Mother/Android Review

Plot: Set in the near future, Mother/Android follows Georgia and her boyfriend Sam through their treacherous journey of escape as their country is caught in an unexpected war with artificial intelligence. Days away from the arrival of their first child, they must face No Man’s Land – a stronghold of the android uprising, in hopes of reaching safety before giving birth. 

Review: There are some movies that will hit you emotionally far more than you expect. When Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men hit theaters, I was a new father. Seeing a world devoid of children and the lengths that Clive Owen goes to in order to protect one baby reduced me to tears. It has been a long time since a film has impacted me in such a guttural way. Mattson Tomlin’s directorial debut Mother/Android is such a film with a devastating story of the trials and tribulations of birth and parenthood under the most extreme circumstances. Throw in some solid science fiction elements like killer androids and you have a layered genre feature that also manages to be an engrossing drama. Featuring strong performances from Chloe Grace Moretz, Algee Smith, and Raul Castillo, Mother/Android wowed me.

Like an episode of Black Mirror, Mother/Android is set in a near-future that looks eerily like the present only where technology allows for the majority of people to own robotic servants. From maids and butlers to public works roles, androids exist everywhere and are designed to be subjugated. One night, everything changes when the androids rise up and begin to slaughter humanity. All of this is shown in the opening minutes of the film where we also meet Georgia (Chloe Grace Moretz) and Sam (Algee Smith) within hours after they learn that Georgia is pregnant. Nine months later, we see the fallout from the android uprising and find Georgia and Sam looking for a safe place to have their baby. Thrust into a post-apocalyptic world, this two young parents-to-be must not only contend with murderous machines but also the impending baby that could come at any second.

For the first forty-five minutes of the film, we get a crash course on how the world works after everything falls apart. With limited resources and a No Man’s Land controlled by the enemy, humanity is segmented into small clusters, many of which are supported by soldiers. Temperature checks and scans reveal who is human and who is not. Georgia and Sam must barter and negotiate for everything or risk being on their own. Eventually, they come across Arthur (Raul Castillo), a man with knowledge and skills that can help them survive the androids. What follows in the remaining two-thirds of the movie cannot be revealed here without spoiling the twists this story takes, but I will tell you that every time I figured out what was coming next, Tomlin added another curveball. By the end of Mother/Android, I was left with emotional whiplash.

What works so well about this movie, and likely what drew Matt Reeves to help produce it, is the lo-fi quality of the science fiction. When they are on screen, the androids look human, but the solid FX work does its job when necessary. With subtle effects like glowing eyes or machinery seen through ripped skin, Mother/Android makes the androids believable without turning them into CGI. The threat is always tangible. The film also succeeds by not relying on genre tropes to tell its story. Like John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, Mother/Android is a character study of these people experiencing something no one has before. It is a testament to both Chloe Grace Moretz and Algee Smith that they play their roles so believably that you would think they both had been parents before.

The final thirty minutes of this movie are what hit me the hardest and make the entire experience of Mother/Android worth watching. Where any other genre movie would likely have ended, Mother/Android keeps going and tells us a far more personal story. There is no SkyNet or big bad in this story, just the journey of Georgia and Sam. Where and how the androids play into the equation is vital to this story, but Mattson Tomlin never makes this a movie about the rise or the fall of the machines. This is the story of two parents and their child. Because of that, how this movie ends is far more impactful and emotionally resonant than it would have been had this been about Sarah Connor and her son, John.

Mother/Android reminded me a great deal of seeing Matt Reeves’ work on Cloverfield and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. You immediately know that Mattson Tomlin has an eye as a filmmaker and the skills as a screenwriter to tell a vital, human story within the conceits of a genre movie. With a subtle score by Kevin Henthorn and Michelle Birsky, Tomlin’s film packs a season of top-tier television storytelling into a feature-length run time. This a profoundly resonant story that will impact everyone who watches it differently, but parents will feel a uniquely strong connection to the journey that Georgia and Sam go through. This is a wonderfully transcendent science fiction tale that is full of intense thrills and drama. I left this movie impacted and cannot wait to watch it again.

Mother/Android

GREAT

8