Operator
Description
In this Chicago-set comedy about love, work and technology, Joe Larsen (Martin Starr, Silicon Valley) obsessively keeps data from every aspect of his life. But it’s not helping him. His anxiety ratings are off the charts. The new interactive voice response system he has just delivered to a client is a disaster. Only the idea of casting his wife Emily (Mae Whitman, Parenthood) as the new empathetic prototype voice in the system brings him joy, but also creates new problems as Joe starts to become increasingly attracted to the Voice rather than the real woman. It turns out theirs is a marriage of opposites. Where he is fearful, rigid in his routines and has complete faith in algorithms and data, she is bold, yearns for new experiences and doesn’t believe life can be reduced to a formula. Adding further pressure to the relationship is her budding involvement with a theater company where she writes and performs autobiographical short plays that express raw feelings. Nat Faxon as Joe’s frustrated-in-love boss and best friend and Christine Lahti as his difficult mother are terrific in their supporting roles. Both Starr and Whitman are pitch-perfect in Logan Kibens’ feature debut, a film that is both a cautionary tale on where over-reliance on technology could lead and a thoroughly entertaining romance. —Pam Grady
Logan Kibens has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from CalArts. She received a directing fellowship from HBO/DGA and was a 2012 Sundance Screenwriters Lab fellow and a Film Independent: Project Involve fellow. Her short films include Rock Jetty (2008), Recessive (2011) and Harmony (2014). Her screenplay for Operator was a 2012 SFFS Hearst Screenwriting Grant finalist.
Film Details
Language English
Year 2016
Runtime 90
Country USA
Director Logan Kibens
Producer Aaron Cruze, Logan Kibens
Writer Sharon Greene, Logan Kibens
Editor Logan Kibens
Cinematographer Steeven Petitteville
Music Sage Lewis
Cast Martin Starr, Mae Whitman, Nat Faxon, Cameron Esposito, Christine Lahti