'The Congress' has a transcendent spookiness
鈥淭he Congress,鈥� a partially animated fantasia directed by Ari Folman and very loosely based on a science-fiction novel by Stanislaw Lem, has a not altogether implausible premise. In the future, movies will be enacted by lifelike holograms. Not only will we revere these new-style 鈥渟canned鈥� movie stars; we will be able to ingest them like a fruit drink. Movie stars will become a substance, a formula. (Isn鈥檛 this already happening?)
The star in question, Robin Wright, gamely playing a version of herself, enters into a pact with a studio overseer (Danny Huston) to trade forever her career in exchange for a digitized immortality. Folman, who made the great 鈥淲altzing With Bashir,鈥� doesn鈥檛 satisfyingly unify the live action and animation (by Yoni Goodman), but the film has a transcendent spookiness anyway. Grade: B+ (This film has not yet been rated.)
