Imitation Girl (2017)

Imitation Girl is the kind of small, confident sci-fi drama that sneaks up on you: it takes a fantastical premise and treats it with quiet seriousness, letting wonder and unease share the same breath. Lauren Ashley Carter anchors the film with a dual performance that’s less a gimmick than a haunting mirror, turning questions of identity into something you can feel in posture, voice, and silence. The desert imagery is genuinely beautiful, shot with an eye for emptiness that becomes its own kind of emotion, and the movie’s vibe stays intimate and dreamlike rather than chasing spectacle. If you want laser battles and big answers, this isn’t that movie—but if you’re drawn to thoughtful, refreshing science fiction that lingers in the mind, it’s well worth the trip.

Imitation Girl is clearly aiming for a quiet, eerie sci-fi character study about identity and embodiment, more interested in mood than plot. If you need a strong story engine or clear answers, the slow, drawn-out pacing and deliberately ambiguous direction will likely feel like it’s stalling rather than building. It also invites comparisons to Under the Skin, and depending on your tolerance for familiar “alien-in-a-human-world” beats, it may come off as more derivative than distinctive. That said, there’s a patient, atmospheric quality and a committed central performance that can work if you’re in the mood for a minimal, art-house approach and don’t mind an ending that leaves you hanging.