A SCI-FI GURU RETURNS
Ex Machina director brings Annihilation to the big screen, Chris Lackner writes.
MOVIES
BiG releases Feb. 23: Annihilation; Game Night.
BiG picture: You want to be excited about Annihilation. It’s from Alex Garland, the writer and director of Ex Machina (2015), one of the best sci-fi films of all time. And it stars Natalie Portman, one of our finest actresses (when she isn’t reading off a script touched by George Lucas).
She plays Lena, who ventures off into “the Shimmer,” an expanding, swirly rainbow wall that looks like the end of a kaleidoscope. When she goes in search of answers to what happened to her soldier husband, what her team finds is Eden meets Lost meets Pan’s Labyrinth … meets zero chance of Portman getting an Oscar nod. New species of animals, plants and bugs — plus an alligator with shark’s teeth — run amok on the other side of the portal. It’s like Wonderland as created by the unlikely combination of Doctor Frankenstein and Noah from the Bible.
Meanwhile, Game Night stars Jason Bateman as Max and Rachel McAdams as Annie, leaders of a weekly couples’ game night. They encounter an unexpected adventure when Kyle Chandler turns things up a notch with a murder-spy mystery that becomes the real thing. This one is from the minds behind Bachelor Party. Forecast: “It’s not destroying, it’s making something new,” Portman says of the supernatural force known as the Shimmer. You’ll hope it’s not remaking her career trajectory. Game Night goes far beyond trivia and board games to deliver a real winning comedy. For the record, I would watch the charismatic Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Bloodline) host a stamp collectors night.
TV
BiG events: The Frankenstein Chronicles (Feb. 20, Netflix); Seven Seconds (Netflix, Feb. 23). BiG picture: You can stop pretending to care about speedskating and luge soon. The Olympics wrap up on Feb. 25 with closing ceremonies from South Korea. In between, you can watch Game of Thrones’ Ned Stark with his head firmly in place hunt down a serial limb cutter. The Frankenstein Chronicles stars Sean Bean, Stark on GoT, as a 19th-century police officer investigating a “monster” at work after a “composite” corpse is found made up of the body parts of missing kids.
You guessed it: This one is inspired by Mary Shelley’s famous novel, and a fictionalized version of the author even appears. “The dead live. … This nightmare is your creation,” the copper accuses Shelley. (If Ned Stark is that upset with this, thank God he didn’t live to see the White Walkers back in Westeros.)
Meanwhile, Seven Seconds comes from the talented mind of Veena Sud (The Killing). This 10-episode series focuses on racial tensions and violence in New Jersey after an AfricanAmerican teenager is critically wounded — and apparently left to die in the cold — by a white cop. Ripped from potential daily headlines, nothing is black and white in this one. One thing is true: it’s a battle between forces that want the truth buried and uncovered. And Sud has proven she can deliver a unique serialized crime drama.
Forecast: These two great dramas will be with you long after the week’s sporting drama has come to an end.
MUSIC
BiG releases on Feb. 23: S. Carey (Hundred Acres); Vance Joy (Nation of Two).
BiG picture: It’s a mighty slow week, folks. The kind of week you may want to visit YouTube and upload the drunken, inexplicably pants-free “masterpiece” you recorded last week about “all those jerks ( back in high school / in your office / in your family / in political office) while simultaneously playing a ukulele, harmonica and bongo drum. Music-hungry web-traffickers need a fix, and you could find yourself Friday famous. (Remember Rebecca Black?)
Wisconsin folky S. Carey — a supporting vocalist and drummer for Bon Iver — is another viable option. Sweet, soft harmonies and lazy Sunday tunes. Australian songwriter Vance Joy also tries to brighten up your playlist. Forecast: After your YouTube release goes viral, don’t forget who gave you the idea. I expect royalty cheques.