‘Mother/Android’ (2022) Review: Motherhood in the Age of a Robot Apocalypse
Mattson Tomlin’s directorial debut, Mother/Android, is set in a post-apocalyptic world where artificial intelligence dominates. In the middle of this deadly robot uprising is Georgia, played by Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick Ass), who finds out she is pregnant with her boyfriend’s child, Sam (Aglee Smith, HBO’s Euphoria). While at a Christmas party, they hear a loud screeching sound from their phones and find out that the walking androids are attacking and killing human beings.
Months after the android apocalypse, Sam and Georgia are trying to flee the country to Korea while nine months pregnant. When they learn about a program that helps new families migrate to a new country, they try to reach Boston before they are shipped out. But after getting kicked out of the base camp, Sam and Georgia begin their journey on foot when they are confronted by a group of androids. As Sam distracts the androids, he gets captured. Georgia must try to rescue him and with the help of Arthur (Raúl Castillo), she heads over to an android jail where they keep humans as bait.
What is interesting about Mother/Android is that the helpers in this world are butlers, waiters, delivery agents, and construction workers that rise against middle-class Americans. It is intended as a social allegory, but the message gets lost in translation. At the heart of this movie, motherhood is the main theme that grips the heart of the audience. The title of the movie resonates with the theme: mother versus machines, and that is the ultimate game of survival, as Georgia figures out a way for her unborn baby to survive.
Mother/Android makes a gripping case of motherhood and the perils Georgia goes through to make sure her family reaches the shelter in Boston. Due to Sam’s behaviour at the shelters, they lose their chance to go to Boston. After getting kicked out of the camp, Sam and Georgia find an abandoned home for them to stay in. Sam wants to ride on the dirt bike, but Georgia wants to move silently and not catch any attention. Sam convinces her that by staying at the house for her to give birth, he is not sure that they will be safe.
Nothing goes according to plan, and when Georgia and Sam learn that they cannot go to Korea with their son. Despite all the efforts to keep their baby safe, she ultimately had to hand over the baby to strangers. Mother/Android explores an emotional core within the sci-fi genre that humans and machines are inherently different and humans will never change their ways to save themselves. The movie succeeds in the mission of exploring the authority of androids and the humanity of the world, while also bringing in the theme of motherhood. Even during a robot apocalypse that is destroying the human race, motherhood and love are powerful.
