ANDROID (1982)
Article 5448 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-9-2017
Directed by Aaron Lipstadt
Featuring Klaus Kinski, Don Keith Opper, Brie Howard
Country: USA
What it is: Science fiction drama

A scientist performs illegal experiments with androids aboard a space station; his only companion is one of his own creations. When the android lets a group of criminals aboard the space station (because they have a woman and he’s never met one), their presence causes complications.

It’s not easy to describe this odd little science fiction drama; the presence of the three criminals makes you suspect that it’s going to be an action thriller of sorts, but the game it’s playing is a little more complicated than that. It’s something of a chess game in which the six major characters (the scientist, the android, the new android, and the three criminals) all jockey for the power to get what each one of them wants, and it has a few surprises up its sleeve before it’s all over. the entire cast does fine work, with Kinski and Opper (a co-writer who plays the android and went unbilled in the credits) the standouts; Opper in particular has a sort of clumsy, giddy charm. Its 5.8 rating on IMDB indicates that this one is not well liked in some quarters, and I can understand that; still, I found it interesting throughout and really liked the ending.