Is this film about modern-day eugenics? Kinda! Eugenics is when the state stops certain groups of people from having babies. Usually, eugenics has been connected to racist policies, such as against Jewish people in the Holocaust. Yet, the United States had miscegenation laws, which prevented interracial marriages and thus interracial babies. However, eugenics was also aimed at people with mental or physical disabilities. Eugenics would try to stop people with mental or physical disabilities from having babies themselves. However, modern eugenics is also about preventing babies that will have mental or physical disabilities from even being born at all. Some consider it genetic engineering when really it's genetic testing to detect such disabilities and then abort those babies in the first trimester. Yet, eugenics is more of a problem when it's state-sanctioned and when people are forced to do these things. Genetic engineering is typically voluntary and so is abortion, which is a legal thing that individuals can get. When it comes to the idea of modern eugenics with these voluntary things, there are gray areas, gray areas that this film doesn't explore, but this film does have a lot of depth and nuance, turning out a great debate on film.
Jasmine Batchelor, in her feature film debut, stars as Jess, a Black woman living in Brooklyn. She's probably in her mid to late 20's. She works as a web designer and social media manager at a nonprofit company. She's dating a great guy named Nate, played by Brandon Micheal Hall (Search Party and God Friended Me), but she refuses to be committed to him. He's not asking to marry her, but he wants a more defined commitment from her. She says she doesn't know where she'll be in a year. She might decide to up and move at any point. She doesn't want to be tied down.
Chris Perfetti (
In the Dark and
Looking) co-stars as Josh, the best friend to Jess, or a really close friend whom she know from college. Josh is gay and is either de facto married or actually married to a Black man, named Aaron, played by Sullivan Jones (
Wu-Tang: An American Saga and
The Looming Tower), who works as a lawyer. Josh and Aaron want to have a baby, and it's revealed that they have asked Jess to be the surrogate mother. This means that she would be inseminated by either one of them. She would then carry the baby to term and then hand the baby over to Josh and Aaron for them to raise.
It's not obvious at first, but it seems as though Josh was the sperm donor. It's not explained why he was the sperm donor and not Aaron. Maybe, it's because Josh and Jess were friends in college. Maybe, it's because Josh is white and maybe he wanted part of himself to be in his child. Maybe Aaron didn't need to have a biological connection for whatever reason. Maybe he thought because Jess is Black, the baby would also be part Black. However, nobody raises the idea that making that choice of which of the two guys would be the sperm donor is itself a form of eugenics. It might seem like a benign form of eugenics, but it's a form of eugenics nonetheless.
At about 12 weeks into the pregnancy or the end of the first trimester, Jess gets a prenatal test that reveals that the baby she's carrying will have Down Syndrome. Jess does all that she can to prepare Josh and Aaron for the possibility of raising a child with Down Syndrome. Unfortunately, Josh and Aaron decide to abort the baby. Jess agrees, but she starts to feel as though this is the wrong decision. She then has to contend with the possibility of raising the child herself with or without the help of Josh and Aaron. Her relationship with them quickly disintegrates.
The film follows Jess as she debates raising this baby herself. Writer-director Jeremy Hersh, in his feature debut, crafts a very smart series of conversations that Jess has with her family, friends, particularly people who have children with Down Syndrome and the interracial couple themselves. He brilliantly weaves in so many issues organically and strongly, issues like discrimination against the disabled, expectations and sacrifices for parenting, as well as issues of identity. The identity at play is that of Jess as she has to decide what kind of person she wants to be and if having this baby is because she really wants it, which probably isn't the case, or because she's trying to make an ideological point.
But, as well-thought out as this film is, there are points in the debate that Hersh doesn't raise here. Jess isn't against abortion in general. She simply seems to be against abortion for this specific reason, the reason being the child having Down Syndrome. Yet, if she's against abortion for this specific reason, then why isn't she against abortion for any other reason? Josh and Aaron want to abort the baby because of the Down Syndrome issue, but what if their next attempt results in some other disability? How many times would they abort before getting the so-called "perfect" baby? Jess hints at this argument, but another obvious argument that isn't raised at all is what if people had the option to know if a person was gay or trans in a prenatal test? Would Josh and Aaron be okay with people aborting babies for being LGBTQ?
The debate here isn't as comprehensive as I would like, but it is a very good debate. Hersh is clearly a good writer. His direction and editing keep the pace of this thing moving steadily and assuredly. It's very well acted from the three main actors here also, which immediately ranks it as one of the best of the year for me. If you liked it, two other films to check out is Gayby (2012) and Private Life (2018).
Not Rated but contains language and sexual references.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 32 mins.
Available on VOD.
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