National Sci-Fi Day

Metropolis

Streaming Video - 2014

A giant movie pulled out from the giant imagination of Fritz Lang. Some of those Germans in the 20’s knew no restraint, and that’s what made their screen ...Show more A giant movie pulled out from the giant imagination of Fritz Lang. Some of those Germans in the 20’s knew no restraint, and that’s what made their screen art so enormously dynamic and awesome and, occasionally, sadistic. Metropolis is one of the great visual epics in movies, which has been ripped off at least a hundred times but never equaled. It’s about the future of society in a city of robots, enslaved workers and impossible skyscrapers (the planes can fly no higher than the tips of the buildings), and you can feel a nation’s fear of man turning into machine (the workers move like cogs in a machine; the woman has an evil robot doppelganger) – a fear that clearly had legitimacy considering the Nazis came into power less than a decade after this movie was made. During this time director Fritz Lang fled to America. His wife, the film’s screenwriter, however, joined the Nazi party. Show less

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E.T

The Extra-terrestrial

DVD - 1982

Steven Spielberg’s classic children’s sci-fi about a boy who befriends an alien lost on earth. The special effects department did a fabulous job creating ...Show more Steven Spielberg’s classic children’s sci-fi about a boy who befriends an alien lost on earth. The special effects department did a fabulous job creating the space creature. He looks like a brown, shriveled turtle without a shell and with huge emotive eyes. At times he seems as wise as a sage elder and others as innocent as a gentle toddler. It’s a deeply felt and poetic commercial film, which sounds like an oxymoron (it was a huge blockbuster when it came out as I’m sure you know but maybe your kids don’t). Perhaps Spielberg’s finest film, right up there with Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It’s extraordinarily sweet and yet it doesn’t feel cloying or mawkish. Show less

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La Jetee

Streaming Video - 2014

A lyrical science fiction masterpiece. It’s just under 30 minutes and it has more resonance than most “good” sci-fi films (this one’s about a time travele...Show more A lyrical science fiction masterpiece. It’s just under 30 minutes and it has more resonance than most “good” sci-fi films (this one’s about a time traveler from a post-World War III society). Told almost entirely in a series of beautiful still photographs that inspires one in what they could do with a low budget, there is a poesy of human feeling here that almost feels Keatsian. It’s essentially a love story, and when one of the photographs moves - when the time traveler stares at the object of his affection while she lies in bed gazing back at him, breathing in and out - it has the odd effect of feeling like time has stopped; and yet it’s the only shot in the movie where time is moving. It’s the closest movies have ever come to capturing that feeling one has when they lay in bed with their lover and time doesn’t seem to move, though it unfortunately always is. This shot, which is virtually impossible had the rest of the movie not been still photography, also makes you think about the nature of motion pictures: are they pictures that are simply in motion, or are they something else? Show less

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind

DVD - 2007

Spielberg’s story about UFO abduction, obsession and child-like wonder. Richard Dreyfuss is excellent as the protagonist who can’t get the UFOs out of his...Show more Spielberg’s story about UFO abduction, obsession and child-like wonder. Richard Dreyfuss is excellent as the protagonist who can’t get the UFOs out of his mind and will do whatever it takes to look upon them with wide eyes. When they finally appear, the humans see them as if hearing music for the first time (the aliens even communicate with music). A lovely, wondrous science fiction adventure film that fully appreciates how magical the possibility of life outside our solar system is. Show less

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2001

A Space Odyssey

DVD - 2001

A slow moving, visually arresting and, okay, portentous and labored sci-fi movie that is so astounding in its ambition that it’s rarely been imitated. But...Show more A slow moving, visually arresting and, okay, portentous and labored sci-fi movie that is so astounding in its ambition that it’s rarely been imitated. But it’s rightfully a classic, and its hypnotic mix of classical music, slow moving (and wizardly) special effects and affectless human beings creates an atmosphere of post-modernism. Here the most sympathetic and human character is obviously the psychotic robot (who simply looks like a red orb), and his desperate attempt to fix his fallibility, his “error”, by disposing of all human witnesses is human, melodramatically exciting and darkly funny. The visual phantasmagoria at the end that takes inspiration from the amazing 1960’s experimental filmmaker Jordan Belson has a terrifying power. When I saw it as a child I had to watch through my fingers. Show less

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Akira

DVD - 2013

A hugely influential anime film based on a hugely influential Japanese comic series, this post-apocalyptic epic about teen psychics, street gangs, huge sk...Show more A hugely influential anime film based on a hugely influential Japanese comic series, this post-apocalyptic epic about teen psychics, street gangs, huge skyscrapers and awesome, futuristic motorcycles is justly loved by anime fans around the world. And it’s one of the films that initiated the international anime boom of the 90’s, particularly here in the United States. Show less

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Solaris

Sol︠i︡aris

DVD - 2002

A space traveler comes to a mysterious planet where the planet materializes his late wife. She has all of his wife’s supposed memories, feelings, and nuan...Show more A space traveler comes to a mysterious planet where the planet materializes his late wife. She has all of his wife’s supposed memories, feelings, and nuances of personality. The planet creates her through its sensing of the man’s mind. The space man starts to contemplate the difference between his wife and her double. The double seems to truly think she is his wife, and she hurts when he doubts her. What does it mean to truly be someone? What makes up a person? Is it their memories, their feelings, their genetic DNA? If that’s all exactly replicated, then is she truly his wife, alive again? It’s an existential sci-fi film. Show less

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Star Wars

Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back

DVD - 2013

I hate to recommend a Star Wars movie but this one was actually quite wonderful. It’s in the serial, Flash Gordon, cliffhanger-a-minute genre of the first...Show more I hate to recommend a Star Wars movie but this one was actually quite wonderful. It’s in the serial, Flash Gordon, cliffhanger-a-minute genre of the first film, but somehow the characters feel fuller, and we care more deeply. And the images in this one have a beauty to them, like the steam-filled, atmospheric lightsaber fight between hero Luke Skywalker and the evil Darth Vader, or the Jim Henson produced puppet of Yoda who’s impossible not to be charmed by, no matter how jaded the viewer. This is probably credited to director Irvin Kirshner, who takes over from the somewhat limited vision of George Lucas. He gives Lucas’s world dimension. Show less

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Blade Runner 2049

DVD - 2018

This sci-fi sequel stars Ryan Gosling and is directed by Denis Villeneuve in a manner that suggests he tried shaping it with the kind of poetry he erroneo...Show more This sci-fi sequel stars Ryan Gosling and is directed by Denis Villeneuve in a manner that suggests he tried shaping it with the kind of poetry he erroneously remembered the original having when he saw it as a teen in Quebec. One of the few modern franchise films that persons of reasonable taste could call beautiful, and it has a delicious villainess played by Sylvia Hoek Show less

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Ghost in the Shell

DVD - 1998

A sexy and austere animated film about cyborg police contemplating the nature of existence. Mamoru Oshii directs with lyricism and visual imagination, and...Show more A sexy and austere animated film about cyborg police contemplating the nature of existence. Mamoru Oshii directs with lyricism and visual imagination, and the score is excellent. And it’s actually thought provoking – particularly into the psyche of Japan. Show less

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