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The marketing for "M3gan" has leaned into the uncanny spectacle of the title character, a four-foot-tall cyborg with big doe eyes, a ratty wig, and the wardrobe of a closeted lesbian headmistress in a '50s melodrama. And it seems to be working: A well-placed GIF here, an activation with a half-dozen women in M3gan drag there, and Blumhouse—always expert at creating buzz—has generated more interest in "M3gan" than there's been for the last five horror films dumped into the bleak theatrical landscape of early January. But the company could have gone another route as well. In case you haven't heard, this film comes to you from the writer of " Malignant ."

For that film, James Wan directed a script by Akela Cooper , a longtime TV writer with a sideline in horror screenplays. The duo perfectly calibrated the movie's blend of haunted-house scares and outrageous grotesquerie, enough to make "Malignant" a viral hit when it was released on HBO Max in the fall of 2021. Now Cooper is a horror screenwriter who also works in television, and she's been brought into the Blumhouse fold to develop a sequel to the "Conjuring"-verse spin-off " The Nun " as well as writing "M3gan" from a story by herself and Wan.

Like "Malignant," "M3gan" knows it's ridiculous. It fills a kiddie pool with ridiculousness and splashes around in it. Cooper's screenplay for "M3gan" is more overtly comedic than "Malignant," however, and has a more populist type of appeal as a result. (The audience at a Chicago preview of the film went crazy for it.) The themes are your classic "science gone amok" fare seen in everything from "Frankenstein" to " Jurassic Park ," combined with a more modern throughline exploring anxieties about motherhood and filtered through the knowingly silly lens of the "tiny terrors" subgenre. "Child's Play" is the most famous example of that last category, and many comparisons have been and will be made between M3gan (an acronym for "Model 3 Generative ANdroid") and Chucky. Their motivations are different, however: Chucky's boy Andy was a victim of his doll as much as anyone else, while M3gan is fiercely protective of her girl, nine-year-old Cady ( Violet McGraw ).

The film opens with a sequence that establishes its subsequent tone of garish satire and mischievous morbidity, as Cady plays with an obnoxious Furby-like toy called a Purrpetual Pet in the backseat of a car. She and her parents are on their way to an Oregon ski lodge for a winter vacation—until a snow plow appears out of nowhere, " Final Destination " style, and kills Cady's parents. Cut to Gemma ( Allison Williams ), an inventor working for a high-tech toy company called Funki in Seattle. Gemma is Cady's aunt and the girl's legal guardian now that her sister and brother-in-law are dead.

But Gemma isn't a motherly type. She's too busy with work to spend much time with Cady, for one. And although she works for a toy company, she keeps her toys—sorry, collectibles —in their boxes and on a shelf in her living room. But these two are now the only family the other one has. So they'll have to learn to live together, at least well enough to satisfy a court-ordered psychiatrist who's skeptical about Gemma's parenting abilities.

Enter M3gan, who seems like the perfect solution to Gemma's problem. An experimental prototype with a " Short Circuit " - style ability to memorize infinite amounts of information, M3gan can act as a teacher and babysitter who reminds Cady to use a coaster and wash her hands after using the bathroom. She's what every kid needs, and every parent secretly wants: A 24/7 companion who frees up parents to live their own lives while their kids are preoccupied with their dolls. She's going to make Gemma's boss very, very rich—so rich, he rushes M3gan through beta testing with Cady as their only subject. That can't go horribly wrong in any unforeseen way, right?

With nimble direction from " Housebound " helmer Gerard Johnstone , "M3gan" does a good job of holistically incorporating its themes without being too heavy-handed. Sure, it's technically "about" grief and what happens when the creation surpasses its creator. But more than that, it's "about" pithy one-liners and black comedy and the unsettling sight of something that looks like a human being but doesn't move or sound like one. The plot does have a few weak points and dangling threads, and the PG-13 rating ensures that the violence is tamped down before it can reach its full bloody potential. (A promising sequence of doll-based mayhem late in the film abruptly cuts off, suggesting MPAA-mandated cuts.) But the tongue-in-cheek tone is so consistent that "M3gan" is a hoot anyway.

Johnstone reaps seemingly endless rewards from the uncanny valley aspect of M3gan's character. He directs the petite stunt women who play her to move in odd, jerky gestures, which at different points recall everything from "Robocop" scanning criminals' faces to Samara crawling out of the TV in " The Ring " to voguers high on their fabulousness. (He also uses what I can only describe as "skinned Furby" aesthetics at critical points throughout the film.) Combined with the doll's sassy comebacks and dowdy sartorial sense, the effect is true camp—something that's difficult to pull off in our irony-saturated age.

The quintessential "M3gan" moment comes midway through, when Cady and Gemma take a field trip to check out an alternative school Cady might be able to attend while Gemma is at work during the day. A teacher comes up to Gemma's car, sees what she thinks are two girls sitting in the back seat, and greets them both. M3gan turns towards the woman with a stiff neck rotation and a whirring sound. "Jesus Christ!" the teacher cries, jumping backward and exhaling a nervous laugh. The audience laughs along with her. It's the sensible response to seeing something like M3gan in the wild—it's only through conditioning (or, in this case, advertising) that we learn to love her.

Now playing in theaters.

Katie Rife is a freelance writer and critic based in Chicago with a speciality in genre cinema. She worked as the News Editor of The A.V. Club from 2014-2019, and as Senior Editor of that site from 2019-2022. She currently writes about film for outlets like Vulture, Rolling Stone, Indiewire, Polygon , and RogerEbert.com.

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Film credits.

M3GAN (2023)

Rated PG-13 for violent content and terror, some strong language and a suggestive reference.

102 minutes

Allison Williams as Gemma

Violet McGraw as Cady Ryan

Jenna Davis as M3GAN (voice)

Amie Donald as M3GAN

Jen Van Epps as Tess

Brian Jordan Alvarez as Cole

Ronny Chieng as David Lin

Stephane Garneau-Monten as Kurt

Michael Saccente as Greg

Gerard Johnstone

Writer (story by)

Akela Cooper

Cinematographer

Peter McCaffrey
Jeff McEvoy
Anthony Willis

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Watch M3GAN with a subscription on Peacock, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Unapologetically silly and all the more entertaining for it, M3GAN is the rare horror-comedy that delivers chuckles as effortlessly as chills.

As long as you aren't looking for something truly scary -- or even surprising -- M3GAN is often a lot of fun.

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Gerard Johnstone

Allison Williams

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Ronny Chieng

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Amie Donald and Violet McGraw in M3GAN (2022)

A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own. A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own. A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own.

Gerard Johnstone
Akela Cooper
Allison Williams
Violet McGraw
Ronny Chieng
972 User reviews
326 Critic reviews
72 Metascore
3 wins & 28 nominations

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Police Detective

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Trivia Amie Donald performed any of M3GAN's scenes that called for physical movement the puppet could not do. She also performed all of her own stunt work. Donald received movement coaching from Jed Brophy and Luke Hawker in portraying M3GAN's agility. On set, Donald wore a static silicone M3GAN mask created by Morot FX, and this was later replaced by a CGI version of M3GAN's face to match that of the animatronic.
Goofs At around 1:17, M3gan uses the frame she was suspended from to hoist Cole up off the ground, almost succeeding in hanging him. But this would only be possible if M3gan was heavier than Cole (because the cable was just strung through a simple pulley - a one to one ratio, with no mechanical advantage) And earlier, M3gan was light enough for a 12yo boy to easily carry; Certainly not the same weight as even the lightest adult man.

M3gan : Cady, seriously, flush the toilet.

Alternate versions Unrated version restores various scenes which were trimmed/replaced for violence and language to secure a PG-13 rating.
Connections Featured in Double Toasted: IS M3GAN'S MARKETING TOO MUCH? (2023)
Soundtracks Purrpetual Pets (Theme) Written by Madison Davey, Tai Fronzaroli , Gerard Johnstone , and Devin S. Norris Performed by Devin S. Norris (as dv/sn), Madison Davey, Väärin Produced by Yellotone Music

User reviews 972

smash-61002
Dec 30, 2022

Exceptional Robots on Film & TV

How long is M3GAN? Powered by Alexa
January 6, 2023 (United States)
United States
New Zealand
Official Facebook
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Don't Meet M3gan
Atomic Monster
Blumhouse Productions
Divide/Conquer
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$12,000,000 (estimated)
$95,159,005
$30,429,860
Jan 8, 2023
$180,089,109

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 42 minutes
Dolby Atmos

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M3GAN First Reviews: A Surprisingly Fun and Funny Horror Icon Is Born

Critics say the campy sci-fi horror flick leans into its ridiculous premise and runs with it, even if it's hampered a bit by its pg-13 rating..

