40. “Arrival” (2016)
There have been several attempts at the kind of massive-scale sci-fi storytelling that Denis Villeneuve‘s “Arrival” embodies — Christopher Nolan‘s “Interstellar,” and Robert Zemeckis‘ “Contact” both tilted at similar ontological, metaphysical, almost mystical windmills too. But “Arrival” is the film that comes closest to answering the gargantuan questions it asks, in profound and gently optimistic, cerebral ways. And despite its ambition and reach, a lot due to Amy Adams‘ microscopically modulated performance, it manages to feel unassuming.
39. “The Road Warrior: Mad Max 2” (1981)
Until recently the best of the “Mad Max” movies, and the best thing George Miller had ever directed (depending on how you feel about “Happy Feet 2“), what makes ‘The Road Warrior’ so brilliant is the simplicity of its storytelling, within the sheer, unquestioning self-confidence of its universe building. Incidentally making an enduring icon of Mel Gibson along the way, Miller’s vision of the Australian Outback as a dystopian dustbowl is basically one long survivalist chase, and it’s no surprise that the only person who could ever catch up would be Miller himself, 3 ½ decades later.
38. “Frankenstein” (1931)
Made at a time when most of our parents hadn’t been born, based on a novel written when gas streetlamps were new-fangled, it’s no wonder that James Whale‘s “Frankenstein” should sound like a fusty proposition. But even to watch it now is to be struck again with just how modern it feels, even with the gorgeous composure of its black-and-white photography: “Frankenstein” may have aged, but it has never dated. The ultimate scary-sad classic, it evokes fear out of a kind of horrified sympathy for the most pitiable monster of them all.
37. “Escape From New York” (1981)
John Carpenter knew how to make slender storylines resonate with synthy sustain. And in 1981 he did it by putting Kurt Russell in an eyepatch, and dropping him into a New York City that is now (in the “future” of 1997) a lawless prison zone, with one goal: find the missing president (Donald Pleasance) who has been captured by the inmates. Featuring brilliantly lo-fi production design, an iconic score and alot of laconic, one-eyed badassery from Russell, it’s simply one of the most rewatchable entertaining man-on-a-mission movies ever made.
36. “The Iron Giant” (1999)
Depending on how moving you find the “Fast & Furious” franchise’s formulaic riffs on “family,” it’s unlikely you’ve ever actually cried at a Vin Diesel live-action performance. But as a voice actor, Diesel has now sacrificed himself to bawl-inducing effect twice: most recently at the end of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but most heartbreakingly at the climax of Brad Bird‘s beautifully imaginative box-office underperformer, when the Cold War-era robot from space flies off to deflect a missile shouting “I’m Superman!” Blub.
35. “Primer” (2004)
It’s 14 years later and we’re still no closer to having a monkeys what was going on in Shane Carruth‘s debut mindbender, but we’re pretty sure it was something extremely smart. Low on budget but ginormous on ideas, it’s the story of two engineers whose tinkering in their off time leads them to construct an actual functioning time machine. They use it to get rich, buying and selling stock but the film’s real puzzle is the way the two incompatible personalities fragment and their identities dissolve in the vortex of all this math.
34. “Je t’aime, je t’aime” (1968)
Of course a film that is so obsessed with idea of time and memory would be forgotten for decades only to resurface like it stepped from a time machine–such is the mysterious way the world and Alain Resnais movies, work. This quietly stunning, recently rediscovered film is perhaps Resnais’ ultimate riddle: it is only by paying careful attention across disjointed, often banal scenes and arrhythmic edits that you piece together the life being re-lived by a seemingly colorless man who is part of a malfunctioning experiment in time travel.
33. “Robocop” (1987)
The fusion of man and machine has provided a theme for many a science fiction premise, but the difference with “Robocop” is that mixture of savage sensationalism and satirical smarts that is Paul Verhoeven‘s natural element. The violence, the gaudiness, even the heartbreak and torture of the soul inside the suit are all writ comically large, and yet he has such perfect control over it all that a blockbuster film with Peter Weller as a robot cop becomes a ballet of bullets and blackly comic, oddly moving bravado.
32. “Forbidden Planet” (1956)
A stone-cold classic that moves like a whippet and encompasses breathless space-adventure hi-jinks and a “serious” role from future spoof king Leslie Nielsen, Fred M Wilcox‘s “Forbidden Planet” is one of those films that, like “Casablanca” was simply one of many for its studio, but for whatever reason all the ingredients clicked this time out. A loose reworking of Shakespeare‘s “The Tempest” with its obedient robot, megalomaniac mad doctor and comely daughter anxious to learn about men, it’s kitschy, but sincerely lovable.
31. “Moon” (2009)
Sam Rockwell was basically born to play a lonely space grunt, so low-level that he’s not even clued into the actual nature of his existence, and Duncan Jones, son of the original starman David Bowie, may well have been born to make that movie. “Moon” is simply one of the best debut films in recent memory, an elegant existential conundrum brought thrillingly to life by a terrific central performance and the director’s clever eye for design. “Source Code” was a fun follow-up, and we have high hopes for Jones’ upcoming “Mute“– what’s that you say, we’ve forgotten another film of his? No, no I don’t think we have.