Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuaron (2006, Universal). Alfonso Cuaron is on some next level shit. In all the reviews I read prior to screening the film today, a comparison is made to Blade Runner. They are all correct to do so. Not since Blade Runner have I ever felt so viscerally connected to a future world. When we are dropped into 2027 as the youngest person on the planet is being eulogized and Clive Owen's Theo orders a cup of coffee, you smell this Britain. The stench of desperation, defeatism and life is all over this UK of two decades from now.
This is the most lo-fi sci-fi film I've seen in quite awhile. Cuaron makes no visual flights of fancy to wow the audience. He captures you with the possibility of this time. We aren't so far off from this now he seems to say. Don't sleep or this is your tomorrow. He doesn't leave us caught out there in this dismal time without a life preserver, however. At all times, we are shown characters who cling tightly to their humanity despite how close the world teeters on oblivion.
And, make no mistake, this is our world. Where I noted in my review of V for Vendetta last year,
Sci-fi films often create a very white future. Spielberg's futuristic movies all have this conceit. Minority Report's Washington D.C. is the cleanest and most vanilla the chocolate city has ever been. A.I. and Back to the Future, part II have similar issues. Even Will Smith's starring vehicle I, Robot lacks the multicultural casting any version of our soon-to-come years must have.
The world has become more diverse and more connected, not less. That Cuaron remembers this is achievement enough and should get you in the theatre. That it is, also, a spectacular movie that hits on all cylinders, comes in at under 2 hours, and leaves you with grim but hopeful thoughts of the world to come makes it one of the very best films of 2006 and the best sci-fi flick in ages.
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This is the most lo-fi sci-fi film I've seen in quite awhile. Cuaron makes no visual flights of fancy to wow the audience. He captures you with the possibility of this time. We aren't so far off from this now he seems to say. Don't sleep or this is your tomorrow. He doesn't leave us caught out there in this dismal time without a life preserver, however. At all times, we are shown characters who cling tightly to their humanity despite how close the world teeters on oblivion.
And, make no mistake, this is our world. Where I noted in my review of V for Vendetta last year,
here, Cuaron makes no such misstep. Having already diverted significantly from the source material, he creates a near-apocalyptic Britain that is as diverse racially as it is today. Perhaps even more so. The anti-immigrant fervor of this UK obviously has racial overtones but isn't as simplistic as Vendetta's white-washing makes it. Dark skinned folks are still a part of the country, although in obviously fewer numbers, and are often relegated to large refugee ghettos where Islamic extremism prospers. The rich whites have the freedom to live high above it all and "not think about it" while even the liberal anti-establishment whites are able to hole up in private enclaves and get high while people of color and whites with foreign dialects are put in cages and whisked away. They may be out of mind but they are never out of sight.I know that Alan Moore's source material serves to guide this choice but if they're going to gloss over the big picture concept of fascism vs. anarchism -- the two extremes that are the base of everything within the comic books -- and essentially bring it down to a question of neo-conservatism vs. revolutionary action, then maybe we could have had some brown people on the screen. Modern Day England has roots in the Middle East and Africa and those groups are growing. Surely, a near future UK would be even more culturally mixed.
Sci-fi films often create a very white future. Spielberg's futuristic movies all have this conceit. Minority Report's Washington D.C. is the cleanest and most vanilla the chocolate city has ever been. A.I. and Back to the Future, part II have similar issues. Even Will Smith's starring vehicle I, Robot lacks the multicultural casting any version of our soon-to-come years must have.
The world has become more diverse and more connected, not less. That Cuaron remembers this is achievement enough and should get you in the theatre. That it is, also, a spectacular movie that hits on all cylinders, comes in at under 2 hours, and leaves you with grim but hopeful thoughts of the world to come makes it one of the very best films of 2006 and the best sci-fi flick in ages.