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- Thelma
- The Orchard
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While many of the decade's most prominent sci-fi offerings feature massive ensemble casts and emphasize pyrotechnic spectacle, Alex Garland's Ex Machina goes in the opposite direction. The entire film is basically three characters - plus one live-in assistant - and one location. There's very little "action" to speak of, as Garland is more interested in philosophical ruminations about the nature of intelligent life - and its evolution, be it through natural or technologically advanced means of creation - than in more traditional good-vs-evil resolution.
The film revolves around a brilliant young programmer who gets the chance to spend time at the secluded compound of a genius tech tycoon (played by Oscar Isaac) for a mysterious purpose. As it turns out, the job is to perform a more elaborate equivalent of a Turing test. Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is tasked with having one-on-one sessions with an advanced android, Ava (Alicia Vikander) - his boss's prized creation - to help the founder smooth out any flaws that make her seem less than fully human. Initially, the programmer is quick to find mistakes, but after a while, he's not so sure.
The film is ostensibly a bunch of conversations about what makes us human - conversations that slowly turn darker and darker, with stranger and more sinister implications.
- Actors: Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander, Sonoya Mizuno, Claire Selby
- Released: 2014
- Directed by: Alex Garland
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In 2019, South Korean director Bong Joon-ho became the toast of the cinema world thanks to his film Parasite, but it's his 2013 English-language debut Snowpiercer - an extended allegory on class and class warfare - that probably should have marked his major crossover to American audiences.
After a global climate catastrophe, what's left of humankind is huddled together on an endlessly running train that remains the only thing standing between humanity and the frozen world outside. While the rich people live in the front of the train in relative luxury, the poor are relegated to the cars in the back of the train, where they're forced to eat bugs and - sometimes - each other. Led, among others, by a man named Curtis (Chris Evans), a revolt is afoot among the lower classes. Collectively, they've decided they've eaten one bug too many.
Their revolution comes at the expense of many, many limbs, and we learn there's more to the train and its passengers than meets the eye. Snowpiercer has some sickening carnage, but it's all in the service of a well-made critique of socioeconomic inequality. And there's an awesome hatchet fight worth the price of admission alone.
- Actors: Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer
- Released: 2013
- Directed by: Bong Joon-ho
Underappreciated sci-fi gem?Sure, it may seem unfair to claim any movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe is "underrated" - and surely none of them have struggled to find a sizable audience. But when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was released, many critics and fans insisted it didn't replicate the magic of the original, and in the pantheon of the greatest Marvel films, it's often ignored. But it shouldn't be.
With Vol. 2, writer/director James Gunn handles a large-scale ensemble cast as impressively as any major film in recent memory. Every single Guardian has a signifcant and rewarding character arc, from Rocket learning to be kinder, to Quill reconciling his relationship to his father, to Gamora and Nebula learning to become sisters again. In many ways, it does a better job handling a large cast of characters than even Infinity War or Endgame. It's remarkable that Gunn could pull it all off, continuing to excel as a comic filmmaker while delivering one of the MCU's finest villains. Despite the sequel frequently being treated as an inferior follow-up, Gunn's efforts are worthy of renewed affection.
- Actors: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel
- Released: 2017
- Directed by: James Gunn
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There is perhaps no weirder or more inexplicable plot in recent sci-fi memory than that of Predestination, based on the short story All You Zombies by famed sci-fi author Robert Heinlein. The setup is simple enough, as sci-fi conceits go: A "temporal agent" (played by Ethan Hawke) travels through time to attempt to disarm an incendiary device back in 1975. He fails, but survives the detonation - though he still requires facial reconstructive surgery. What follows is a series of wild coincidences (or are they?) that seem too bizarre to be possible, relayed in part by a mysterious stranger at a bar who has quite a surprising personal tale to tell.
The film plays with the very notion of time as a linear construct and what things are or aren't predetermined. In the end, it seems to suggest that all of time is coexisting equally - which helps explain how in the world Predestination's paradoxical narrative, once it's all been unraveled, could ever have come to pass.
