Anne Hathaway plays Gloria, a recently unemployed alcoholic writer who is forced to move back to her hometown in order to get her life back together. There, she meets up with an old friend and begins to work at his bar. In the meantime, in a city faraway a monster appears and disappears wreaking havoc in its wake. Soon Gloria realizes she is somehow controlling the monster and her whole world begins to unravel.

Vigalondo’s reinterprets the monster film with a psychological twist. Gloria is a complicated character, a kind of anti-hero that not everyone is meant to like. She’s flawed and even when the audience might root for her in the war against her own mind, she’s seen as vulnerable and prone to make the awful mistakes. The monster itself serves as a shell to the heroine, but ultimately Colossal makes this monster a vessel for all of the audience’s weaknesses. It’s an empowering film of personal struggles, but also a tale of life’s enduring comedic bends.

Blade Runner 2049

Director: Denis Villeneuve // Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas

The original Blade Runner is part of the sacred science fiction foundation, so it is with no surprise that this much-anticipated sequel made many fans a little bit nervous. Director Denis Villeneuve, known for hard-hitting, but pensive films like Arrival (2016) and Sicario (2015), showcases his love for isolation themes with this film.

A replicant named K, played by Ryan Gosling, is a blade runner who hunts down rogue replicants. He finds a box that contains the body parts of a replicant who died during childbirth, an occurrence that defies the theory that replicants are sterile. This discovery leads him on a journey to find the child and its father.

This movie is confection for the eyes, as Villeneuve serves up a picturesque landscape at every turn. Dystopian deserts are regaled with gorgeous monuments and glossy cities never sleep, as our characters play out the noir tension at an even pace. Harrison Ford comes back as Deckard and in many (good) ways it feels like he’s never left.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Director: Luc Besson // Cast: Cara Delevingne, Dane DeHaan, Rihanna

Many will remember Luc Besson’s previous quirky sci-fi blockbuster,The Fifth Element (1997). Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets takes that eccentricity and cranks it up to eleven. It’s the 28th Century and the International Space Station has grown too big so it is shot out into deep space. Over time it becomes a planet of its own with inhabitants from a thousand planets working and living in its nooks and crannies. Major Valerian and his companion Sergeant Laureline are two of the many guardians that police this world.

In a far off place an entire species of creatures faces a catastrophic event that destroys their planet, but not before one of them sends out a telepathic signal into Valerian’s mind. Cue a tumbling out of whopping events and thus begins a film full of non-stop action and entertaining escapist fare. Besson fashions a beautiful environment of inter-dimensional travel and it’s awe-inspiring to witness. Aliens populate a great deal of the screen time, popping up wherever they can, but the story’s true strength lies in the humanity of its characters.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos // Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone

In keeping with unconventional sci-fi, Yorgos Lanthimos is a filmmaker that stretches and subverts the genre into his own unique direction. The Killing of a Sacred Deer is partly inspired by Greek mythology and set in a place where language is a stilted means of communication. It’s hard to explain, but let’s get to it.

Steven is a cardiac surgeon who takes a lost teen boy, Martin, under his paternal wing. Together with his wife Anna and two kids, Kim and Bob, he leads a simple life. However, after Martin is introduced to Steven’s family a dark secret and its catastrophic consequences are revealed. Kim and Bob become paralyzed as a result, even though they are medically healthy. Eventually, Steven is forced to face a rather difficult, but necessary choice in the name of survival.

I would say more, but that would mean spoiling the fun.. The odd acting and the idiosyncratic linguistics in this film’s dialogue, a Lanthimos trait, are incredibly compelling and startlingly humorous.

Life

Director: Daniel Espinosa // Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada