To Be AfrAID, or to be very AfrAId? (CREDIT: Glen Wilson/Columbia Pictures)

Starring: John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Keith Carradine, Havana Rose Liu, Lukita Maxwell, David Dastmalchian, Ashley Romans, Wyatt Lindner, Isaac Bae, Bennett Curran, Greg Hill, Riki Lindhome, Todd Waring

Director: Chris Weitz

Running Time: 84 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: August 30, 2024 (Theaters)

I ain’t afraid of no A.I. And AfrAId didn’t convince me that I should be! First of all, it’s just a movie, so we should really just relax. Second of all, it takes a much-less apocalyptic approach than it could have. Whereas horror movie monsters are typically defeated or merely just escaped from by their story’s end, in AfrAID, AIA the A.I. ultimately brokers a compromise with its human keepers. In that way, it offers a similarly uneasy (but possibly hopeful) solution as that of The Babadook. So yeah, that’s something different than what we usually get from this genre. If that sounds kind of enticing to you, then I would go ahead and encourage you to check out AfrAId!

Grade: A.I. Don’t Love You, But A.I. Do Tolerate You