- Actors: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Noah Taylor, Christopher Kirby, Christopher Sommers
- Released: 2014
- Directed by: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
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Monsters was only made with a $500,000 budget, but you wouldn't know it from the movie itself. Director Gareth Edwards reportedly built all the film's CGI effects on his personal laptop, and yet they're wholly believable and, most importantly, terrifying.
The story follows a young couple attempting to cross into the US from the Mexico side of the border after their passports are taken. The only problem? They must pass through the "Infected Zone" where freaky, tentacled aliens live. There's a massive wall between the two countries, and it becomes apparent that the creatures are unwilling to be contained - and they're ready to take out everything in their path.
The movie kicked off Edwards's career in a huge way, paving the way for him to direct 2014's Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Pretty good for a dude who was just making tentacled monsters on his computer.
- Actors: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able, Mario Zuniga Benavides, Annalee Jefferies, Justin Hall
- Released: 2010
- Directed by: Gareth Edwards
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What would you do if you read a classified ad that read:
Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91 Ocean View, WA 99393. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.
Well, if you're Jeff Schwensen or Darius Britt in Safety Not Guaranteed, you'd try and meet that guy and write a story about him. Jeff's attempt fails, but Darius manages to meet the man behind the ad - and gain his trust. He decides to "train" her so that they can be prepared for whatever they might encounter in the past. It's not entirely clear if he's built an actual time machine or is just insane, but either way, Darius (played by the always hilarious and offbeat Aubrey Plaza) is more than a little intrigued.
Despite its goofy premise, Safety Not Guaranteed is ultimately a poignant movie about loss and dealing with grief. Whether the time travel actually works or not is something new viewers will have to find out for themselves.
- Actors: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Jenica Bergere, Kristen Bell
- Released: 2012
- Directed by: Colin Trevorrow
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If you're wondering what might happen if aliens land in a South London housing project, Attack the Block provides a memorable answer. A crew of petty hoodlums is in the midst of a mugging when a meteorite falls out of the sky nearby. Inside is a small alien creature who attacks the group before darting away.
They catch up to the thing, destroy it, and, with the neighborhood seemingly on the verge of being overrun, resolve to arm themselves and fight every glowing extraterrestrial creature they come across. The other aliens, however, are quite a bit bigger than the first one, so eliminating the rest of the invading force proves to be a bit of a trickier proposition.
The film boasts the talents of future Star Wars star John Boyega, future Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker, and routine cult-classic fan-favorite Nick Frost. It was a huge hit on the festival circuit and was so well received that many believed it to be as strong a directorial debut as District 9 or Reservoir Dogs. Even with all that firepower and enthusiasm - not to mention its deliriously fun blend of coming-of-age, sci-fi, and comedy impulses, and a star-making turn from Boyega as the unlikely hood-turned-hero Moses - this 2011 flick became more of an underground curiosity than the indie classic it could have been.
- Actors: John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones, Simon Howard
- Released: 2011
- Directed by: Joe Cornish
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The setup is simple: Eight friends gather at a dinner party the same night a comet flies overhead - a tad too close to the Earth's atmosphere, if rumor and mythology are to be believed. There's drinking and talking and then all of the sudden there's a power outage. Using glowsticks for light, the group sets out into the neighborhood toward a single house that still seems to have power. Confusion in the darkness splits the group apart, and it's slowly revealed that some of the friends might not be exactly who they were before the power went out.
Coherence only cost $50,000 to make, didn't have a true written script, and undeniably proves the adage "less is more." The actors were given spare explanations of what was happening and simply told to roll with it; the result is a twisty, unpredictable narrative bolstered by a collection of performances that feel very much like the way real people would react in the face of absurd, paradoxical circumstances.
- Actors: Nicholas Brendon, Elizabeth Gracen, Lorene Scafaria, Maury Sterling, Emily Foxler
- Released: 2013
- Directed by: James Ward Byrkit
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A strange glowing area known only as "the Shimmer" has appeared along the southern coast of the United States. The plants and animals inside the Shimmer appear mutated in strange ways - dazzling yet threatening, as if spliced together in a way that defies basic biological rules.
