Alien: Earth Season 1

 

I’ve always liked the Alien franchise, but after the queen shows up in James Cameron’s Aliens I have not been a fan of a lot of the lore that the series has introduced since. Every time they try to make the series about something more than a horrifying creature that symbolizes the unknown stalking and killing people in space things get less engaging and, more often than not, less scary. Alien: Earth, the first TV series in the franchise, expands the horizons of the Alien universe in unexpected ways, and every one of them is more interesting than, let’s say, evil magical goo (people who have seen Prometheus and Alien: Covenant know).

We’ve got cyborgs, we’ve got squabbling between dystopian-ly powerful trillionaires, we’ve got a menagerie of new space creatures, each more bloodthirsty and disturbing than the last. By far the most interesting addition to the mythos is the hybrids, children whose minds have been uploaded into robot bodies in an attempt to forever cheat death, and showrunner Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) takes full advantage of the philosophical quandaries that arise from these transfers. Having grown actors acting like children is… different, and it’s not a vibe that everyone will appreciate, but I thought it gave things an interesting angle (and some great performances too, especially from lead Sydney Chandler), and it’s not like these moments are omnipresent. The show is still tense, dark, terrifying, and  thoroughly Alien. (We’ve got plenty of adult characters too, I should mention, and one chilling full-robot portrayed brilliantly by Timothy Olyphant.)

Noah Hawley's previous works are known for being cerebral and highly surreal, and Alien: Earth continues this with the goal of unsettling the audience as much as possible. Like Alien: Romulus did just this last year, Earth manages to make the titular creatures scary despite their familiarity to the general public. And if you thought the presence of technical children would lessen the brutality and gore of the proceedings, well, you would be wrong. The aliens had no problem with mauling, gutting, and dismembering in the presence of Newt in the aforementioned Aliens, and they certainly don’t hold back when there are plenty of other children to traumatize in (on?) Earth.

Nothing in the series resolves by the final episode, which is a bit frustrating (it is clear that it was filmed with a potential second season in mind), and the modern-day songs that the series features (not to mention one oddly prominent 2002 animated kids’ film) did not really work for me. And then there’s the fact that it can be downright depressing to watch such a crappy dystopia for eight plus hours. But these complaints pale in comparison to the fun that I had while watching Alien: Earth, a worthy entry to the saga and the genre of science fiction in general.

The entirety of season Alien: Earth season 1 is now available on Hulu.  

One Battle After Another

 

I’m still not entirely sure how one consciously achieves good pacing in a film, but I think it might be witchcraft. How else do you explain three hours feeling like two? Edits, superb directing, and engaging writing? Nah, people like Paul Thomas Anderson are clearly masters of the dark arts. Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, and the rest of the cast of One Battle After Another might be witches too, come to think of it. You know what? Better burn everyone involved just to be safe.

Despite Leo's disgustingly greasy hair trying its best to gross me out, One Battle looks amazing. Paul Thomas Anderson’s distinctive style is a balm for the eyeballs, and I’m guessing that the movie being filmed in VistaVision (a rarity in the twenty-first century) has something to do with it as well, although I would be lying if I said I 100% knew what that meant. The story can be disturbing in its real-life parallels, but these moments occasionally edge into calculated absurdity before transitioning gracefully to silliness, making One Battle an eclectic and potent combination of political thriller, action film, and screwball comedy.

Anderson brings out the best of his actors in One Battle, wisely letting the comedy and drama arise from the situations instead of having people do bits and soliloquies. Leonardo DiCaprio is great as the aging revolutionary/father who’s name escapes me at the moment, but I gotta give the MVP award to Sean Penn, who gives a truly unsettling performance as the icky Colonel Lockjaw, white supremacist and first-class douche bag (forgive the redundancy).

One Battle After Another flies by thanks to the aforementioned witchcraft, and not a moment of it is boring. That being said I think things could have been even tighter, particularly near the end, which includes some moments that seem to exist only to extend things rather than enhance things. But ultimately One Battle is an undeniable triumph in filmmaking. And witchcraft. But mostly filmmaking.

One Battle After Another is now playing in theaters.