The Cardinal & The Computer

The scouts

The premise wants to be subversive—AI conscience versus Catholic doctrine—but it settles into exactly the philosophical hand-wringing you'd expect, never finding the weird angle that would actually make it transgressive.

Fitzloff understands he's working in a lineage of Bresson and Tarkovsky, using restraint and theatrical formality to stage a genuine dialectic; the film's refusal to resolve its central tension feels both rigorously composed and genuinely rare in contemporary short form.

The decision to make Ari's presence felt entirely through dialogue and the cardinal's reaction—never showing the AI directly—is the move that transforms what could've been a gimmick into something intimate and morally destabilizing.