Annihilation,
Netflix
Accurately described as being like a bad acid trip (OK, so I wouldn’t know) this one is out there even by science fiction standards.
I’m still undecided as to whether this film is a trend-setter, or just plain weird – but at the moment, I’m siding with just plain weird.
Natalie Portman (long time between drinks, Nat) stars as a military wife whose husband has disappeared on a hush-hush super secret squirrel mission.
After being missing for months, as she pines for him, he returns … but he’s not himself.
In search of answers, Nat finds herself taken to an alien-dominated site on the US coast … and this is where stuff starts to really go out there beyond Pluto.
So it transpires that an alien presence – called “the shimmer“ – a sort of giant freaky soap bubble – infested the area and has been steadily growing ever since.
Remarkably, this event in the most heavily news media dominated area on Earth does not seem to have become public knowledge. Go figure.
So in search of answer, Nat – ex-military herself, seven years no less, and a sort of perfumed yoga Rambo – saddles up with Jennifer Jason Leigh (another long time between drinks) and some other agro womenists to get out there and cause some trouble in the shimmer space.
The theory is that male teams sent in have not done so well, and the sisterhood might bring a little something to the equation.
Without giving too much away, it’s probably not too much of a plot spoiler to say no-one will live happily ever after.
The film has stayed with me a little, but I still don’t know what to make of it or what it’s trying to say.
However, I do know that compared to some of the genre’s recent efforts (“Arrival“ springs to mind) it’s a pretty poor imitation.
Pretension, not genius, for my money.
– Jason Beck
