In the not-so-distant future, aerospace company OuterMore has entered some of the final viability tests on a massive, low-orbit space station that will provide humanity with a second chance at life.  In order to help ease the burden for those left behind on earth, they have also created self-determinative beings, highly intelligent AI replicants that will stand in and provide emotional support and stability for the families of the scientists at the station.  One night, Terrance (Aaron Pierre) visits the family farm home of Hen (Saoirse Ronan) and Junior (Paul Mescal), proposing that Junior has been found suitable for travel to the station.  The proposition sends the couple into a tailspin as they try to balance the weight of the marital strain it would place on them against the economic gain.  As Terrance continues to interview Junior for his replicant, secrets about their relationship are revealed further alienating the couple from each other even as his departure date grows closer and closer. 

Garth Davis adapts Iain Reid’s novel, Foe, an MGM Studios release funded by Amazon Studios.  The 110-minute sci-fi feature debuted at the New York Film Festival to a rather muted audience reception ahead of its limited theatrical run.  With an evocative score provided by the team effort of Oliver Coates, Park Jiha, and Agnes Obel coupled with dusty cinematography from Mátyás Erdély who turns the Australian landscapes into a romanticized pre-dystopian American mid-west, Foe is a real treat for the senses, further boosted by an incredibly synchronized cast.  It is working well within the established guidelines and expectations for AI stories, but the craft both behind and in front of the camera lends itself so well to the material that it still feels new and exciting at best, and at worst, it is still a highly engaging, formally neat execution of tried-and-true arcs. 

The film opens with a title card defining what these self-determinative beings are: new, highly intelligent copies of the scientists, farmers, and engineers sent to the station that provide comfort to the families left on earth and to ease the transition of their absence.  This early reveal however betrays much of the mystery and allure of the film as it places audiences in an immediate state of unease as they try and figure out who is real and who is a robot instead of focusing on the opening act and character dynamics that have more than enough tension to stand on its own.  Terrance is most immediately affected by this as he has to go through the ins and outs of this new program and explain it to the fraught family which for audiences is now old news. While his moment in the plot is stolen from him, Pierre still delivers an incredibly tender performance as the agent assigned to Junior and Hen.  As one-third of the entire cast, his motivations always seem a little obscured as he enters into a very personal relationship with the mid-west couple that tilts Foe into something adjacent to an erotic thriller evidenced by Hen denying Junior in the bedroom sending him away while also growing closer to Terrance as the interview process wanes on. 

Terrance has that dangerous air about him because the chemistry between Mescal and Ronan is so incredible that his introduction immediately threatens to send the couple into unbalance.  While their relationship is already a little strained, Terrance only helps to pick and pull at the loose threads and examine why some of the passion may have left, who feels like who is being held back from the other and why, and fears about how much longer their traditional of-the-land lifestyle will remain viable to them among other things.  Terrance fosters a clandestine connection with Hen which sends Junior into a violent outrage fearing that he will take her from him, but he has become such a brute that he might be incapable of repairing the damage to their relationship before his departure date.  That they are able to build such a deep connection with audiences even though they are almost always at odds – yet the ideation of their love is never in question – is a testament to both Ronan and Mescal. 

As the plot unfolds across the runtime, Foe introduces a handful of images and metaphors that land with varying degrees of success.  Possibly working more fluently on the page, they are not distracting in their representation on screen, but they do feel a little empty given the prominent placement they receive in the frame.  From the beetles to the house on fire, it all helps to add to the visual intrigue of the story, but it feels pretty hollow.  The beetles do serve a nice narrative purpose come the end of this future-set tale, but it is hard to believe that that is the only reason they are there.  Because of this, Foe, when viewed as a whole, feels half-formed because the payoffs do not fully satisfy.  

Left begging for more to chew on, audiences will still enjoy the incredible ensemble performance from the three leads. Ronan and Mescal really run away with the film, but their power comes so much from Pierre’s Terrance who is locked into a rather thankless role of interviewer, always giving his scene partners a place to launch while himself stuck in the background of the frame. The dynamic lends itself to multiple rewatches to enjoy the intricacies of how they interact with each other and how they respond to the fact that one of them is an AI replacement, but the story remains quite thin possibly because the reveal is given away in the first moments of the film instead of held closer to the chest. Even still, sci-fi heads should still be able to enjoy this dire vision of the future as it hits all of the emotional beats without getting bogged down in esoteric details that fall apart when scrutinized. Instead, Foe is – yes – another cautionary tale about the rise of AI, but its nearness to us in time makes it all the more harrowing given the leaps and bounds that generative AI has taken this summer alone. It is still hard to call the film an out-and-out success, but its story, setting, and implications will linger long after the end credits roll.