20s Movie Review - The Pod Generation

Director: Sophie Barthes
Genre: Science Fiction/ Dystopian
Runtime: 110 minutes
Year: 2023
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Chiwetel Ejiofor

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2025 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 17: A FILM WITH EMILIA CLARKE
 
Description: 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 (Emilia Clarke) and Alvy's (Chiwetel Ejiofor) wild ride to parenthood in this brave new world.

Review: Emilia Clarke shines in this subtle and layered sci-fi satire about a near future where women no longer have to carry their pregnancies themselves but can outsource them to a technologically advanced egg-like pod.

The ambitious Rachel can’t resist the temptation when her promotion includes being offered and immediate discount to the company “Pegasus: The Womb Centre”. After all, if she does not have to carry her pregnancy herself, she can continue to perform well. She embraces the idea. What follows is a scarily realistic and totally alienating, but above all tragicomic.

Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor both have a lot of nuance. Rachel is the one who is overly excited about the idea and she has to convince her husband Alvy. He doesn’t know what to do, when they eventually “get pregnant” and see the pod. But soon they switch Alvy feels more connected to their unborn child and Rachel feels like she is out of her depth.

The world created in “The Pod Generation” is really interesting. Everyone has cognitive assistants, everything is digital, nothing works manually. Technology has taken over. It’s not a grim or dark futuristic world, as in many “Black Mirror” episodes. But this movie could fit in though. Everything is aesthetically pleasing, but nobody seems to have their own voice anymore.

The clever thing about “The Pod Generation” is that it remains lighthearted. But it does raise numerous questions. Especially now, with AI being up and coming. I love the world that was created for this film, enjoyed Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor together and apart and just overall really enjoyed this film. It’s a hidden gem, an underrated and very overlooked movie.

Rating: 4/ 5