Brew Views: Robot & Frank

Artificial intelligence.

By AP KRYZA

Jake Schreier's touching Robot & Frank follows an elderly cat burglar (the great Frank Langella) who lives in isolation. Frank struggles with kleptomania and bouts of dementia, much to the chagrin of his son (James Marsden), who purchases an ASIMO-like robot to cook, clean and care for him. Plagued by boredom and the yuppies who seek to digitize and close his local library—and thus sever his relationship with librarian Susan Sarandon—Frank plots a series of heists and finds a companion and capable partner in his robot friend. It's a buddy film in which the buddy is a computer, yet somehow it all registers on a deeply human level.

  1. Showing at: Laurelhurst.
  2. Best paired with: Coalition American Wheat.
  3. Also screening: Hope Springs (Academy).

WWeek 2015

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