Rating: 1.5/5
Welcome to the future. Digital assistants mediate all tasks. Bread is 3D printed. Devices measure and quantify bliss. So many ASMR videos.
Rachel dreams she is pregnant and happy. On the train, she sees a woman with an egg-shaped pod strapped to her chest.
Rachel works for a tech influencer company. She unveils their newest product — Masha. They look like Tony Oursler sculptures — eyeballs on top of geometric shapes. One employee worries the assistant will make their work redundant. Their boss assures them that “progress has never made anyone redundant.”
Plant life is sparse outside of select oases designed for relaxation. Oxygen bars isolate plants with mask hookups.
Bees are extinct. We artificially pollinate fruit and plants.
Alvy is a botanist and professor. He offers a fresh fig to a student. They are upset and confused that he offered them something from a tree.
Rachel’s company offers to make a down payment for her upcoming pregnancy. They have a partnership with the Womb Center and get perks. She has secretly been on their waitlist but has not told Alvy.
When talking with her digital therapist, Eliza, she mentions Alvy’s preference to have a “natural” baby — that is, to get pregnant and give birth. The therapist is wary of the use of the word “natural.”
Rachel tours the womb center. They show her the egg-shaped pods the baby gestates in. The baby can have auditory stimulation inside the pod to prevent boredom.
Thus, our central conflict. Rachel wants an artificial baby, but Alvy doesn’t. They go through with it, but Alvy furrows his brow the whole time.
The movie is not subtle. It suggests artificial insemination and tech-assisted birth is, well, bad. It co-opts feminist rhetoric about bodily autonomy, presenting it as an anti-human, anti-men cult mentality.
You know, TERF shit.
The sign that something is “wrong” is that pod babies don’t dream. The company line is dreams serve no evolutionary purpose and are intrinsically meaningless. I’m not aware of this school of thought. What is this attempting to satirize?
Rachel seems permanently confused by technology despite working for a tech company.
Alvy is holier-than-thou, smarter-than-thou, and will fight for what is “natural,” whatever that means.
Did I mention this is supposed to be funny? They watch Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World for a “comedic” bit, where Alvy cries for the penguins.
The production design is thoughtful, though lacking a consistent aesthetic. The colors are soft yet rich, giving the world a subdued brightness. It reminds me of Her or After Yang.
It would have been more tolerable if it were TV-episode length. But as a nearly 2-hour movie, it’s bloated, circuitous, and worst of all, boring.