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‘About a Hero’ Review: An AI-Assisted Docu-Mystery That Won’t Give Werner Herzog Any Sleepless Nights
Taking on Werner Herzog's dismissal of AI filmmaking, Piotr Winiewicz's IDFA opener 'About a Hero' is more puckish than genuinely provocative.
That’s sort of the point: Hardly an exercise in AI advocacy, “About a Hero” appears to revel in its just-off-ness, posing a challenge to Herzog’s dismissal while proving him right as its narrative — not wholly Kaspar’s creation, but adapted by Winiewicz from the model’s output — goes progressively haywire. Divided into chapters that follow no logical numerical order, the story centers on an unseen figure: Dorem Clery, an unremarkable employee at a kitchen appliance factory in the fictitious German town of Getunkirchenberg, who is found dead in circumstances that, whether due to foul play or AI storytelling error, never entirely make sense. “If, in your head, this is clear, conclusive and watchable, you have lost your mind,” wheezes faux-Herzog as Eleonore gets frisky with a toaster — not the first time that “About a Hero” calls itself out on its intentionally flawed construction, in a running joke that wears a little thin by the film’s close.
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