Minority Report (2002) — Review
Minority Report is a Spielberg film arguing against surveillance and predictive control while being too Spielberg to commit fully to the darkness its premise requires. The concept is disturbing — a…
Movies
Total Recall (1990) — Review
Total Recall is one of the great entertainments in science fiction cinema, and its pleasures are specific rather than generic. Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast as a man who may or may not be…
The Abyss (1989) — Review
I don’t particularly like underwater films. That context belongs in this review because it affects the experience of watching The Abyss in ways that are honest to acknowledge. The specific qualities…
Star Trek: First Contact (1996) — Review
First Contact is the best Star Trek film after Wrath of Khan, and that’s a significant statement given how many entries the franchise has produced. What separates it from the rest is a structural…
Ex Machina (2014) — Review
Ex Machina is a technically accomplished film that left me cold. That’s an honest review rather than a dismissal — cold can be the correct response to a film that is doing exactly what it intends…
Logan’s Run (1976) — Review
Logan’s Run earns its place in the science fiction canon through its premise rather than through the film that executes it. A society where everyone is killed at thirty — where death is coded as…
Dark City (1998) — Review
Dark City is the most underrated film in the history of science fiction cinema. It arrived in 1998, one year before The Matrix, explored several of the same fundamental questions about manufactured…
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) — Review
2001 was a genuine achievement when it was released in 1968 and it remains technically remarkable today. Kubrick built a visual language for space that influenced every serious science fiction film…
Gattaca (1997) — Review
Gattaca has one of the best premises in 1990s science fiction — a world where genetic discrimination is so normalized it’s bureaucratic, where your DNA determines your ceiling before you’ve drawn a…
The Lord of the Rings — Review
I walked into a Pickwick bookstore in 1969 at eight years old and saw the big red single-volume edition of The Lord of the Rings on the shelf. My parents didn’t think I’d actually read it. I read it…