Sike

Lunzer debuts with a clever if uneven tale of AI, love, and hip-hop. Adrian, a white 20-something Jewish man from North London, ghostwrites lyrics for popular rappers. He meets and falls for Maquie, a 28-year-old venture capitalist visiting from Canada, but she’s not interested in being monogamous. To help deal with his distress, he turns to Sike, a psychotherapy app that provides feedback in real time via smartglasses. When Adrian learns Maquie has slept with the founder of a startup she wants to invest in, Sike explains that he has a fear of abandonment rooted in his father’s departure from the family when he was a child. The tech elements are as underdeveloped as the love story, since much of Adrian’s narration consists of digressions on hip-hop, race, and Jewishness. Fortunately, this is where Lunzer shines, as when Adrian bemoans the “sad” excess of later Nas compared to the “staccato gunshot lines” of the rapper’s breakout “N.Y. State of Mind” or the brilliance of Jay-Z’s “infinite enjambment.” Equally enlightening are Adrian’s assessments of the awkwardness of his role as a ghostwriter and the nuances of claims about antisemitism in rap. Pop culture aficionados ought to take note. Agent: Doug Stewart, Sterling Lord Literistic. (May)