At a moment when artificial intelligence is reshaping everything from art to professional services, filmmaker Tatiana Blackington James (The Narrows, Homologies) delivers a bittersweet dramedy about human-digital entanglements with her new short film, "Lawyered Up," premiering at the prestigious Newport Beach Film Festival.
NEWPORT BEACH, CA / ACCESS Newswire / September 23, 2025 / At a moment when artificial intelligence is reshaping everything from art to professional services, filmmaker Tatiana Blackington James (The Narrows, Homologies) delivers a bittersweet dramedy about human-digital entanglements with her new short film, "Lawyered Up," premiering at the prestigious Newport Beach Film Festival.
Lawyered Up premiering at the Newport Beach Film Festival
Like last year's Oscar winner, I'm Not a Robot, "Lawyered Up" examines our uneasy but obsessive relationship with machines and the ways our own desires make us targets for exploitation by technology.
"Lawyered Up" tells the story of Emily (Virginia Reece), whose seemingly perfect divorce lawyer (Jude Lanston) turns out to be an anthropomorphic AI. What begins as a practical transaction turns into a steamy romantic relationship -- a robot rebound. All the while, the billable hours are piling up.
The film arrives at a critical moment in our technological evolution. The amount we spend on A.I. companions (currently $28 billion per year) is projected to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars in just five years. And while today's algorithmic paramours are addictive, they are still just screens and keyboards.
"What happens when we become dependent on lifelike robots the way we are attached to our phones, our video games, and our social media?" asks James. "Right now, these habits are only mildly intoxicating and unhealthy, like cannabis. Once bots are believably human, it could be like going from weed to fentanyl."
Early viewers revealed one of the film's unsettling achievements. Audiences find themselves genuinely rooting for Emily and her AI lawyer to succeed as a couple, despite the red flags.
"We all want to believe in perfect love," says James. "That makes us vulnerable-but it's also what makes us human."
"Lawyered Up" premieres Friday, October 17, at 8:15 pm, at the Newport Beach Film Festival in the program Two Shorts Walk Into a Bar.
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