Ruby Sparks

[ministrations]

I wanted to wait until I'd seen it to say for sure, but there are some ASFR themes in this movie. Reprogramming/personality manipulation fans may be interested.

I wouldn't buy a ticket just to see it, because the scenes are relatively brief, and the puppet master is (big surprise) an absolute douchebag. But I'm sure it'll be out on Netflix or torrent someday.

[Karel]

I don't think I'll be racing out to see it. I was referred to the trailer by a feminist website that actually said it was a horror film. No joke: the author, in all sincerity, described it as a horror deconstruction of the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" trope (think 500 Days of Summer or Garden State), like the feminist reworkings of werewolves and body horror Ginger Snaps and Teeth.

But the trailer gave no indication of that whatsoever. The premise was played completely straight, which, if accurate, would make this absolutely the worst and most extreme depiction of the MPDG trope in history! Which means one of several things:

1) The author of the website was an idiot;
2) The author of the website was a liar;
3) The people who made the trailer are lying to potential audiences; and/or
4) The movie itself will be profoundly, profoundly stupid.

But we'll see. Maybe it will be interesting.

[ministrations]

They're both right. It can be interpreted both as a haunting deconstruction of the MPDG and the apotheosis of the concept (since she is, literally, a dream girl).

To be more specific, the climactic scene still disturbs me, two full days later, although almost nothing else about the movie is any more subversive than the usual hipster comedy of 2012. I hope that was vague enough not to spoil it for those who legitimately want to see it.

[jolshefsky]

It's $5 Mondays at the Little, our art-house cinema and I'm going to see Ruby Sparks. I have low expectations and my friend who works there said it wasn't very good – he didn't like that it flip-flops between darkly introspective and fluffy romantic comedy. I was going to skip it after seeing the trailer (ironically despite the nearly direct message of creating a dream woman). But then I read an interview with screenwriter Zoe Kazan (which has some spoilers of sorts) that made me more interested in seeing the movie. I liked her perspective on things, but I don't know if she's particularly a good writer (this being her first screenplay per IMDb), and the director did Little Miss Sunshine which I thought was okay but overrated.

Anyway, this is a lot of discussion for a movie that barely barely touches on fembots, but I may come back and post an update if I found anything particularly better or worse than my expectations.

[jolshefsky]

The movie was okay. The trailer implies that a writer creates his dream woman and she comes to life [so they must just live happily ever after]. The central plotline is well written – I was perfectly willing to suspend disbelief when needed, and the rationale seemed sound. I did, though, find a lot of the characters are pretty transparent and end up being too broad to be realistic.

And as for ASFR content ... this whole topic should be moved to OT. Yeah, Calvin writes, Ruby changes in reaction, but it's so clearly rooted outside of androids and robots that I can't accept its inclusion in ASFR canon. Some of the ways Ruby reacts could be explored as a way an advanced, robust AI with a contiguous memory and belief in a semi-immutable self would react. But once you start thinking about that scenario, the reactions are pretty obvious, and non-human speech errors are more tied to the fetish anyway.

[ministrations]

I don't know...I didn't add it as a report originally, but I don't think this is off topic. Ruby is a construct, even if (implied but never actually shown) she is flesh and blood. It's not just that her will, motivations and worldview are limited by his vision; she is literally an artificial intelligence. And she has a physical body which is interactive with the natural world, but again there are severe, inhuman limitations. All of this slowly grows more pronounced as it moves along.

If people are willing to argue that the Pygmalion myth is ASFR (and many on this board are), this is just Pygmalion with a typewriter. Of course, I'm not arguing with you out of any indignation; just trying to provoke more discussion.

[Brytestar]

So its out already???