There is plenty of science fiction which deals with the very near future and/or sociology. Ballard has written science fiction, but I suppose the correct term for something like Crash is "speculative fiction" as it is based on a fictitious underground society based around a current technology.
Ballard is most commonly associated with the dystopian genre, but I'm not sure that is appropriate for his entire oeuvre.
FWIW I saw 'High Rise' today & quite enjoyed it. The film didn't murder Ballard's work, and stylistically I thought it was pretty cool. but they did over-egg the allegorical elements to the point that it looked like they'd under-estimated the capacity of the audience to 'get it'.
Dheepan, Jacques Audiard's Palme d'Or winning latest. A Sri Lankan Tamil 'family' escapes at the end of the conflict, goes to France as refugees and ends up living on an estate run by gangsters. I really liked this -- the sense of foreboding is nicely maintained and you just know it's not going to end well...
Jacques Audiard was at the cinema and did a Q&A at the end. Came across as an interesting and intelligent man. Slightly strange English/French setup though.
Anomalisa. Charlie Kaufman's stop-motion animation. Man on business trip has a midlife crisis/meltdown.
Wasn't massively keen on seeing this as not very into stop-motion animation stuff. But really, really glad I did - it's very funny, poignant and captures how people talk and act perfectly. It's also got the most realistic sex scene I've seen on screen. I'd be surprised if this isn't in my top 10 films this year.
Kung Fu Panda 3. At least as good as the other two, a great imagine dragons song and without pandaring to anyone a guy gets kicked in the nuts and it's very funny.
Anomalisa. Charlie Kaufman's stop-motion animation. Man on business trip has a midlife crisis/meltdown.
Wasn't massively keen on seeing this as not very into stop-motion animation stuff. But really, really glad I did - it's very funny, poignant and captures how people talk and act perfectly. It's also got the most realistic sex scene I've seen on screen. I'd be surprised if this isn't in my top 10 films this year.
Enjoyed this more than I expected too, very good until a somewhat rushed ending. The characters don't develop much, but they're all very watchable. Should have been called something else tho.
The best bit about watching this film was definitely going to the pub afterwards and deciding what the most stupid bit of it was. Which is a bit harsh as there are definitely things to both like and admire about it, but it really isn't the work of genius the critics would have you believe
The X-Files was very much influenced by Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind which was about a government cover up of UFO sightings. As was the previous film by the director of Midnight Special, Take Shelter. He really, really seems to like Close Encounters (and so do I)
I watched this recently and enjoyed it too. Good performances all round. Unlike most science fiction films you see nowadays. Interesting podcast interview with him below where he mentions about him becoming a father and how the story is to a large part about the issues faced with parenthood.
Room - Decent enough film with an excellent performance from Brie Larson. The direction did feel rather pedestrian though. If you took the performances out of it I feel it would be a very average film.
Victoria - Massively overrated nonsense with some decent parts. The whole one take thing is a conceit that seems to be more about PR than being used to advance the film, IMO it actually works counter to needs of the the plot. Pretty much every thriller made requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience but good thrillers provide you with a setup (likeable characters, fantastic set pieces, whatever) that means you go along for the ride. The first third of the film concerns the meeting of Victoria with 4 german guys and has a realistic feel to it, unfortunately it's about as entertaining as being forced to hang around with bunch of drunken wankers when you're sober is in real life. That twatness the guys then undermines the second part of the film. There was no motivation for me to accept that utterly ludicrous plan* or for me to want them to get away with it.
yeah I can just imagine major criminals pulling in a load of drunk petty criminal idiots to carry out bank robberies for them)
The VVitch - Good, though again perhaps not deserving of the degree of praise it's had. I disagree with belboid that the film should have either gone with the supernatural or the psychological, I think the blending of the two is done pretty well for most of the film. The exception is the end which just goes for pretty weak and stupid cop out. That said there's a lot to recommend it. The performances were good (nice to see Ralph Inneson having a starring role for once), creepily shot, good build up.
A Bigger Splash - A big rock star (Tilda Swinton) and her partner are recuperating on holiday in Italy. Her ex (Ralph Fiennes) and his (possible) daughter arrive in town and power struggles ensue. I really enjoyed it, and there are some great pieces within the film but I'm not sure just how well it works overall. There's an attempt to link events in the film to the issue of migration and I wasn't very convinced on that aspect. That said I think it's the best of the four and would recommend it.
Saw Dheepan last night. Gripping, realistic film by Jacques Audiard (A Prophet) about a Tamil man, woman and child who are not related but pose as a family to get to France, using passports of dead people. They go to live on a tough estate and get caught up in the local gangland scene. Some great acting (I thought the 'wife' was particularly good) and genuinely terrifying moments of gang warfare. Recommended.
Another shout out for Dheepan. I thought it was a great watch. A gripping thriller that was grounded by the very real and autobiographical story that informed about 50% of the plot. For some reason it reminded me a lot of Taxi Driver.
It was very gritty, and real, and fairly harrowing at times, but not all gratuitous.
I was impressed how one especially long(ish) and violent episodes in the film was shot without showing hardly any violence at all, but also did not use the old device of panning away and leaving it to your imagination. That's clever film making.
Saw Dheepan last night. Gripping, realistic film by Jacques Audiard (A Prophet) about a Tamil man, woman and child who are not related but pose as a family to get to France, using passports of dead people. They go to live on a tough estate and get caught up in the local gangland scene. Some great acting (I thought the 'wife' was particularly good) and genuinely terrifying moments of gang warfare. Recommended.
There are quite a few other films by Jacques Audiard, who is one of my favourite directors working. My personal favourite of his is the Hitchcock-style romantic thriller Read My Lips. Really looking forward to Dheepan.
At the Q&A I went to, someone queried the ending. They said they could believe everything else but the last bit just seemed strange and tacked on. Audiard said that he wanted the end to be almost dreamlike/a fantasy and it'd been shot in a slightly different way to give it that quality.
While his films are artfully made and he is always coming back to certain issues (immigration, disability, class) Audiard ultimately makes genre films (thriller, gangster and melodrama) and that's something he keeps getting criticised for. I like how he mixes the high and lowbrow in his films.
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