Every attempt to enter the Shimmer results in the team going missing - until now. One man, a soldier named Kane (Oscar Isaac), has mysteriously returned, physically unharmed. His state of mind, however, is another matter. Annihilation follows a group of scientists - one of whom is Kane's wife and fellow soldier Lena (Natalie Portman) - as they venture into the the Shimmer to learn its origins and purpose. The further they go, the further their sense of time and sanity slips.
In everything from its ideas to its images to its musical cues, Annihilation perpetually defies expectations - all the way up through its eerie, identity-shattering conclusion, for which the filmmakers hired a prominent modern dancer to play a key (wordless) role.
- Actors: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny
- Released: 2018
- Directed by: Alex Garland
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Robot & Frank is about an aging jewel thief whose mental faculties are slowly deteriorating, and whose will to live is diminishing in kind. His son is getting tired of visiting him all the time, so he buys his dad a therapeutic robot that's supposed to not only make sure he performs daily activities to sharpen his mind, but also keep the old man company. But old habits are hard to kick, and Frank figures out he can convince the robot to become a thief. He immediately deploys his new companion in the service of a new job.
Needless to say, this isn't quite what Frank's son had in mind - but hey, at least he's getting out of the house more. Using a light touch to its soft sci-fi premise, Robot & Frank is a well-acted dramedy that offers a few poignant insights into memory, family, and the difficult process of aging.
- Actors: Liv Tyler, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden, Frank Langella, Ana Gasteyer
- Released: 2012
- Directed by: Jake Schreier
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Midnight Special takes several pages from Steven Spielberg's sci-fi playbook - and a healthy dose of John Carpenter's Starman - and mixes them up for modern audiences. It stars a young boy with supernatural powers on the run from a religious cult that wants him - and his powers - for their own, specific purposes. He's been kidnapped, as it were, by his biological father (Michael Shannon), who attempts to return the kid to his mother who abandoned him when his strange powers began to grow. But his powers have also attracted the federal government. What results is a taut chase film centered around a broken family trying to keep it together.
Much of the film's plot is shrouded in mystery, and even by the end, there aren't many clear answers. The final scene is sublime, yet retains the film's sense of secrecy, giving us a gorgeous glimpse of the big picture while keeping the whole truth just out of reach. Also, somebody may or may not blow up a satellite with their mind, which makes this worth the price of a rental alone.
- Actors: Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Jaeden Martell, Adam Driver
- Released: 2016
- Directed by: Jeff Nichols
Underappreciated sci-fi gem?- 12
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From one side, Colossal is an ostensibly bleak portrait of what happens when your life falls apart, you dejectedly return to your depressing hometown, and you have to finally face the prospect of picking up the pieces left in the boozy wake of your bad decisions.
From the other side, Colossal is... a monster movie. With full-on destruction and chaos in a giant metropolitan city. A Godzilla movie in an indie-drama suit. To put it mildly, these two ideas - three if you include the possible romantic entanglement that hints at pushing the movie into rom-com territory - don't typically mix. But Colossal makes a surprising cocktail out of it, using the small-town despair as a comic device that brings the monster element into existence.
The film follows New York-based writer Gloria (Anne Hathaway) whose heavy drinking has begun to sow discord in her relationship. Frequently blacking out and sleeping on park benches tends to have that effect. The drinking continues even after she returns home - while at the same time, a giant monster has begun manifesting itself in Seoul every night and wreaking havoc on the city. Shockingly, Gloria realizes the monster's movements mirror her own; her destructive tendencies have, quite by accident, literally made themselves manifest on the other side of the globe. Oh, and that's not even the film's biggest twist, as the apparent romantic lead, played by nice guy Jason Sudeikis, is not quite what he appears to be.
