‘Molly Vs The Machines’ review: Emotional docu-drama explores the insidious threat posed by social media

Dir: Marc Silver. UK. 2026. 84mins

Fourteen year-old London schoolgirl Molly Russell took her own life in 2017. In the weeks leading up to her death she had accessed endless harmful social media content; her father Ian has subsequently become a tireless campaigner for the online protection of children. The potent, wide-ranging docu-drama Molly Vs The Machines tells Molly’s story, and reveals how she has become a symbol of the digital generation.

Accessible and thought-provoking

Premiering at Glasgow Film Festival on March 1, the same day it begins a limited UK theatrical run through Cosmic Cat, Molly Vs The Machines will also be broadcast on Channel 4 on March 5. It’s a guaranteed conversation starter, and should encourage debates about ethics, morality and control in a time where big tech companies exact so much influence.

Director Marc Silver (Who Is Dayani Cristal?; 3 1/2 Minutes,10 Bullets), has conceived the film in a way that reflects contemporary technology, with AI software used to generate images and the narration. This immediately creates a sinister, Big Brother-style unease to a film of reconstruction, image scanning and voyeurism. The tactic can feel a little gimmicky, however, and the film is at its most effective when real people are allowed to meet in person, talk and share their emotions – which is rather the point of the whole enterprise.

We learn a lot about Molly, who is fondly remembered by her schoolfriends and father as someone sweet, caring, warmhearted and supportive. Her death by suicide seemed entirely out of character until we also learn of her social media history, the sites she had visited and the content she had viewed. All of it seem designed to reinforce her vulnerability, convincing her that life was worthless and death was a viable solution. The AI generated narration has a HAL-like quality as it notes “parents captured memories, I captured data”, adding  ”to them she was a child but to me she was a user”.

The film’s script is co-written by Harvard professor Soshana Zuboff, and very much reflects the themes of her 2019 book The Age Of Surveillance Capitalism in its exploration of how corporations are now able to predict and control human behaviour.  Notably, Molly came of age as human lives became lucrative data for companies to harvest and commercially exploit.

The film’s scope widens to encompass an overview of the technological landscape over the past 30 years, from President Bill Clinton ushering the White House into the digital age, through the rise of Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckberg and the creation of a wild frontier of commercial potential that operated without regulation. Ian Russell declares he has no doubt that Instagram helped to kill his daughter, and the film compellingly explores the major social media companies and how they justify the way they operate. The implacable face of those defending them is a sobering sight.

As Molly Vs The Machines gets to grip with the wider issues surrounding Molly’s death, it never loses sight of the emotional impact on her father and her friends. They watch a dramatic reconstruction of the 2022 inquest into Molly’s death with a growing sense of ire and betrayal. In these scenes, Neil Maskell invests lawyer Oliver Sanders with a righteous anger whilst Bronagh Waugh makes a chilling Elizabeth Lagone, the head of health and wellbeing at Meta.

Although it could be accused of preaching to the converted, the film tackles timely issues in a way that is accessible and thought-provoking. Silver chooses to end on a note of hope, with a call to arms inviting viewers to reclaim the power over their own lives.