The Pod Generation movie review

MOVIE TITLE: The Pod Generation

This sci-fi romantic comedy releases on streaming on August 24, 2023.

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 1 hour 41 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: A-

IN A NUTSHELL:

In a not-so-distant future, tech giant Pegazus offers couples the opportunity to share their pregnancies via detachable artificial wombs or “pods”. And so begins Rachel and Alvy’s wild ride to parenthood in this brave new world.

The movie was written and directed by Sophie Barthes. It premiered at the Sundance Festival and offers a fascinating look at pregnancy and parenting.

THINGS I LIKED:

Emilia Clarke is wonderful and perfect in this role. You’ll almost forget she’s a British actress because she does a great American accent.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is always fantastic in everything.
The world building is quite imaginative and could be our future someday. Would like living in a world like this?
The film offers social commentary on our reliance on technology.
I thought it was hilarious to watch the sequences where the dad starts to do everything with the pod, making him emotional like an actual crying, pregnant mother. My crazy hormones turned me into a weepy mess when I was pregnant. Ha ha
I have to admit that it would have been fascinating to see my baby’s daily development when I was pregnant. In the movie, they’re able to look inside the pod.
The movie shows an AI tool in the home that also serves as a therapist. That would be cool and I’ll bet a lot of people would like that!
An interesting element of the movie is the importance of our dreams when we sleep. We learn that babies born from the pods don’t dream in their lives and the parents are told that dreaming serves no real purpose. Do YOU dream? In color? I’ve heard it said that dreaming is our brains way of shuffling through everything we experienced during the day as it’s filing things in “cabinets” in our body. I like that imagery.
The film does a great job comparing Mother Nature with what humans have come up with.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The devices with the eyeballs are creepy looking.
The couple repeats over and over how hard it is to process everything.
The movie is described as a romantic comedy, but this definitely isn’t what you’re thinking when you imagine that genre. It’s hard to describe which genre it best fits into…maybe science fiction?

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Kids will probably be bored.
We see a very pregnant woman in a two-piece bathing suit.
Emilia Clarke sure doesn’t have a problem showing her bare chest like she did in Game of Thrones. We see some of it while she’s wearing a robe.
Some “light” profanity.
We see a married couple getting frisky in bed, but nothing graphic.

THEMES:

Technology vs. humanity
Technological “progress”
Parenthood and human pregnancy
Marriage
Biology
The healing powers of nature
Evolution
The miracle of human life
Women’s right to control her own body
Dreams

INTERESTING LINES:

“We decided that nature was a commodity and that’s when everything started to unravel.” – Alvy Novy (Chiwetel Ejiofor)
“Women have become reluctant about having children because it’s not convenient for them.” – Pegazus video
“The uterus is a political issue.” – Alice (Vinette Robinson)
“Nature knows best.” – nurse at the pod company
“It’s interesting to confront philosophies.” – Alvy Novy (Chiwetel Ejiofor)
“No one becomes a mother just like that; you become one.” – Alvy Novy (Chiwetel Ejiofor)