‘Predator: Killer of Killers’
In 2022, Dan Trachtenberg’s Hulu original “Prey” marked a return to form for the Predator franchise, in which technologically advanced alien creatures treat Earth as a game preserve. Now Trachtenberg is back with an animated feature (directed with Josh Wassung) that makes for a neat way station before his live-action “Predator: Badlands” comes out in November. The movie is structured like an anthology of distinct — but effectively linked — stories set in different eras. The segments essentially are extended brawls, pitting an intergalactic hunter against a Viking raider (voiced by Lindsay LaVanchy) in 841 A.D., followed by a ninja in feudal Japan (Louis Ozawa), then an American pilot on an aircraft carrier during World War II (Rick Gonzalez). This approach is very much in line with the 1719-set “Prey,” in which the representative of the human race was a Comanche warrior. “Predator: Killer of Killers” is fast, gory and often wickedly well directed (the aerial battles in the third segment are a hoot). The last section suggests a Predator-universe thread, and I won’t complain if some of it feeds into “Badlands.”
‘The Lost Daughter’
Rent or buy it on most major platforms.
One of J.M. Barrie’s obsessions was the passing of time. Make that the not passing of time: His most famous character, after all, is Peter Pan, “the boy who wouldn’t grow up.” In 1920 Barrie returned to the subject in the much less famous, but hauntingly melancholy play “Mary Rose,” which the directors Austin Andrews and Andrew Holmes have adapted into a somber film. The setting was moved from Scotland to British Columbia, where one day a young girl named Lily (Remy Marthaller) disappears on a tidal island. When she turns up again, she feels as if she was just gone, but in the regular world days have passed.
Years later, the adult Lily (Paloma Kwiatkowski) returns to the island. When she makes it back to her town, she hasn’t aged. For everybody else, though, years have passed. Her father (Donal Logue, from “Gotham”) is now a widower; her son, Jared (David Mazouz, also of “Gotham”) has grown into a troubled young man. He was told his mother was dead so when Lily reappears, he asks her, “Are you a ghost?” She is, in a way, but so is he, living alone and lost in the unstable world of his own mind. “The Lost Daughter” is a poetic look at how hard it is for some people to reconcile not just with reality but with themselves.
‘Half Lives’
Most everyone in David Bush’s “Half Lives” seems to despise Luke (Fran Kranz, in full Kieran Culkin mode), despite the fact that they’re all safely hiding from the fallout of a nuclear attack in the underground shelter he had the prescience to build and stock with food. Even Luke’s college bestie, Vincent (Malcolm Goodwin), appears to have lost his patience with him. We catch up with the quintet as cabin fever sets in and tempers are running hot. Luke is particularly affected, or at least that’s the impression since the movie is told from his perspective.
Luke shares his increasingly unhinged thoughts into a vlog (who’s filming it? Good question). At least he has enough self-awareness to warn that he’s an unreliable narrator. Set entirely within the bunker’s tight quarters, “Half Lives” is a neat little tale of paranoia that blends reality and hallucination. The movie looks at what might happen if more or less average Americans ended up stuck together for weeks on end, led by one who is not well equipped to deal with stress. And yes, there are guns.
‘My Future You’
After meeting on a dating site and chatting via its direct messages, the young college grads Karen (Francine Diaz) and Lex (Seth Fedelin) decide to meet in real life. But on the fateful day, both wait in vain for the other one to show up. Turns out they were at the right place but not in the right year: They have been communicating — and falling for each other — despite the fact that Lex is in 2009 and Karen in 2024. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because two South Korean movies have dealt with young lovebirds connecting despite being in different timelines, and so did the Goa-set “Murphy,” which was featured in this column a few months ago. (Please email me if you are reading this in 2013.)
Crisanto Aquino’s take on the story unabashedly leans on its leads’ seemingly impossible romance, and teens looking for a new couple to root for are in luck (even if Fedelin’s youthful looks do him a disservice at a key juncture). But the scenes to remember are the ones contrasting their family dynamics — including a subplot in which Karen asks Lex to help change her present from his vantage point in the past. As time-scrambling movies are fond of pointing out, be careful what you wish for.
‘The Human Hibernation’
Fans of the Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul should check out Anna Cornudella’s debut feature, a singular ecotopia that is often filmed like a nature documentary (it was shot in Catalonia and New York State). The movie’s opening is quietly distressing, as we watch a lost young boy, Erin (Demetrius Hollimon) wander alone in wintry woods, calling out for help. The only other sounds are the moos and snuffles of cows, the caws of crows. Chickens and a horse have the run of a house that looks abandoned. Eventually we emerge from winter and people wake up from their monthslong hibernation period. Now we follow Erin’s sister, Clara (Clara Muck Dietrich), and through her eyes discover a strange, beautiful universe in which humans and animals are on equal footing. It’s unclear whether the world has always been like this or if we are in a postindustrial future. “The Human Hibernation,” which started as an art project in 2019, is not interested in answers. It is a slow, cryptic movie that must be accepted on its own terms. If you do, the rewards are exquisite.
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