By Seth Lukas Hynes
Mother/Android
Starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Algee Smith and Raúl Castillo
Rated MA15+
The directorial debut of Mattson Tomlin, Mother/Android is a sci-fi paradox: a well-told but poorly-written story.
Several months after a violent android uprising, heavily-pregnant Georgia (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her boyfriend Sam (Algee Smith) struggle to reach a safe haven.
Mother/Android’s plot sets a clear dramatic objective in Georgia and Sam reaching Boston, and Georgie’s imminent labour and her turbulent relationship with Sam ramp up the stakes. Moretz and Smith have solid chemistry, and the second act features a very effective stealth sequence driven by furtive movements and stark sound design, building to a genuinely shocking twist.
Mother/Android’s opening has some subtle world-building amid the uprising, but the rest of the film relies far too heavily on spoken exposition, and much of the dialogue is contrived and long-winded. Despite this, the film is frustratingly slim on details about the androids, and the EMP weapon is a poorly-explained plot-device with little tangible impact on the plot. The film also has some terribly jarring edits and very distracting shaky hand-held camerawork (which is an increasingly prevalent problem in modern filmmaking).
The android designs are generic, with blue blood and Terminator-style skeletons. Moreover, name-dropping Karel Capek’s 1921 play Rossum’s Universal Robots in a monologue about inevitable robot resistance is incredibly heavy-handed.
Mother/Android is a suspenseful, well-acted film with a great twist and an affecting human core, but has dire dialogue, irritating cinematography and few ideas of its own, and is available for streaming on Netflix.
– Seth Lukas Hynes
