A.I.’s wonkiness—all of these networks are still in their nascency—forced Lopatin to reëxamine his most instinctive and well-worn habits. “It reminds me a lot of Paul Schrader’s transcendental-cinema thing,” Lopatin said. “He always talks about how there are films that are formulaic and ones that aren’t. The ones that aren’t do weird things with time. They dwell a little bit too long on the wrong object, like a door after someone has passed through it. You’re usually following the person, but now we’re staying on the door. That’s what A.I. is actually doing really well. What it’s not doing very well is following the person.”