Just how far are we from being able to manufacture babies without a woman actually having to be pregnant? According to Sophie Barthes, the writer and director of The Pod Generation, she conceived her film as science fiction but it should now be considered closer to documentary, given medical and technological advances that make its events feel not nearly as distant as they once did. The way in which she presents a couple deciding to have a baby leans decidedly towards the humorous, sending up the way society portrays pregnancy, motherhood, attachment, and much more.
In the near future, Rachel (Emilia Clarke) is a successful employee at a major tech company, and learns that, along with a promotion, she’s also eligible for a large subsidy for the Womb Project, which enables parents to grow a baby in a pod...
It takes some convincing to get her nature-obsessed husband Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor) on board, but once that happens, the two of them experience conflicting emotions about connecting with something that isn’t physically within either of them. Their roles become interestingly reversed as Alvy’s longing for some bond leads to him diving in to provide care for a pod that doesn’t need quite as much attention as he’s ready to give.
There are amusing elements of the future in this film that represent a detachment not just from the act of parenting but also from everyday tasks. Rachel’s apartment lights itself up as the shades raise automatically in the morning and an AI reminds her of when she last wore a particular outfit. There are nature pods that make Rachel consider why they own a country house that takes hours to get to, and therapists are now all computers, with a large blinking eye to simulate a human connection. Unsurprisingly, there’s also a phone app that can control every element of development within the pod. But Rachel still takes the G train to work, and, even in an evolved future, Human Resources does keep an eye on her activities and particularly whether she’s becoming distracted by her impending motherhood.
This film is considerably lighter than another future-focused film at Sundance, Landscape with Invisible Hand, and goes for laughs whenever possible. Clarke’s eyebrows are extremely expressive and she seems genuinely startled in most scenes, a far cry from her controlled dragon-rider in Game of Thrones. Ejiofor is grumpy and stands in for all who fear the loss of humanity in the path towards the domination of artificial intelligence. His characterization becomes more entertaining once he becomes the one who’s obsessing over the pod. The Pod Generation presents an intriguing concept and some decent laughs even if its story is somewhat uneven and unsure of exactly what it wants to be.
The Pod Generation is screening in the Premieres section at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Image courtesy of Sundance Institute.