- Actors: Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Austin Stowell, Tim Blake Nelson, Dan Stevens
- Released: 2016
- Directed by: Nacho Vigalondo
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For a movie about an underground resistance fighting back against the aliens that have subjugated a near-future Chicago, Captive State is surprisingly understated. In 2019, Earth is invaded by aliens that come to be known as "Legislators." These visitors quickly and brutally wipe out a mother and father rushing to get out of town as their children, Gabriel and Rafe Drummond, hide in the backseat. In the ensuing years, humans are forced to build underground "Closed Zones" in which the Legislators reside, their collective presence largely unseen but permanently felt. Nobody is allowed in these areas except high-ranking officials.
In 2027, a small group of humans decide somebody should get into one of those zones, and "spark a match and ignite a war." Yes, with awesome sci-fi explosives. But what could have easily become a straightforward heist movie with a sci-fi twist quickly reveals itself to be a slower character study. These are complicated people, and the film refuses to reveal their motivations or intentions until absolutely necessary. In the end, it's the ambiguity that makes this film one of the more unique sci-fi efforts of the decade.
- Actors: John Goodman, Ashton Sanders, Jonathan Majors, Vera Farmiga, Kevin Dunn
- Released: 2019
- Directed by: Rupert Wyatt
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Under the Skin attempts to portray our planet through alien eyes. What would our planet look like to a true outsider? Scarlett Johansson plays a beautiful, enigmatic alien exploring Scotland and seducing unassuming men. Once convinced to come with her, the men are submerged into a terrifying, black liquid abyss with no clear purpose or explanation.
That's just the start of the mystery - for the audience and for the unnamed alien herself, a stranger in her own skin who eventually disconnects from her presumptive mission and embarks on something of a journey of self-discovery.
Originally conceived as a more expensive sci-fi spectacle, Under the Skin was gradually pared down during its years of development. The result, courtesy of director Jonathan Glazer and his co-writer Walter Campbell, is something much more quiet, haunting, and unnerving than your typical story of a wandering extraterrestrial.
- Actors: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Dougie McConnell, Kevin McAlinden
- Released: 2013
- Directed by: Jonathan Glazer
Underappreciated sci-fi gem?- 15
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Compared to many big budget sci-fi movies, Prospect is pretty limited in scope, and it pretty easily slipped under the radar. It still boasts a crazy space setting - an alien moon littered with poisonous gas and valuable gems - but it keeps its focus on just a few characters and tense, fast-moving action.
A father-and-daughter prospecting team runs into problems after landing on a planet they intend to mine for a rare gem, and they're forced to trek through the woods to their original destination. Though they stumble upon something that alone would make their trip worthwhile, the father is a bit greedy and forces the pair into escalating situations that quickly unravel into mayhem. Long story short, the girl winds up unceremoniously paired with an amoral scoundrel named Ezra (Game of Thrones' Pedro Pascal) in what amounts to both a mismatched buddy movie and a sumptuous space Western. The filmmakers' world-building and practical production design do an incredible job of making this world feel lived-in, and the narrative makes for a great ride and a fantastic showcase for newcomer actress Sophie Thatcher.
- Actors: Pedro Pascal, Sophie Thatcher, Jay Duplass, Andre Royo, Sheila Vand
- Released: 2018
- Directed by: Zeek Earl, Chris Caldwell
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At its core, Turbo Kid is a twisted-up '80s fantasy movie. The movie is even set in an alternate, post-apocalyptic 1997 in which culture clearly stopped somewhere in the 1980s. The kid in question is a comic book fan (naturally) who becomes one of his own favorite superheroes after finding the original Turbo Kid's armor and weapons buried out in the wasteland. Though he's used to living alone, he meets and befriends a girl named Apple - just in time for her to be abducted and provide him the perfect opportunity to use his newfound power (and wrist device) to rescue her and, ultimately, take out a bunch of dudes.
The film feels pretty similar to kids' movies from the '80s -The Neverending Story and The Wizard among them - but in a subversive, meta way that's also significantly bloodier.