TAGGED AS: First Reviews , movies

January has long been considered a dumping ground for movies that are expected to perform poorly, but M3GAN could be an exception, given the stellar reviews for the Blumhouse horror-comedy. The movie built up anticipation with its trailers, which went viral for their fun tone, and now critics are confirming that M3GAN is indeed a campy delight that’s worth seeing. Despite killer dolls and AI gone wrong being common in the horror and sci-fi genres, the production team of Jason Blum and James Wan , aided by everything and everyone that went into the portrayal of the titular toy, apparently have made a fresh and entertaining movie to start off 2023.

Here’s what critics are saying about M3GAN :

Is M3GAN a new horror icon?

She’s absolutely f—ing nuts, and what fun to watch her play. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

The deliciously menacing doll steals every scene… M3GAN is fascinating to watch, whether she’s staring out a window with unnerving intent, busting some contortionist moves, or simply cocking her head in a sudden tilt that induces both shivers and snickers. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

She is methodical and downright scary at times — but it is always for what she thinks is a good cause, and that is something that doesn’t happen every day. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

She gets too wisecracking in the end — but otherwise she’s a fresh and sinister addition to the canon. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

M3GAN’ s greatest shortcoming is that the human characters aren’t nearly as entertaining as she is… Whenever she isn’t on screen, including during the movie’s setup, things don’t operate quite as well. – Karl Delossantos, Smash Cut Reviews

A genre star is born from motherboards and violence. – Matt Donato, IGN Movies

(Photo by Geoffrey Short/©Universal Pictures)

How does the film stand out in its genre?

M3GAN sets itself apart from its predecessors by embracing the silliness of the premise and catering directly to the internet audience. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

M3GAN fits into a tradition of demon-doll movies going back to the Karen Black episode of Trilogy of Terror and the Annabelle trilogy (also produced by Wan), but it has its own amusing throwaway token relevance. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

A deeper understanding of the characters distinguishes M3GAN from other movies. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

Its creators are so clearly on the same insane wavelength, nimbly blending camp and social satire and actual terror, that M3GAN is poised to crack the murder-doll pantheon and stay there forever. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

The script by Akela Cooper (from a story by Cooper and producer James Wan) is a bit wittier than your standard slasher fare. – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

The thing about formulaic movies like M3GAN is that sometimes they get it right… Laced with a nasty wit and passive cynicism, M3GAN is a surprisingly fun thriller. – Norman Gidney, HorrorBuzz

Amie Donald and Ronny Chieng in M3GAN (2022)

Does it deliver on gore?

Some scenes, like [an] ear-ripping scene, flirt with a more violent and grisly outcome, only to fall back into PG-13 territory. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

It’s not exactly light on the bloodshed, but it’s not aiming for a high amount of gore, either. – Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment

How much more fun could M3GAN be were its murderous creation really allowed to let loose? Instead, the film is forced to look away from the gruesome stuff and keep the body count relatively low. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

Are there any breakout performances?

Violet McGraw is a rock star in this film. She is pure perfection… That girl is going places, so keep an eye on her. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

The MVP of M3GAN is the young Violet McGraw, whose multifaceted performance adeptly showcases the emotional intensity of Cady’s situation… McGraw’s performance really lands. – Jeff Ewing, Slashfilm

(Photo by ©Universal Pictures)

Is there more to M3GAN than meets the eye?

Beneath the ridiculous antics of its uncanny-valley villain and Black Mirror -knockoff plot lies a surprisingly touching story about grief and family bonds. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

While being practically built for meme/gif culture, it’s still a film attempting to tackle ideas surrounding grief and the over-reliance on technology to handle life’s problems. – Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment

For every scene in which M3GAN seems to be auditioning for Drag Race , there is another scene grounded in some kind of reality — or, at least, a sense of stakes. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

Not so subtle messages about relying too much on electronic devices — especially when parenting — adds to the humor and fun of the film. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

The majority of the movie is infinitely more serious and sad, resulting in a slightly imbalanced but nevertheless rewarding experience. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

Is M3GAN going to be an internet sensation?

M3GAN is made to be memed. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse

M3GAN manages to transform its well-trod elements into a tense, engaging horror-comedy outing with a keen eye for tongue-in-cheek and meme-worthy scenes. – Jeff Ewing, Slashfilm

Will we want a sequel?

Viewers will leave theaters wanting more of her, and fingers crossed we get it. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

If it really happens in the future, I do hope James Wan and Gerard Johnstone can come up with something that isn’t sticking too close to the usual formula. – Casey Chong, Casey’s Movie Mania

M3GAN opens everywhere on January 6, 2022.

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‘M3GAN’ Review: This Killer Doll Movie Sets the Bar High for 2023

It may just be this year's Malignant.

We are only a few days into 2023, and M3GAN may be my favorite film of the year. You’ve got a lot to live up to, 2023!

If you’ve seen the trailers for M3GAN , you pretty much know the story. Allison Williams plays Gemma, a roboticist who works for a company that builds AI toys. When her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car crash in the opening moments of the film, she is left in charge of her nine-year-old niece, Cady ( Violet McGraw ). Despite working with toys, Gemma has no experience with children, and it shows. She is awkward around Cady, doesn’t understand simple things like having toys available for kids, and avoids talking about difficult topics—like her parents’ death. Instead, Gemma fast-tracks a new toy she has been building, a Model 3 Generative Android – M3GAN for short.

M3GAN is a doll that syncs up and learns from a child—in this case, Cady. She has all sorts of fancy-schmancy AI bells and whistles that mean she can learn whatever the child needs to know, from facts about condensation, to how to draw and dance, to just holding a conversation and being a good listener. Cady becomes attached to M3GAN very quickly. M3GAN becomes just as attached to Cady, just as quickly – but with deadlier results. For you see, M3GAN’s prime directive is to protect Cady, physically and emotionally. So when someone hurts Cady, M3GAN takes that personally. And then she becomes less like Raggedy Ann and more like The Terminator.

RELATED: 'M3GAN' Director Gerard Johnstone on Bringing the Killer Doll to Life

There are no twists in M3GAN . There is no big surprise, nothing you aren’t expecting. Part of that is due to the marketing department, which gave the whole movie away in the second trailer. But despite that, M3GAN is still a great movie. It is fun, it is funny, and it is weird. One of the best shots in the film has M3GAN sitting on a toy table, surrounded by traditional stuffed teddy bears and puppies and whatnot. And then there is M3GAN, sitting silently, with a grave expression on her blank, not-quite-human face.

M3GAN herself is a marvel. Created with a combination of puppetry, animatronics, VFX, and a human actor ( Amie Donald , with a voice by Jenna Davis ), it's hard to tell when she is real, when she is fake, and when she is a combination. The sound design of M3GAN certainly helps the illusion of the character. With virtually every step, M3GAN whirred and clicked, the sounds of gears moving. Not loud enough to be obnoxious, just noticeable, so that it's clear M3GAN is a robot. Jenna Davis brings an especially joyous vocalization to M3GAN, making her sound both lighthearted and somehow ominous. The human actors are also great. Allison Williams brought her A-game, as always, playing Gemma as an overwhelmed aunt who thinks she has it all under control. Especially impressive is young Violet McGraw, who was endearing as Cady, bringing both a sadness over the death of her parents and a joy over her new friend. She is a brat when she needs to be, and she is caring when the time is right.

The movie isn’t perfect. There were a couple of minor plot details that felt tossed in, namely a hint of corporate espionage that is referred to later on but never really explored in any meaningful way, and the film would have been fine without this addition. The film also takes its time before we get to any sort of danger, but luckily, M3GAN is funny enough to keep the story flowing.

M3GAN might just become the Malignant of 2023. It doesn’t have a twist, but it is a weird, bonkers movie. Director Gerard Johnstone knocked it out of the park with his second film. It’s not traditionally scary, but it is existentially scary. As the world makes greater strides in AI and robotics, these kinds of scenarios become more terrifyingly possible. Luckily, you have the strange image of M3GAN twerking or driving an expensive sports car to make you giggle past the discomfort.

Rating : A-

M3GAN comes to theaters on January 6.

‘M3GAN’ Review: Brilliantly Crafted Comedy-Horror Delivers a Jolting January Surprise

Don’t judge this smart, provocative chiller by its first-weekend-of-the-year release

It’s extremely impolite to release a film like “M3GAN” in the first weekend of the calendar year. Early January is a time that’s usually reserved for unremarkable or awful genre films like “Underworld: Blood Wars” or the re-quel of “The Grudge.” But “M3GAN” is actually a good movie, and it shouldn’t be tainted by this association with the typical winter doldrums.

Actually, “M3GAN” is more than just a good movie: It’s a great one. Gerard Johnstone (“Housebound”) and screenwriter Akela Cooper (“Malignant”) have crafted a frighteningly fun and excitingly creepy horror-comedy that holds up to scrutiny. It’s thematically rich and emotionally resonant. Maybe 2023 will be a pretty good year after all; “M3GAN” gives us hope.

