So my friend The Imperturbable Iguana and I were chatting and she ever so casually mentioned she has a rule about not watching movies with a “-man” suffix. Superman. Batman. Spiderman. Ant Man. Having known The Imperturbable Iguana for a very long time, I let out a long sigh. There was nothing that would change her mind, so fine. But then came the clincher - “I hate these sci-fi movies man, they’re all so samey with some guy saving New York”, she said with great disdain, while navigating her coffee flask, a large tote bag (I have no idea why this bag was transparent but apparently that’s OK cause, Chanel) and hurling herself down a busy London street and startling random overweight pigeons in her wake. We remain friends despite this heretic comment.
Let’s talk about the problematic notion that Superhero stuff represents Science Fiction as a whole. Manifestly untrue. I do love a good Superhero movie (X-Men: Dark Phoenix, nobody is talking about you) but Science Fiction is so much more than spandex and shit blowing up. Also untrue: the allegation that all Science Fiction is unvaried. Hypothesis rejected.
To be clear - this ain’t BuzzFeed. No siree. However, I figured I’d put together a list of Science Fiction movie/TV recommendations for the weekend. Or the week, really - I don’t see what’s wrong with some quality time with aliens or examining the space time continuum on a random Tuesday night. Quite the perfect antidote to spreadsheets and IT issues and annoying people who keep chasing you with artificial deadlines because “they’re off to Marrakech next week and won’t have the time to look at this”. Bye, Felicia.
Minor spoilers below but it shouldn’t distract from your movie watching experience so have no fear. Other than Dune most of these are on streaming services or just rent them out online instead of buying your fifth Cortado for the day and then blaming the weather for your chronic insomnia.
Arrival - Elongated alien ships are hovering over various cities on Earth. Friend or foe? They’re trying to tell us something, but it is a visual language of symbols, not words. Linguist Amy Adams must figure out what is going on and of course the military/government are very wary. So far, so American/Hollywood generic. However, this is directed by the great Denis Villeneuve, so of course there’s more to it. Arrival is a movie about Science, Language, Time and perhaps most importantly, about Parenthood. In a way it is a slow burner, with no alien warlords taking a dump over Times Square, no tights, no gigantic set pieces featuring multiple buildings being trashed and entire fictional nations defying gravity, and no forced “look we are witty” wisecracks and quips. The scope is both gigantic (the world, aliens, the future of the human race) and microscopic and they blend together seamlessly. What a fucking great work of art. Nobody can do introspective and mellow like Adams can (except maybe Carey Mulligan, but more on that in a minute) and as the last few minutes play out and the music soars and you realise what the actual hell has gone on, this film will blow your mind and quietly devastate you. I’ve seen this more than once and all I’m going to say is every single time you uncover a new clue, a new hint, a little nudge as to what is going to happen at the end. Genuinely cerebral cinema, with a director and actress at their career best.
Never Let me Go/Blade Runner/Blade Runner 2049/Ex Machina/Humans (TV show)- no, I haven’t lost my marbles (yet). There’s a reason why these are clubbed together, even though on the face of it they have nothing in common. Never Let Me Go is about a bunch of young people coming of age at a “boarding school” of sorts in England from the 1970s-90s and the ethics of organ donation. There’s no CGI, just Carey Mulligan doing mellow/sorrow/disappointment, which she’s so great at. The Blade Runner movies are about retiring Replicants in a dystopian future, identity, the environment and mortality. Ex Machina focusses on a (rather gorgeous, thanks to Alicia Vikander) Gynoid who may or may not be more than the sum of her (robotic) parts. Compared to everything else on this list, Humans is pretty small fry - a relatively low budget English TV show about “Synthetics” i.e. androids that are used by humans to perform menial tasks or help around the house that acquire consciousness. It surprised me with how multi-layered and political it turned out to be.
Everything above is radically diverse in scope, budget, ambition and storytelling but they ask (and answer) similar questions. Is (real) flesh and blood the criteria? Can artificially created lifeforms ever be truly conscious and have a moral compass? Do they deserve dignity, in life and death? Can they be heroic (or evil, for that matter). I think you’ll find the answers to all of the above are a resounding yes. Sentience does not need a cape.
