indiefilm.com has a couple of blog posts on the best
horror and sci-fi films of the millennium so far,
respectively. The horror one is consciously missing
Neil Jordan's _Byzantium_, better by far than anything
on that list (which does include Claire Denis' _Trouble
Every day_). The sci-fi one is instructive: at least
4 of the "best" 25 (including many near the top) have
time-travel themes. I just watched _Looper_ myself,
and _Predestination_ not long ago. Many of these so-called
sci-fi time travel films are incredibly nihilistic, with
_Predestination_ taking the cake. _Looper_ is also quite
misanthropic but has at least a redemptive ending. Others
are about the end-of-the-world; _AI: Artificial Intelligence_
is undoubtedly the best sci-fi film of the century, if
one doesn't count the "Battlestar Galactica" miniseries.
_AI_ is elegant, elegiac, and deeply emotional. In contrast,
films like _Snowpiercer_ (in the top 10) are incredibly
disgusting, cannabalistic, and simply pornographic in their
insistence on depicting and telling the most disgusting
stories. I once thought that Japanese popular culture
was strange; Korean directors seem to have an order of
magnitude higher tolerance for torture and putrid decay.

A sad state of affairs. So it is a delight to catch
_Vanishing Waves_, a humanistic story about the brain,
about a research breaking the rules to save a comatose
patient. Lithuanian director Kristina Buozyte's
second feature is visually sophisticated in addition
to having a completely original story. Lukas works as
a test subject in a brain/neuro network research lab.
Neural science has featured heavily in contemporary
novels; surprising it takes so long for filmmakers to
catch up! He is connected to a computer (and then,
to his later discovery, a comatose patient) while
suspended in sensory-deprivation tank-like device.
This is reminsicent of Ken Russell's _Altered States_
and Resnais' _Je t'aime je t'aime_, but the brilliant
departure is that, instead of isolation, Buozyte makes
this an instrument of connecting. Lukas manages to
awaken the dormant consciousness of Aurora, and in their
mind they immerse in increasingly initimate physical
and emotional bonding. But this endangers her
fragile psyche and his sanity, to the extent
that he drives off his wife and risks professional
disgrace. The film has a bittersweet ending that
evokes fairy tales. Perhaps because she is a woman,
Buozyte abstains from the sterile, antiseptic
set designs and aesthetics of her fellow European
new Turks. The result is a film that is truly
an original. She will be one to watch.

One shouldn't forget _Clone_ and _Another Earth_, and
_Pitch Black_ when talking about recent sci-fi films,
either.

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In the DVD interview, director Kristina singled out
Antonioni as her influence. But her soft focus,
sensual cinematography reminds me more of Tarkovsky
than the alienating hard edges of Antonioni. The
production design is clever without overwhelming the
emotional core of the film. It is a very confident
feature in which the whole is greater than its parts.
I hope this inspires more neuro-science films.

On the topic of science fiction, I think we should
call a moratorium on time-travel movies. (Unfortunately
we are likely to get many more.) Time-travel should
make great drama, forcing the traveler to re-examine
his/her moral choices. (_Another Earth_ succeeds in
this without time travel.) Unfortunately, the film-school
brats have taken over and perverted the genre, focusing
on the "clever" aspect of going back to one's past.
They are also playing an one-upmanship game to see who
can come up with the most deterministic, nihilistic,
trapped-by-fate stories. _Predestination_ is the
current standard bearer of this trend, but I'm sure we
will see much worse in the years to come.

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