It’s a film that I’m sure some will decry as too talky… I feel otherwise, for several reasons, including its clearly intentional mise en scene – the lighting, blocking, editing, and the intimacy and urgency produced by those confined spaces.

It’s a surprisingly tender drama of ideas that at times reminded me of a variation on the 2001 Spielberg/Kubrick film “A.I. Artificial Intelligence.”

The action is in the dialogue, which presents a series of invigorating arguments about where the ethical lines are when it comes to creating and then exploiting an intelligent computer program.

The Artifice Girl is just one proof that Ritch can direct independent cinema that is as strange as it is enjoyable.