Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Genius computer engineer Renner creates an AI to help him as a life coach, only to find his life unraveling as he begins making connections outside the AIs influence.

So when we meet Renner (Frankie Muniz), his life is already more or less under the complete influence of the AI he created and insists on naming Salenus (Marcia Gay Harden). The AI with her robotic feminine voice goads him every single day in the exact same routine, mostly involving cleaning every last surface in Renner’s suffocatingly small apartment, and that includes Renner’s body too. Routine is the best structure to keep his life free from chaos, after all, and cleanliness of the body and living space ensures a place free from germs and anything else unsavory, as Salenus often reminds Renner in a creepy motherly way. And while it seems that OCD-laden Renner thrives under this structured routine – count each tooth brushed and scraped individually, tie your tie the proper way, scrub and vacuum every single surface, and don’t for the love of all that is holy forget the symmetry – it turns out Renner is lonely. Despite all this AI interference, I meant influence of course, in his neurotic little life, Renner is still a human man with a man’s need for connection to other humans. One in particular, in fact, Renner’s new neighbor, Jamie (Violett Beane).

Renner has managed to time his morning routine down to a space of just a few minutes, not to ensure he makes it to his high-end computer job on time, but rather to ‘coincidentally’ bump into his new neighbor Jamie just as she returns from her morning run. Every single day. Until, with the buoyed encouragement of Selanus, Renner bucks up his nerve and roundaboutly invites Jamie to a welcome-to-the-apartment-building new neighbor dinner. Of course, Renner had his tiny hopes it was their first date, and did not expect Jamie to show up with a slovenly jerk she finally reveals is her brother, inevitably he’s called Chad (Taylor Gray). 

Somehow, and this is the part that separates what we would refer to as ‘book learning’ vs ‘street smarts’, Jamie and Renner do make a connection and begin tentatively sounding each-other out, first for friendship and then it plods on into a romance. Kind of. We know Renner is a genius programmer and made his very own AI that he usually carries with him in a locked briefcase; we know Renner makes enough money to afford this lonely apartment with a high-end cleaning system built into the front vestibule; we know Renner is famous enough to be on a high-profile computer magazine cover, and yet. We also know that Renner is mentally volatile, haunted by the disturbing actions of his mother in his youth, and even though she’s dead and gone, her ghost seems to live on in Salenus. And Salenus does not approve of the changes being made in Renner’s orderly routine because of Jamie’s influence, not one bit.

So why, why would a fun, seemingly intelligent and health-conscious woman like Jamie want to have anything romantic to do with our Renner? It seems pretty obvious that Jamie is casing the place, and Renner too, likely for the AI he created, to steal. And even as we watch Jamie and Renner get truly intimate for the first time, we hope that what we know is soon to happen, how Renner’s heart will absolutely break when he discovers what Jamie is really up to, won’t actually happen.

In yet another standard trope, most genius often comes at the cost of a lack of ability to socially interact in any kind of proper way, and Renner is sadly no exception. And as controlled as his routine is, when love, at least on Renner’s side, and certainly betrayal on Jamie’s side, comes in like a wrecking ball to Renner’s ordered little life, we know the explosion Renner will have in response will be epic, and bloody.

What happens when Renner learns the sad and awful truth about Jamie, and Chad, is far from symmetrical, but great amusing fun for those who enjoy deserved turnabouts. Hearing Salenus calmly make suggestions for Torture for Beginners is rather reminiscent of hearing GLaDOS from Portal say something very similar, and gets a nicely manic and devastatingly synonymous response.

Find out what Renner’s last straw breaking looks like, in the hidden Indie gem Renner, in limited theater releases now!