Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Former lovers restart their relationship in reverse after mutual memory erase through shady brain firm.
Brazil ★
Daydreaming pencil-pusher joins forces with clandestine duct repairman to find mirage girl in Orwellian office maze.
Her
Semi-depressed personal-card-as-a-service hipster Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with operating system entity.
Coherence ★
Leaps of labyrinthine logic when already awkward dinner party enters entangled quantum state due to passing comet.
The Vast of Night ★
Two young tech enthusiasts in 1950s New Mexico go hunting tapes after uncovering haunting radio signals with an obscure history.
Ex Machina
Gifted engineer invited by wealthy wizard executive to Turing test humanoid AI at forest tech monastery.
The Endless
Mystery video tape sends brothers back to childhood cult or commune under the spell of strange physics.
Moon ★
Sam Rockwell battles severe loneliness and weak communications during solo mining mission on the Moon.
Arrival ★
Grieving linguist faced with exercise in circular comprehension after enigmatic spacecraft appear around the world.
Melancholia ★ ★
Spectacular cinematography of worn out Kirsten Dunst with doubts during own wedding as looming rogue planet nears Earth.
Donnie Darko ★
Troubled teenager faces fate and flying jet engines and converses apocalyptic rabbit on the philosophy of time travel.
District 9
Bureaucrat assigned relocation of alien outcasts from Johannesburg ghetto in smart xenophobia allegory.
12 Monkeys
Bruce Willis goes back in time to stop eco-terrorists from ruining Earth in brilliant expansion on still short La jetée.
The Man from Earth
Professor claims to be ancient at impromptu farewell gathering with cross-disciplinary group of colleagues and disciples.
Upgrade
Tech-averse mechanic reluctantly agrees to cybernetic implant for a chance at avenging his murdered wife.
Annihilation ★ ★
Biologist leads exploratory scientist team into curious and confusing environmental will-o’-the-wisp in search for missing husband.
Upstream Color
Strange substance travels through larvae, orchids, pigs and people in poetic weave by the director of Primer.
Sorry to Bother You
Race relations and workplace politics in dark comedy on the logical conclusions of scientific corporatocracy.
Gattaca
Natural born swimmer assumes stealth genotype in hope of going to space in brave new world of eugenics.
Predestination ★ ★
Ethan Hawke as bartending time traveler setting lives in motion while on final duty to track down elusive bomber.
Last Night ★
Widower’s solitude interrupted by woman looking for lost suicide pact partner during Earth’s last few hours.
Primer
Breakdown of spacetime and personal relations after serendipitous revelation in one of the most mind-bending movies ever.
The Lobster ★ ★
Lone singles end up in remote hotel for relationship conditioning under threat of being turned into animals.
Under the Skin ★
Clever usage of hidden cameras as humanly disguised alien seductress picks up men around streets of Scotland.
Timecrimes ★
Peeping tom becomes own pawn when trapped in cycle of events at high-tech skunkworks lab up the hill.
Open Your Eyes ★
Young man car-crashed into facial disfigurement by manic ex-lover ends up in dreamlike state of altered reality in levels.
Frequencies ★ ★
Metaphysical love story and fate versus free will struggle in class society determined by frequencies.
Anya ★
Newlyweds in fertility trouble seek aid of enthusiastic geneticist to solve DNA-driven bloodline mystery.
Videodrome ★
One man’s gory pursuit of mastermind behind sensational snuff broadcast that turns out to be neurolinguistic programming.
The Double ★
Office worker in a rut gets more excitement than he asked for in doppelgänger drama based on Dostoyevsky novella.
Spring
Young American adrift in southern Italy ends up in primordial romance with secretive lady of fine lineage.
H.
Fleeting fragments from two Helens of Troy at odds with loss in modern mythology of meteors and motherhood.
The Congress ★ ★
Multi-level metafilm/acid trip on society’s escalation of escapism, based on The Futurological Congress by Stanisław Lem.
Starship Troopers ★
Teens sent to wage interstellar war on arachnids in subtle and not-so-subtle satire on fascism and propaganda.
Evolution ★
Boys become experiment in wake of unknown sickness in strange seaside village inhabited solely by women.
