Dystopian Movies & Series to Binge on Whilst Quarantined

I almost named this blog post “We’re All Going to Die Anyway, So Here Are Some Dystopian Movies and Series to Freak You Out Even More”, but I thought Ewan (aka my boss) would veto that… so here we are.

Most of the world has been quarantined, all of the toilet paper and hand sanitiser has been stolen by angry boomers, but hey, we still have the internet? For that reason, the QOS team decided to offer you some lists of what to watch when quarantined.

First up: Dystopias!

Series

For all of you rich kids with AppleTV+, check out See. The sci-fi drama (starring Jason Momoa, drool) tells the story of a future world, where all people have lost their sight, until one day, where a pair of twins is found, who are able to see! With just 1 short season of 8 episodes (renewed for season 2), this would keep you busy for at least a day.

-> See is available on AppleTV+

The Handmaid’s Tale! Now, this was an obvious one. Ever since the Margaret Atwood book got picked up for a series (and a film in the 90’s mind you), The Handmaid’s Tale has become a worldwide sensation. Be aware: If you wish to have a full Offred experience, check out the book before watching it (if you’re still able to order any) and then watch the first series. As a purist myself, I refrain from watching on after the first season, which is where the book ends. (Even though yes, Atwood released a sequel to the book 34!!! years after the first one, but it seems more like a capitalist move to me). The series tells the story of a future world where human fertility is at an all-time low, meaning that fertile women now serve the higher-ups of the country, as handmaidens, who are basically baby-birthing machines.->The Handmaid’s Tale is available on Hulu.

If you don’t mind a subtitle, check out the Brazilian thriller 3%. You will immediately fall in love with the way they say three percent, and the plot, which is SOLID. Very binge-worthy and a great introduction for Brazilian productions. 3% tells the story of an extremely poor Brazil, where every year, the best 3% of every year make it to the “Offshore”, a utopic island, where every single wish you may have is fulfilled.

-> 3% is available on Netflix.

Movies

Are we over The Hunger Games yet? Nah. In case you have been living under a rock, The Hunger Games books and movies took the world by storm. The Hunger Games follow Katniss through the yearly system of “sacrifice”, which has been implemented through the government of Panem. Also, if you’re interested in seeing the low-rent version of Hunger Games, Divergent is currently available on Netflix.

-> The Hunger Games is available on Amazon Prime

For those of us with a child’s heart, Wall-E still remains a crowd favorite. The adorable animation introduces us to Wall-E, a clean-up robot left on Earth to clean trash and to find any signs of plants to restart human living on Earth. After Wall-E stumbles upon a beautiful plant, he then sneaks his way onto a rocket onto the humans’ cruise ship in space. All in all, it’s a beautifully heartbreaking story of climate change and the impending problem of drowning in our own trash.

-> Wall-E is available on Disney+

As you might have noticed by now, this list does not include too many super high-end films or series, because we’re all just here to have fun, right? A stupid fun film to watch is Idiocracy, starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Terry Wilson, Dax Shepherd and many more… Luke Wilson plays soldier Joe Bauers, who wakes up after 500 years of a military hibernation experiment to the dumbest society you could ever imagine. He is then recognized as the “smartest person alive” and is quickly given the task to fix everything wrong with America he has to wake up to.

->Idiocracy is available on Hulu

Is it even a list if there isn’t Will Smith on it? I, Robot will give you an evening full of action and of the fresh prince of Bel-Air fighting off robots who wish to take over the world. And if I, Robot isn’t enough Will Smith for you, go check out I am Legend, if you haven’t already (it will break your heart).

-> I, Robot and I am Legend are available on Netflix

I left the spookiest for last: Contagion. In short 106 minutes, you can witness a virus, originating from Chinese bats taking over and killing the whole world. Sound familiar? Yeah, this one will leave you up all night until the end of your quarantine. 

-> Contagion is available on Amazon Prime

That’s it for today’s list, watch out for new lists being posted both on our webpage and on Letterboxd. For the time being, stay safe and take care!

Edit: Recommendation from Rory: High Rise starring Tom Hiddleston in a high stake drama about the life of residents of a tower block that quickly spirals out of control.

EMMA.

After Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995) comes Autumn de Wilde’s adaptation of the Austen novel Emma. The explanation for her stylized title ‘EMMA.’ is, so de Wilde to RadioTimes, “There’s a period at the end of Emma because it’s a period film”. So it is only right that this version of Emma is set in its original setting; England in the early 19th century.

Spoiled young woman Emma lives with her widowed father (Bill Nighy) alone in a big country house in Highbury. In her daily boredom, she soon discovers that she can entertain herself by playing matchmaker. She engineers the marriage between her beloved governess and a widowed man. But as she is now deprived of the only motherly figure she knows, she turns her attention to naive girl Harriet Smith, whom she declared her companion. Despite knowing that Harriet is in love and courted by a local farmer, Emma coaxed her into refusing Mr. Martin and instead orchestrates a relationship between the vicar Elton and her, whom Emma thinks more fitting. The plot thickens when Emma is soon made aware of the fact that not all her arrangements will work out in her favor. Her neighbour and brother-in-law Mr. Knightley is the only one to be mindful of her vanity and naiveté. At that same time, Emma finds herself attracted to good looking Mr. Frank Churchill, while it is rumored that Knightley himself is taken by the accomplished Jane Fairfax. Being at the center of all these events, Emma gets tangled up quickly.  Capering about in the lavish society, she is ultimately confronted with the question of growing up, assuming responsibility for her actions and finding her place in the world. 

Autumn de Wilde’s directorial debut puts a quirky, rom-comesque spin on the already comedic original story. Watching this film wasn’t a completely different experience than watching Clueless, apart from the admittedly gorgeous setting and decor they pulled off. At times it actually felt like they recast Clueless and then had them dress up and talk fancily. In a good way though. It is definitely an enjoyable film, albeit not outstanding. The cast was splendid, with Bill Nighy portraying a valetudinarian old man (quite honestly one of his better roles) and Johnny Flynn being his cuddly and adorable self through his character of Knightley. 

De Wilde artfully juggles with banter and benevolent bestialities to deliver a nicely dressed up film. 

If you have read the novel it is definitely fun seeing this film I believe. And if you have loved and worshipped Paul Rudd in Clueless as I have growing up (still do tbh), then don’t worry, Johnny Flynn (almost) does him justice. I think you don’t even have to love period pieces to like this film.

Should I see Emma? Go see it if you wanna know what this famous novel is about (always good to know what people are talking about) and like a quirky movie.

★★★☆☆

Film Release (Switzerland): 5.3.20 - Film Release (Australia): 13.2.20 - Film Release (USA): 6.2.20

Film Data: Director: Autumn de Wilde - Writers: Elanor Catton, Jane Austen - Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy, Mia Goth, Josh O'Connor, Callum Turner, Rupert Graves - 124’ - 2020 - UK - Universal Pictures

Photo and Video: © Universal Pictures International Switzerland. All Rights Reserved.

Onward

The world used to be filled with all sorts of magic but the rise of technology made magic redundant in many ways. New Mushroomton, a small town in which all sorts of creatures like dragons, giants, dwarfs and elfs co-exist, has adapted to a magic-free lifestyle and opened the door for modern technology to take over. Most inhabitants of New Mushroomton do not even believe in magic anymore, as everything fantastical in their world has been made fictitious. In doing that, they completely negated their once magical history.

Onward is the 22nd feature film from Pixar and Dan Scanlon’s second Pixar film after 2013’s Monster’s University, the prequel to the critically acclaimed Monster’s Inc. from 2001. 

Tom Holland and Chris Pratt team up once again, this time not to fight Thanos but to voice the elf brothers Ian and Barley Lightfoot. On the day of this 16th birthday, Ian receives a present from his Dad that passed away when he was very young. A magical staff and a spell able to bring his Dad back for one whole day. But the spell goes wrong and only brings back the bottom half of their father, so the brothers are forced to embark on an adventurous quest to find an artifact powerful enough to complete the spell and bring back the rest of his body.

