Text by Tim Van Schmidt

Mute ****

A boating accident leaves an Amish boy mute, but he uses all of his other faculties to track down his lady love years later in a futuristic Berlin. The landscape is crowded, trashy and full of distractions, but the determination of this character does not waver as he dispatches perverts, pimps, gangsters and AWOL killers in his quest. He makes plenty of enemies but also an unexpected friend along the way. It’s suspenseful, violent, head spinning action, with gore and brutality mixed in liberally.

Directed by Duncan Jones…2018…featuring Alexander Skarsgård, Paul Rudd, Justin Theroux, Seyneb Saleh, Robert Sheehan.

The Cloverfield Paradox ***

It’s bad enough that the world is running out of energy. But then, scientists launch a device that may give the world limitless power- or it may not. Nobody really seems to know but they are desperate to find a solution. They don’t know what desperate really means, though, until dimensions collide and the fabric of reality changes its weave. In the midst of it all may be lurking some monsters- but you’ll have to wait for the sequel to get into that.

Directed by Julius Onah…2018…featuring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David Oyelowo, Daniel Brühl.

Television: Altered Carbon *****

It all comes down to murder, but what a ride. This is a sophisticated and mind stimulating sci-fi production of the first class that goes way beyond action. The world has been transformed by a device that stores an individual’s consciousness. This makes bodies, or “sleeves,” more or less expendable- if you have the wealth to keep jumping bodies to become “immortal.” This power does corrupt and it divides humanity into new classes- the immortals who live in buildings in the clouds, and all the rest of humanity on the ground. Into this strides a warrior who must make hard choices as he unravels layers of mysteries having to do with his life and the lives of those he enlists to help make immortals accountable.

Dunkirk ***

At the start of World War II, Allied forces are trapped by the Germans on the wide open beaches of Dunkirk, France. Only British ships can save them and there just aren’t enough of them- or Spitfire fighter planes. In fact, the supply is so short that the British brass decide to hold the ships and planes in reserve as an invasion of England seems imminent. This necessitates the activation of civilian crafts of all sizes and the bravery of their owners to stop a full-scale slaughter.

Directed by Christopher Nolan…2017…featuring Fionn Whitehead, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance, Mark Rylance.

Get Out ****

A wry horror story also scores racial commentary as a young black man travels with his white girl friend to meet her parents. He’s a handsome, strong and smart young fellow and that’s exactly what all the white folks he meets at a weekend garden party say they’re looking for. He just doesn’t know why until things spin way out of control.

Directed by Jordan Peele…2017…featuring Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener, Marcus Henderson.

Ravenous ***

The setting here- a remote area of Quebec- underscores the horror of a zombie apocalypse. Even in the thick of the woods, survivors learn they still have to run for their lives. The infected here are damned fast and even those with survival skills must be very, very wary- and quiet. Survivors learn quick that just about any sound can attract the undead, so when the ghouls aren’t screaming hellishly at them while in hot pursuit, the uninfected travel in frightened silence.

Directed by Robin Aubert…2017…featuring Marc-André Grondin, Monia Chokri, Charlotte St-Martin.

2307: Winter’s Dream **

Humanoids engineered to work in the frozen wasteland that the deserts of Arizona have become begin to rebel against their weaker human progenitors. A bloody uprising kills a combat commander’s wife and he doesn’t learn the truth about her death or the fate of his unborn daughter until he tracks down the humanoid leader struggling to survive in the “dead zone.”

Directed by Joey Curtis…2016…featuring Paul Sidhu, Branden Coles, Arielle Holmes, Kelcey Watson.