Decades of movies, including this week’s Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning, have told us that artificial intelligence will eventually take over the world. And honestly, it does sorta seem like those dire warnings are starting to come true. AI is slowly becoming part of our everyday life, and that’s what Sophie Barthes’ new sci-fi rom-com The Pod Generation is all about, as Chiwetel Ejiofor and Emilia Clarke become high-tech pod parents.
Written and directed by Barthes, her third feature after Cold Souls and Madame Bovary, the film centers on a couple in futuristic New York who have very different philosophies on how they should birth a child. Ejiofor’s character is a botanist who prefers they have a natural birth, while Clarke’s wants to embrace birthing technology with artificial wombs and birthing pods. Taking the leap by caring for a baby in an artificial pod, they are forced to confront what it really means to be parents.
Ejiofor and Clarke are joined in the cast by Rosalie Craig, Vinette Robinson, Kathryn Hunter, and Jean-Marc Barr.
Here’s the synopsis: Sophie Barthes’ third feature film is set in the very near future world where AI is all the rage and technology has trumped nature in nearly every aspect of life. The Pod Generation follows Rachel (Clarke) and Alvy (Ejiofor), a New York couple who are ready to start a family. As a rising tech company executive, Rachel lands a coveted spot at the Womb Center, which offers couples the opportunity to share pregnancy on a more equal footing by way of mobile, artificial wombs, or pods. Alvy, a botanist and devoted purist about the natural environment, has doubts, but his love for Rachel prompts him to take a leap of faith. And so, begins the wild ride on their tech-paved path to parenthood.
Cortland saw the film early at Sundance and wasn’t really feeling it, finding the lead characters “ignorant” and “insufferable.” I find it hard to believe anyting with Ejiofor and Clarke could be that bad, and the premise is timely and quite interesting to me.
The Pod Generation hits theaters on August 11th.
