Loop
2021 · 13m
Directed by Stuart Langfield
Genres: drama, experimental, sci-fi
Tones: contemplative, provocative, surreal
A reclusive former tech CEO runs 'emotion experiments' — scripted scenarios meant to teach AI to feel — that blur the lines between human and machine.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A former tech CEO staging emotion experiments on AI is exactly the kind of premise that makes you lean back and ask what the hell you're watching — and Langfield leans into the provocation rather than resolving it, which is rare enough to matter.
The film sits uneasily between sci-fi and performance art, which is either a formal risk or a formal failure depending on your tolerance for experimental structure; the editing choices suggest Langfield knows which tradition he's resisting.
The restraint here is the whole move — Langfield doesn't over-explain the experiments or the emotional stakes, letting the surreal scenarios breathe long enough that a single glance between the CEO and the AI does more work than exposition could.
Reviews
These 'emotion experiments' involve a series of scripted scenarios that seem to do more to call basic humanity into question as the film blurs the lines between drama and sci-fi, human and machine, real and artificial.