Following its initial release out of the Tribeca Film Festival, Drake Doremus’ latest film, the artificial intelligence romantic drama, “Zoe,” now has its first trailer. Doremus’ previous film “Newness,” which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, kind of went under the radar and ultimately never found proper domestic theatrical distribution (though one could find it on iTunes). However this is not the case for “Zoe,” as it has been acquired by Amazon Studios and it’s coming soon.
The film follows the story of Cole (Ewan McGregor), an artificial intelligence engineer, as he navigates his romantic relationship with his colleague and synthetic creation Zoe (Léa Seydoux). Having premiered at Tribeca, the film’s first reactions are already out. Our own Lena Wilson addressed the film’s ignorance to modern gender depictions and aesthetics in her review: “The film refuses to problematize robot partners as a concept, although real-life sex robots have alarmed womankind since their inception. These machines, primarily marketed to men, will never say no – will never, as Cole himself points out in ‘Zoe’ – leave their owners. It’s a horrifyingly misogynistic concept, and the film’s inability to recognize that legacy undermines any sentience or agency its titular character might have.”
While the film received mixed to poor reviews out of the film festival, it’s hard to disregard the strikingly unusual casting. Alongside McGregor (“Trainspotting,” “Star Wars”) and Seydoux (“Blue is the Warmest Color”), the film stars Rashida Jones (“Parks and Recreation”), Theo James (“Divergent”), Matthew Gray Gubler (“500 Days of Summer,” “Criminal Minds”), Christina Aguilera (“Burlesque”), and Miranda Otto (“The Lord of the Rings”).
Reteaming with previous collaborators, Doremus’ “Zoe” is scripted by Richard Greenburg and shot by John Guleserian. With Drake Doremus, Robert George, and Michael A. Pruss as producers on the film, “Zoe” is expected to premiere in theaters July 20, courtesy of Amazon Studios.