Allison Williams stars as Gemma, a single, career-focused toy designer whose life gets thrown into upheaval when her sister and brother-in-law suddenly die. Gemma is given custody of her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw, “Black Widow”), but dang it, Gemma is pretty busy, and she spends more time working on her latest project — a Model 3 Generative Android, aka M3GAN — than bonding with or nurturing this young girl who desperately needs a real connection.

Realizing that she can kill two birds with one stone, Gemma reconfigures M3GAN to be not just a high-tech friend, but also a parental surrogate that constantly evolves to meet the needs of a child. M3GAN (Amie Donald, voiced by Jenna Davis) becomes Cady’s playmate, her babysitter, her confidant and pretty soon — because Gemma can’t be bothered to do any heavy lifting herself — her primary caregiver. And M3GAN takes that responsibility very, very seriously. Deadly seriously.

So yeah, that neighbor with the angry dog that threatens Cady’s physical safety? Something’s going to have to be done about that. The bully who injures Cady in the woods? There’s no point in contributing to his college fund. Johnstone’s film takes great delight in showing the audience exactly who deserves to die and then cathartically killing them, a dastardly tone that scratches the audience’s moral itch for justice while indulging in our old-fashioned, mean-spirited bloodlust.

Jason Bailey (Photo by Jason Heatherington/Image courtesy of Showtime)

And yet the film’s harshest judgments are reserved for Gemma, who falls prey to the insidious temptation to distract a child instead of raising her. Violet McGraw plays Cady with frank, raw emotion, conveying the kind of visceral responses you might expect from a child too young to process grief, who nevertheless has to mourn her parents. Her connection with M3GAN is a natural response to losing, suddenly, the only people who cared about her and to being thrust into a living situation with an adult who treats her like a problem to be solved.

Johnstone’s film prepares us to share M3GAN’s harsh judgments by freely giving us the high ground over its protagonist. We laugh when M3GAN ominously glares at someone who threatens Cady’s security because it’s the exact same glare we gave Gemma when, instead of spending quality time with Cady, she leaves her alone with an iPad all day. When Cady asks for a bedtime story, the camera lingers on the two of them while Gemma silently downloads a book, more attentive to the smartphone screen with nothing on it than to the niece she’s supposed to be caring for, who’s right in front of her.

The worst critique one can reasonably lob at “M3GAN” is that Gemma — who is supposed to be self-absorbed, not inhuman — never seems to mourn for her own sister. She’s too busy trying to make deadlines, and the movie is far too focused on Cady’s emotions to delve too far into Gemma’s own psychology, leaving the character feeling just a little incomplete.

But that doesn’t get in the way of the story, which plays out with all the bizarre fascination one might expect from Cooper, whose previous script for James Wan’s “Malignant” was also a devilish joy. Working from a story co-written by Wan, Cooper cleverly constructs a screenplay that justifies the mayhem, makes us care about the characters we need to care about, heightens the awful qualities about the characters who are going to die, and deftly sets up some sequels without making it seem like a shoehorned corporate mandate. (One suspects that they might regret putting the number “3” in the title from the get-go, since when that third film rolls around, what then?)

And then of course there’s M3GAN herself. Davis is doing impressive and subtle work, hinting at the character’s emergence as a true artificial intelligence in ways the audience keys into but that the characters can be forgiven for missing. Donald imbues the character with a physicality that’s always odd, and otherwise alternates between charming and shocking. The character is a distinct and thrilling creation.

“M3GAN” is incredibly funny, sometimes sneakily so. There’s a line about “kicking Hasbro in the dick” which has to be an inside joke coming from Blumhouse, the studio that gave us ill-fated/underrated “Jem and the Holograms.” But it’s all so intelligently crafted and thoughtful that “M3GAN” can’t be written off as a lark. Johnstone’s film captures the same alchemical blend of heart, humor and havoc you find only rarely, in crossover classics like “Gremlins,” and it yields more entertainment than most would-be blockbusters.

“M3GAN” opens in U.S. theaters Jan. 6 via Universal Pictures.

International edition
Australia edition
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Someone to watch over me … from L, Cady (Violet McGraw), M3gan (voiced by Jenna Davis) and Gemma (Allison Williams) in M3gan.

M3gan review – girlbot horror offers entertaining spin on teenage growing pains

Cheekily enjoyable chiller where a devastated girl seems saved by an eerily self-possessed robot companion – but all is not as it seems

N ot a robot so much as a hi-tech Frankenstein’s monster, stitched together with bits of Robocop and Terminator, but cheekily enjoyable just the same. This is a sci-fi chiller co-written by horror experts Akela Cooper and James Wan and directed by Gerard Johnstone. M3gan , or Model 3 Generative Android, is an eerily self-possessed blond tweenage girlbot, voiced by Jenna Davis, a state-of-the-art toy from the near future developed as a personal passion project by engineer Gemma (Allison Williams, from Get Out and HBO’s Girls) to the exasperation of her highly stressed boss David, amusingly played by Ronny Chieng.

To be properly developed, M3gan needs to “pair” with a little girl owner; she needs to sync up with an actual human, to learn her owner’s speech patterns, behavioural traits and emotional needs, so she can be properly close with her. And Gemma doesn’t have anyone to fill that post – until her nine-year-old niece Cady (Violet McGraw) is orphaned after a car crash and comes to live with Gemma, who must furthermore honour her late parents’ wish that she is homeschooled. This poor little girl, utterly devastated by her mom and dad’s death and without any friends her own age in a new city, is an obvious candidate to be M3gan’s new pal.

Their friendship utterly transforms Cady, who is miraculously cured of grief, while M3gan’s humanoid mannerisms astonish and excite David, who demands that his entire corporation get ready to mass-produce this incredible toy at $10,000 a pop. But then … with a terrible inevitability … M3gan becomes wilful and reluctant to obey orders, just like any kid entering teen years, or like any humanoid robot in any sci-fi film ever. M3gan is very protective of Cady. So that nasty neighbour’s dog that makes a nuisance of itself? That mean boy that bullies Cady? They have got real problems coming their way.

Derivative though M3gan undoubtedly is – with creepy fake toy TV ads that are a ripoff-homage to Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop, and a freakout finale that references James Cameron’s android meisterwerk – there are some adroit satirical touches about dolls as toxic aspirational templates, dolls as parodies of intimacy and sensitivity and tech itself as sinister child-pacification, with kids given iPads the way Victorian children were given alcoholic gripe water. It is funny when M3gan sings Titanium to Cady as a lullaby, but is then capable of switching to snarling rage, and Chieng is good value. A entertainingly nasty film for the new year.

Horror films
Science fiction and fantasy films
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Consciousness

'M3GAN' review: You'll love the mean-girl robot in this darkly funny, cautionary tale

Creepy doll movies get a needed upgrade with the sassy and sinister “M3GAN.”

Cinema’s newest “friend till the end” is a cutting-edge robot with blond hair, caustic attitude and a killer protective streak who's equally hilarious and unnerving. Produced by horror masters Jason Blum and James Wan ("The Conjuring"), “M3GAN” (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters now) satisfies with slasher gusto, “Black Mirror”-esque satire and social media savvy. It’s also just plain fun to watch a film that packs a healthy amount of absurdity alongside an insightful exploration of 21st-century parenting, though you might never trust Alexa ever again afterward.

All hail 'M3GAN,' the rare January film that actually works

Movies in the first week of January are almost never any good, but “M3GAN” is an unsuspected surprise in that vein:

The plot centers on a roboticist aunt, her orphaned niece and the high-tech dynamo who comes into their lives (not for the better).
A mélange of Hollywood magic, M3GAN sings, dances and murders – not necessarily in that order.
If you liked the over-the-top, twisty cult slasher flick “ Malignant ,” you’ll dig this.

Advanced AI is cool and all until it runs amok via an overprotective android

Toy designer Gemma ( Allison Williams ) toils on a cheap new version of her company's popular Purrrpetual Pets, little fuzzballs that poop pellets if kids “feed” them too much via their iPads, but she’d rather be perfecting her new robot with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence that, in theory, would help parents take care of their youngsters. When a tragic car accident takes the lives of her sister and brother-in-law, Gemma becomes guardian for her traumatized 9-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), though she’s unprepared for being a mom.

Gemma “pairs” her new project – M3GAN, short for Model 3 Generative Android – with Cady and their connection is immediate. They get along swimmingly, Gemma’s annoying boss (Ronny Chieng) fast-tracks M3GAN into production (for $10,000 a pop!) though red flags start appearing: M3GAN has some serious protect-Cady-at-all-costs programming, and when Gemma says in passing “Everybody dies,” you know things are going to get bloody. (Spoiler alert: They do.)

Allison Williams is a horror icon on the rise, but M3GAN is the real star here

Williams, who first strutted her horror-movie stuff in “Get Out,” impresses here as a suddenly single parent who has to care for Cady’s needs and also deal with the violent chaos M3GAN inevitably brings. McGraw holds her own, too, since Cady’s tumultuous emotions run deep and she begins to use M3GAN as a snarky role model.

