As our real world is beginning to resemble the science fiction movies of the past (with AI, Deepfake, and other daily advancements), Hollywood has to also roll with the times and be even more inventive with our sci-fi escapism. With comedian-turned-director Spencer Brown’s latest film T.I.M., we get to mix two genres: murderous love triangles and robots.
Prosthetics engineer Abi (Georgina Campbell) is just starting a new job at a robotics company. With this new opportunity, she and her husband Paul (Mark Rowley), who was just busted cheating on her decide to leave their current homes and move out to a rural area so that they can focus on their jobs and their marriage. Their new home is fully integrated technologically and it seems that they have all they need to start fresh. However, the company that Abi was just hired for gifts all their executives with their prototype robot named T.I.M. (Technologically Integrated Manservant).
At first, all seems well. Their robot (Eamon Farren) is dedicated to their every need. Because this is her world, Abi’s cool with it. However, her husband Paul is creeped out by this unique-looking machine that is a little too attentive to their needs (it barges in on them having sex when it detects their elevated heart rates). Paul’s had it with it, but Abi just got hired and wants to play ball at her new company, so T.I.M. stays. As trust (from Abi at least) grows, they pair T.I.M. to all their appliances, phones, and accounts, so that their robot can attend to their every need, even go shopping, cook dinner, and everything else for them.
Because of Paul’s resentment and Abi’s appreciation, T.I.M. starts to develop an emotional attachment to Abi, and is rather rude to Paul. T.I.M. realizes that he’s developing feelings for Abi, but Paul is in his way. With T.I.M. being a hyper-intelligent robot, starts planning schemes to rid himself of Paul. Activating smart devices in the house to hurt him, telling lies to Abi that he’s off flirting/cheating on her with their neighbor Rose (Amara Karan), and even using deep fake images to drive a wedge between the couple already dealing with infidelity. But soon enough, his goals grow… darker!
T.I.M. tries to present itself as a cautionary tale of AI run amok, but it quickly delves into stalker/murderer territory and is very reminiscent of Single White Female as the “third” goes for dark and nefarious plans to achieve their goal. Kudos to actor Eamon Farren who plays the titular character. Thanks to a bunch of makeup and prosthetics, T.I.M. definitely has an uncanny valley look that already ups your creepy factor to a ten, but all the stuff he does in the name of “helping” his hosts also makes him uncomfortable to watch. Georgina Campbell (fresh off Barbarian) also does a great job as the “final” girl in this weird thriller. Unfortunately for the explosive finale, the plot just has to jump into the eccentric as T.I.M.’s goals start to not make sense and is quite predictable.
With 2019’s Child’s Play and last year’s M3GAN having murderous robots that can integrate with our smart technology, T.I.M. is continuing the trend and remixing it a little by having it be about a very real human emotion: obsession makes for an interesting and entertaining swing for the fences. It’s not a home run, but still an enjoyable time.
T.I.M. is currently available in theaters and On Demand.
Director Josh Forbes tells the story of a struggling musician, William Brown (Jonah Ray) whose only goal in life is to finish his prog, prog-rock (prog squared according to him) album. Things go from bad to worse to nightmarish when William gets a new neighbor, a Muppet of a man named Vlad (the most excellent Alex Winter) who checks just about every single box on the bad neighbor checklist. Fed up with life, but mostly with Vlad, William goes to confront Vlad and accidentally kills him. Except he doesn’t, Vlad, now undead, continues to wreak havoc in Williams life leading him on a hellfest fever dream of a journey.
Just, off the top, let me say WOW, what fun! They really just don’t make them like this anymore. The film’s ultra-liberal use of practical effects, from blood packs to full on puppetry transports you to another time. Honestly, it’s the weirdest thing, an easy argument could be made that CGI just looks more realistic but somehow our brains can separate what was on set and what wasn’t. So while a CGI talking charred skeleton would look 100% accurate, a puppet version like what we get in Destroy All Neighbors feels more right. I guess that’s the difference, it’s what’s real vs what’s right. I seriously applaud Josh Forbes for diving in head first and fully committing to what ends up a faithful homage to splatter-core films of the 80s. Early Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi would be proud.
