Sundance 2023: pod generation review
“I’d have babies if I could,” Alvie (Chiwetel Ejiofor) confronts the reality that his wife Rachel (Emilia Clarke) can’t go on if she gets pregnant. provide for the family.empty gestures throughout pod generation – in one movie, a device now saves a woman’s body and keeps her from losing productivity during pregnancy by placing a fetus inside an artificial womb (complete with color channels and charging stations). That concept alone gives Sophie Bart’s latest film a new world to explore. However, for every new technology introduced in the world not far from us, pod generation Failing to take the focus away from its main characters long enough to see it rarely delve into any of its ideas in meaningful depth.
At the center of it all are Alvi and Rachel: two people who walk through life with completely different perspectives. Rachel is in tune with the rest of the world as she sticks to her apps, talks to her AI assistant, and is always productive. Her husband, however, was the exact opposite. Alvey is a botanist who refuses to accept a world where technology replaces nature. In a reality of ever-advancing technology, artificial intelligence and engineers look down on his steadfast refusal to keep up with the times.
Things take a turn when Rachel finds out she’s been given the date of a lifetime. Unbeknownst to Alvie, Rachel has signed them up on the waiting list in hopes of having a baby with Pegazus’ hottest invention yet: the Pod. As an artificial womb in which babies can grow, Pegasus builds an expensive suitcase for the fetus. Fathers can now simulate their own birth without mothers having to put their lives on hold during pregnancy, making the invention a groundbreaking tool for parents to share the burden and joy of the parenting journey.it’s a clever concept pod generation Understanding can annoy some people the wrong way.
It also stems from a world where technology has begun to take over, with artificial intelligence and robots making more and more human responsibilities redundant. Balthes paints a picture of a barren, productive world that has been cut off from nature. It’s a not-too-distant future, and it’s easy to conjure up just how much it’s already existed in our lifetimes.My apartment isn’t yet managed by AI, but Google Homes and Amazon Echos can connect to so many home devices that even the simple act of turning on a light can seem like a slog when a computer can do it for you. Waste of time. The push for self-driving cars and smart homes has the future showing in pod generation It feels like a utopia within reach.
The neat thing about Bart’s script is that it centers on two people learning how to negotiate with a technocratic world and strike compromises where possible. Rachel and Alvie’s relationship is held together by Clark and Ejiofor’s chemistry, while their characters question Pod’s complexities. in some meaning, pod generation Its intent is very clear and uses Rachel and Alvy’s relationship as an anchor to navigate its higher conceptual ideas.
Unfortunately, this is also the main problem with Bart’s script. It’s terse and tedious in a way, but every time it introduces a new idea that raises more questions about the world it creates, it quickly abandons it. The final act is a mess, undermining previously solid world-building, and squandering its potential even more by choosing a clear-cut end point rather than one that feels natural to the questions the characters and world pose. pod generation So obsessed with imagining what pregnancy would be like without a physical body that it never gets beyond the surface with each new question. Clean fixes and ignoring incongruities are common traits of scripts.
It’s a lovely relationship at its core, but pod generation No struggles are included. It’s slightly ironic in its depiction of technology-related realities, but it’s never funny. Every problem is ignored or band-aided, removing any stake. It’s an aggressive safety film trying to navigate slippery slopes. The slick exterior is a hiding spot, not a place for meaningful discussion. Like the pods, the film has important dialogue but no imaginative potential beyond its shell.
The 2023 Sundance Film Festival will be held January 19-29. Find all our coverage here.