‘Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse’
Rent or buy it on Apple TV+ or Prime Video.
Fans of Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later” in particular and bonkers postapocalyptic auteurism in general should check out this film by the Mexican director Isaac Ezban. After a virus turned people into ferocious, perpetually hungry monsters, the brothers Salvador (Farid Escalante Correa), Oliver (Leonardo Cervantes) and Benjamin (Mateo Ortega Casillas) managed to survive in an isolated house. They make protein shakes out of ground worms for themselves, hunt dogs and dress them out to feed a pair of creatures chained in the basement. The reason for keeping these dangerous roommates around does not come as a huge surprise, but Ezban milks his twisted premise for all it’s worth — as in Boyle’s movie, the infected being alive rather than zombies means that they have drives besides eating. Rodrigo Sandoval’s washed-out cinematography gives “Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse” the feel of a surreal fairy tale, one dotted with dark humor and seriously creepy scenes. Ezban is so in control of his aesthetics and mise-en-scène that he even salvages the godforsaken music montage in a couple of scenes set to groovy, neo-psychedelic songs.
‘Lost in Starlight’
The polar opposite of “Párvulos” in every imaginable way is Han Ji-won’s animated K-romance. After he fixes her vintage turntable, Jay (voiced by Hong Kyung) and Nan-young (Kim Tae-ri) start falling for each other — a process precipitated when Nan-young realizes that Jay wrote the obscure song that she’s been obsessed with. The film is set mostly in Seoul in 2051, and its world-building superbly evokes a high-tech city that feels simultaneously now and futuristic.
Nan-young is a brilliant scientist who is obsessed with going to Mars, where her astronaut mother disappeared in a catastrophic accident decades earlier. When NASA decides to send her there as part of a new mission, Nan-young may finally get closure. But is that even possible? And will her relationship with Jay survive the separation? Much of the movie is a romantic comedy that follows the couple as they get to know each other and their respective vulnerabilities. By the end, “Lost in Starlight” throws all caution to the wind and embraces the intergalactic power of love. There was a moment when I thought the film’s momentum was taking it to a somber place, but the story pulled back — in a still-satisfying manner.
‘Spark’
Rent or buy it on most major platforms.
Out on a birthday scavenger hunt, Aaron (Theo Germaine, “The Politician”) gets paired with the brooding Trevor (Danell Leyva), a man of few words and sexy eyebrows. They hook up, but in the middle of sex Aaron wakes up at home, back at the start of the day. Yes, this is a time-loop story. Aaron, who has fallen for the enigmatic stranger, uses the do-overs to fine-tune the date — changing his hair style, grilling Trevor about his taste in music so he can pretend to enjoy the same bands. Soon Aaron realizes that one way to prevent the clock from resetting is to avoid sex and actually get to know Trevor — not easy for someone with intimacy issues.
About half of Nicholas Giuricich’s “Spark” explores fairly familiar terrain, albeit with matter-of-fact queer representation, but the movie then steers off into less predictable territory. Let’s just say that Aaron’s roommate, Dani (Vico Ortiz, from “Our Flag Means Death”), has a role to play, and that we eventually get Trevor’s perspective. This last development is a departure from the usual time-loop template as it leaves the lead character’s point of view to give agency to someone who appeared to be a bystander in the main story.
‘The Assessment’
Rent or buy it on most major platforms.
The scientists Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) live a life of luxury in an isolated seaside compound, where they have the time and resources to conduct their research. The one thing missing to complete their picture-perfect life is a child, but in the future earth of Fleur Fortuné’s movie, you can’t just go and make one: the only way is to be evaluated as being fit to adopt. The cryptic, totalitarian-sounding authorities send Virginia (Alicia Vikander) for a weeklong evaluation that involves practical tasks (any couple that has found itself on the brink of divorce after trying to assemble an IKEA wardrobe will empathize) and role-playing — this may be seen as one of the darkest films ever made about parenting. It quickly becomes hard to parse when Virginia is acting out as part of the test or having a genuine emotional reaction. Though admittedly it’s also hard to feel for Mia and Aaryan when they fall into obvious traps. Still, “The Assessment” gets better and better as the story becomes increasingly perverse, and as we get to know Virginia. The film ends on a smartly equivocal note that will determine if a viewer sees a glass as half-empty or half-full.
‘Our Times’
The married couple Nora (Lucero) and Héctor (Benny Ibarra) are brilliant physics professors at a Mexico City university in 1966. They are equally committed to their research on wormholes, but Nora is constantly belittled and undermined by the college’s higher-ups, who reflexively call her “sweetie” then ask to talk to her husband. The pair test their theories by building a time machine that eventually lands them in 2025, in which the bounties of the modern world await. Being scientists, Héctor and Nora are fascinated by all the new technology at their disposal. When it comes to social mores, however, she is a lot happier than him. Nora, who learns a lot from her grandniece, Alondra (Renata Vaca), flourishes both personally and professionally. Héctor, meanwhile, withers bitterly in a world where women have more agency and his peers basically give him the treatment his wife received decades earlier — as a lesser adjunct to the researcher who matters.
Chava Cartas’s fleet comedy doesn’t engage with the paradoxes this particular time travel would create, but it handles its characters with warmth and humor. It also avoids an obvious resolution for Héctor, and a major decision the couple makes at the end actually feels realistic.
The post Five Science Fiction Movies to Stream Now appeared first on New York Times.
