False Positive

By: Ashlee Dell’Arciprete

One of the darkest films to make its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival was without a doubt, False Positive. Set in New York City, False Positive is a poignant but dark film that captures a couple’s biggest fear of getting pregnant through IVF. False Positive is produced by John Lee from a script he and Ilana Glazer worked on and the film itself was produced by A24 and Distributed by Hulu. Lee also just so happened to have produced multiple episodes of Ilana’s monumental series “Broad City.” To sum up the film, it’s absolutely terrifying at times but it’s one experience worth watching.

They would have normally had to wait months, but he was a student of Dr. John Hindle (Pierce Brosnan). The couple Lucy (Ilana Glazer) and Adrian Martin (Justin Theroux) are trying to get pregnant after their second round of IVF. Ilana then finds out she’s pregnant with twin boys and one girl. Dr. Hindle lets her know about a process called selective reduction to reduce complications and asks the couple their thoughts on it. She is obviously immediately against it.

As Lucy and Adrian begin to plan for their future child and prepare their home and the whole nine yards, something much deeper was happening inside. Lucy begins having strange behaviors that continuously is attributed to being “mommy brain,” but it is clearly much more than just that. She begins noticing she’s being followed and experiences some of the wildest dreams you may have ever heard of.

The powerful star-studded cast works remarkably well together from Ilana Glazer to Piers Brosnan, Zainab Jah, Gretchen Mol, Sophia Bush, John Hamilton, Kelly AuCoin, Sabina Gadecki and Lucy Walters. The direction by John Lee was remarkable, especially during the most horrific scenes. They are certainly framed in a way that keeps viewers on their toes. Lee definitely creates room for conversation between himself and viewers about just how horrific the film was.

False Positive is said to have been a contemporary take on the horror film Rosemary’s Baby. Overall, the fear of the film is powerfully contained through the close-up shots of Lucy paired with the sinister music. Director John Lee gives viewers the need to question the motives of some doctors and IVF clinics themselves. The movie is terrifying but in the best way possible. Overall, it’s definitely deserving of a watch!