‘The Surrogate’ poses a moral dilemma — SXSW movie review

Jess is thrilled to be the surrogate for her best friend and his husband, but when a prenatal test comes back, it creates a moral dilemma that threatens their friendship.

Quick review: The Surrogate has an important story to tell and forces us to face our own decisions in a moral dilemma — but it leaves much to be desired.

With SXSW 2020 canceled, I’m doing my best to help review as many of the features that would have premiered there, particularly those of first-time filmmakers. If you know of a film that needs support, let me know!

New York filmmaker and playwright Jeremy Hersh broke out at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015 with his short film Actresses — so his feature debut was one of the films many were eager to see at South by Southwest this year. 

Jess Harris (Jasmine Batchelor) is over-ecstatic to be asked by her best friend Josh (Chris Perfetti) and his husband Aaron (Sullivan Jones, coming off a run in Broadway play Slave Play) to be the surrogate for their first child. However…