Black Mirror Director Haolu Wang on the AI Romance in ‘Hotel Reverie’

Black Mirror dropped its seventh season last week, and while several of the new episodes share themes of love and romance, there are very few happy endings. The one entry that does offer last-act uplift is “Hotel Reverie,” which introduces a Hollywood star (Issa Rae) whose desire for meatier roles leads her into an AI world where she encounters… an entirely different sort of desire. The episode’s complex tech elements imagine that Rae’s character, Brandy Friday, is inserted into a vintage black-and-white movie—a sort of Casablanca-ish tale titled Hotel Reverie—as a way to “remake” the film with a contemporary star. Though it’s really just her consciousness that’s linked into the virtual recreation, thanks to cutting-edge AI Brandy’s experiences feel real. The world feels real. And her digitally crafted co-star, Clara (played in Hotel Reverie by tragic starlet Dorothy Chambers, and played in “Hotel Reverie” by Emma Corrin) feels extremely real. Like, “sentient with a soul and capable ... Read full article.