Overview
- Steven Soderbergh’s feature, John Lennon: The Last Interview, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and is drawing praise for its archival craft and editing.
- The 97-minute film builds on John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Dec. 8, 1980 KFRC radio interview recorded at the Dakota, condensing roughly 165 minutes of tape and layering in more than 1,000 photos and clips.
- Soderbergh says about 10% of the movie uses generative visuals made with Meta’s tools for clearly artificial, surreal passages, which he frames as disclosed inserts rather than attempts to mimic reality.
- Reviews from IndieWire and Time fault the AI sequences as distracting or aesthetically weak, while many critics commend the elegiac portrait that centers Lennon’s reflections on love, fatherhood, and a return to performing.
- Soderbergh told AP he turned to AI after running short on time and money and argues for transparency and necessity in its use, as the film seeks U.S. distribution and enters a wider industry debate over generative tools.