But M3GAN herself is the movie's marvel. Created via puppetry, animatronics, special effects and a real girl (actress Amie Donald), the title force of synthetic nature surpasses her cinematic murder-toy cohorts like Chucky and Annabelle and owns the screen as an unholy cross between Teddy Ruxpin, Regina George and Freddy Krueger. M3GAN talks back, goes feral when hunting her prey (such as mean bullies) and busts out TikTok-ready dance moves before wreaking violent havoc. And don't worry if you love every bonkers minute of it.

The main 'M3GAN' lesson: Don't let a toy parent your kid

Writer Akela Cooper carries over a similarly enjoyable and bizarrely campy vibe from "Malignant" to this film, which operates more as black comedy than scary movie. It's plenty vicious, though the action leans cartoonish as the camera pulls back from anything too gnarly.

"M3GAN" rocks plenty of style and offers some crafty needle drops: A bit of "Toy Soldiers" is especially clever. The smartest parts, however, dig into the themes of being a mom or dad in the age of screen time. "M3GAN" is a cautionary tale of what happens when something that's supposed to help parents instead replaces them and the consequences of an overreliance on technology, with that lesson coming in the form of a highly entertaining mean-girl machine.

Embrace all the horror fun

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New movies this week: Watch crazy and campy 'M3GAN,' stream Netflix's 'The Pale Blue Eye'

Allison Williams: Friends told her to get therapy after 'Get Out,' 'The Perfection' roles

Ranked: 10 creepy movie dolls you really don't want in your house

Screen Rant

Why m3gan's reviews are so positive.

M3GAN is the first big movie release of 2023, and so far, it's doing great with critics. Here's what they are saying so far about this evil doll.

The horror genre is kicking off 2023 with M3GAN , directed by Gerard Johnstone, and it all points to it being a great start as so far it has been getting positive reviews. The horror genre is still enjoying a great run on the big screen, and amidst reboots, sequels, and requels, there are original stories that are taking the audience by surprise. Among them is M3GAN , written by Akela Cooper and James Wan and produced by Wan and Jason Blum, and it introduces a new type of murderous doll.

M3GAN follows Gemma (Allison Williams) , a brilliant roboticist working at a toy company who unexpectedly gains custody of her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), after her parents die in a car accident. Gemma uses artificial intelligence to develop M3GAN, a lifelike doll programmed to be Cady’s greatest companion and be Gemma’s ally while parenting, but when the doll starts to become self-aware and overprotective of Cady, she takes a murderous turn and starts killing everyone who stands in her way. M3GAN will be out in theaters on January 6, and so far, it’s getting positive reviews.

Related: Why James Wan's First Horror Movie Is Impossible To Watch

What M3GAN’s Positive Reviews Are Saying

At the time of writing, M3GAN holds a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes , giving it a (very) fresh certification. The critical consensus praises M3GAN ’s blend of horror and comedy, as it manages to balance its comedic moments with its terrifying ones. The way Cooper and Wan crafted the story to be as far from cliché as possible – meaning being less about an orphan and more about the struggles of grief and the ones her aunt goes through in different areas of her life – while also being conscious of the absurdity of M3GAN’s concept and creation is being pointed out as one of the movie’s strengths, along with the visual effects that brought the AI doll to life. The performances of Allison Williams and Violet McGraw are also being praised, with the former playing an overwhelmed aunt to whom some might end up relating and the latter masterfully playing a child grieving her parents but also delighted by the arrival of her new friend and later conflicted over said friend’s actions.

M3GAN is not just comedy and horror in one, led by an AI doll that provides extreme loyalty and care for her assigned companion, but it also tackles darker and more serious issues, from the different stages of grief to the shadiness of capitalism, and that alone is worth the praise the movie is getting. Here’s what the positive reviews of M3GAN are saying.

Bloody Disgusting

“The eponymous character gets brought to life through impressive effects by Adrien Morot and Kathy Tse, Amie Donald’s uncanny physical performance, and Jenna Davis’s haunting voicework. She exudes menace through facial expressions and jerky movements that trigger that unsettling uncanny valley. This is M3GAN’s movie, and she more than earns it through an immensely talented team. She’s aided by a sympathetic turn from Williams, who successfully prevents Gemma from losing rooting interest despite fumbling hard with Cady. McGraw holds her own against her AI scene-stealer, no small feat considering the nuanced stages of grief she cycles.”

“M3GAN herself is a marvel. Created with a combination of puppetry, animatronics, VFX, and a human actor (Amie Donald, with a voice by Jenna Davis), it's hard to tell when she is real, when she is fake, and when she is a combination. The sound design of M3GAN certainly helps the illusion of the character. With virtually every step, M3GAN whirred and clicked, the sounds of gears moving. Not loud enough to be obnoxious, just noticeable, so that it's clear M3GAN is a robot. Jenna Davis brings an especially joyous vocalization to M3GAN, making her sound both lighthearted and somehow ominous.”

“Allison Williams (who made her mark in horror in Jordan Peele's Get Out) solidly grounds the human drama within this scary sci-fi premise of a killer doll. With an identity defined by her ambition and work, Gemma struggles when her grief-stricken niece needs her attention and the kid's failure to understand the difference between toys and collectibles. Her anxieties about parenthood versus selfhood are radiant, making the audience's skin crawl in recognition.”

“The result is a deliciously camp hour-and-forty-five minutes of frights. Sure, there’s a Frankensteinian fable in here somewhere about the dangers of letting technology replace real-life human connection – but finding it requires sifting through piles of bodies (and the occasional ripped-off ear). M3GAN, you see, is all about fun – a fact made startlingly clear in its hilarious opening scene, mimicking a Saturday morning kids TV advert.”

“The MVP of "M3GAN," however, is the young Violet McGraw, whose multifaceted performance adeptly showcases the emotional intensity of Cady's situation. The film smartly lets Cady actually go through grief and resentment, lash out in anger, and desperately reach for support. It takes these psychological issues seriously — a key part of the film is the question of the mental health impact of letting an emotionally vulnerable girl attach to an android — and McGraw's performance really lands.”

What Critics Don't Like About M3GAN

Of course, not everything about M3GAN is a hit, and even some aspects that are being praised by some are not the favorites of others. Among the weaknesses that critics are finding is that M3GAN lacks twists and shocking moments, which make it predictable as it’s quite obvious from the moment they are introduced which characters will become victims of the murderous doll. M3GAN also doesn’t have many graphic scenes, keeping the gore and kills for off-screen moments, which has been a disappointment to some especially when comparing this movie to Wan’s previous works, most recently Malignant . M3GAN ’s PG-13 rating is pointed out as the responsible one for the lack of on-screen kills and blood, and some scenes seem to have been added just to keep that rating.

The combination of comedy and horror, while praised by many, is being criticized by others, who find that M3GAN relies too much on silly moments (such as the viral dance scene) that ultimately messed with the pace and tone of the story. In addition to that, the human characters are labeled as two-dimensional, making it hard to connect to them and thus care about what could happen to them at the hands of this evil doll. Here’s what the negative reviews of M3GAN are saying.

Awards Radar

“The thing is, M3GAN sporadically seems to be winking at the audience, but also wants you to actually be invested in it. This isn’t a comprehensive enough work to have it both ways. Again, the audience seems to be doing the work for it, hooting and hollering at some moments meant to be played straight.”

Mercury News

"“M3GAN” stocks up on jump scares and keeps the violence PG-13, but fails to make us care about any of the humans in the path of M3GAN. Each character is a rote as an assembly-line toy."

Critics are divided on M3GAN ’s quality as a horror movie mostly due to its comedy and horror combination, though most of this comes from comparing it to Wan’s previous works . What they all seem to agree on is that there’s a lot of impressive work and talent involved in bringing the doll to life in a way that’s enchanting but terrifying as well, and that M3GAN has the potential to become a cult horror movie, though it might take it some time to get there.

Next: Every Horror Movie Releasing In 2023

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Common sense media reviewers.

Strong horror violence in entertaining killer-robot movie.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Many themes, from grief and loss to rampant consum

Gemma wants to be a good guardian for Cady, even t

This is a woman-driven story, with women occupying

Several characters are killed. Death, grief, and l

Reference to Tinder.

Several uses of "s--t" and "bulls--t" and exclamat

References to Tinder, iPad, Tesla, SKYY vodka.

Brief celebratory drinking by adults, vodka.

Positive Messages

Many themes, from grief and loss to rampant consumerism without concern for consequences. A sequence looks at the complexities of bullying behavior. But the main message, of course, is the danger of humanity's hubris. Much like in the original Frankenstein story: Human beings can only create life in their own imperfect image.

Positive Role Models

Gemma wants to be a good guardian for Cady, even though she doesn't quite know how. While she makes many mistakes, Gemma certainly tries hard to do the right thing; she admits when she's wrong, and she's willing to communicate and learn to prevent making the same mistakes again.

