It’s easy to see why Daft Punk’s 70-minute film Electroma could drive fans crazy. It’s wordless, as two robots – men in black wearing Daft Punk helmets – travel through the American Southwest, and the traveling shots take their time. The landscapes are lovingly portrayed, and the juxtaposition of the shiny helmets, the flat black suits and the desert is unquestionably arresting. But those shots linger on and on and on, and in a time when film and television is dominated by quick cuts, long takes make people nervous. The film, though, is surprisingly moving. When the robots’ efforts to pass for human fail, the time it takes one to give up his ruined disguise says everything and foreshadows the ending.

In ways, the movie’s very Daft Punk, but not Daft Punk at all. The last place you’d expect to find two men who dress like the electronica duo is Arizona, and Electroma moves at a tempo far slower than their music. (Perhaps for that reason, they’re not on the soundtrack, though Curtis Mayfield and Todd Rundgren are.) On the other hand, the film’s deliberate remoteness and fascination with textures is very them. Does it have more style than content? Maybe, but style counts.