One I watched years ago that I'm yet to encounter someone else mention These Final Hours. Follows a young man in Australia, as the last nine hours of humanity are being counted down. The asteroid has already hit, and the last people are just waiting for the encroaching wall of fire to sweep them out of existence. It was much, much better than I expected. Really moving. Nope might be a shade popular for what you're after, but I really enjoyed it. A solid horror flick oozing with atmosphere. Hunt for the Wilderpeople wholesome, funny, quirky - and also I want to plug some NZ films. Annihilation was pretty wild. I've heard it's polarising for some, so perhaps I'm just an easily pleased goon but I enjoyed the uneasy Sci-fi/horror edge. Two Distant Strangers a short movie where a young black man is stuck in a time loop and continously encountering a racist, white cop. The Rider I'm not one for westerns but this absolutely captivated me. Finding out the main characters aren't professional actors and are instead portraying fictionalised versions of themselves, was something else. That's not a spoiler, just what I found when I looked it up to see if they had been in any other movies.
I do have a list of movies I'm interested in seeing - though I haven't touched it for a few years. Both Annihilation and Hunt for the Wilderpeople are there so we're off to a good start from my perspective! I started with Annihilation yesterday because it's on Netflix and therefore easy. I doubt any sci-fi horror can match Alien or The Thing. I've seen Alien a bunch of times and it still holds up but I'm a bit scared to re-watch The Thing because I have a feeling I might have magnified it in my mind through the emotional lens of nostalgia and it may be disappointing. I really liked Annihilation though. I don't go for horror per-se, but I do enjoy some good, egregious body horror and I liked their choice to unambiguously show the alien and not hide behind the "leave it to your imagination because it's worse than we can show you"
Haven't had a lot of time to watch films this week so Two Distant Strangers was my next choice. When I was growing up it was really common to have a short film supporting the main feature when you went to the cinema and I really miss that experience. I felt sad and a bit angry when they stopped showing them in favour of fucking adverts and upcoming features. But not as sad and angry as this little short. And what an unusual subgenre to highlight the issue. I liked the use of names as the credits were rolling and wondered if the names on the roofs towards the end were real or VFX?
I decided I should post a little comment of gratitude after watching each of the recommended films. Hunt for the Wilderpeople took me back to being a little kid, reading the likes of Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe. Made me think of the kind of boy's own adventures that the (probably underappreciated) Ripping yarns parodied/revered. Getting Sam Neill for this project must have been a bit of a coup before Taika Waititi really hit the big time with Marvel.