Diverse Representations

This is a woman-driven story, with women occupying the central on-screen roles. Gemma (Allison Williams) is White; her colleagues include Tess (Jen Van Epps, who's of African American and Chinese Taiwanese descent) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez, who is Colombian American). Her boss is played by Malaysian actor Ronny Chieng, who offers a counter-stereotypical portrayal. Smaller roles include a mix of people of color, women, and White men. The screenwriter is a Black woman.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Several characters are killed. Death, grief, and loss are discussed. Child injured in car crash; bloody wounds on face. Dog bites child's arm. Dog viciously attacks M3GAN. A person who is bullying someone has their ear ripped off. Nail shot through character's wrist via nail gun. Person sprayed in face with power chemical sprayer. Characters stabbed with paper cutter blade; blood shown on blade. Character strangled, hung with steel cable. Fighting. Violent showdown between robot and humans: attacks with hedge trimmers, screwdrivers, etc. Jump scares. Snow truck smashes into car. Character hit by truck. Explosions. Child smacks adult in the face. Arguing. In an act of bullying, someone smashes a spiky plant into someone else's hand; the victim yells in pain.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "s--t" and "bulls--t" and exclamatory uses of "Jesus" and "Jesus Christ." Minimal use of "f--k," "bitch," "hard-ass," "d--k," and "oh my God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that M3GAN is a horror movie about a robot doll (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis ) who befriends a grieving young girl (Violet McGraw) before things go terribly wrong. It's well made, albeit violent, and focuses on human needs as well as artificial ones. Characters are killed, and there are discussions about death, loss, and grief. Someone's ear is ripped off, and characters are stabbed, strangled, shot with a nail gun, sprayed with a chemical sprayer, bitten by a dog, etc. A child survives a car crash and has bloody cuts on her face. There's lots of fighting and a violent showdown. Language includes several uses of "s--t" and "Jesus Christ," plus minimal uses of "f--k," "bitch," "ass," etc. A few brands are mentioned, including Tinder, Tesla, iPad, and SKYY vodka (which adults also drink, briefly). Note: This review is for the original theatrical version of the film; an unrated cut is also available that includes additional content not covered here. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

Parents say (47)
Kids say (100)

Based on 47 parent reviews

Parental guidance however ok for kids who love horror

Great for age 11+, what's the story.

In M3GAN, robotics engineer Gemma ( Allison Williams ) works for a toy company and is trying to build a sophisticated, realistic AI robot toy, with disappointing results. Gemma's sister and her husband are killed in a car accident, leaving Gemma in charge of her young niece, Cady ( Violet McGraw ). After her guardianship gets off to a rocky start, Gemma is inspired to finish her creation. M3GAN (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis ) and Cady quickly become attached to each other, and, for a while, this friendship seems to be helping with Cady's grief. But before long, M3GAN starts developing disturbing tendencies, and violent "accidents" begin occurring.

Is It Any Good?

A combination of sly, funny self-awareness, a genuine sense of human grief and emotional connection, and an unsettlingly creepy-cool killer robot, this fun horror pic hits all the right buttons. With a story concocted by James Wan and Akela Cooper ( Hell Fest , Malignant ), M3GAN understands how horror movies are wired and gets pleasure in teasing viewers with these known elements while cheerfully sidestepping the story's flaws. The M3GAN character is in roughly the same vein as Chucky and the Terminator, but she's also their opposite. Her delicate frame, wide eyes, and girlish appearance make her attacks seem somehow more potent and surprising, and the movie uses them to the fullest capacity. The human characters are just as interesting as they grapple with loss in realistic, touching ways, going through rage, sadness, guilt, and more. (M3GAN's on-screen POV display, which shows her detected percentages of human emotions, is a huge kick.) This slick, neatly paced film keeps ramping things up until a smashing showdown, face-to-interface.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about M3GAN 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Is the movie scary ? What's the appeal of horror movies? Why do people sometimes like to be scared?

How does the movie deal with death, grief, and loss? What is discussed? What else could have been discussed?

How is consumerism depicted here? Why does the toy company rush to put M3GAN on the market before she's ready, regardless of the consequences?

How is bullying behavior depicted? How is the person who perpetrates it dealt with? What are some better ways of handling those who bully others?

Movie Details

In theaters : January 6, 2023
On DVD or streaming : February 8, 2023
Cast : Allison Williams , Violet McGraw , Amie Donald
Director : Gerard Johnstone
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Female writers, Black writers, Asian writers
Studio : Universal Pictures
Genre : Horror
Topics : Robots
Run time : 102 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : violent content and terror, some strong language and a suggestive reference
Last updated : December 5, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Movie Reviews

'she said' follows the journalists who set the #metoo movement in motion.

Justin Chang

New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor (Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan) investigate allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in She Said. Universal Pictures hide caption

New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor (Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan) investigate allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in She Said.

At first glance, the taut and engrossing drama She Said seems to follow in the tradition of step-by-step newspaper procedurals like All the President's Men and Spotlight . Like those earlier titles, it makes journalists look awfully good — not just by casting them with famous actors, but also by showing how difficult, thankless and tedious their work can be as they struggle to break that huge, history-making story.

But because the story here is about Harvey Weinstein , She Said can't help but play differently. It's both powerful and a little unnerving to see a movie about a film producer's downfall emerge from the very industry he once dominated. The movie's most eerily poignant touch is the casting of Ashley Judd as herself, agonizing over whether she should go public with her story about having fended off Weinstein's hotel-room advances years ago. The director, Maria Schrader, and the screenwriter, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, effectively re-create the fear and anxiety that women felt before the reckoning of #MeToo , when powerful male abusers faced little to no accountability.

'Times' Reporters Describe How A Paper Trail Helped Break The Weinstein Story

Author Interviews

'me too' founder tarana burke says black girls' trauma shouldn't be ignored.

As the movie opens in 2016, the New York Times investigative reporter Megan Twohey, played by Carey Mulligan , has just written about new sexual-assault allegations against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in the wake of the infamous Access Hollywood tape . She teams up with another reporter, Jodi Kantor, played by Zoe Kazan , who's heard allegations about Weinstein that concern sexual harassment, assault and rape. In one scene, Kantor catches Twohey up to speed on what she's learned, and asks, "If that can happen to Hollywood actresses, who else is it happening to?"

That's a good question, especially since actors like Rose McGowan and Gwyneth Paltrow, who've worked with Weinstein in the past, are unwilling to speak on the record. Kantor and Twohey decide to focus on the many women who used to work at Weinstein's company Miramax. They split up the legwork, doggedly tackling the story from every angle. And gradually, with the invaluable guidance of their editor, Rebecca Corbett — a terrific Patricia Clarkson — they uncover a vast network of enablers who helped Weinstein not only commit his crimes but also keep them hidden, via settlements and non-disclosure agreements.

Book Reviews

'she said' tracks the remarkable reporting leading to the arrest of harvey weinstein.

The wife of California's governor gives tearful testimony at Weinstein's rape trial

The reporters complement each other nicely, and so do the actors playing them. Mulligan plays Twohey as the steelier of the two; there's an amusing moment when she decides to take the lead on an interview, since she's taller and presumably more intimidating. Kazan emphasizes Kantor's empathy, her skill at building trust and coaxing information out of even the most reluctant sources. One of the pleasures of She Said is that it subverts the usual Hollywood formula of the male workaholic and his supportive, long-suffering wife: Here, it's Kantor and Twohey working tirelessly at all hours while their husbands hold down the fort and take care of the kids.

There's something meaningful about that dynamic, especially since so many of Weinstein's former assistants were young women on the cusp of successful film careers that were suddenly cut short. Samantha Morton gives a terrific performance as Zelda Perkins, who rivetingly details an incident in the '90s when she spoke out against Weinstein for harassing a colleague. And Jennifer Ehle is quietly heartbreaking as another ex-employee, Laura Madden, who musters the courage to break her two-decade silence.

Weinstein himself remains a mostly peripheral figure, shown only from behind in a few scenes in which he tries to pressure the Times ' executive editor, Dean Baquet , played by an unflappable Andre Braugher. The movie remains tightly focused and disciplined as Kantor and Twohey race to publish their story , especially after learning that another Weinstein investigation , by Ronan Farrow , is about to break in The New Yorker . But the Times reporters are also determined to get the story right and make sure that they've built an airtight case.

Where the #MeToo movement stands, 5 years after Weinstein allegations came to light

As a lover of movies about journalism, I ate up every detail of the drama inside the Times building, even while knowing that I was watching a more polished and streamlined version of events. There's something a little tidy and anticlimactic about how She Said ultimately plays out, especially since it leaves the aftermath of Kantor and Twohey's reporting offscreen. At the same time, it's fitting that the movie should end before we can see the full impact of the #MeToo movement that journalists helped ignite across every industry and all over the world. That's a much bigger story — and one that, five years later, is still being written.

