SOURCE: Hoberman, J. “The Dreamlife of Androids.” Sight and Sound 11, no. 9 (September 2001): 16-18.

In the following review, Hoberman explores A.I. as a “curious hybrid” of the cinematic styles of Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick, calling the film Spielberg's first “art film.”

“Stories are real,” insists David, the enchanted robot child who is the protagonist of Steven Spielberg's A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. David believes that fairytales can come true. Do we? Spielberg the humanist historian is in remission; Steven the regressive mystic has returned, with a vengeance.

An occasionally spectacular, fascinatingly schizoid, frequently ridiculous and never less than heartfelt mishmash of Pinocchio and Oedipus, Stanley Kubrick (who bequeathed Spielberg the project) and Creation of the Humanoids, Frankenstein and ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’, A.I. is less a movie than a seething psychological bonanza. None of the year's Hollywood releases has given US critics more to write about—nor is...