Fantastic Fest, that annual celebration of genre cinema from all over the world, is upon us once again (check out a list of our most anticipated movies here). This Austin, Texas-based film festival is nirvana for movie fans and a Mecca for horror, action, and science fiction buffs. It’s something else. It’s the most fun week of the year, even for those of us who go there to work.
And next week, we will bring you a report about the latest and greatest science fiction films to play the fest. We won’t leave you hanging, though. Because we want you to experience a little bit of Fantastic Fest this week, here are some of the best and most interesting science fiction movies that have played there in recent years.
More importantly, each of these is available to stream online. Enjoy!
Automata
Antonio Banderas plays an insurance agent. In the future. Who works for a robot company. And investigates rogue robots who are going beyond their programming and altering themselves. Naturally, his investigation takes him to some pretty dark places. Although his film features shades of Blade Runner and I, Robot (the book and the movie), director Gabe Ibáñez’s vision of the future is uniquely bleak. This isn’t just a stylish action movie about a robot uprising — it’s a stylish action movie about a robot uprising that takes place in the kind of future world that couldn’t look less appealing. We mean that in a good way. Why romanticize the post-apocalypse?
Currently streaming on Netflix.
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Coherence
The less you know about Coherence going in, the better. Trust us when we say that this is a movie that defies categorization. We’ll just say that it’s about a dinner party that just so happens to coincide with a… uh, cosmic event. Things don’t go well.
Although he’s working on a shoestring budget, writer/director James Ward Byrkit never reaches beyond his means, instead crafting a whip-smart science fiction tale jammed full of huge ideas that maintain their power even when they’re shot on the cheap. The resulting film doesn’t just feel like an episode of The Twilight Zone — it feels like one of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone. And that’s high praise.
Currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
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The Congress
This is a film bursting at the seams with big ideas, some of which fall completely flat. But who cares? For every concept that goes nowhere, The Congress has three that tickle and torture the imagination. Ari Folman’s messy but brilliant film casts Robin Wright as herself in the near future. With her career at a dead end, she sells out in the craziest way possible — she lets herself be “scanned,” selling the rights to her onscreen image to a movie studio so she can be recreated and reused in movies forever.
This wild idea opens the door to more wild ideas, and soon the movie jumps forward into a dystopian future, where drugs allow people to live in an animated world. It’s in this second, gorgeously animated half that The Congress evolves from an interesting movie into an astonishing one.
Currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
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Escape From Tomorrow
Everyone knows that Escape From Tomorrow is the movie that was shot guerilla-style at Walt Disney World and Disneyland and it’s fascinating for that aspect alone. Watching entire dramatic (and frequently pitch-dark) scenes take place at the “Happiest Place On Earth” is incredible.
However, Randy Moore’s genre-bending experiment in surrealism has more going for it than its insane behind-the-scenes story. It also features mad scientists and robots. It also features lurid sex and nightmarish imagery and scenes of such stark, Lynch-ian weirdness that they lodge themselves in your brain and don’t leave. It’s something else and every adventurous movie lover should give it a chance.
Currently streaming on Netflix
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The History of Future Folk
There are very few Fantastic Fest movies that can be described as “sweet” and “lovable” and “appropriate for the entire family,” but The History of Future Folk is all of those things. And it’s wonderful. The supposed origin story of the titular folk music duo (who have been performing in New York City for the past decade), the film tells the tale of an alien who arrives on Earth to kill the entire population to make room for his own people, who are searching for a new home.
Fortunately for us, he hears music for the first time and decides that the human race is worth saving. Naturally, the arrival of an assassin intended to finish the job complicates things, but not too much. This movie is less about world-ending alien antics and more about clever jokes and terrific musical numbers. It is very hard to not like this movie.
Currently streaming on Netflix
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Timecrimes
One of the best movies to ever play Fantastic Fest, Timecrimes is a gloriously weird time travel thriller that manages to feel epic and intimate in equal measure. The feature debut of director Nacho Vigalondo, the film follows one hapless man as he encounters a masked killer, flees into the woods, and literally stumbles into a time machine that sends him back in time one hour. From there, things start to get weird. And it’s funny and scary and totally unique, a mind-bender that plays like a darkly comic companion piece to Primer. You should make this one a priority.
Currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
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