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Aniara (2018)
Dark Ballardian Scandinavian Science Fiction
ANIARA REVIEW
This is very definitely not a Hollywood movie - it's decidedly unglamorous, there are no dramatic action set pieces, there are no characters who overcome their failings to become heroes and save the day, the love story at the heart of the film is sad and awkward and very believable, and the ending leaves you with questions rather than closure. If you're looking for Passengers then this movie isn't for you. If you're up for a film that pushes you to think, that makes you examine the human condition, that asks you to work with it rather than just let it wash over you then give it a go.
The basic setup: at some point in the not-too-distant future, Earth's environment is collapsing. People leave the planet in huge numbers, ferried up into orbit by a space elevator and then transferred to shuttle craft the size of a small town that looks suspiciously like a shopping mall in Scandinavia (at first this is a bit jarring, but brings a level of mundane believability that is the film's hallmark and made me think of JG Ballard's marvellous science fiction short stories more than once). The trip to a new life on Mars is supposed to take just over three weeks, but shortly after the journey begins the shuttle - the Aniara of the title - has to change course to avoid disaster. It soon becomes clear that it will take a very long time to get back on track. Initially the passengers take solace in the emotionally reassuring virtual reality of the "Mima" room - a kind of recreational space where you can relive pleasant memories of Earth before the environmental collapse - but quickly this breaks down through overuse, leaving the passengers distraught. As the years stretch on the society on the Aniara begins to change, becoming more authoritarian, suicides proliferate, religious cults develop in response to the despair of the passengers and violence simmers. Aniara is a journey into both spiritual and literal darkness. We follow this story through the central character of the "Mimarobe", the woman who runs the Mima VR room - just an ordinary worker on the ship, not a feisty heroine with unique abilities or technical skills, a regular person. Through her relationships with the rest of the passengers we feel the situation that is slowly unfolding, watching her adapt as things change.
Ultimately "Aniara" is about the loss of our world, the Earth that we live on, a meditation on the hubristic dream of thinking that we can replace this priceless planet with an artificial world of consumerism and luxury. It's about hope for the future and where that hope goes when we are confronted with the unknowable. The universe is vast and unreachable - we only have one home.
Parallel (2018)
Stick with it
At first Parallel comes across as being a bit goofy and silly - and some of the early scenes showing the main characters exploring the guilt free possibilities of jumping between worlds that they'll never return to certainly play on the comedic side - but eventually the film settles down into a taut character-driven thriller that manages to pull off some unexpected twists that impressed a jaded seen-every-sci-fi-that's-ever-been-made person like me. The origin of the device that allows trans dimensional travel is never explained, but this film isn't interested in that, instead it's an exploration of what the unexpected gift of an almost god-like power might do to a group of young people who've never taken their lives too seriously up until now. The film it most reminded me of is Danny Boyle's debut picture Shallow Grave, but instead of a bag of money found under the bed it's a portal to another world hiding in the secret attic. Stick with it.
Painters Painting (1972)
influential
I saw this film at art school in the 1980s. It had a profound effect on me - at the time I wanted to go into commercial art, graphic design etc. After seeing this film I decided that I wanted to be a painter. Everyone else in the class hated the film - when the art tutor asked one girl what she thought the only thing she come up with was that Frank Stella sounded like Woody Allen...
I ended up doing a degree in Fine Art. Now I've come full circle and work as a "commercial" artist in the film industry making visual effects for movies. I still recall this film fondly - it captured something of what got me excited about making art in the first place.
Emile De Antonio made several other films which are worth watching - I wouldn't be surprised if he is rediscovered given the current popularity of documentary film making.
Hackers (1995)
Hindsight
I worked on this movie when I was just starting out in film post production. At the time I couldn't understand why we weren't using proper computer graphics and UI design during the sequences where the kids are hacking into computers. However, after a recent viewing on TV I realised what the director was aiming at - nothing dates faster than computer technology and its visual representation, it's just part of the way that it works. Softley went for a deliberately abstract depiction of the technology in order to give the film some relevance to audiences that might have be years into the future. There's no way that anyone in 1994/5 could have predicted how the internet would evolve or how UI design would progress - the creatively lead look of the hacking sequences in this film still work today because Softley chose to avoid sticking netscape logos all over it. If you think I'm talking nonsense then take a look at the email moments in "the Net" or "Mission: Impossible" and you'll see what I mean - embarrassing!
Sunstone (1979)
influential
Seminal, Influential, Inspirational
I saw a clip from this short film in the very early 80s on an edition of the BBC documentary show "Horizon" that dealt with the nascent computer animation industry.
I was truly stunned by it and decided that computer animation, whatever it was, was the thing that I wanted to do with my life. The images in the piece have stayed fresh in my mind ever since that day.
25 years or so later that's exactly what I am doing! These days it is so easy to churn out incredible images, but this film really achieved something special with a medium so difficult to use at the time that most of the practitioners had degrees in rocket science!
Pitch Black (2000)
straight up sci-fi actioner whose quality belies its meagre budget
Saw this movie at a preview screening last year. I don't think is was the final cut, but pretty close to it.
The basic scenario is quite familiar - a disparate group of space travellers is thrown together when their ship crash lands on a seemingly desolate planet whose barren exterior hides a nasty surprise. However, this film has a gritty edge more reminiscent of independent "cinema verite" than the glossy coating applied to standard mainstream fare. This "down and dirty" approach is if anything more evocative of Alien than any plot similarities. The dialogue is sparse and terse and generally manages to stay away from the cliches which so many other films in this genre seem so ready to embrace.
The greatest strength of this film is its relatively unknown cast. The anxiety of this group who don't know or like each other is palpable. Their grudging agreement to work together under the direction of Fry, the sole surviving ship's officer (played by Radha Mitchell) is borne of necessity and practicality - there is no attempt at "chemistry" here, just the believability of desperate people facing the facts. The resolution of clashing personalities as the situation rapidly worsens forms the meat of the story and exposes the character's weaknesses and - more importantly - their true motivations. At the core of these revelations is the relationship between Fry and the convicted criminal Riddick (played with muscular vidour by Vin Diesel), everyone's survival will ultimately depend on whether these two can resolve their distrust of each other.
The film is well crafted. The effects work is excellent but never obtrusive, serving the story well. The cinematography adds a truely weird feel to the alien desert landscape. For a film that in total cost around what Shwarzenegger gets for a single movie this is an impressive offering from director David Twohy.