- Actors: Munro Chambers, Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside, Edwin Wright
- Released: 2015
- Directed by: François Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whis
Underappreciated sci-fi gem?- 17
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Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) learns that his father (Tommy Lee Jones) - long believed to be deceased - may actually be alive and living near the edge of the solar system. What's more, his father might be behind the recent surges that have been knocking out power worldwide and taking thousands of lives. The government persuades Roy to travel to Mars in an attempt to communicate with his father and ask what he's doing and what he's looking for - and if he is indeed responsible for the recent power surges, even accidentally, could he, like, stop doing that? Along the way, Roy must overcome everything from space pirates to aggressive (and hungry) test monkeys.
Although Ad Astra's visuals are top-notch and unbelievably gorgeous, the movie cares about so much more than CGI splendor. At its core, Ad Astra is about parents and the imprint they leave on their children.
- Actors: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland, Kimberly Elise
- Released: 2019
- Directed by: James Gray
Underappreciated sci-fi gem? - 18
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Thelma follows its eponymous character as she comes to grips with her newfound supernatural powers. She was raised with a deeply religious structure - the precise reasons for which are only revealed later in the film - but as she arrives at university, on her own for the first time, she slowly realizes that her visceral, primal attraction toward her classmate Anja (Kaya Wilkins) is triggering epileptic-like seizures. And that's just for starters. Birds flock, buildings shake and tilt; the world around Thelma seems to be affected by the strength of her will, conscious or otherwise.
As she explores the scope of her power, Thelma also learns about her dark past and the generational trauma that exists in her family that even they aren't fully aware of. This power isn't some one-off superpower like the ability to fly or fire lasers out of her eyes; it's much darker and yet much more life-giving, and it's rooted in Thelma's family history. As she learns more about her family, she learns more about her power - and its capacity to both build and destroy.
- Actors: Eili Harboe, Kaya Wilkins, Henrik Rafaelsen
- Released: 2017
- Directed by: Joachim Trier
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The One I Love is a pretty straightforward romantic comedy with a profound sci-fi twist. As a couple's marriage begins to fall apart, their therapist recommends the two of them go stay at a secluded retreat together. At times, it all seems to be going swimmingly. They'll have a great evening together in the guest cottage out back. A perfect evening. And then the next day - or even later that night - they'll be back to the same routine, with the same tensions and the same old bad habits.
The cycle repeats. Sometimes Ethan seems like the perfect version of himself, and then he'll be the same old impossible Ethan again. Sophie, in turn, will be Ethan's ideal wife, and then she'll be her frustrating self again. As it turns out, the guest cottage has a, shall we say, unique characteristic. One could say it brings out the best in someone's significant other. Or creates it.
The film asks difficult questions of love - and marriage, for that matter. Do we reduce those we love only to what we want out of them? Do we love who we love, warts and all? Or would we prefer an idealized version? And what if such a version were available? In essence, The One I Love finds a way to metaphorically examine our complicated personalities and desires from a uniquely sci-fi angle - a therapeutic exercise made excitingly, and threateningly, real.
- Actors: Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson, Kiana Cason, Kaitlyn Dodson
- Released: 2014
- Directed by: Charlie McDowell
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For those audiences who were captivated by the deliriously complex, micro-budget time-travel film Primer in 2004, the follow-up from filmmaker Shane Carruth was bound to be an event - and it was, even if it took nearly a decade for his sophomore effort to finally see the light of day. The wait was worth it, as Upstream Color is just as singular - and just as brilliantly mystifying - as its predecessor.
How to explain the beguiling nature of a Carruth film? Let's keep it simple - simple meaning starting in the middle. A man and a woman meet. There's a familiarity between them - a chemistry. They get to know each other and learn about their pasts. They realize they have certain inexplicable things in common. The same scar in the same place, for starters. And then there are the memories - the shared memories - memories they each believe belongs to them, to their childhood. Remembered identically. Their emotional wavelengths converge, as if they're directly connected, as if they have lived and experienced parts of the same life.
And then there's the pig farm. And those rare orchids. This will all make sense in time.
- Actors: Amy Seimetz, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, Thiago Martins, Kathy Carruth
- Released: 2013
- Directed by: Shane Carruth
Underappreciated sci-fi gem?
