Ari Folman, Israel, 2013

Robin Wright - an aging, out-of-work actress - accepts her final job: to be captured digitally, so that Hollywood can use her in films forever.

Loosely adapted from Stanlislaw Lem’s “The Futurological Congress,” Ari Folman follows his stellar debut film Waltz With Bashir with a critical focus on the art and the industry of filmmaking in the brave new digital age.  Made in a mix of live-action and digital animation, Folman’s original and ambitious premise is anchored well by Wright, who plays an alternate history version of herself in the film.   The film is marred by being a cautionary tale for something that is well on its way of happening, for example in the world of 3D CGI games using motion-captured actors; films like Avatar have also begun to use this type of technology.  That does not stop the film from asking serious questions about the future of filmmaking, and that’s fun.