Film review: The handsomest robot ever; and Ryan Reynolds up to his usual tricks

Free Guy's Ryan Reynolds is a handsome, goofball master of widescreen self-deprecation

There may yet come a time when Ryan Reynolds will be required to play someone other than an exaggerated version of himself on film, but that day is not today.

Free Guy ***

Canada’s sarkiest export strikes again. There may yet come a time when Ryan Reynolds will be required to play someone other than an exaggerated version of himself on film, but that day is not today.

Indeed, Reynolds is up to his usual noisy tricks in Free Guy(12A), a flawed yet admirable sci-fi comedy that shoots for the stars (it really wants to be The Truman Show) and gets lost along the way (it sometimes looks like Adam Sandler’s Pixels).

Reynolds is Guy, an unbearably chirpy everyman who lives with his goldfish, Goldie, in the bustling and spectacularly violent metropolis of Free City. Guy has got it all — a best friend (Lil Rel Howery as Buddy); a decent job (he works as a bank teller); and his very own catchphrase (“don’t have a good day, have a great one!”). There is just one teeny, tiny problem: Free City isn’t real, and neither is Guy.

Our annoyingly upbeat protagonist is, in fact, an NPC — a non-player character in an open world computer game, and it’s not long before Guy realises the truth. He does so with a little help from Molotov Girl, aka Millie (Jodie Comer) who, in the real world, is one of the programmers responsible for his creation. 

What else? Oh yeah, Guy is in love with Millie. And, to make matters more complicated, she and her former programming bestie, Keys (Joe Keery), are embroiled in a tricky lawsuit against the game’s villainous owner, Antwan (Taika Waititi), who plans on erasing Free City and destroying Guy forever.

It’s an ambitious concept, and it’s easy to see why Reynolds, a handsome, goofball master of widescreen self-deprecation, was drawn to it. Director Shawn Levy, working with a sugary screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, somehow manages to stay inside the lines, and though it’s far too long (almost two hours) and never quite as funny as it thinks it is (the third-act Disney / Marvel tribute is awful), Free Guy succeeds because of a) Reynolds’ clownish, cartoon charm and b) the incandescent Jodie Comer. Indeed, Comer is Free Guy’s MVP, and it would be a poorer film without her.
(Cinema release)

I’m Your Man ****

I'm Your Man presents audiences with one of the quirkiest love stories of the year.

Is Dan Stevens the handsomest robot that (n)ever lived? Probably. Stevens cuts a fine, mechanical figure in Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man (15A), a witty and thoughtful science-fiction dramedy that, aside from presenting audiences with one of the quirkiest love stories of the year, now has us wondering what a doughnut-eating robot does with his, erm, waste (you’ll be asking the same question yourself).

Maren Eggert is Alma, a lonely archaeologist employed by Pergamon Museum in Berlin. In order to secure funds for her latest expedition, she agrees to take part in a revolutionary study that requires her to live with a humanoid robot whose artificial intelligence has been designed to make him the perfect partner for Alma. Enter Dan Stevens, dusting off his German — and his best robo-smile — as the excruciatingly good-humoured Tom. Naturally, Alma hates Tom, but might she eventually warm to his unwavering, technologically calibrated admiration?

There is an awful lot going on under the surface, and Schrader’s delightful display explains itself very well. It never gets bogged down in the whys or hows of the world which Tom and Alma inhabit. It is, at its core, a story about love and acceptance, albeit one with a crafty twist — and Eggert and Stevens are terrific together. 

(Cinema release)

Zola ***

Zola is every bit as outrageous as you’ve heard.

Did you hear the one about the Twitter thread that spawned a movie? Yes, Janicza Bravo’s Zola (18) is literally based on a series of tweets that went viral in 2015. Those of you familiar with the real Zola’s 148-tweet thread, and the subsequent Rolling Stone profile, will know exactly what to expect from this wild display.

For the uninitiated, Bravo’s film concerns a Detroit waitress and part-time stripper named Aziah ‘Zola’ King (Taylour Paige) who, after meeting a fellow dancer (the always reliable Riley Keough as Stefani), agrees to head off on a road trip to Tampa only to realise all too late that they haven’t driven all the way to Florida for a stripping gig, and that the bloke who drove them there (Colman Domingo) isn’t just a mate — he is Stefani’s pimp. Things take a turn for the bananas.

Yep, Zola is every bit as outrageous as you’ve heard, but a remarkable story involving guns, gangsters, and sex workers is one thing — you need to be able to tell it properly and to infuse it with actual characters and motives. Alas, Bravo’s trippy, high-wire act struggles in both departments (it’s also missing an ending). 

Zola is incredibly lucky, then, to have such a wonderful cast on its side. Lower your expectations.
(Cinema release)