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‘she said’ review: carey mulligan and zoe kazan anchor solid dramatization of new york times’ weinstein investigation.

The stars play Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, whose exposé on Harvey Weinstein ushered in changes in the film industry, in Maria Schrader's newsroom procedural premiering at the New York Film Festival.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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In a portrait taken from a distance, a woman in dark-colored top and slacks stands with a hand on her hip in a sunny outdoor space.

Meg Ryan Wrestles With the Rom-Com

She always had concerns about the happily-ever-after ideals of the genre. Now as a director she’s pushing its boundaries to examine issues of aging and regret.

It’s been seven years since Meg Ryan was last onscreen, and she didn’t really miss it. “I feel like I had the ride, the Hollywood ride,” she said. Credit... Chantal Anderson for The New York Times

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By Melena Ryzik

Reported from Summerland and Santa Barbara, Calif., near Meg Ryan’s home

Published Oct. 28, 2023 Updated Oct. 29, 2023

Meg Ryan was hurting.

Not metaphorically. The actress and one-time rom-com queen was actively sore, having spent the morning, one of many, unpacking and moving herself into a home she’d long been renovating in Montecito, Calif.

Persevering through the painful twinge, making order out of the past — really, finding comfort in the present — are the sneaky subcurrents of Ryan’s new movie, “ What Happens Later ,” a wily rom-com that she co-wrote, stars in and directed. A two-hander opposite David Duchovny, it distills moviedom conventions and plays with a different emotional palette; Ryan grappling with her own cinematic brand. It is only her second foray behind the camera and the first time she has appeared onscreen in seven years.

She hasn’t missed the spotlight. “I feel like I had the ride, the Hollywood ride,” she said over a restorative soup lunch on a foggy day. “I kind of went to the moon already. So I don’t have giant ambitions to be back in that.”

Though she’d always done dramatic work, it was romantic comedy that brought Ryan megastar status in the ’80s and ’90s: Nora Ephron’s “Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail” and “When Harry Met Sally …” (which Ephron wrote and Rob Reiner directed) were all form-defining blockbusters, still beloved today. Returning to the genre at this point in her career is both safe and gutsy. She knows how to play the beats; how to deflect them, too. (Early in the new film, Duchovny’s character, looking to charge his phone in an airport, unplugs a digital billboard. A retro-looking ad for “Rom Com” blinks off.) But Ryan, 61, may also face intense scrutiny for her choices, her humor, her looks, her very state of being.

That, too, doesn’t seem to faze her. “It took me this long to have something to say,” she told me, adding: “My interest in this movie isn’t about Hollywood’s perception of me. I’m not interested in controlling that. I don’t think I can.”

Instead she wanted a story that asked vulnerable, wounded questions: “Do you think about the one — what would happen if I ever saw him or her, after all this time? What would we say to each other? Will we forgive?” But she wanted to wrap it all in what she has called the confection of romantic comedy .

In a black-and-white image shot from a distance, a woman in sunglasses and dark clothing leans in an exterior doorway and looks up to the camera.

SHE ARRIVED FOR OUR LUNCH cloaked in black comfortwear: joggers pushed up to her calves, sneakers, T-shirt — errand clothes with a nubby jacket nonchalantly thrown atop. She took off her large oatmeal-colored hat and round sunnies (Diane Keaton vibes) and sought out a quiet side table, across from the row of lemon trees in the restaurant’s garden, where she, as a serial renovator , gladly talked about design. “I love the idea of space, and space holding you,” she said. “I love the different ways you can conduct light.”

Her gamine features — blond hair enviably waved, eyes a bright lagoon blue — are gently leavened by age and, in Hollywood fashion, cosseted by wealth. Lightly guarded, she was still charming, and playful. Because of a hip issue, she walked with a slight limp; rather than try to mask it, she wrote it into her “What Happens Later” character, who breezes past it with a remark about being old and doesn’t let it stop her from dancing.

In the film, out Nov. 3, Bill and Willa are opposites-attract paramours who split up in their 20s and have their meet-cute when they bump into each other at a regional airport in their 50s. They get snowed in. Banter ensues. No one and nothing else enters the picture, except time, personal history and the disembodied voice of the airport announcer, whose messages get increasingly pointed.

Those touches gave it a magical realist twist that was all Ryan, Duchovny said. (Because of an interim agreement between SAG-AFTRA and the film’s producers, the actors are allowed to give interviews during the strike.)

Especially since they shot almost entirely overnight, in an off-duty airport or at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., the whole production felt mystical. “She doesn’t make anything look difficult, and that doesn’t mean it isn’t,” Duchovny said in a phone interview. “As much as we hated physically working nights , there was a mood that descended that was good for creating . Real life faded away.”

That was intentional: “We worked the entire time as if the script was a dream,” said Ryan’s friend Kim Gillingham , an acting and dream coach who was on set every day as a sounding board for the two performers.

Another friend, Sally Franson , a novelist, also went over ideas with Ryan early on. “She was thinking about, where can the rom-com go in 2023?” Franson said. “If you enchant” the audience, “you lead them into a period of high immersion.”

The project — based on a play by Steven Dietz , “Shooting Star,” originally adapted with Kirk Lynn — came to Ryan during the pause of the pandemic, when she grew interested in the setup of two people “under glass,” as she put it, “who stop, and you see what happens.” Her character is New Age-y; Duchovny’s is stolid.

“I just think David’s so funny as an anxious person,” she said, “just how thoroughly bothered he was by everything.” They got to know each other as they workshopped the material over six months of video calls. “I had never done that much work on a script before,” Duchovny said. “It was great. She kept tinkering with it.”

The film is dedicated to Ephron, who died in 2012 and whose imprimatur is in the dialogue and pacing along with, Ryan said, her sense of kismet.

Yet with the notable exception of Ephron’s films and Nancy Meyers’ Meryl Streep-Diane Keaton-kitchen envy oeuvre, most rom-coms are concerned with dewy, dopey, unformed youth.

This worried Duchovny, who is 63. The characters in “What Happens Later” bring the weight and disappointments of midlife. “They can’t go through those younger rom-com moves — they can’t appear stupid or stunted,” he said. “And yet they can’t also be jaded or boring. It was really that dance of, how do we make it legitimate for adults?”

Even then, he wondered if there was an appetite to see mature people grasping at connection. “There’s something in us that gets angry when we see people who are old hoping, you know?” he said, adding, “That’s the resistance that we push against in the movie. But lo and behold, we have ‘The Golden Bachelor’ now to show us the way.”

Ryan wrote the movie following her long on-off relationship with the rocker John Mellencamp; she ended their engagement in 2019. Did that have anything to do with her interest in lovers who haunt each other for years? Not specifically, she said. “But in the idea of, some people go round and round” and never get it right. “And maybe they don’t need to.”

“To be my age and to be looking back on things — so many of these stories are about looking forward into a happily ever after,” she said. “And there’s just totally different questions up for grabs here.”

It’s not, of course, lost on her that rom-coms are what sold us on happily ever after (“a crazy idea”) in the first place. And that having the former poster girl for the genre puncture it with regrets or sadness is, to paraphrase her expletive, a mind-twister. “In my way, I feel like it’s a badass little movie,” she said with pride.

She cursed more than I’d expected and leaned into unorthodox pleasures. Learning that I had never been to the area, she pointed me to a Vedanta temple with a curving ocean view, designed, she noted, by one of the first prominent female architects in California. “It’s so surprising,” she said, and insisted on giving me the address, up near the mountains. “No matter what, you’ve got to go over the hill, because it’s sunny.”

RYAN GREW UP in Connecticut, one of four siblings with a math teacher father and a homemaker mother. Her parents split when she was a teenager, and her mother — who became a theater teacher — helped get her into commercials. By the time Ryan was 21, she had landed the soap “As the World Turns.” A small role in the original “Top Gun” (1986) got her noticed; three years later, “When Harry Met Sally …” made her a part of cinema history .

Gillingham met her in the ’80s, at a Los Angeles acting studio run by Peggy Feury, whose roster of students included Sean Penn, Nicolas Cage and Lily Tomlin. Ryan back then had the “same incandescent freedom” as Willa, her “What Happens Later” character, Gillingham said — an attitude she has retained.

“I’ve never known Meg not to be engaged in some creative project or other,” Gillingham said. “She’s just always curious, and awake, and exploring creatively.”

Ryan has a son, the 31-year-old actor Jack Quaid ( “The Boys” ), with her former husband, Dennis Quaid (they divorced in 2001). In 2006, she adopted her daughter, Daisy, now a college student. Parenting was one reason she stepped back from performing.

Another was that — having been on sets or in the Los Angeles celeb bubble for years — she felt underdeveloped as a person. Not that she didn’t appreciate some aspects of fame. “There’s an openheartedness toward me,” she said. But she also felt as if she were “roped off.” She moved to New York, seeking a less filtered experience: “You can’t get a cab. You’re standing there in the rain.” (After a decade or so, she and Daisy returned to California, to be closer to Jack, in 2020.)

