5. “Moon” (2009)
Every generation has a low-key cult sci-fi debut or two that simply have the feel of future classics, and the 21st Century has had several, though none as satisfying and as worthy of revisiting as Duncan Jones’ brilliantly conceived, perfectly executed “Moon.” The spartan story of a lone astronaut (Sam Rockwell) manning a mining station on the far side of the moon, with only the station’s computer, voiced by Kevin Spacey, for a companion, who discovers he’s not as alone as he thought, (although perhaps he’s ultimately even more so), the film goes through subtle shifts in mood, from droll to creepy to all-out uncanny. It all orbits around Rockwell’s performance, though, and he is superb at wrangling depths and subtleties from a role that has him often alone and wordless, projecting the intense, almost existential weariness of a man so very far from home. Jones stayed with sci-fi for his follow up, “Source Code,” but while it’s a fun, twisty thriller take on the genre, it didn’t come anywhere close to matching the shimmery, enigmatic atmosphere of his supremely controlled debut space oddity.
4. “Her” (2013)
Proving once again that some of the greatest sci-fi happens when the genre cross-pollinates with another, or several others, Spike Jonze’s lovely, intimate film is just as much an indie love story and a journey of self-discovery as it is a traditional sci-fi movie. Starring a tremulous Joaquin Phoenix in one of the finest and most sympathetic performances of an already stellar career, it also features voice acting work from Scarlett Johansson that is so evocative we remember the Operating System she plays (Samantha) as being as real as she is to Phoenix’s Theodore — one of the only times we really recall considering a voice-only performance as potentially awards-worthy. There’s a quiet intelligence to Jonze’s probing of our relationship with our machines, but mostly it’s a film marked out by its unusual grace in recognising how, in the face of our growing dependence on technology, we are somehow more fallibly human than ever.
3. “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” (2004)
We’re already firmly on the record with our endless adoration for Michel Gondry’s superlative investigation of love, regret, and memory (in fact our Oli Lyttelton wrote a lovely piece on the very personal connection he has to the film here). While the warmth and sorrowful humanism of the film are what stays with you, its intelligence and the elegance of its plotting can’t be overstated either. Giving Gondry’s lively visual imagination a license to play to its eccentric, practically-achieved strengths, Charlie Kaufman’s script nonetheless has the kind of focus and tightness that many of the director’s other features have lacked, and Jim Carrey’s against-type performance as the brokenhearted man desperately chasing after the memories of his relationship with Clementine (Kate Winslet) makes this a career high for all three, and a devastatingly beautiful, funny and melancholy film to boot. It’s the rare movie that has as much heart as it has creative smarts, and maybe twice the wisdom.
2. “Upstream Color” (2013)
One of only three directors to have two entries on this list (and the budgets for both of his titles combined could comfortably fit 50 times over into those of most all the others), Shane Carruth followed up his spectacularly brainy “Primer” with the spectacularly brainy “Upstream Color,” which broadens its scope, and therefore its reach, to warp the heart as well as the mind. A very, very, very offbeat love story, it follows a man (played by Carruth himself) and a woman (Amy Seimetz) who fall for each other helplessly but discover their mutual attraction is at least partly to do with a symbiotic link to a herd of pigs, the biology of a mutant strain of orchid, the poetry of Walt Whitman, and a bizarre hypnosis/heist scheme. Full of wonder and scientific curiosity at the uncanny nature of love, and investigating it so minutely that its mathematics themselves become beautiful, we may not be able to answer defintively what it all means, but the film’s pervasive mood and lingering sustain (down to the polyglot Carruth’s gauzy cinematography and self-composed ambient score) means it’s a pleasure to continue puzzling it out, even all this time later.
1. “Children Of Men” (2006)
Not just the best sci-fi movie of the last 15 years, but one of the best movies period, Alfonso Cuaron’s bravura dystopian masterpiece cemented the Mexican helmer’s status as not just a fast-rising star, but as one of our very, very best. Based on P.D. James’ novel, it’s set in a world where no children have been born in two decades, and society has collapsed as humanity waits to die out. Theo (Clive Owen) is entrusted with transporting a young immigrant woman (Claire-Hope Ashitey) who is pregnant, the first person in a generation to be so. Aside from its central premise, everything about “Children Of Men” is chillingly plausible, and Cuaron’s vision is brought to life seamlessly with subtle VFX and the never-bettered docudramish photography of Emmanuel Lubezki (including two of the greatest extended shots in cinema history). The cast, including Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam, Peter Mullan, and Danny Huston, are impeccable, it’s disarmingly funny, deeply sad, enormously exciting, fiercely political, and endlessly inventive, and people will be stealing from it for decades to come. Though many dismissed it on release as being too bleak, that was to miss the point: “Children Of Men” is a film about hope, and in the 21st century, we need all the hope we can get.
Honorable Mentions: As we said above, we excluded films that had already featured prominently on one of our other lists — namely, “Under The Skin” and “The Host,” which placed high in our Horror 25, and “Wall-E,” which showed up on our list of animations. Beyond that, there were a few borderline movies that aren’t quite in the sci-fi genre, though they have some elements, like “Melancholia,” “Contagion,” “Hanna,” and “Holy Motors,” and we also excluded movies that have sci-fi sections but aren’t fantastical all the way through, like “Cloud Atlas” and “The Fountain.” Superhero movies are sort of the borderline, but we ultimately decided to skip them: “Spider-Man 2,” “X-Men 2,” “The Dark Knight,” and “Guardians Of The Galaxy” likely would have been closest.
So what else nearly made the cut? J.J Abrams’ “Star Trek” was in consideration, as were Mark Romanek’s chilly clone drama “Never Let Me Go,” Gareth Edwards’ “Monsters,” John Hillcoat’s “The Road,” M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs,” and Abrams’ “Super 8.” We also considered Edgar Wright’s “The World’s End,” “Hunger Games” sequel “Catching Fire,” Joss Whedon’s “Serenity,” low-budget gem “Coherence,” offbeat experimenta “The Man From Earth,” megahit “Avatar,” underrated B-movie “Reign Of Fire,” and found-footage monster flick “Cloverfield.”
There was also Steven Spielberg’s “War Of The Worlds,” international indie “Europa Report,” Cameron Crowe’s “Vanilla Sky,” Brad Anderson’s semi-rom-com “Happy Accidents,” Alan Moore adaptation “V For Vendetta,” VIncenzo Natali’s “Splice,” Brit Marling’s unofficial trilogy “Another Earth,” “Sound Of My Voice,” and “I Origins,” Duncan Jones’ “Source Code,” “Josh Trank’s “Chronicle,” Colin Trevorrow’s “Safety Not Guaranteed,” Gareth Edwards’ “Godzilla,” Luc Besson’s “Lucy,” Wong Kar-Wai’s “2046,” and Swiss movie “Cargo.”
— Oliver Lyttelton, Jessica Kiang