A thought-provoking dystopian SF film and a couple of contrasting documentaries in my latest science-fiction-themed viewing recommendations…
1] I Am Mother
A child grows up in a secluded high-tech bunker, tended to by a fussy, slightly sinister mechanical matriarch – a scenario familiar to many who grew up in the UK in the 70s. The premise is quite open-ended and could’ve gone in several different directions, but the one they chose made for a thought-provoking, claustrophobic and eerie watch.
2] All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace
Adam Curtis’ documentary series, which takes its title from Richard Brautigan’s poem, is a dreamlike, creative meditation on the ways machines have infiltrated our lives. Using a sophisticated palette of televisual conventions and creating atmosphere with arresting archive and electronic music, Curtis meditates on the dark structures wielding power and how their machinations can be traced in part to the individualist philosophy of objectivism articulated by Ayn Rand in the 1950s.
3] My Octopus Teacher
‘Not sci-fi,’ I hear you cry. But honestly, what is more essentially alien than an octopus? I’m a sucker for undersea footage and Craig Foster’s labour of love beautifully conveys the story of how he attempted, through daily diving trips, to somehow form an emotional bond with his subject and in effect, glimpse the unknowable.
