Blade Runner 2049

Helen Lewis’s blog is a superb intro to the concerns of the film, although I disagree with her reading of K’s confrontation with the 50 foot advert version of his artificial girlfriend Joi. Lewis thinks it’s an attempt to "create a touching moment of remembrance" which fails. But at that point K is once again convinced he is a droid, and the girlfriend he lost is just another AI. The scene felt to me like a recognition that their relationship was a lie, they are both slaves, and the only way to reclaim freedom is to fight the owners of the means of production.

I’m not entirely sure what the plot of the film is, but I’m pretty confident it doesn’t make a great deal of sense. It doesn’t matter if you come for the mood of the thing (and at three hours it's plenty moody). All the characters look and act like replicants, the bad guy at the top of the pyramid most of all. The film is about a longing for the organic and genuine in an artificial alienating world. And as such it is a triumph.