Watch: ‘Grillionaire’ Starring Taj Richmond, In All Its Sticky Green Glory
The year is 2060, AI agents are patrolling the surf and stealing memories.
Back in July, OpenAI ran some tests with some fancy new agents, observing their behaviour in a kind of proxy civilisation.
The agents promptly organised themselves into a criminal syndicate, complete with a chain of command, forged evidence, covert communications, martyrdom and a few sacrificial lambs.
Golly.
Today, Taj Richmond and Afends release Grillionaire, after several sold-out screenings in Australia’s eat, pray, love capital of Byron Bay.
An ambitious film, this one. For one, Taj Richmond might be one of the most underrated surfers on the globe right now. For two, it’s set in 2060, with Taj on the run from a criminal syndicate, pursued by AI agents, trying to steal his memories.
Optimistic to think that’s 34 years away, rather than the couple immediately ahead of us.
“It’s the story of being wealthy in your experiences in life, not just money,” says director and lensman George Grigor. “If we have a fun time doing something, you can say how much you think that experience was worth in dollars. Which is to say, you can be rich in experiences. But it also reflects the outlook on life some of us have… It’s not a serious film at all, it’s a low-budget fun film.”
Set in Siargao, where Taj and his partner Josie Prendergast live for a good chunk of the year, Grillionaire sees the pair evade their AI pursuers by surfing a string of extremely fun waves, some recognisable, others less so.
A work of fiction, albeit one with an uncomfortably plausible premise. If we’re all condemned to play the AI evasion game, Taj appears to be playing it considerably better than the rest of us.
McTavish underfoot, Mateuse rubber wrapped around him, newly married to his longtime sweetheart, Josie Prendergast, with whom he spends half the year larking about in Siargao.
Quite an offensive amount of things going right for one man.
He paints the occasional house to keep the lights on, but more often paints the sand red, with a daily surf count that puts the rest of us to shame.
Grillionaire is presumably a nod to the local ganja lexicon, and comes courtesy of Afends, the OG hemp lords, who’ve just turned 20. The film has sold out premieres around Byron and now arrives on your screens, for your very own pleasure, so you can contemplate the apocalypse from the comfort of your own home.
