‘Long Distance’
Four years ago, a profile of Anthony Ramos (“In the Heights”) mentioned that he had an “upcoming” film called “Distant.” The title would prove to be prescient. The surprise is not that the movie was shelved, then turned up with little fanfare on Hulu as “Long Distance,” but that it is a rather entertaining survival caper. When the mining ship he’s traveling on is hit by an asteroid, Andy (Ramos) barely makes it out in an escape pod. He crash-lands, alone, on a planet devoid of oxygen — which the local life-forms don’t mind, and unfortunately they are not friendly. Andy spends a good chunk of the movie crossing swaths of treacherous terrain as he chats over his comms with the artificial intelligence assistant L.E.O.N.A.R.D. (voiced by Zachary Quinto) and another survivor of the crash, Naomi (Naomi Scott, from “Aladdin” and “Smile 2”). Much of this banter is comic — the directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck did the Will Ferrell ice-skating triple axel “Blades of Glory” — which, admittedly, can undermine the action scenes. Still, “Long Distance” works as a popcorn flick. Be warned, though, that L.E.O.N.A.R.D. deploys a chime that sounds vaguely familiar and identifying its source may drive some viewers as crazy as it does Naomi.
‘In Vitro’
Rent or buy it on most major platforms.
Life is tough for Jack (Ashley Zukerman) and Layla (Talia Zucker), who raise cattle in near-future Australia. Their son is away at boarding school, and the work is hard. Making things worse, some of the livestock get sick, thus becoming unfit for consumption, and Jack can’t find the bug in the “animal replication” program — the cows are clones that have been bioengineered in vats. It’s a promising subject, but that is not at all where Will Howarth and Tom McKeith’s film goes. “In Vitro” follows Layla’s perspective as she grows increasingly ill at ease: Jack is acting weird and something is off, but what? The first plot twist comes about 30 minutes into the movie, which then proceeds to deliver more at judicious intervals. By the time the last one landed, I was writing down notes in caps and dotting them with multiple exclamation marks. The master stroke, in addition to the well-crafted screenplay, is that the suspense builds inexorably but in a low-key manner. Unlike many modern genre movies that lean on violence and storytelling histrionics, “In Vitro” proceeds in a measured way that makes its tale of control-seeking even more impactful.
‘Ziam’
Fittingly for a zombie movie, it helps to unplug your brain when watching Kulp Kaljareuk’s “Ziam,” which boils down to an extended brawl against voracious hordes. We are in Thailand, which has held up relatively well as the rest of the world succumbed to famine created by global warming — radio announcements praise the heroic achievements of the country, which sounds as if it’s ruled by a nationalistic, authoritarian government. The synopsis has a beautiful simplicity and boils down to: martial artist vs. zombies. The plot centers on the efforts of the Muay Thai fighter Singh (Prin Suparat) to rescue his wife, Rin (Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich), when the hospital where she works as a doctor is overrun by infected you-know-whats. (Buddy, a small kid played by Wanvayla Boonnithipaisit, tags along for good measure, and comic relief.) Fans of the thriving zombie genre should dig a cool variation that “Ziam” brings up toward the end: mutations! The ending is open enough that I found myself wishing for a sequel.
‘We’re All Gonna Die’
Rent or buy it on most major platforms.
One day, a huge alien object looking like a stalactite appears out of nowhere, floating just above Earth. Then it starts moving to various points around the globe, appearing and disappearing. Matthew Arnold and Freddie Wong’s film picks up “12 years, 1,438 jumps later,” with humans in uneasy coexistence with the looming presence. The intentions of the spike, as everybody calls it, may be unclear, but its effects are tangible, as when Thalia (Ashly Burch) and Kai (Jordan Rodrigues) find themselves teleported to a remote location, moments after they had met. She’s a beekeeper transporting hives in a trailer, while he is a paramedic who has been living in his late best friend’s sports car. They set out to retrieve her trailer and the car in a journey that brings them together. (This is not a spoiler because, hello, you can’t spoil a rom-com, and at heart this film is one.) The contrast between Thalia’s quiet restraint and Kai’s goofy exuberance is put to good use, and the film refreshes the romance formula when the characters figure out how to move from their respective stasis.
‘Ash’
That this movie is streaming on the horror platform Shudder is a clue that it’s not for the faint of heart. But although there is definitely plenty of gore and unwanted body invasions, the most stomach-churning bits are not seen but heard — the music and sound design are among the best of the year. This does not come as a surprise since its director, Flying Lotus, who had previously helmed a segment of the “V/H/S/99” movie, also is a musician with several albums on his résumé. “Ash” follows the travails of Riya (Eiza González), who is part of a mission dispatched to find a livable world. One day she comes to, bruised and injured, and finds that her crew mates on a promising planet’s ground outpost have been savagely killed. Except, that is, for Brion (Aaron Paul of “Breaking Bad”), who was on an orbital station. Most of the film follows Riya’s effort to battle her amnesia and figure out what happened, though she finds it hard to tell what’s memory, what’s hallucination and what’s caused by the “unusual life-form” detected in the habitat. The aesthetics are very 1980s — flashing neon, cool blues and reds, caressing close-ups of sweaty skin — and it’s best not to look for watertight plot integrity, because for the most part “Ash” is a mood. And a pretty scary one.
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