When the world seems to be falling apart, watch these
THE world is coming to an end. Possibly. Eventually. People have predicted it forever, but if you look around at the clouding pall of disasters – viral contagion, environmental ruin, wobbling political infrastructure – it’s not hard to imagine it might be happening on the sooner side.
So what does it feel like when everything appears to be falling apart? Films have long tried to capture this sense of life teetering on the brink of total collapse. Now that it’s easy for your brain and eyes to wander into the void, see which works best capture the feeling (and predicament) of being alive at the end of the world.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
When A.I. was released, viewers were split on what to make of the film inspired by the fairy tale of Pinocchio.
One can appreciate the masterful threading by Steven Spielberg that shows we can face down an oppressively cold and grim technofuture by recognising the beauty of core human desires for connection and love. (Stream on Amazon Prime)
Children of Men (2006)
It’s hard not to see this as an almost pitch-perfect prophecy of the dystopian present. For 14 years running, director Alfonso Cuarón’s vision of the UK in 2027 looks as chillingly imminent as ever. There’s the journey of survival in a global catastrophe with an uncertain resolution; a refugee crisis dealt with by extreme measures from the government; and a pervading sense of gloom wafting through the air. Add masterful visual panache to the tightly told story, and you have what is one of the most important films of the 21st century. (Stream on Peacock)
High Life (2018)
What if the end times are grotesque? Director Claire Denis proposes such a prognostication. Death row inmates are sent on a cosmic mission to explore a black hole. Yes, there are kinky explorations of sexuality, but what Denis drills down is the emptiness found at the precipice of the apocalypse. Even in the furthest reaches of space, humans can be awful and violent toward one another, but what will get us beyond
