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Tom's Guide
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
5 best Netflix sci-fi movies to stream right now
Whenever you're in the mood for a movie night that feels out of this world, Netflix has a solid lineup of sci-fi flicks ready to transport you. From time-travel twists to city-crushing monsters, these films deliver big thrills while exploring bold ideas from far-off worlds — and they're all just a click away, conveniently available on one streaming service. Whether you're a longtime sci-fi fan or just craving something a little strange and spectacular, we've rounded up some of the best sci-fi movies currently streaming on Netflix. These picks offer action, imagination, and maybe even a glimpse of the future. So cue one up while you're waiting for little green men to beam you up and say hello. Set in a future where time travel exists but comes with heavy consequences, "The Adam Project" follows a seasoned pilot from 2050 (Ryan Reynolds) who crash-lands in 2022 while trying to stop a catastrophic future. Instead of arriving where he planned, he ends up face-to-face with his 12-year-old self (Walker Scobell). Together, the two versions of Adam team up to unravel a dangerous conspiracy, reconnect with their late father (Mark Ruffalo) and come to terms with the losses that defined both versions of their lives. Watch on Netflix Godzilla returns in this reimagining of the iconic monster's origins, set against the backdrop of post-World War II Japan. The movie finds a disgraced kamikaze pilot grappling with guilt and survivor's remorse, who finds himself facing a new terror. Surprise! It's a towering, radioactive beast capable of flattening entire cities. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. And he's rampaging right toward the most densely populated area with the intent to destroy. As Japan struggles to rebuild, Godzilla complicates matters further by popping up yet again where he really doesn't belong. Watch on Netflix Some sci-fi movies are slow burns on purpose, and they work all the better for it. "Melancholia" explores themes of depression and the end of the world, both figuratively and literally. The story unfolds in two parts, following two sisters, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), as a newly discovered planet, ominously named Melancholia, threatens to collide with Earth. As it continues to draw near, both women find their worlds unraveling in different ways. Justine spirals inward, numbed by a crushing sense of despair. Claire grows more panicked and desperate to preserve a sense of order and hope. What happens to the entirety of the human race? You'll have to watch and find out. Watch on Netflix "Oxygen" finds a woman (Mélanie Laurent) regaining consciousness inside a sealed cryogenic pod with no memory of who she is or how she got there. With oxygen levels rapidly depleting and only a cryptic AI interface named M.I.L.O. responding to her questions, every second soon turns into a race for her survival. She tries to fight back while staying calm, but there are too many questions to process. Why is she there? What's outside? And what will happen if she makes it there? Watch on Netflix George Clooney is Augustine Lofthouse, a terminally ill scientist stationed at a remote Arctic research facility. With Earth in ruins, his final mission is a desperate one: Warn a crew of astronauts returning from a mission to Jupiter's moon that there's nothing left for them on their home planet. Augustine discovers a young girl named Iris (Caoilinn Springall), whose presence helps him to complete his task. But where did Iris come from, and what is her true nature? You'll be second-guessing yourself throughout the entire film, told through two perspectives, all the way through the end. Watch on Netflix
The Guardian
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Morally questionable': inside the epic Lars von Trier exhibition in Copenhagen
I am not even inside the building but a creeping sense of foreboding has already set in. As I try to find the entrance to Nikolaj Kunsthal, a gothic-style former church in Copenhagen, I hear the lamenting strings of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde – the soundtrack to Lars von Trier's 2011 end-of-the-world film Melancholia. Inside, I take a seat in a tent-like structure, similar to the one in the film, and watch as a planet hurtles towards Earth, Wagner still blasting away. Nearby lies a long table, covered in white linen and laid out for the celebration of a lifetime – but clearly abandoned midway, and now adorned with dead flowers and burnt-out candelabras. Upstairs, black and white projections – a ticking clock, trains moving through postwar Germany, scenes of sex and drowning – play as the ominous male voice that features in Von Trier's 1991 film Europa does a countdown. 'On every breath you take, you go deeper,' he says. 'On the mental count of 10, you will be in Europa.' With the world still reeling from the arrival of Trump 2.0, and Europe at war amid increasing polarisation, looming AI takeover and the escalating climate emergency, the experience feels strangely current, even though it is intended to take viewers back to the visual world of the notorious Danish film-maker, and immerse them in it. 'It is almost a new paradigm,' says Helene Nyborg Bay, artistic director of this arts venue, as she takes me round Breaking Darkness, the Von Trier exhibition she has curated. 