Colin Farrell as Jake in After Yang.Courtesy of Elevation Pictures
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After Yang
Directed by Kogonada
Written by Kogonada, based on the short story by Alexander Weinstein
Starring Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith and Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja
Classification PG; 96 minutes
Opens March 11 in select Canadian theatres
Critic’s Pick
It has been a heck of a month for Colin Farrell. Today’s most unusual leading man – he hasn’t headlined a traditional blockbuster film since 2012′s Total Recall, yet still retains the shine of a forever-bankable A-lister – made the dark and gloomy The Batman uproarious fun thanks to his hammy turn as The Penguin. And now the actor offers a completely different side in the wonderfully lo-fi sci-fi drama After Yang.
Playing Jake, the patriarch of a near-future family whose “techno-sapien” android Yang (Justin H. Min) suddenly breaks down, Farrell acts as a guide-slash-eulogist for a world that feels both foreign and discomfortingly familiar. Robots, clones and self-driving cars are the norm in After Yang’s reality, but the societal alienation and corporate dominance of our current era is alive and well, too – facts of life that overwhelm Jake and his family at every turn. Jake’s wife Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), for instance, feels more disconnected from her marriage than ever, while young daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) is adrift without her robot buddy Yang by her constant side.
Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja and Justin H. Min in After Yang.Linda Kallerus/Courtesy of Elevation Pictures
What can Jake do? A quiet tea-shop operator whose traditional products don’t sell well in an age of synthetic beverages, the father visits robot repair shops, corporate warranty offices and artificial-intelligence scientists in an attempt to fix Yang, which is a barely disguised attempt to repair his own family. Along the way, he finds himself falling deeper into Yang’s digitized past, which builds up to an ending that will warm the coldest of audiences.
The second film from mononymous director Kogonada (whose first feature, 2017′s Columbus, brought heartfelt character drama to the world of architecture), After Yang plays with form and expectations at every turn. Opening with an energetic TikTok-like dance competition (in which the families of the future compete for social-media dominance), the film quickly swerves into a meditative lament for a world bereft of kindness, before then culminating in a tear-jerking ode to the power of love.
Jodie Turner-Smith in After Yang.Michael Oneal/Courtesy of Elevation Pictures
If any of that sounds pretentious, schmaltzy or worse, honestly don’t fear: After Yang is a tightly controlled yet tremendously alive film, powered by the beating heart that is Farrell’s performance.
The actor treads the waters of wistfulness, compassion and devotion with an elegant ease. It is such strong, seamless acting that you’ll be tempted to go back and reconsider Farrell’s entire filmography. So much so that I’m even considering a rewatch of Total Recall. Which, come to think of it, offers solid evidence that Farrell’s career is focused on the question of whether androids dream of electric sheep.
Dream on, Colin Farrell. Dream on.