Advantageous ★
Single mother in a future of super-children and rapidly diminishing job count explores the prospects of body sacrifice.
The Sticky Fingers of Time ★
Pulp author covering hydrogen bomb test in the 1950’s gains time travel capabilities and meets present day spawn.
Strange Days ★
Ex-cop uncovers plot around hard currency of illegal cortex recordings in unrestful Los Angeles at turn of the millennium.
I Origins ★
Eye scientist on crusade against creationism stumbles upon deep discovery and meets mysterious love interest.
Another Earth ★
Astronomer distracted by duplicate Earth encounter causes tragedy and misses MIT in favor of cleaning up aftermath.
eXistenZ ★
Biotech body horror in a future of increasingly immersive virtual reality where gamers versus realists battle it out.
Sound of My Voice ★
Covert documentary maker couple infiltrate seclusive sect surrounding charismatic leader claiming to be from the future.
Europa Report ★
Intimate space ship interiors from found footage of manned mission to Jupiter’s moons in search for extra-terrestrial life.
Never Let Me Go ★ ★
Trio coming of age at strangely isolated boarding school in alternate history where life extension happened.
The Laplace’s Demon ★
Determined research group with entropic breakthrough in their bag visits the island castle of a madman and his deadly contraptions.
A Scanner Darkly
Shapeshifting surveillance agent in undercover drug lord operation becomes addicted to Substance D in Philip K. Dick story.
Cosmos
Three astro-nuts with frictional past camp out in car on observatory all-nighter listening for strange space signals.
Cold Souls
Captured spirits and soul-searching in Saint Petersburg as Paul Giamatti plays himself on the verge of total theatrical uninspiration.
Limitless
Struggling author rids writer’s block with pilot nootropics and advances into finance while watched by the wrong people.
OtherLife ★
Biotech genius develops total simulation substance with the potential of severe time dilation and struggles to keep it from the wrong hands.
Extracted
Scientist trips down unreliable memory lane of alleged murderer through mind extraction machinery of own invention.
Embers
Newfound lovers/strangers in desolation wander about on amnesic repeat caused by mysterious global disease.
The Quiet Earth ★
Energy science lab rat tries to trump despair and seek explanations after awakening to a world devoid of people.
Travelling Salesman
Mathematicians make computational complexity breakthrough in π-fi chamber play on the ethics of scientific progress.
Splice ★ ★
Biohacker couple of ambiguous moral fiber in sudden parenthood when illicit gene splicing pet project goes awry.
Little Joe ★ ★
Triffid throwback in plant-based pastel on the symbiotic merits and morals of genetically modified organisms.
Cube ★ ★
Rational thinking under stress when group of strangers wake up in never-ending cubic deathtrap rigged with math.
Realive ★
Notable designer wakes up in the future after opting out of terminal cancer through experimental and arguably successful cryostasis.
The Quiet Hour ★ ★
Strong sister and blind brother keep up and out in expertly scored story of survival after alien invasion.
Robot Stories ★
Makers and machine love in four-part anthology on the limits and possibilities of human-robot interaction.
Stranded ★ ★
Vastly underrated down-to-earth exploration of Mars after pioneer crew crash-lands in crater on limited life support.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Collapsing and newfound relations in apocalyptic road movie about earth on the brink of destruction due to asteroid Matilda.
Sleep Dealer
Drone strike surviving village teen hacker meets memory author in Tijuana when looking for fortune in telerobotics.
Vanishing Waves ★
Surreal erotic encounters as one conscious test subject travels mind of comatose other under not-so-controlled conditions.
Cypher ★
Spiritless accountant goes into corporate espionage and discovers business convention brainwashing scheme.
Uncanny
Ex-engineer science writer spends week at solitary lab for interviews with prodigal inventor and the AI creation Adam.
The Beyond ★ ★
Robotisised astronauts are sent through just discovered wormhole to bring back news of the mysterious unknown.
S1m0ne ★
Director has-been replaces quitting leading diva with computer simulation that keeps outshining his own career.
The Box ★
NASA engineer and wife go down morally dubious path paved with supernatural occurrences after pushing a button.
Self/less
Prosperous property developer attempts escape from elderness through supposedly safe mind uploading to younger body.