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This is a review of “The Pod Generation,” a film by Sophie Barthes starring Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It ponders technological progress and just how much we want it. This post contains spoilers.

It’s the near future, and an Apple-like company has created egg-shaped pods that will gestate babies for nine months. One couple has just been called up from the waitlist—the wife Rachel is for it, she’s the breadwinner working in tech, but her husband Alvy is against, he’s a botanist teaching at a university and prefers things the natural way.

This is the hook of “The Pod Generation,” and their marriage serves as the perfect lens through which to ponder technological advancement and just how much we want it. Throughout the film, we oscillate between craving this technological future and resisting it. We see how beautiful nature can be when uninterrupted, and also how harsh.

Is nature the ideal curator? Or does technology better it?

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