Annihilation

Director: Alex Garland

2018, USA, 115, R

Screenwriter: Garland, based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer.

Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac.

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Director Alex Garland’s follow-up to his brilliant Ex-Machina puts him in the rarified group of filmmakers, from Kubrick to Scott to Tarkovsky, that use the sci-fi genre to comment on today, as well as prophesize about the future. Based on the first book of the trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer, it sends five tough women scientists, led by a biologist played by Natalie Portman, into an Everglades-like jungle. There, they both battle and try to understand the sudden mutations that has created a slew of unusual – and dangerous – new forms of life. In the aftermath of the #metoo movement, it is empowering to see such smart, badass women on the front lines of saving human civilization!

“Achieves that rare feat of great genre cinema, where audiences are not merely thrilled but also feel as if their minds have been expanded along the way.” – Peter Debruge, Variety.