One of the most important lines in the new documentary about AI, “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist,” is: “We are either building the greatest tool in human history… or the last one we’ll ever need.”
The creator and director of this well-produced documentary is Daniel Roher, who interviews both the AI Optimists and AI Pessimists and determines at the end of these two hours that there are no checks and balances to control the negative aspects or manage which country or organization should be allowed or prevented from using AI. There is also no way of separating AI into its positive and negative components. This technology is potentially as important and powerful as nuclear weapons are, but there are no plans to create a worldwide organization like the UN or NATO to monitor the direction of AI and prevent what could result in some unknown potential disaster for humanity.
The conclusion is AI is here to stay, and the wave of improvements and new discoveries is exploding like no technology ever has. For me, it seemed like the main message of this documentary was “let’s learn and expand AI, one day at a time, see what happens, and hope it is all for the best” – a message that did not provide any level of confidence about AI for the future.
This documentary is about the director Daniel Roher interviewing many of the top people in the AI field, Sam Altman, of Open AI, Dario Amodei, CEO & Co-Founder, Anthropic, Reid HoffmanCo-Founder, LinkedIn & Inflection AI, Shane Legg Self – Co-Founder and Chief AGI Scientist, Google DeepMind. Some of these interviews were very positive about AI, and an equal number were negative. At the end of this movie, they show several babies, suggesting that they will inherit a new AI world, with no definitive opinion on whether this will greatly improve the human race or end it.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this documentary are a very high 89%, and I agree with this rating and highly recommend this important film.
The new movie “Project Hail Mary” is one of the most unusual science fiction movies involving Space Travel, about a microscopic virus that is degrading all stars in our known universe, except for one, which is 11 light-years away. The science that follows implies that reaching this healthy star, which is 11 light-years away, is possible, but based on current technology, traveling at light speed is nowhere near possible. Due to this traveling at light speed issue, the plausibility of this story is reduced. Perhaps the screenwriter or director should have changed the timeline so that this story takes place fifty or one hundred years in the future – when maybe mankind can travel at the speed of light.
The majority of this story involves the science of Microbiology, which is the profession of the main character Ryland Grace, played very well by Ryan Gosling, and his unlikely addition to a mission with two other astronauts to reach this one star so far away. After some tragic events that happen when one of the “million things that can go wrong” with space travel, and putting the astronauts in long-term comas for the many years-long trip, Ryland becomes friends with an alien fellow astronaut, who is on the exact same mission for his species. Ryland calls his friend Rocky, and their interactions and humor are some of the best parts of this movie. The middle part of this movie does seem to have too much story filler, making this film too long at 2 hours, 36 minutes. Some of this filler is boring and slow at times, and this would be a better movie with some simple and obvious cuts.
German actor Sandra Hüller as commander Eva Stratt is very good in her role as the head of the NASA “Hail Mary” mission to save the world. She is always in a subdued and dire mood throughout this movie, realizing that the odds of success are so low. The contrast between her extremely serious character and her scenes with Gosling’s with his easy going humorous personality are very well done. She also has a very surprising Karaoke scene, in the middle of this story, showing off her singing skills.
The ending was more about fooling the audience with a conclusion that was not expected, rather than ending this story in a more logical way.
This is the second science fiction movie produced from a novel written by Andy Weir, the first The Martian was released in 2015 and was also a very good film. This movie is based on Weir’s second book Project Hail Mary.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Project Hail Mary are extremely high at 95%, with my rating at 85% and a solid recommendation.
Conan O’Brien once again did a very good job hosting the Oscars for the second year in a row. His opening act, dressed up like the evil Witch in “Weapons” being chased by children – that happened at the end of the movie was as funny and brilliant as any opening segment that Billy Crystal used to perform when he hosted the Oscars. O’Brien just might host next year’s show as well.
Both of the top two most nominated movies this year, One Battle After Another and Sinners, were more strange than good, with Sinners winning the a record number of nominations at sixteen, but only winning four Oscars, which makes sense, as Sinners degraded into a Zombie/Vampire movie.
