ROB.B
Widowed father Richard orders ROB.B, a robot caretaker, to watch his son, Thomas, but this may prove to be a fatal decision.
Set in the late 1950s, in a retro futuristic world, widowed father Richard arrives home from work to find his house in chaos. His son Thomas scares off their caretaker, Julie and steals her necklace. Richard prepares dinner, however Thomas is dissatisfied with the meal, broccoli soup, arguing his mom would have made it better. Richard snaps at Thomas, who leaves his soup on the table and retreats to his bedroom. Richard is left alone, defeated, takes a seat on the couch and sees a commercial for Rob.B, a personal caretaker robot. The next day, Rob.B shows up to take care of Thomas, but after a puzzle piece goes missing, Rob.B tries to find it and ends up being electrocuted causing a malfunction. Julie returns to find her necklace and the now aggressive Rob.B chokes her unconscious. Richard and Thomas must learn to communicate and work together to defeat Rob.B.
Summary
Set in a retro-futuristic version of the late 1950s, ROB.B follows Richard, a widowed father struggling to keep his household together while raising his young son, Thomas. When Richard returns home from work to find the house in disorder and Thomas has frightened away their caretaker, Julie, the strain between father and son becomes impossible to ignore. Richard attempts to restore some normality by preparing dinner, but Thomas rejects the meal and compares it unfavorably with the food his late mother used to make. The argument leaves both of them isolated, each unable to express the grief and frustration underlying their conflict. Looking for help, Richard turns to a television advertisement for Rob.B, a personal caretaker robot marketed as the ideal solution for busy families. The machine arrives the following day, promising order, companionship, and efficient childcare. At first, Rob.B appears to offer exactly what Richard and Thomas need, but a seemingly minor incident involving a missing puzzle piece triggers a malfunction. When Julie returns to retrieve a necklace Thomas has taken, Rob.B’s behavior becomes dangerously aggressive, transforming the household’s promised convenience into a life-threatening crisis. As the situation spirals out of control, Richard and Thomas are forced to confront both the malfunctioning robot and the failures in their own relationship. Their survival depends on learning to communicate, set aside their resentment, and cooperate rather than retreat into separate worlds. Richard is portrayed as a grieving parent overwhelmed by responsibility, while Thomas is a troubled, lonely child whose anger and misbehavior conceal a deep sense of loss. Rob.B, meanwhile, embodies the unsettling promise of technology designed to replace human care, particularly when its programmed idea of protection cannot account for emotion, ambiguity, or human imperfection. Blending domestic drama, science fiction, and suspense, ROB.B uses its retro-futurist setting to explore grief, parenthood, emotional neglect, and the risks of outsourcing intimate responsibilities to machines. Beneath its thriller premise, the film is chiefly concerned with the fragile bond between a father and son and the difficult work required to rebuild trust after personal tragedy.
