Taika and Jenna Ortega team up in the sun

Yesterday, I asked if we’re concerned about Taika Waititi and Rita Ora not being seen together for over three months and the answer was a resounding “no”. So noted. But Taika is busy, with a new film, Klara and the Sun, adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel of the same name. It stars Jenna Ortega as an “artificial friend” in a sort of dystopian future.

The trailer for Klara dropped yesterday and it has what is now identifiable as Taika’s stylistic whimsy and narrative melancholy. His films are never without humor, though there is also always a touch of sadness haunting the edges of his stories. That edge is becoming more pronounced the older Taika gets, there’s probably a correlation. But Klara feels like a good match for him specifically because Kazuo Ishiguro’s work shares a similar melancholic bent. There is so much beauty and life in his novels, but always there is a sadness lingering in his stories.

Klara also has a vague Gattaca vibe, as in this vision of the future, kids can be genetically modified for increased academic performance. But where Gattaca leans into a cold, unfeeling future, Klara opts for literal sunshine and whimsy, as if humanity decides at some point to shape the future in the image of Pixar…but still with our terrible human habits on full display. I am very interested to see what Taika does with the full film.

I’m also curious to see if Jenna Ortega can mount an Oscar campaign on a bright, wide-eyed performance that is the literal opposite of Wednesday Adams and the deadpan delivery for which she’s best known. I’m glad to see Ortega shifting gears, generally, but she’s gotten SO good at her cynical schtick it’s like everyone forgot she’s a legit great actress. Scarlett Johansson got an Oscar nomination for Jojo Rabbit, Taika’s penchant for dialogue means he hands actors great scenes to perform (it also serves him well, he won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay with Jojo Rabbit). Will that work for Jenna, too? And maybe Amy Adams while we’re at it? She co-stars in the film as the mother of the girl who purchases Klara as a companion.

Klara and the Sun is set for a late October release from Sony. As we heard with Cannes, there is some hesitation to spend big on film festivals this year. And Taika’s track record is mixed, Jojo Rabbit performed well and earned multiple Oscar nominations—and that win for Taika—but Next Goal Wins flopped. If there is hesitation to spend on fall festivals, I don’t know that Taika is the guy who gets his ticket automatically punched. On the other hand, Klara and the Sun looks like the kind of movie audiences at TIFF lap up, and everyone likes to win that People’s Choice award. We’ll have to see what Sony decides to do, but if it were up to me, Klara would go to TIFF, at the very least.