Pixar has always been strong at pulling at the audience’s heartstrings and it has gotten to a point where it has become a cliché to cry when the lamp is done stamping on the ‘I’ and the consecutive story starts to play out. I found myself at a dilemma with this because although moments of the third act did manage to make my eyes quite watery, I do not think this is one of the stronger Pixar outings. The story told in Onward is one that I feel quite personally attached to because of a similar life experience that I had with my father. The brother relationship is another one that I relate to quite a bit, as I have a little brother around the same age as Ian. Therefore, I was really connected to the relationships between the characters, rather than the plot itself. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of spectacle over substance in the film. This film could have had an even bigger focus on its well-established character relationships, but it went for action-packed chase scenes instead. Ian is a blank canvas, as most protagonists in those types of stories are, in order for people to relate to him. His character traits are; being socially awkward, sad about his father’s death and not believing in himself. But apart from that, he does not resemble someone that would exist outside of this story. 

Fact: Pixar makes the prettiest looking movies. After last year’s gorgeous Toy Story 4, comes Onward with a colorful, quirky animation style that is incredibly detailed. The comedy mostly worked as well, the highlight being all the Weekend at Bernie’s and literal ‘Daddy-only-legs’ humor coming from Wilden, Ian and Barley’s dad.

Onward is filled with moments that are universally relatable to young viewers like believing in yourself and appreciating what you have. As an adult, you pick up on when the filmmakers try to put those moments in and although I noticed when it was happening, it did not feel forced or preachy. When films are able to incorporate inspiring and touching messages into their films without bringing the story to a screeching halt, I applaud them for that. Because a lot of animated movies tend to cater to their target audience way too much. Although, there are a few tense moments in Onward that I wish were not played and broken for lazy attempts at comedy.

Should you see this film? Yes, if you have enjoyed Pixar films in the past, Onward will certainly not disappoint. If not, who are you and who has robbed your childhood that you don’t enjoy Pixar? 

Onward is an enjoyable family film that will make you laugh, cry and hug your loved ones.

★★★⋆☆

Release Date (CH): 05.03.20 - Release Date (Australia): 02.04.20 - Release Date (US): 06.03.20

Film Data: Director: Dan Scanlon - Writer: Dan Scanlon, Keith Bunin, Jason Headley - Cast: Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Mel Rodriguez, Ali Wong, Lena Waithe, John Ratzenberger, Tracey Ullman - 103’ - 2020 - USA - Pixar - Walt Disney Company

Photo and Video Source: Walt Disney Company Switzerland

About Endlessness by Roy Andersson

A waiter that forgets that he is pouring wine and lets it run over the glass and onto the neatly ironed tablecloth. A woman in a train station taking off her shoes, because the heel is broken. A caring father who stops in the pouring rain to tie his little daughters shoe laces. These are some of the scenes that stuck with me for a while after seeing this film. Roy Andersson’s new film About endlessness (Om det oändliga) is a manifesto of human existence. 

In the 76 minutes we are presented with thirty-two static shots. If we go along with the mythological analogy of life being a thread, then Andersson weaves a whole tapestry with his thirty-two threads. Because even if every single shot would work as it’s own little universe, they all still depend on one another to make up that thing we call living. Seemingly banal scenes from everyday life follow one another, one not given more attention than the other. They are all roughly of the same length so that a scene with german soldiers marching towards their death sentence is given the same weight as a woman enjoying champagne in a restaurant. And that is exactly Andersson’s statement; in the big tapestry that I will now call existence (because analogies), both scenes have always existed right next to each other, they both happened all the same, one as absurd as the other. 

In a scene where a highschool boy explains the theory of thermodynamics to his friend, Andersson slips us a possible explanation for his film. “You are energy, I am energy, and both of our energies will never cease to exist; they can only be transformed into something new.” So in his movie, Andersson moves from scene to scene will all of them constantly being transformed into something new in front of the backdrop the notion of ‘endlessness’, because ultimately ennui will always be the same, doesn’t matter what form it is portrayed in. 

However, Andersson’s film is not necessarily a pessimistic one. We recognize the beauty in the bleakness and the sublime in what is senseless. “Isn’t it all still fantastic?” “What do you mean?” “All of it.” (oh hey, a scene where the sentimentality doesn’t bother me for once but actually fits perfectly)

As well as introspective, this film is deeply comedic too. You can’t help but chuckle at the sheer pointlessness. You laugh because you’ve been there, you realize how utterly ridiculous it all is in the end. A good moment was, when the panicked priest who lost faith in God gets shuffled out of the doctor’s office because they’re closing and the psychiatrist has to catch the bus - with endlessness and a never ending time frame being the whole theme of the film. 