'We had this belief in one united country or the United Nations after the second world war. Now we see there are new thoughts coming through, unfortunately. Lars von Trier shows some of these.' But in other very important ways, Von Trier is deeply irrelevant in 2025. As well as attracting criticism for the treatment of women in his films, he has been involved in multiple scandals. In 2011, while promoting Melancholia, he told the world's press at the Cannes film festival that he was a Nazi and 'understood' Adolf Hitler, after which he was banned. He later apologised, saying: 'I am not antisemitic or racially prejudiced in any way, nor am I a Nazi.' Six years later, amid the rise of the #MeToo movement, musician and actor Björk, who starred in his 2000 musical film Dancer in the Dark, said he sexually harassed her during its making, claims he has denied. But despite this, the exhibition has attracted unprecedented interest, with record numbers at the opening – 2,000 in three hours – including younger generations. Why? 'Lars von Trier is such a strong film-maker with such a strong aesthetic sense that he could be a visual artist,' says Bay who, despite the controversies, believes that Von Trier's work and its themes – love and despair, good and evil, faith and human choice – have a lot to offer contemporary audiences. 'We live in new times,' she says. 'On the other hand – he might have been ahead of his.' Personally, this longtime Von Trier fan says she 'was never offended by his way of looking at women', although she concedes that some younger women have been. Rather than avoiding the subject, she says: 'It's interesting to have this dialogue.' Clips from the films have been combined with designs and installations – even incorporating the architecture of the building – to recreate the themes and moods of five films made between 1991 and 2011: Melancholia, Europa, Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves and Dogville. There are a few props dotted around, including a fur coat worn by Nicole Kidman in Dogville, and the wedding dress worn by Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia, which is displayed entwined in roots that climb the walls. But film memorabilia is by no means the focus of the show. The exhibition doesn't just fill the space, it also spills up into the clock tower which, via steep stairs, visitors are led up to by a white line, like the ones that represent the set in Dogville, all to a soundtrack of Vivaldi. Although probably the most site-specific of the installations, this feels the least immersive of the five, because it does not have the same emotional power as, say, the Melancholia installation – which is entirely captivating. But absent of moving image, it serves as an effective contrast to the others. Bay invited young designers to interpret the 'universe of Lars von Trier' in such a way as to create an experience that does not depend on the viewer having seen his films – including the generations for whom she believes he has been 'abandoned'. Her inspiration for the show came from an exhibition of photos of Von Trier's work at the Perrotin gallery in Paris. She is particularly interested in seeing how the under-30s who visit her exhibition 'adapt into his universe'. She says: 'It's more like a feeling or an atmosphere. And it is also a subconscious way of understanding some topics in life – or trying to.' Von Trier, who has Parkinson's disease and is now in a care centre, has not been directly involved, but he has given the exhibition his blessing. He attended the opening night on FaceTime with the help of his ex-wife. And, during this launch, Bay noticed a group of producers from Zentropa, his production company, sitting in the shelter in front of the oncoming planet. Unusually, the exhibition also features a critique of the film-maker and his work, by Sofie Riise Nors, a Danish feminist satirical graphic novelist, who has accused him of romanticising and fetishising femicide, while criticising his artist-muse relationships. In a comic strip piece about Von Trier, created for the exhibition, Riise Nors appears as a radio host doing a phone-in about the director and explaining her problems with him. She questions the notion that he creates 'strong female characters' and accuses him of using women's lives as a 'kind of currency'. She also mentions Björk's #MeToo accusations. 'His characters,' this host says, 'seem more like a mirror for his own fantasies about women than they are a mirror for female identification.' She describes Melancholia – which has an 'iconic' scene showing Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg being pulverised by a planetary collision – as an example of 'Von Trier's penchant for staging women's deaths in an artistic and aesthetic way'. She also cites Björk's Dancer in the Dark character Selma, who bursts into song at her execution. It is also worth reminding ourselves that Nicole Kidman gets chained to a giant metal wheel in Dogville, while Gainsbourg cuts off her own clitoris in Antichrist. Could this two-pronged approach, celebration and criticism, provide a model for dealing with the work of more cancelled artists whose work is still deemed worthy of appreciation? Bay says that, even though Von Trier and Riise Nors have wildly different opinions, they share a capacity for self-reflection. 'In that way, it's also a starting point for talk and for conversation.' Riise Nors isn't so sure. 'The fact that we are still creating celebratory exhibitions about Lars von Trier is testimony to the fact that he was never really cancelled – at least not in Denmark.' She thinks the country holds on to such a 'morally questionable' figure because of his huge international success and would have liked to have seen more critical contributions in the exhibition. 'You can still be a great artist,' she adds, 'and very problematic at the same time.' Breaking Darkness is at Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, until 27 July
The Guardian
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The End review – end of the world singalong drama commands attention