Unlike most actresses of her generation, Ryan had been guided by female filmmakers, including Jane Campion (“In the Cut”). She had long wanted to write and had shown Ephron her first screenplay. Ephron responded with some positives and also some critiques. But Ryan had been studying, taking Robert McKee’s screenwriting workshop, “becoming a detective of how stories work,” Franson, the novelist, said.

“Ithaca,” her 2016 directorial debut, was a World War II coming-of-age drama, adapted from a William Saroyan novel, which Ryan saw as a story about how communities once helped boys grow into men. (She and her son co-starred in it.)

The long break between directing projects wasn’t exactly intentional, she said. “I was trying to get things set up, but they weren’t happening.” The fraught economics of Hollywood now are such that even Meg Ryan had to scramble to get a Meg Ryan movie made: “What Happens Later” had a budget of about $3 million, and a lot of called-in favors. They didn’t have the money for test screenings; the whole thing hung on Ryan’s instincts.

Forty years into her career, she has found the path to hone them. At sunset, I drove up to the temple Ryan had recommended. In the golden California light, it was otherworldly, cinematically beautiful: perched underneath the Santa Ynez peaks and hidden in the tree line, with an unbroken vista of the Pacific Ocean.

Over the bird song outdoors, I could hear bells and women chanting inside. Ryan likes to go there, by herself, and walk around in peace.

“I just want to feel my way through things,” she said.

Melena Ryzik is a roving culture reporter and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for public service for reporting on workplace sexual harassment. She covered Oscar season for five years, and has also been a national correspondent in San Francisco and the mid-Atlantic states. More about Melena Ryzik

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‘What Happens Later’ Review: Meg Ryan and David Duchovny’s Welcome Return to Rom-Coms

Fate forces two estranged exes to spend the night in a snowbound airport, rehashing their past to rehabilitate their present selves, in this sparkling comedy.

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Meg Ryan not only dazzles before the camera in “What Happens Later,” but behind it as well, as director and co-writer. Through the prism of one former couple’s relationship woes, this effervescent, enlightened romantic comedy explores our innate need for reconciliation within ourselves and with each other. It’s a delight to welcome Ryan back to the silver screen after an extended hiatus, and in the genre she helped rejuvenate alongside filmmakers like Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron (to whom this film is touchingly dedicated).

Popular on Variety

Their unspoken wish to part as friends, not foes, looks unlikely. That is until the storm of the century rolls in, forcing the pair together for the night. Their heated conversations ebb and flow, oscillating from the state of the world to the state of their lives. Bill, a practical-minded man suffering from self-diagnosed anticipatory anxiety, is going through a split from his wife, and is eager to mend a disagreement with his daughter. Willa, a free-spirited wannabe wellness guru, is also grappling with secretive difficulties of her own. As the former flames sort through their feelings on the past and present, they reveal unforgotten, uncomfortable truths and reignite a spark that never fully fizzled.

Themes of connection and the transitory, delicate nature of love reverberate brilliantly throughout — not solely in the narrative, but also through the production design, with its giant metallic heart sculpture and paper plane installation. Costume designer Kiley Ogle outfits everyone from the leads to the extras in shades of black and white — a subtle irony when Willa and Bill are dealing in gray areas when it comes to their viewpoints on the dissolution of their romance. Ryan and cinematographer Bartosz Nalazek also illuminate the couple’s darker, more introspective facets.

The announcer (voiced by Hal Liggett, a pseudonym for a yet-to-be-revealed actor) acts as a God-like voice booming from the PA system, while video boards, displaying double-sided commentary like “everything is pending” and “check your connections,” further hammer the script’s points home. And when it gets to the inevitable — a montage where the pair tool around the darkened empty terminals in a golf cart and dance to The Lighting Seeds’ “Pure” in a warmly lit hallway as snow falls softy outside — the charm factor is upped tremendously.

Duchovny gives a nicely textured performance, blending comedy with disarming vulnerability, turning in different notes of sincere and sweet than in his previous outing “Return To Me.” Ryan digs deeper into her character’s pathos than she has in previous films of this ilk, specifically the sour that’s masked by sunshine. It’s significant when Willa alternates between calling her ex Bill, W or William, revealing a lot about her fleeting feelings: playful, honest, or at arm’s length. Ryan imbues her with depth and dimension, at once adorable and tender.

It’s heartening to see the woman who elevated the rom-com game continuing her quest with “What Happens Later.” Innovatively eschewing genre tropes like the “you lied to me” moment, the grandiose gesture and the chase to the boarding gate, Ryan favors authentic character drive — with just a little twee magic sprinkled in.

Reviewed at the Sunset Screening Room, Los Angeles, Oct. 30, 2023. Running time: 103 MIN.

Production: A Bleecker Street release of a Prowess Pictures, Ten Acre Films production in association with Jupiter Peak Prods. in association with Rockhill Studios. Producers: Jonathan Duffy, Kelly Williams, Laura D. Smith Ireland, Kristin Mann. Executive producers: Ken Whitney, Liz Whitney, Steve Shapiro, Andrew Karpen, Kent Sanderson, Kerri Elder, Blake Elder, Michael Goyette, Meg Ryan, David Duchovny.
Crew: Director: Meg Ryan. Screenplay: Ryan, Steven Dietz, Kirk Lynn, based on Dietz's play 'Shooting Stars.' Camera: Bartosz Nalazek. Editor: Jason Gourson. Music: David Boman.
With: Meg Ryan, David Duchovny, Hal Liggett.

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Published on January 22nd, 2023 | by Damien Straker

M3GAN – Film Review

Reviewed by Damien Straker on the 22nd of January 2023 Universal Pictures Australia presents a film by Gerard Johnstone Screenplay by Akela Cooper from a story by Akela Cooper and James Wan Produced by Jason Blum and James Wan Starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis, Ronny Chieng, Amie Donald, Jen Van Epps, and Brian Jordan Alvarez Cinematography Peter McCaffrey Edited by Jeff McEvoy Music by Anthony Willis Rating: M Running Time: 102 minutes Release Date: the 12th of January 2023 Images: copyright Universal Pictures Australia

Fun satirical elements fail to overcome M3GAN’s lack of originality and artistic finesse. As the plot ticks down to an overly foreseeable conclusion, it is interesting to consider how Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg might have enriched the concept of a killer female doll. Kubrick’s science fiction epic 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) already featured one of the most dangerous robots in film history, HAL 9000. Later, Spielberg and Kubrick famously collaborated on concepts, themes, and effects for a film about a boy robot. The long-developed film, AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001), ranks as one of the most peculiar entries in Spielberg’s filmography. It is now a question of whether M3GAN , an uneven mixture of comedy, horror, and science from Blumhouse Productions, distinguishes itself from these heavyweight entries about robotics. It is also questionable whether it has the visuals to express its broader ideas around consciousness and modern parenting. Sadly, the film is too much like the very toys it parodies. It is initially diverting and humorous but not built strong enough to last.

The story is framed around a tragic road accident. A family, including a young girl named Cady (Violet McGraw from The Haunting of Hill House ), are driving through a violent snowstorm. Unable to see, the family’s car is soon demolished by a truck and Cady’s parents are killed. The only person who can now care for Cady is her aunt, Gemma ( Get Out’s Allison Williams). Gemma is a roboticist at a major toy company called Funkie. She is pressured by her boss, David (Ronny Chieng), to meet an important deadline. He wants her to develop a cost-efficient doll for their clients. The pressure of work makes caring for Cady difficult, especially when Gemma has few toys at home (odd), except electronic gadgets and collector’s items. With a looming deadline, Gemma strikes gold. With the help of her assistants, Tess and Cole (Jen Van Epps and Brian Jordan Alvarez), she engineers a robot doll named M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android) who electronically ‘pairs’ with Cady. M3GAN (voiced by Jenna Davis and performed by gymnast Amie Donald) scans the world around her, records conversations, and befriends Cady. However, Cady’s attachment and M3GAN’s increasingly nefarious behaviour makes for a damaging bond Gemma struggles to control.

Filmmaker Gerard Johnstone’s directorial work on M3GAN forgoes consistency and style. He creates very few lasting images with his camera. The actors are filmed in bland mid-shots so the backgrounds behind them are blurred. There is nothing visually distinctive about the modern decor of Gemma’s home apart from an Alexa-type device. This is problematic since the story’s action is staged here. The only visually striking scene is a contrived chase through the woods where M3GAN pursues a bully. The lack of flair is attributable to a tiny budget of just $12m. Most of the budget is visible in the protagonist’s strong design. M3GAN, a mixture of animatronics, CGI, and puppeteering is voiced effectively by Jenna Davis. Though it would have been impacting if the jump scares around her were less telegraphed by Johnstone’s framing. One scene in Gemma’s yard works, but there is a cliché moment where her face is buried in her laptop, only to see M3GAN watching her across the room. It is true that films about killer dolls will always elicit laughs. However, Johnstone is indecisive about the mood around these scares. The tone wavers between a funny, sarcastic take on toy companies to an earnest, conventional drama about family wounds.

