Short Film: Deep Learning (2020)

  • Director: Andrew Laudone
  • Writers: Andrew Laudone, Shane Swearingen
  • Stars: Karen Fiorino, Cara Maurizi, Mike Perosise
  • Run Time: 15 Minutes

Synopsis

A woman listens to her mother nagging. A rat runs through the living room. Moira has had enough and smothers the old hag.

The video has an error, so Moira calls the company to complain. The videos they generate for her usually make her happy, but this one, not so much. The murder was just a computer-generated error, not really what she wanted.

In real life, Moira’s mother really is a harpy. Moira keeps thinking about the murder video, and she decides to watch it again.

Moira’s ex rambles about some kind of metaphysical garbage. She calls the company to complain again. No it’s another weird computer video. Later, she watches one that had her as a baby.

Commentary

What was the point of the rats?

Sometimes computers are smarter than we are, and this film proves it. It knows what’s best for us. I was expecting Moira to kill her mother for real, but that never happened. I wanted that to happen. This was disappointing.