Chloë Grace Moretz and Algee Smith star in “Mother/Android,” a curious and oddly satisfying little film that is a hybrid of a sci-fi thriller and a family drama. Set in the near future, in an America in which lifelike robot butlers and servants have been created to perform all the menial tasks humans avoid, the movie opens at a Christmas party. Quickly — and without any technological explanation forthcoming, even as the film progresses — there is a sudden uprising of the machines, who not only shake off their electronic shackles but turn against the humans, forming a murderous mob that never sleeps. Fast-forward several months, to when the film’s protagonists Georgia (Moretz), very pregnant, and her boyfriend Sam (Smith) are trying to pass through a no man’s land of kill-bots on their way to sanctuary in Boston — from which they hope to hop a boat to android-free Asia. A surprising amount of the story concerns the relationship between G, as she’s called, and Sam, who aren’t even sure they’re meant to be together. But equal weight is also given to a story line that turns out to be, for all intents and purposes, a zombie-apocalypse thriller. As the title implies, “Mother/Android” is a bit of a schizoid thing. But Moretz and Smith deliver nice performances, as does Raúl Castillo, playing a man they meet on their journey. The action parts of the tale are pretty suspenseful; the low-budget android effects serviceable; but the real and most rewarding grist of the narrative is the larger theme of love, family and self-sacrifice. R. Available on Hulu. Contains violence and coarse language.
110 minutes.
— Michael O'Sullivan
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