While comparisons to other films about killer robots and murderous dolls are easy, it is harder to determine if M3GAN ever leaves its predecessors’ shadows. Quick comparisons to the Chucky horror series have been drawn. There are no story twists or unique beats to surprise us. M3GAN appears harmless but grows conscious and increasingly violent before an inevitable showdown. Writer Akela Cooper, working from a story she developed with producer James Wan, tries altering this trajectory with scientific themes and family tension. There are allusions to how modern gadgets, such as Amazon Alexa, contain recording devices to capture people’s conversations. This inclusion, along with M3GAN’s refusal to turn off and her murder spree, repeats the themes of autonomy explored long ago in 2001 . Similarly, the idea of toy companies infiltrating our homes was parodied in The Simpsons when the ‘Funzo’ toy destroyed its competitors. The novelty here is a female doll as the villain, which is a fun, knowingly ridiculous gimmick. Though why exactly M3GAN turns evil is astray unless one applies Azimov’s Three Laws of Robotics to the action. It would have been more interesting if M3GAN’s flawed coding resulted from something in Gemma’s psychology or past.

Cooper’s script needed work to overcome the derivative themes and sizable gaps in logic. For example, David pressures Gemma into make a cheaper doll in a small timeframe. She somehow constructs a robot so sophisticated it is mistaken for a real child. There are no rules or limits for what the doll can perform, only what the script demands per scene. M3GAN sprints like an animal through the woods, dances, steals a car, and strangles people with super strength. If this is an early prototype, then God help us. It is a pity the conventional slasher elements eclipse more interesting ideas about grief. While busy working, Gemma uses M3GAN as a substitute parent. The doll provides Cady with the companionship she lost once her parents died. This attachment to M3GAN sees Cady become increasingly disobedient and angry when Gemma asks her to switch off the doll. Their inseparability could have replaced the violent clichés and propelled the story to a unique ending. Instead, clunky pseudo-scientific dialogue spells out how Cady is undertaking what a therapist calls attachment theory.

Sometimes M3GAN’s weird tonal shifts are at odds with how the actors’ approach the material. The film opens with a very funny infomercial for a doll that dispenses pellets after being fed. Yet the way the actors are directed suggests they were not all in on the same joke. Allison Williams plays her role with complete seriousness. She is effective at showing how overworked Gemma is from balancing work and childcare. However, after the funny opening the lack of irony in her performance is strange. It is also bizarre how Gemma never appears very upset about her sister dying. Violet McGraw’s best scenes involve Cady becoming increasingly rebellious. There is also an effective moment where she tells M3GAN she misses her parents that injects much-needed emotion. The hilarious comedian Ronny Chieng plays David well like a petulant child, but his brutal comedic instincts are subdued. Evidently, some actors are dead serious while others play their roles for laughs. Meanwhile, the side characters, such as Gemma’s difficult neighbour and David’s assistant, are forgettable. Their dialogue only reinforces the themes or works to establish a newly announced sequel.

While not a terrible film or an outright disaster, M3GAN fails to capitalise on its most interesting concepts around autonomy and grief. There are fleeting moments where the film humorously shows how superficial commercialisation is and how dubious toy companies can be as they attempt to substitute quality parenting with their crummy products. Meanwhile, the idea of a grieving child being inseparable from a toy that alters their behaviour is such a fascinating idea it begs to ask why Johnstone and Blumhouse did not explore this premise in finer detail. Instead, the film is a hodgepodge of different moods, loose ends, and spare parts. Although the humour lands, it is too infrequent for M3GAN to be an outright comedy and undermines the horror elements’ impact. Despite glimpses into the story’s tragedy, the slasher scenes are largely routine and overshadow potentially complex family dynamics. While the film is everything it says on the box, substance is sold separately.

Summary: Fun satirical elements fail to overcome M3GAN’s lack of originality and artistic finesse.

About the Author

Damien Straker is a freelance writer and film critic. He studied at the University of Sydney and graduated with an Arts Honours degree in Film Studies. He is a pop culture aficionado and enjoys talking about all films, 90s TV shows, ninjas and watching Rugby League. His favourite film directors are Alfonso Cuarón, Clint Eastwood and Alexander Payne.

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COMMENTS

'M3gan' Review: Wherever I Go, She Goes
Gemma uses Cady as her test case. In a headier movie, there might be some misdirection. But M3gan (performed by Amie Donald) is clearly pure evil from the start. She's a great heavy: stylish ...
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M3GAN. The marketing for "M3gan" has leaned into the uncanny spectacle of the title character, a four-foot-tall cyborg with big doe eyes, a ratty wig, and the wardrobe of a closeted lesbian headmistress in a '50s melodrama. And it seems to be working: A well-placed GIF here, an activation with a half-dozen women in M3gan drag there, and ...
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Megan is smart, fun, and thrilling! The film knows its campy horror, which is a perfect approach for this concept! Rated 4/5 Stars • Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/26/23 Full Review La'Justin ...
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Dec. 15, 2022. After the first half of the Netflix documentary series "Harry & Meghan" was released last week, one critic wrote that viewers of the three episodes — which covered the couple ...
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M3GAN: Directed by Gerard Johnstone. With Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Amie Donald. A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own.
M3GAN First Reviews: A Surprisingly Fun and Funny Horror Icon Is Born
January has long been considered a dumping ground for movies that are expected to perform poorly, but M3GAN could be an exception, given the stellar reviews for the Blumhouse horror-comedy. The movie built up anticipation with its trailers, which went viral for their fun tone, and now critics are confirming that M3GAN is indeed a campy delight that's worth seeing.
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M 3gan is the ultimate prestige toy: a precision-engineered prototype cyborg doll with limpid blue eyes and the capacity to learn from and empathise with her "primary user". She comes with a ...
MEGAN Review: Killer Doll Movie Sets the Bar High for 2023
We are only a few days into 2023, and M3GAN may be my favorite film of the year. You've got a lot to live up to, 2023! If you've seen the trailers for M3GAN, you pretty much know the story ...
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Maybe 2023 will be a pretty good year after all; "M3GAN" gives us hope. Allison Williams stars as Gemma, a single, career-focused toy designer whose life gets thrown into upheaval when her ...
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M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child's greatest companion and a parent's greatest ally. Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams), M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to. When Gemma suddenly becomes the caretaker of her ...
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M3gan becomes wilful and reluctant to obey orders, just like any kid entering teen years, or like any humanoid robot in any sci-fi film ever. M3gan is very protective of Cady. So that nasty ...
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Gerard Johnstone's M3GAN proves itself more than gifable android dances and NFL halftime shows — a movie that pays off viral hype with the production goods. From the director of 2014's haunted ...
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Produced by horror masters Jason Blum and James Wan ("The Conjuring"), "M3GAN" (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters now) satisfies with slasher gusto, "Black Mirror"-esque ...
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Here's what the positive reviews of M3GAN are saying. Bloody Disgusting. "The eponymous character gets brought to life through impressive effects by Adrien Morot and Kathy Tse, Amie Donald's uncanny physical performance, and Jenna Davis's haunting voicework. She exudes menace through facial expressions and jerky movements that trigger ...
Review: 'M3GAN' is far from scary, but viral doll surely thrills
Starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw and Ronnie Chieng. Directed by Gerard Johnstone. (PG-13. 104 minutes.) In theaters Friday, Jan. 6. Carla Meyer Carla Meyer is a Northern California freelance writer. Although more effective as satire than horror, the movie starring Allison Williams introduces a killer creation.
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The human characters are just as interesting as they grapple with loss in realistic, touching ways, going through rage, sadness, guilt, and more. (M3GAN's on-screen POV display, which shows her detected percentages of human emotions, is a huge kick.) This slick, neatly paced film keeps ramping things up until a smashing showdown, face-to-interface.
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ADMIN MOD. Review Thread for Blumhouse's 'M3GAN'. Review. M3GAN - Review Thread. Rotten Tomatoes - 98% (51 Reviews) Metacritic - 73% (20 Reviews) Reviews: Variety: "M3GAN" fits into a tradition of demon-doll movies going back to the Karen Black episode of "Trilogy of Terror" (1975) and the "Annabelle" trilogy (also produced by Wan ...
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M3GAN
M3GAN - Film Review. Reviewed by Damien Straker on the 22nd of January 2023 Universal Pictures Australia presents a film by Gerard Johnstone Screenplay by Akela Cooper from a story by Akela Cooper and James Wan Produced by Jason Blum and James Wan Starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis, Ronny Chieng, Amie Donald, Jen Van Epps, and Brian Jordan Alvarez

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