For those out there doing the right thing and staying home, boredom is sure to be a major difficulty. Movies can help. Good movies even more helpful… and for me at least good science fiction movies are ideal.
With that in mind, here is my list of the best science fiction movies of the 21st century…
#20 - Beyond The Black Rainbow
Panos Cosmatos’ trippy foray about a young woman’s effort to escape a mysterious, high-tech cult.
#19 - Interstellar
Christopher Nolan’s opus about space exploration as part of an effort to save humanity from famine.
#18 - District Nine
Neill Blomkamp’s masterful and scathing allegory of South African apartheid.
#17 - The Host
Bong Joon-ho’s unsuttle inditement of the impact capitalism is having on our environment and its possible ramifications.
#16 - Sorry to Bother You
Directed by Boots Riley, Sorry To Bother You is a fantastic exploration of how racism can rob one of their humanity… that and amazing earrings.
#15 - Annihilation
Alex Garland’s adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s mind-bending novel of the same name. Visually stunning, haunting and cool as hell.
#14 - Attack The Block
Joe Cornish’s masterpiece tells the story of a group of savvy kids from a London housing project fighting off an alien invasion. Allow it.
#13 - The Martian
Based on the novel by Andy Weir, Ridley Scott offers up a utterly compelling tale of an astronaut stranded on Mars that is fun, smart and a great deal more science than fiction.
#12 - Blade Runner 2046
Director Denis Villeneuve’s sequel to the 1980′s classic. I’ll catch heat for this, but I actually prefer this to the Ridley Scott original. Ambiance so thick you can cut it with a knife.
#11 - Sunshine
Danny Boyle directed this criminally under-appreciated space opera about a team of doomed astronauts on a mission to re-ignite earth’s dying son.
#10 - Upstream Color
Shane Carruth’s bizarre exploration of trauma, recovery and the interconnectivity of all things is a wild, mind-bending romp and not to be missed.
#9 - Inception
Christopher Nolan’s masterfully uses the tools of cinema to highlight the thin line between dreams and reality, all based around a thrilling heist.
#8 - Under The Skin
Jonathan Glazer’s slow and haunting tale delves into what it means to be human from the eyes of an alien stalker. Haunting.
#7 - Moon
Directed by Duncan Jones, Moon looks into the role of the individual in the grander scale of science and progress; its conclusions are unsettling and utterly captivating.
#6 - Snowpiercer
Director Bong Joon-Ho skewers capitalism and social stratification by reimagining society as an enormous train endlessly traversing a frozen tundra.
#5 - Ex Machina
Alex Garland directs this ultimate in Turing tests that’ll have you wondering about your own humanity.
#4 Mad Max: Fury Road
Do not, my friends, become addicted to water. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence! Directed by George Miller.
#3 - The Arrival
Denis Villeneuve directs this amazing tale of a linguistics professor asked to devise a means of communicating with highly advanced alien visitors.
#2 - The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Michel Gondry masterpiece exploration into the nature of memory, relationships and how reality can reliant on our interconnectivity with others.
#1 - Children of Men
Alfonso Cuarón’s film is less a movie than a living dream/slash nightmare. Thoroughly engrossing; you feel like you’re right there trying to traverse this post-apocalyptic landscape of a world without children. One of the best movies ever made.