While watching the film I kept asking myself: “How is he going to end this film, how does one even do that?” Turns out, exactly like that. I think Andersson couldn’t have closed the ‘story’ better than the way that he did. Because, as is shown in different scenes during the film, we are always on our way, quite literally and metaphorically. We are on trains, we wait for buses and we walk to birthday parties in the pouring rain. Maybe we are on our way to realizing what we believe in or, more fittingly, do not believe in. And, sometimes, we just get stuck in transit.

So should you go see this film? Yes absolutely. Go in with the expectation that this is going to be a slow-paced, bleak-coloured and quiet little film and you will love it. Maybe not. But please do and don’t tell me if you didn’t. Goodbye (yes, this is to be read as a quote from the film)

★★★★☆

Release Date (Switzerland): 05.03.20 - Release Date (US): 12.06.20

Film Data: Director: Roy Andersson, Writer: Roy Andersson - Cast: Magnus Wallgren, Lisa Blohm, Kristina Ekmark, Martin Serner, Jessica Louthander, Tatiana Delaunay, Anders Hellström - 76’ - 2019 - Sweden/Norway - Xenix Film distribution

Mare

Mare lives an ordinary life in the rural part of Croatia. She loves her family, but she also strives for more freedom and self-determination. Her husband works at the local airport, but nevertheless, Mare has never flown anywhere her entire life. Similarly, her family life is not satisfying and it gets quite stressful with three teenage children and a husband that is not the best at communicating. When a young man suddenly enters Mare’s life, he reanimates her joie de vivre and consequently turns her world upside down.

Marija Škaričić

The ‘Zürcher Hochschule der Künste’ graduate Andrea Štaka (Das Fräulein, Hotel Belgrad) writes and directs her fourth feature film and reunites with Marija Škaričić (A Wonderful Night in Split, What is a man without a Moustache?) as the lead. Marija Škaričić won best actress for her performance in Andrea Štaka’s Das Fräulein at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Mare premiered at the 70th Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama Section. The film was shot in a small town of Dubrovnik in Croatia and a Swiss-Croatian production.

Director Andrea Štaka

Even though I usually enjoy slow-paced films, I could not help but feel a bit bored with Mare. There is quite a bit of repetition of similar scenes that capture the mundanity of everyday life, but ultimately are rather meaningless to the overall story. This gave me the impression of simply ‘filling up time’ instead of moving the characters or the plot along. The performances from the primary and secondary characters were all fine. I was positively surprised by the actor that played Mare's oldest son, who kept on walking the thin line of almost over-acting without ever actually fully crossing it.

As the first few scenes of the film play out, you might wonder why it looks so old and grainy. Turns out the film was entirely shot on 16mm film on the Arri 416. The aesthetic grew on me and gave it the raw realness Štaka was going for.

Marija Škaričić, Goran Navojec

I left the cinema rather disappointed for a reason that I cannot fault the movie too much. It is, however, a slight spoiler, so if you wish to go into this without knowing anything more then the premise, skip ahead to the rating now. 

There is no real conclusion to the main conflict. All parties are just there - partly aware of what is going on - and then it just ends. I get that the inconclusiveness of an open-end is supposed to reflect real life, but I find it frustrating after seeing plenty of thematically similar scenes that were leading to a more active confrontation. 

If you enjoy slow-paced films with down-to-earth realistic characters then Mare just might be for you.

The film will be in Swiss theatres on March 12th.

★★⋆☆☆

Film Date: Director: Andrea Štaka - Writer: Andrea Štaka - Cast: Marija Škaričić Goran Navojec Mateusz Kościukiewicz Mirjana Karanović Ivana Roščić Zdenko Jelčić - 84’ - Croatia/Switzerland - 2020 - Distributor (CH): Frenetic Films

Photos and Video rights: FRENETIC FILMS and Ona Pinkus