The end of the world is usually only thought about with horror. But Joshua Oppenheimer's unearthly musical drama, set in a fossil-fuel oligarch's luxury survival bunker, replaces that with something even worse: sadness. And then something even more wrenchingly unbearable; not hope exactly, but a strange sense that it might not be the end, but an evolutionary transitional stage to something else, something unknowable, something that makes humanity's current state even tinier than simple annihilation. Michael Shannon and Tilda Swinton play the last super-rich couple in the world. He is a breezily self-assured energy magnate and she a former ballerina. After an environmental catastrophe 25 years ago, they retreated from civil disorder, deep underground into an eerily well-appointed suite of rooms with food, air and medicines in which they keep their colossal fine art collection. Their only son (George MacKay) busies himself creating a twee diorama of a quaintly imagined American landscape, and assisting his father with his self-serving autobiography that no one will read – in which he absolves himself of any blame for the climate crisis. They also have a loyal butler (Tim McInnerny) who cooks them exquisite meals from foodstuffs cultivated in their own lab, an irascible doctor (Lennie James) who sorts out their depression and insomnia with pharmaceuticals, and Swinton's friend (Bronagh Gallagher) is there from the old days of the theatre to keep up her spirits. They carry out emergency drills with survival suits for if the air supply packs up, and practise on the firing range in case a member of the angry underclass shows up. This worst case scenario becomes a reality when a young woman (Moses Ingram) somehow finds her way into the compound. After a violent confrontation, they decide to make peace and contemplate a new possibility: what if the son is in love with her? And all this with bright, oddly primary-coloured musical interludes and some delicate choreography: a postapocalyptic La La Land. The musical score might be derivative, but what Oppenheimer is doing here commands attention. He is facing something from which everyone, in art as in life, averts their gaze and the resulting film is far better than others notionally on the same subject, such as Lars von Trier's Melancholia or Adam McKay's well-intended Don't Look Up. Shannon and Swinton sing and dance their way around the edge of the volcano, and then around their new feelings about becoming grandparents and what that might mean. There are very good performances, but especially from Shannon who is subtle and sometimes even sympathetic, considering that his character is the author of this entire situation. For some, this film will be too oppressive in its pure sober seriousness. A completely sung-through opera version might yet be produced in Bayreuth or Vienna. I can't stop thinking about it. The End is in UK cinemas from 28 March.
South China Morning Post
13-02-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Director Lars von Trier admitted to care facility for Parkinson's disease
Danish film director Lars von Trier has been admitted to a care facility for Parkinson's disease, his producer said Wednesday. 'Lars is currently associated with a care centre that can provide him with the treatment and care his condition requires,' Louise Vesth, a producer at von Trier's production company Zentropa, wrote on Instagram, according to a translation. 'Lars is doing well under the circumstances.' Vesth clarified that she was sharing the news because of speculation in the Danish media, and declined to offer any additional comments. The Melancholia and Breaking the Waves director, 68, publicly revealed his diagnosis in 2022. Director Lars von Trier and 'Melancholia' cast member Kirsten Dunst in 2011. File photo: Reuters During an interview with Variety at the time, he opened up on how his condition had affected his work. 'It's a disease you can't take away; you can work with the symptoms, though,' he said. 'I just have to get used to that I shake and not be shameful in front of people. And then continue because what else should I do?'
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Director Lars von Trier admitted to care facility for Parkinson's disease
Danish film director Lars von Trier has been admitted to a care facility for Parkinson's disease, his producer said Wednesday. 'Lars is currently associated with a care centre that can provide him with the treatment and care his condition requires,' Louise Vesth, a producer at von Trier's production company Zentropa, wrote on Instagram, according to a translation. 'Lars is doing well under the circumstances.' Vesth clarified that she was sharing the news because of speculation in the Danish media, and declined to offer any additional comments. The 'Melancholia' and 'Breaking the Waves' director, 68, publicly revealed his diagnosis in 2022. During an interview with Variety at the time, he opened up on how his condition had affected his work. 'It's a disease you can't take away; you can work with the symptoms, though,' he said. 'I just have to get used to that I shake and not be shameful in front of people. And then continue because what else should I do?' Von Trier, known for his disturbing and stylized work, is one of the most acclaimed film directors living today. His musical-tragedy 'Dancer in the Dark,' starring Icelandic singer Björk, won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000. Kirsten Dunst won Best Actress at the same festival in 2011 for her turn in the psychological sci-fi drama 'Melancholia.' Von Trier is reportedly working on a new film about death and the afterlife, drawing on his own mortality to inspire the story. The film received a grant from the Danish Film Institute last September. '(The film) has always been designed to be made based on Lars' physical condition,' producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen said this week. 'He has always used limitations for something creative, and now it is his own physical limitation that he incorporates into the creative.' The film, titled 'After,' will be his first since 2018's 'The House That Jack Built,' starring Matt Dillon. _____
