The dystopian genre gets a shot in the arm

 

Blade Runner 2049

2017

Four stars

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Jared Leto, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright.

Runtime: 2hrs 44 mins

We know that dystopian cinema includes fascinating works of art. Films like “Brazil,” “A Clockwork Orange,” and “Moon” aren’t just some of the best of the genre, they are some of the best regardless. But does their premise make them fundamentally incapable of being beautiful in every sense? Can something so ostensibly bleak, dark and pessimistic also be alluring and elegant? Unequivocally, yes. And you can add “Blade Runner 2049” to the mix.

Director Denis Villeneuve takes us to Los Angeles 32 years in the future (from the release of the film). The planet is vastly overpopulated, ecosystems have collapsed, and famine is widespread until an industrialist named Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) invents synthetic farming. In the original “Blade Runner,” synthetic humans known as replicants were engineered with superior strength and exploited as slave labor. They rebelled and a division of police called Blade Runners was created to eliminate the older replicant models. Wallace has created new replicants to replace the older models; ones that are more obedient and created to work the synthetic farms he’s invented.

California is unrecognizable. Everything is tightly compacted together. There is no open green space, no sprawling parks. Buildings have no space between them and the architectural answer to such a lack of room is to build upward. There are no clear sunny skies. Every day seems to be a different shade of grey or sepia. The damage that has been done to Earth is clear.

Replicants, like a new version of a Blade Runner who goes by the moniker “K” (Ryan Gosling), are able to experience emotion, though they aren’t supposed to exhibit it. If they do, they are exterminated or “retired” as it’s referred to in the film, ostensibly to prevent any future rebellions. Any exhibition of joy, sadness, or anger is seen as a threat to the establishment.

K is sent on a particularly sensitive mission. Something impossible has happened among the replicants and it is a threat to the balance of power. He is assigned to eliminate that threat. The dichotomy here is that replicants are essentially servants. They are expected to carry out their duties flawlessly, without emotion. Yet they are capable of feeling and expressing every emotion humans can experience. K is very good at keeping his emotions in check while he is on the job. In his private life, however, K has a love interest -- an AI-generated woman named Joi (Ana de Armas). Though she has no physical form, she is intelligent and intuitive just like a human. She is a companion to K in just about every way except the corporeal. K could certainly have a relationship with an actual woman. But he is intelligent enough to keep certain boundaries in place. We sense that the calm demeanor he’s expected to display at all times would be compromised if Joi were real.

K’s investigation leads him to Deckard (Harrison Ford), who we remember from the first “Blade Runner” film in 1982. Deckard lives alone in an abandoned Las Vegas resort. He seems to hold the key to this threat replicants may soon pose and K is determined to get answers.

But Niander Wallace and his replicant assistant, Luv (Sylvia Hoeks) also have a stake in this impossible occurrence, so they follow just behind K’s investigation to see what he comes up with.

The further he delves into his investigation, we start to see cracks in K’s exterior. The case starts to erode at his stoic façade. One key scene is when K is talking to his boss, Lt. Joshi (Robin Wright). Something that is born has a soul, K says. And when Joshi tells him he’s gotten along fine without a soul, he genuinely looks hurt without being obvious. That is just how subtly good Gosling is in this role.

K is keen to others’ emotions as well. He is very observant. And Gosling’s ability to express only with his eyes is a necessary element to pulling off the subtleties to this character.

Despite its domineering gray, black and sepia tones, there is an unmistakable beauty here. But the visual aspect isn’t just window dressing. This is a complete film, one in which we are warned about a number of existential threats on the horizon: overcrowding, climate change, exhaustion of natural resources, and the overreach of technology by oligarchs. The head of an orphanage (inside a massive garbage dump, mind you) speaks of a “grand life” off world, implying that only the super wealthy can afford to live there. The children at the orphanage are also exploited for slave labor, salvaging electronics for parts used to build and maintain the ships to transport wealthy people off world.

You can’t help but marvel at how comprehensive the vision of this film is, despite its solemnity and, occasionally, its morbidity. There seems to be no stone unturned, no question unanswered. It is a remarkable visualization of something that could eventually become frighteningly real.

Replicants feel emotion. That is the crux of this film. Though they are engineered and not born, they are essentially humans without memories of growing up (those are implanted). So though this is a science-fiction film, there is an unmistakable element of Pinocchio to it. Though K has been “made” and not born, he exhibits everything that is fundamentally human. In one scene as Joi reminds K how truly special he is, she tells him he is a real boy and needs a real name.  

Besides the Pinocchio theme, the film is in part a meditation on what is a meaningful life. It echoes what Viktor Frankl wrote in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning.” Certain aspects of what humans consider meaningful are different for each person. But one commonality that gives all of us meaning, Frankl wrote, is the ability to love and to be loved: the ability to put another human being before oneself is one of the most meaningful acts we can experience.

This is a film that can’t just be classified in one genre. It is multifaceted, provocative and stunningly gorgeous. It isn’t just one of the true best of its kind, it is one of the best of any kind.