I Am Mother
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A sci-fi film that seems pretty typical at its surface - “Robots take over the orld” - but is much deeper underneath.
This film is brilliant and is in the same ranks as ex-machina. I absolutely loved it!
=== Spoiler ===
In the beginning of the film, daughter is asked whether she would risk her own life to save the life of 5 others. The ethical question of whether the quantity of lives or “quality of lives” (doctor, thief, etc…) matters more. By the end of the movie, we learn that it’s the quality (i.e. the best daughter) is the one that comes out on top.
One of the favorite parts about the title is the fact that daugther becomes mother towards the end of the movie. It’s a very subtle, but very powerful, transition. I loved this.
The scariest, but also best, parts about the film is also to show how logical and qualitative machines are. Mother planned every single step from start to finish. Even when woman thought she had the upper hand, she was being used as a puppet. When you realize that everything played out according to a very predefined script, the film becomes mindblowing and makes you question everything. Were there really other daughters or did Mother just plant the bones/test results of other daughters in the lab? DId Mother want to let daugther raise her brother on her own or was that truly unplanned?