10. “Snowpiercer” (2014)
In these days when the phrase “based on a comic book” has more or less become a guarantee of a plasticky, soulless “product” rather than a film, it helps to remember that it also describes Bong Joon-ho’s magnificently weird “Snowpiercer.” As was its French-language source (“Transpierceneige“), the film is a meaty allegory for the class struggle as the remnants of a ruined civilization live aboard a train speeding through the dystopian snowscape, the rich literally compartmentalized away from the poor. Featuring a wittily cast Captain America in Chris Evans, and a grotesquely made-up Tilda Swinton in its large international ensemble, the film is one of the most original and defiantly idiosyncratic sci-fi films ever to see the inside of a multiplex, however briefly. It had a rough time of it, but as the visionary Bong’s biggest film to date (his monster mash “The Host,” made it onto our Best Horrors list), the tales of its troubled journey en route to a haphazard, undersold release feel like they will only contribute to the film’s growing status as an underseen classic in years to come.
9. “Solaris” (2002)
A massively complex, yet remarkably calm film, Steven Soderbergh‘s take on Stanislaw Lem‘s novel has taken some time to emerge from the shadow of Andrei Tarkovsky‘s very brilliant, but very different version. Starring an understated George Clooney as the semi-bewitched astronaut whose dead wife (Natasha McElhone) returns to him over and over again under the reality-warping influence of a nearby planet, “Solaris” is a tricky, slippery, overtly philosophical, and questioning story, but somehow the crisp intelligence of Soderbergh’s style helps us never to feel lost in its labyrinths. The film’s detractors often negatively compare its focus on the central relationship with the more overtly “big” questions its famous forbearer dealt in, and yet Soderbergh mines that seam with such single-minded intensity that he touches on universal truths within its boundaries. Unapologetically cerebral in its themes, and minutely considered in its pacing, “Solaris” exerts, like the planet from which it takes its name, an uncanny pull on the senses, and displays, for a genre usually defined by its clinical white surfaces, an enormous amount of soul.
8. “District 9” (2009)
With Neill Blomkamp going on to make the facile “Elysium” and the widely derided “Chappie,” a coma patient who woke up in 2010 might well wonder why the hell we all have such continued high expectations for him. But that would be the effect of his terrific debut, the low-on-budget, high-on-ideas “District 9,” which positioned its aliens-on-Earth premise as a clear but insightful metaphor for racial, economic, and social bigotry. Deriving even more bite and mordant wit from its setting in South Africa, with its shameful history of apartheid and race conflict, the film was also, on a purely technical level, a marvel of world-building on a small budget, with the near-future tech managing that “Alien” trick of feeling both advanced and yet broken-in, worn out and scuffed. Not just Blomkamp’s breakout, but also star Sharlto Copley’s finest hour to date, the film remains a summary lesson in how great sci-fi films tend to be great not for their futurist trappings but for how witheringly and incisively they can comment on present-day issues.
7. “Primer” (2004)
Made for a fraction of pretty much every other movie here (just $7,000), Shane Carruth’s directorial debut, “Primer,” is a startling and incredibly complex picture that completely re-energised the time-travel movie and immediately leapt to the forefront of the genre. The endearingly lo-fi picture sees a group of engineers accidentally create a device in their garage that can send them back in time, before falling out in spectacular fashion. Of course, that barely scratches the surface of the plot: it’s a dizzyingly dense film, to the extent that it can feel impenetrable at first, but as if mirroring the journey of its characters, it becomes more and more rewarding as you travel back for a second, third, or fourth go. Shot on 16mm (with enough stock that he could only shoot each scene once, which might explain why it’s a little rough around the edges in places, though that only adds to its chilly charm for us), it’s an uncompromising, completely fascinating picture, and that Carruth’s other sci-fi classic (more of which in a moment) is so wildly different is a testament to his immense talents.
6. “Timecrimes” (2007)
That said, “Primer” isn’t quite our favorite time-travel picture of the decade: that honor instead goes to another low-budget spin on the conceit, Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo’s twisty, twisted “Timecrimes.” The set-up sees Héctor (Karra Elajalde) go out to investigate a nude neighbor when his wife leaves the house, only to be stabbed by a mysterious bandaged figure, and then discovering that a scientist has built a time machine that can send him an hour back in time. A devious, tighly plotted, and frequently surprising little picture leavened with a sly sense of humor, it sees Vigalondo juggle tones and genres with a confidence that belies his status as a first-time filmmaker (although he’d been Oscar-nominated for his short film “7:35 de la Mañana”). In its low-budget ingenuity, it follows not just something like “Primer,” but also films like “Memento,” “Pi,” and even “Dark Star,” giving the film a scope and scale that belies its limited setting and cast, but more than anything, it’s just enormous fun to unpack and puzzle over.
I’m alright with the list, but as is the trend with ‘countdowns’ you gotta mention the one that you feel the author left out. In this case, I nominate “Coherence”.
Purple Monkey Dishwasher