Category Archives: Science Fiction/Fantasy

Leave The World Behind review — Apocalypse now and more later on

December 6, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Sam Esmail | Written by Esmail, based on the novel by Rumaan Alam | 148 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Netflix This is one of those Netflix features that got a week in cinemas in advance of its debut on the streaming giant, but with no hype you'd be forgiven for missing it. That's…Read More

Dream Scenario review — A surreal nightmare with Nicolas Cage FTW

November 27, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Kristoffer Borgli | 102 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | In Cinemas A version of this review appeared during FITI's coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival. Once again A24 produces a film the likes of which we've not seen before, proving the American indie studio is consistently making the best movies in…Read More

Fingernails review — It’s a vibe

November 10, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Christos Nikou | Written by Nikou, Sam Steiner and Stavros Raptis | 113 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Apple TV+ For a lot of us secular folk, love is the last vestige of spirituality in our lives — if you don't count astrology. This movie imagines an alternate but completely recognizable world where a…Read More

Totally Killer review — A righteous sci-fi/horror/comedy mash-up

October 12, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Nahnatchka Khan | Written by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver and Jen D'Angelo | 106 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Amazon Prime From the director of Always Be My Maybe comes this wacky and wildly entertaining spoof of teen, slasher, and time travel movies. Yup, it's in the spirit of Scream but crossed with Hot Tub…Read More

The Creator review — Sci-fi AI epic works thanks mostly to the visuals

October 2, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Gareth Edwards | Written by Edwards and Chris Weitz | 133 min | ▲▲▲▲△ About 20 minutes into The Creator it was clear to me how this non-Intellectual Property, non-franchise, stand-alone big budget science fiction movie got green-lit: James Cameron. This is a movie that's following Cameron's sci-fi movie playbook — it's deeply…Read More

Jules review — A sweet, silly, and sad alien encounter movie

August 20, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Marc Turtletaub | Written by Gavin Steckler | 87 min | ▲▲▲△△ A slight, dramatic comedy about senior citizens who provide care for a visiting extraterrestrial, it's only just barely science-fiction. Really, it's about recognizing the humanity of people in old age and their struggles with health and loneliness — it parallels 1985's…Read More

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny review — One more crusade

July 1, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by James Mangold | Written by Mangold, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp | 154 min | ▲▲▲△△ It's a little hard to believe this movie exists, isn't it? This comes 15 years after the last one, the much-derided Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull and 34 years since the end of the original trilogy,…Read More

Asteroid City review — Wes Anderson’s boxes in boxes

June 24, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Wes Anderson | Written by Anderson and Roman Coppola | 105 min | ▲▲▲▲△ If you go back to my review of Anderson Feature #10, The French Dispatch, you'll see it left me a little confused. I appreciated its very Andersonian qualities — art directed within an inch of its life, a disregard…Read More

The Artifice Girl review — Intelligence evolves from the artificial

June 10, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Franklin Ritch | 93 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | on Digital and VOD Every once in awhile a new filmmaker shows up that just floors you. It's usually due to one or two elements that feel so fully and impressively realized it's hard to believe they haven't been around for decades. Franklin Ritch…Read More

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse review — Exalted but exhausting

June 4, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson | Written by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Dave Callaham | 140 min | ▲▲▲△△ When I saw the first entry in this animated Spider-Man franchise, I was certainly in the minority for not gushing wildly over it. It's good, but the various plot issues…Read More