Dune: Part One - big budget Science Fiction, with Denis Villeneuve directing and Hans Zimmer amping up the soundtrack as high as legally allowed. Themes include but are not limited to colonialism, exploitation, rivalry, power, politics, legacy, the environment, betrayal and violence. Solid performances by the main cast. Cool choppers and space worm things. Exquisite, evocative cinematography with heat and sand being the major elements taking centre stage. Villeneuve has made the very wise decision to only film half of the book for part one. I know some people have said it is slow and boring, but then Blade Runner was a failure when it came out in the 80s. People suck. Remember the time before smart phones when we all had the attention spans to actually watch and appreciate a pensive/reflective epic magnum opus? Yeah, exactly that. So turn your damn notifications off and enjoy this. Stuff doesn’t need to blow up ever 10 minutes to keep your attention.
Terminator/Terminator 2/The Matrix - Us vs Them. These movies were game changers in their own way. Pure, true blue sci fi, though the humans vs machines classification now feels a bit reductive to the Parsnip, given the barrels of nuance in the other movies/shows referenced above. That little quibble aside (quibblers gonna quibble, eh?), they are Sci-Fi classics that changed the genre forever and deserve their spot here. Oh and by the way, a special fuck you to every Terminator sequel made after Terminator 2.
Years and Years - a massively underrated TV show from Russell T Davies about the post Brexit future we’re almost certainly heading for if we’re not careful. Immigration, climate change, populism, family ties, some pretty fancy tech and Emma Thompson having a great time playing a hateful right wing baddie, a multiverse away from the Joni Mitchell loving hurt wife from Love Actually. Riveting stuff indeed, but also very, very relevant. While we’re on relevant dystopian stuff, every episode of Black Mirror is a fantastic, disturbing look into a future that doesn’t seem that implausible after all. Sigh.
The Back to The Future Trilogy - proves that good science fiction does not have to always be dark. Time travel, alternate timelines, high school shenanigans, realising how friggin’ wild our supposedly goodie two shoes parents really were back in the day, bullies, cool gadgets, paradoxes galore, Deloreans - what’s not to like? The good thing about these movies is you don’t have to be a hard core nerd (geek?) to enjoy them. A good one to include in the science fiction for beginners pack. Also, it (allegedly) inspired Rick and Morty - one of my favourite TV shows (duh!).
Mr India - I couldn’t initially think of a quasi respectable Hindi sci-fi movie but was rescued by Shekhar “Hollywood” Kapur and the Bollywood classic, Mr India. Cheesy AF, but what fun. A scientist bequeaths his invention, a watch that makes the wearer invisible to our hero, who takes care of orphan children (cause he’s like, a good guy). Cliches and tropes abound, but the highlight is a scene chewing, barnstorming performance by the late great Amrish Puri as the baddie Mogambo who wants to steal the invisibility formula and casually drops his minions into acid when displeased. While this generally plays to the galley and is ultimately a commercial Bollywood film from the 80s, there is still an underlying layer of darkness (kids, death, terrorism, bombs etc) that was a pretty bold move back in the day.
Erm, re Hindi movies, I should probably mention that there was also Ra:One a couple of years ago - big superstars, expensive special effects, Snoop Dogg (!) in one of the hit songs etc. They tried. But man, it was derivative. And lame. Slick but hollow. Skip.
Like the Universe itself, the list of great Science Fiction recos is infinite but I hope the above (illustrative, not exhaustive) examples demonstrate the variety the genre offers. The medium may vary (Aliens, Space Opera, Artificial Intelligence, Time Travel etc) but at its very core is an exploration of humanity and what it means to be Human. Preserving who we are. Or in some cases changing who we were in order to survive. The relation between humans and science and what we’ve created/accessed to evolve and how that challenges us as a species.
Look deeper. Look beyond. You will be rewarded. And while you’re at it, have fun.
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