From Omeleto.
Two women go on a date.
LOVE MACHINE is used with permission from Jon Clark. Learn more at https://jonclarkfilms.com.
Kayla and Veronica are on a date and have settled back at Kayla’s apartment. The vibe is promising and flirtatious, and the pair decides to ask each other the "36 Questions That Lead to Love," a set of queries made famous by the New York Times designed to promote feelings of intimacy and connection.
Both are up for the experiment, but as they answer the questions, they make discoveries that surprise one another in ways that aren’t so delightful and shift the focus to their differences. And what starts as flirtatious banter becomes a question of whether or not they can agree on what love is and who is capable of it.
Directed and written by Jon Clark, this humorously awkward yet thought-provoking sci-fi short dives into the peculiarities of romantic intimacy, connection and emotion, but with a twist. Kayla and Veronica’s date seems promising, with a flirtatious, intriguing energy between them. The narrative seems like a straightforward romance, but when Veronica discovers Kayla is an A.I. android, the film slowly unspools into something both funny and uneasy.
The short is essentially a two-hander, a conversation between two people in a contained setting. But it eschews the typical naturalism of the set-up, its sleek, vividly saturated visuals and subtly futuristic apartment set design gesturing to a world that’s like an everyday take on BLADE RUNNER. As the women ask each other increasingly intimate questions, there’s some subtle world-building, but the narrative stays focused on what’s happening emotionally between Kayla and Veronica.
The original "36 Questions" were designed to promote intimacy and connection as partners asked and answered them with one another. But the writing cleverly skews this structure to deconstruct the emotional acrobatics that we sometimes go through to prove ourselves as lovable, desirable or simply adequate to a potential partner. As Kayla, actor Clare Cooney offers a sharp and nimble performance with many nuances, as a preternaturally poised and coolly logical A.I. being. But she can also be disconcertingly direct, even hostile, especially as Veronica makes her skepticism for A.I. known.
As Kayla and Veronica’s differences about A.I. and humanness come to the fore, Kayla feels more and more as if she has to put on a performance to prove herself to Veronica. As Veronica, actor Bethany Gilmour responds to Kayla’s antics with skepticism, uncertainty and even annoyance, and what seems like a promising date goes fully off the rails in a way that’s awkward, relatable and hilarious.
Subversive, smart and slyly funny, LOVE MACHINE ends on an outrageous, mischievous note. Although there’s no question about the fate of this would-be couple, it does leave viewers with questions about what exactly is "chemistry" and what love really is: a commitment expressed through action, a field of feeling and emotion for one another, a wistful psychological projection or something truly undefinable. We’ve already heard real-life stories of people falling in love with their A.I. companions, but this narrative asks us to look at a future where A.I. beings might develop their own mores, agency and desires — and asks whether we’re really ready for the kinds of relationships our future might demand.
