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

| Dec 16, 2024

A markedly uncomfortable and emotional watch, Ritch’s film feels both unique and necessary, especially in a world where technology itself is constantly shifting from luxury to necessity.

| Aug 4, 2024

The directorial work is impressive but [Franklin] Ritch’s script and performance are something to marvel at.

| Jul 31, 2024

The film essentially consists of three very talky conversations. This leaves it feeling a bit static, and also limits the development of the characters. But as a pointed piece of theater, it's riveting.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 7, 2023

This movie recognizes that AI is scary and intimidating, but it also recognizes how that fact says more about human nature than it does some looming technological overlord... It’s this humanity that this film touches on, and then twists deliciously.

| Dec 7, 2023

A smart sci-fi procedural that feels more timely than any film being unveiled now as it works in discussion of the worst horrors of cultural predators to the next potential evolution of A.I. to do our dirty work.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 22, 2023

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 26, 2023

Balancing difficult conversations about where technology is leading the human race with rapid fire dialogue and performance driven drama, The Artifice Girl is both a rarity and one of the biggest surprises of the year thus far.

| Original Score: 8/10 | May 11, 2023

In a world that is full of movies that twist the idea of AI into a villainous narrative, the talky and philosophical ‘The Artifice Girl’ takes a tender approach to conscience and what it means to understand right from wrong.

| May 9, 2023

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.”

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 5, 2023

Probing ethical implications around the use of A.I. is current and, indeed, something we will see more of in our storylines. (Maybe they’ll even be written by an A.I.).

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 5, 2023

Franklin Ritch’s sci-fi sees a team hunting sexual predators while tackling the ethics of technological singularity

| May 4, 2023

Franklin Ritch has fashioned a brilliantly creepy and thoughtful piece of speculative fiction that smartly uses the confined space of its budget-saving interrogation room setting to amplify the intrusive nature of AI in our daily lives.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 3, 2023

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.

| May 2, 2023

The Artifice Girl is top-notch science-fiction and dramatic storytelling, with an unexpected intimacy that makes me eager to see what Ritch brings us next.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 1, 2023

The Artifice Girl succeeds as a stagey moral drama

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 28, 2023

A thought-provoking film that examines the ethics of A.I., moving into even the existential aspects of the concept of artificial intelligence.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 28, 2023

“The Artifice Girl” is the sort of small, intelligent science fiction film that proves the genre is capable of much more than the special effects extravaganzas churned out by Hollywood.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 27, 2023

Ritch’s expert writing and raw acting as this troubled yet determined genius manages to give audiences plenty to ponder on whilst also addressing very real issues in a sensitive fashion...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 27, 2023

Despite the strong opening of The Artifice Girl, most of it never finds a way to make this not-so-great debate compelling as drama.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 27, 2023