Travel Documents 116: Big Bug
Genre: science fiction, black comedy, film
The Dust Cover Copy
In a quiet residential area, four domestic robots suddenly decide to take their masters hostage in their own home. Locked together, a not-quite-so-blended family, an intrusive neighbor and her enterprising sex-robot are now forced to put up with each other in an increasingly hysterical atmosphere! While, outside, the Yonyx, the latest generation of androids, are trying to take over. As the threat draws closer, the humans look elsewhere, get jealous, and rip into each other under the bewildered eyes of their indoor robots. Maybe it's the robots who've got a soul -- or not!
The Scene
Scene-Setting
With the same endearing off-kilter whimsy he brought to Amélie, director Jeunet steps into near-future sci-fi to make the point: however much we change our homes and our tech, we’re still human: awkward, loving, dumb, demanding, irrational and unexpectedly kind. Other beings may love us or hate us for it, but it is who we are.
In this setting, humanity has created a lot of AI that loves us for who we are…and a few that barely tolerate us. We’ve got robot housekeepers and sexual fantasy dolls who just want to cuddle, frantic OCD cleaning robots, and tons of fun, informative and distracting entertainment venues. But we can’t completely distract ourselves from the relationships that make up our lives. Our robot pals watch our antics with a mixture of puzzlement, awe, pity and wistfulness. Our antagonists…don’t.
The Moves
Plot
For all its cutesy setting, there’s something of the anxiety and sense of entrapment permeating this film that you’d get in a WWII film. For those of us who’ve been through a Covid lockdown, it’s cathartic and uncomfortably familiar both. This hothouse environment is the perfect place to explore a lot of human emotions: human love, human shame, human survival instinct, and human hope. And boy do the robots study up.
With a cruel and callous enemy standing over all interactions, we work with the character through a lot of interpersonal stories. And we are reminded that even the worst enemy will fall, often by their own foolish hubris. Or just by dumb luck!
At the end, this film reminds us of something simple and true. However dark the night is, dawn comes. It might not find us all that much better or changed, but it will find us here. That’s what matters.
The Crowd
Characterization
At first, the characters are cookie-cutter: the cheating husband who’s remarried to the trophy wife. Wife 1’s new husband. The little old lady next door who never takes off her bedroom slippers. The frustrated teenagers. The housekeeper. But the fun of this film is the way in which these characters unfold all their intricacies under the pressures of the situation.
The Lingo
Writing Style
With a wonky and fun blending of 1920s aesthetic, 1970s color schemes and future tech, this movie plays with all sorts of foibles. Though some characters are hysterical, the generally tone has a slightly awkward and fairly Zen wittiness to it. It works surprisingly well!
Overall Rating
A great movie to watch with a bottle of red wine and a good friend.