To Live
Zhang Yimou trades his visual spectacle for raw naturalism—and Pete Wright and Andy Nelson dig into why that restraint is the whole argument.
Resurrection
We dig into Resurrection in our Ellen Burstyn series—healing without doctrine, faith without explanation, and a performance that carries everything.
Alien: Romulus
We dig into Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus—what the franchise long needed, a course correction—and what the film can’t stop doing to itself. Closing the Alien series.
Alien: Covenant
Alien: Covenant is a 2017 American-British science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by John Logan and Dante Harper. Michael Fassbender plays twin synthetics—David, a discontinued older model who has been operating unsupervised for a decade, and Walter, his constrained and loyal successor—alongside Katherine Waterston as Daniels, the crew’s terraforming chief; Billy […]
House of Games
Mamet’s directorial debut, House of Games, follows a psychiatrist who wrote the book on obsession—literally—into a world of professional con men. Pete and Andy discuss.
S1M0NE • Member Bonus
Our April member bonus—and Thinking Machines series closer—digs into S1M0NE, Niccol’s 2002 satirical sci-fi about a director who builds a digital actress no one can let go of.
Brian and Charles
We close out Thinking Machines with Brian and Charles—a Welsh inventor, a washing machine robot, and a father-son story that splits us right down the middle.
I Am Mother
In our Thinking Machines series, we dig into “I Am Mother”—a post-apocalyptic sci-fi about an AI, a sealed bunker, and whether a machine that truly cares is the most dangerous kind.
Ex Machina
We dig into Alex Garland’s tense, unsettling Ex Machina — a Thinking Machines entry about consciousness, creation, and who’s really running the test.
Her
In our Thinking Machines series, we dig into Spike Jonze’s Her—AI love, a voice-only performance that works completely, and why this film feels truer every year.