robotic at all. They are cool and mute, like Clint Eastwood in skin-tight leather suits and badass helmets. And while programmed to thrill and dressed to kill, these guys ... well, walk. "It was a lot of walking," says Michael Reich, who plays "Robot #2" or "Gold Robot." "There was a lot of walking going on, I'll tell you that. We were all ready to do the robot, but they had us do some very specific movements."

The viewer is transported, if not a little perplexed. Asked what it was like to be a human trying to be a robot trying to be human, Reich says: "It was like being on fire in the middle of the desert." And here I thought it was like being Katie Holmes.

Yet, somewhere between the expanses and the carefully selected electro tunes (none of which are Daft Punk's own), emotion prevails.

Cut to Paris Hilton 3000: "That's bot."