Rotten Tomatoes
Submit search Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

Synthetic Sincerity

Play trailer Poster for Synthetic Sincerity 2025 1h 12m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
Tomatometer 4 Reviews Popcornmeter 0 Ratings
The Synthetic Sincerity Lab based at the University of Southern England are trying to create authentic AI characters as part of a new research project. The head of the lab, Professor SonG, licenses the films of Marc Isaacs' to better understand what his AI characters are lacking and, in turn, agrees the Filmmaker can document their working process. Blending documentary with fiction, Synthetic Sincerity uses humor and innovative narrative techniques to form a reflection on what is happening to the human face in the era of AI and what this might mean for the future of cinema. The film’s cast include: an AI character made in collaboration with Illinca Manolache (Don't Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Radu Jude, 2023); Lynn, a rebellious and charismatic AI researcher from Beirut and Ablikim, a Uighur chef quietly (but painfully) dealing with his exile in London. When the filmmaker goes rogue and starts filming the private lives of the lab researchers -- and Lynn and her colleagues have transformed Ablikim into an AI able to tell the world about what he's gone through -- the university provost and his AI assistant decide to enact revenge.

Critics Reviews

View More
Danny Leigh Financial Times 19h
4/5
...at its heart the film is filled with gently militant humanism. For all the attention AI gets, it suggests, we remain the most interesting thing to make movies about. Go to Full Review Nick Bradshaw Sight & Sound 21h
You might find frustration with the film’s open plot tangents – a climax nods to the question of institutional control and repression – but Isaacs’ method is to lead us into a hall of mirrors to thread our own way out. Go to Full Review Peter Bradshaw Guardian 2d
2/5
Isaacs’ work is much admired but I confess I found this unsatisfying and insubstantial. Go to Full Review Rich Cline Shadows on the Wall 2d
3.5/5
Filmmaker Marc Isaacs' witty, gently paced approach encourages us to watch out for the quirks make genuine people so engaging and surprising. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Cast & Crew

View All

Marc Isaacs

Director

Ilinca Manolache

Actor

Adam Ganz

Screenwriter

Marc Isaacs

Producer

Marc Isaacs

Cinematographer

David Charap

Film Editor
View All

Synthetic Sincerity

View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis The Synthetic Sincerity Lab based at the University of Southern England are trying to create authentic AI characters as part of a new research project. The head of the lab, Professor SonG, licenses the films of Marc Isaacs' to better understand what his AI characters are lacking and, in turn, agrees the Filmmaker can document their working process. Blending documentary with fiction, Synthetic Sincerity uses humor and innovative narrative techniques to form a reflection on what is happening to the human face in the era of AI and what this might mean for the future of cinema. The film’s cast include: an AI character made in collaboration with Illinca Manolache (Don't Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Radu Jude, 2023); Lynn, a rebellious and charismatic AI researcher from Beirut and Ablikim, a Uighur chef quietly (but painfully) dealing with his exile in London. When the filmmaker goes rogue and starts filming the private lives of the lab researchers -- and Lynn and her colleagues have transformed Ablikim into an AI able to tell the world about what he's gone through -- the university provost and his AI assistant decide to enact revenge.
Director
Marc Isaacs
Producer
Marc Isaacs
Screenwriter
Adam Ganz
Production Co
Marc Isaacs Films
Genre
Documentary
Runtime
1h 12m