Five Sci-Fi Movies to Watch Now


Rent or buy on most major platforms.

Australian director Ivan Sen has been on genre enthusiasts’ radar since his films “Mysterious Road” (2013) and “Goldstone” (2016), which revolve around the charismatic figure of a mute Indigenous detective, two successful hybrids of the slow and western. for his lastYou mixed sci-fi and black with a dash of romance thrown in.

A messy Ryan Kwanten (who has matured in interesting ways since True Blood) stars as Jack, the hitman who trades in a futuristic metropolis. While falling in love with April (Jillian Nguyen), whom he sees singing at a Peepshow-like club, Jack begins to weaken by contracting a mysterious illness. The bearded Hugo Weaving appears as a mysterious “life extension specialist” who may or may not be able to help, at least on the health part.

Don’t pay too much attention to the story, though, because “Expired” (titled “Loveland” in Australia) is more fictional than tightly planned action. Infuriating and hypnotic, serene and disturbing respectively, the film is an art house fugue disguised as a genre film. Yes, it gets a little sinister at times, but you have to admire Sen’s stubborn avoidance of assumed irony and the sarcasm of so much action and serious mood-seeking.

The slogan on the poster of the 1975 movie “A Boy and His Dog” was: “A future you’ll probably live to live.” Reasonably and frighteningly, it adequately describes this fruitful thriller set in 2023.

From the start, we care about Sarah (Michelle Girolami), a desperate New York ragamuffin who’s too rambunctious to agree to have an experimental chip implanted on her back. (Girolami’s cropped hair, hoodie, and nervous energy make the character feel like an American relative of Lisbeth Salander from the “Millennium” books.)

Sarah’s life turns into a nightmare when the so-called LEXX (voiced by LEXX, according to the final credits) develops her own will and forces her host to do what she wants. “Unfortunately you’re under my control,” LEXX tells Sarah—as it turns out, a synthetic presence can drip with sarcasm. The young woman plunges into a nightmare in which a voice inside her head is held captive (the movie could have further explored the intriguing possibility that this is a mental illness story, not science fiction).

Although the script is not that innovative and some of the effects are distractingly simple (please note the glowing eyes), “Implanted” enjoys above-average filmmaking: Director Fabien Dufils certainly knows the basics of his art, and that alone puts him and his film ahead of much of the streaming underworld.

In retrospect, it was an auspicious sign that Chloë Grace Moretz’s breakthrough roles were featured in the cartoonishly violent “Kick-Ass” and the atmospheric vampire tale “Let Me In,” both from 2010. While this versatile actress is comfortable in any style, she brings a unique presence to Action movies—defining with flashes of fragility. Here it raises Mattson Tomlin’s post-apocalyptic story As Georgia, a young woman learning she’s pregnant, our android helpers rebel and Earth goes to hell in a basket. (The uprising is rapid and inexplicable, which didn’t bother me but might disappoint some viewers.)

Much of the movie is dedicated to Georgia and her boyfriend, Sam (Algee Smith), as they try to reach Boston, where they plan to take a boat to Asia, which is said to be safer. It’s largely a standard “pregnant in the apocalypse” survival story, but as usual, Moretz provides an impressive emotional anchor to the film – and since Sam isn’t a very exciting guy, Georgia has to lift a lot of weight, showing off this depressing but realistic scenario. . That a woman may also have to compromise while trying to escape murderous cyborgs.

Rent or buy on most major platforms.

This Canadian drama It could happen in 2043, years after a devastating civil war, but it’s clearly a embarrassing chapter in the country’s historyWhen thousands of First Nations children were stripped of their identities and sent to boarding schools to be assimilated into the so-called normal society – as if that wasn’t bad enough, many were abused and killed. (There were similar institutions in the US.)

In Danis Goulet’s movie, children are held at a federal academy where they can be rounded up, brainwashed and trained to fight. Niska (Elle-Maija Tailfeathers) must reluctantly allow her little girl Waseese (Brooklyn Letexier-Hart) to be abducted after years of hiding it. When Niska realizes what really happened at the academy, she sets out to get her daughter back with the help of the insurgents’ title group.

“Night Raiders” has some action elements, but Goulet is much better at creating a realistic tone that highlights the daily challenges of surviving in an environment determined to destroy one’s identity.

Stream on Netflix.

Well, that’s been a brutal pillar, so let’s end with a bit of laziness… the tech going bad, it’s bad. The dangers of our growing dependence on AI-driven assistance are clearly on the minds of many: Two animated films on the subject came out a few months apart last year, sharing similarly hyperactive and conflicting viewpoints that they can’t quite resolve.

Better “Mitchells vs. Machines” which was nominated for an Academy Award for best animated feature. The premise is simple: As the Mitchells’ daughter Katie (Abbi Jacobson) embarks on her final journey before entering college, a vengeful artificial intelligence (Olivia Colman) builds robots to rise up against humanity. Error.

Nonstop action, great voice acting, fun Easter eggs, an inventive handbag aesthetic, and a nerdy, movie-obsessed Katie are portrayed by a charming leader. Mark (Eric André), a cold-blooded man with a human face, hoodie, naturally convinced of the coldness of dangerous technology.

Exactly the same archetype (now called Marc)”Ron Gone Wrong” (Stream on Disney+ and HBO Max), also featuring Colman and the rogue AI The story is about kids using bots as friends, but the emotional treatment gets everyone off the hook.



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