ANNIHILATION

ANNIHILATION: Four and a half out of five stars.

What a beautiful exploration of the self-destructive tendencies of humanity, on both a micro and macro level, this film was.  ANNIHILATION is everything I want from a trippy science fiction film – heavy on the science jargon that doesn’t dumb down weighty concepts but written well enough that even laymen can understand, thick with moral questions, and with an ending that leaves me thinking about it the next day.

And that terrifying scene with the bear is the most tense thing I’ve seen put onto film in years.  The last time I remember being that tense during a film was when I first watched SHENANDOAH and heard that sabre blade clinking on the steps as the looter walked up to kill James Stewart’s family.
ANNIHILATION’s ending though – woof.  The implication that Lena did not come out of the shimmer unchanged is obvious – but I don’t think it’s a big mutation but rather an internal one.  The Shimmer does not mutate everything into something terrible – there is beauty to be found there.  And Lena emerged from the Shimmer a better person – someone resolved to build a better life for herself, abandoning her self-destructive tendencies.

2019 Film List

3/5: ANNHILIATION (4.5/5)