Michael B Jordan won for best actor, which he deserved because I did not think that Timothée Chalamet’s performance was deserving enough for Best Actor this year, especially because of the humiliating scene that he did with Kevin O’Leary, which was made fun of by Conan O’Brien. Jordan has paid major dues as an actor, especially due to his impressive athletic performances in the three Creed movies.
This year, there was a tie for best Live Action Short Film. One of those Films is called: “Two People Exchanging Saliva” – which is hard to believe is even a movie title.
In the Memoriam segment, Eric Dane, Brigitte Bardot,and James Van DerBeek were all omitted, which is a major mistake on this year’s Oscar telecast.
As predicted, Jessie Buckley was the runaway favorite winner for Best Actress for “Hamnet”.
Diane Warren lost her sixteenth Oscar nomination in a row for best original song. This record is more cruel than idiotic.
“One Battle After Another” won six Oscars, including best picture and best supporting actor Sean Penn, who did not attend the ceremony. This was Penn’s third Oscar. Only eight actors have won three or more Oscars:
Daniel Day-Lewis — 3 Best Actor
Meryl Streep — 2 Best Actress + 1 Supporting
Ingrid Bergman — 2 Best Actress + 1 Supporting
Jack Nicholson — 2 Best Actor + 1 Supporting
Walter Brennan — 3 Supporting Actor
Frances McDormand — 3 Best Actress
Sean Penn — 2 Best Actor + 1 Supporting
Katherine Hepburn — 4 Best Actress
Bugonia F1 Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners Train Dreams
Best Actor in a Leading Role Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon Michael B. Jordan, Sinners Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Best Actress in a Leading Role Jessie Buckley, Hamnet Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value Emma Stone, Bugonia
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein Delroy Lindo, Sinners Sean Penn, One Battle After Another Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Best Actress in a Supporting Role Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value Amy Madigan, Weapons Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Best Directing Chloe Zhao, Hamnet Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best Writing (Original Screenplay) Blue Moon It Was Just an Accident Marty Supreme Sentimental Value Sinners, Ryan Coogler
Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) Bugonia Frankenstein Hamnet One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson Train Dreams
Best Casting Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sinners
Best Music (Original Song) “Dear Me,” Diane Warren: Relentless “Golden,” KPop Demon Hunters “I Lied to You,” Sinners “Sweet Dreams of Joy,” Viva Verdi! “Train Dreams,” Train Dreams
Best Music (Original Score) Bugonia Frankenstein Hamnet One Battle After Another Sinners
Best Editing F1 Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sentimental Value Sinners
Best Costume Design Avatar: Fire and Ash Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme Sinners
Best Makeup and Hairstyling Frankenstein Kokuho Sinner The Smashing Machine The Ugly Stepsister
Best Cinematography Frankenstein Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners Train Dreams
Best Visual Effects Avatar: Fire and Ash F1 Jurassic World Rebirth The Lost Bus Sinners
Best Sound F1 Frankenstein One Battle After Another Sinners Sirât
Best Production Design Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners
Best Animated Feature Film Arco Elio KPop Demon Hunters Little Amelie or the Character of Rain Zootopia 2
Best Animated Short Film Butterfly Forevergreen The Girl Who Cried Pearls Retirement Plan The Three Sisters
Best Live Action Short Film Butcher’s Stain A Friend of Dorothy Jane Austen’s Period Drama The Singers (Tie) Two People Exchanging Saliva (Tie)
Best Documentary Feature Film The Alabama Solution Come See Me in the Good Light Cutting Through Rocks Mr. Nobody Against Putin The Perfect Neighbor
Best Documentary Short Film All the Empty Rooms Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud Children No More: Were and Are Gone The Devil Is Busy Perfectly a Strangeness
Best International Feature Film The Secret Agent, Brazil It Was Just an Accident, France Sentimental Value, Norway Sirât, Spain The Voice of Hind Rajab, Tunisia
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 