Bubble
Directed by Attack on Titan’s Tetsurō Araki, Bubble makes the list not because it’s the best sci-fi anime title in the Netflix library (it’s not), but because it’s a rare example of a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie that’s bright, colorful, and genuinely enchanting. The story—a riff on The Little Mermaid but set in a semi-submerged Tokyo overrun with gravity-defying bubbles that give rise to a pseudo-sport called “Tokyo Battlekour”—is a bit heavy-handed. In fact, the connection to the Hans Christian Andersen classic is made blatantly obvious. But the movie’s visuals are so breathtakingly effervescent that it strikes a completely different chord than any other film on this list. If you’re interested in a fun sci-fi romp that isn’t utterly despondent, look no further.
Oxygen
Mélanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds) plays doctor Liz Hansen, who awakens from a cryogenic slumber with no memory of her life before in Oxygen, a confined space thriller that stands as one of the best Netflix originals produced after the pandemic. The pervading mystery of Liz’s predicament makes the film fly by, but the towering achievement here is Laurent, who is able to convey myriad emotions at once throughout. There have been similar twists/reveals in other indie sci-fi movies, but what sets this film apart is its extraordinary lead and fine-tuned pacing.
Circle
Sociopolitical commentary in sci-fi movies can be hit or miss, but Circle’s distilled, The Twilight Zone-esque structure gives its messaging plenty of room to breathe, and thankfully, the insights woven into the characters’ interactions are cutting and elicit real emotion as opposed to being contrived or merely clever. Fifty strangers being forced to debate and vote on each others’ fates is a cruel, tragically accurate metaphor, and all of the conflicts that arise—whether they revolve around ageism, racism, sexism, or any other societal ill—resonate immediately.
Psychokinesis
Psychokinesis is a small-scale superhero movie that’s compelling on its own without needing to be connected to a gaggle of other superhero movies as a part of a super-ultra-megaverse. That’s not to say the story is low-stakes though. It’s about a father who is granted telekinetic powers by a meteorite and uses them to make up for being a lousy parent to his estranged daughter by protecting her small business from an evil construction company’s thugs. The film is Yeon Sang-ho’s follow-up to Train to Busan, and while it didn’t make the same splash its predecessor did, it’s a worthy action movie with a heartfelt father-daughter relationship at its core.
Synchronic
With effortless chemistry, co-leads Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan play paramedic best friends in New Orleans who are forced to take stock of their lives in the most batshit-crazy way in Synchronic, a gritty, psychedelic thriller that explores some big ideas while remaining grounded in a relatable, interpersonal drama. While visually hypnotic and narratively inventive (the depictions of time travel are mind-blowingly cool), the film’s real strength is its central theme about learning to embrace life’s beauties with what little time we’re given. Directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are two of the most unique voices in the genre, and this trippy puzzle box of a movie should not be missed.
Stowaway
An engineer (Shamier Anderson) mistakenly becomes a fourth passenger on a mission to Mars specifically designed to sustain three people—and three people only—in Stowaway, a densely cinematic space thriller also starring Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, and Toni Collette. The cast is fantastic here, which is conducive to the character-driven script, balancing the dizzying barrage of astronaut jargon and terminology with some terrific scenes in which the crewmates unpack the ethical quandary of the stowaway in fascinating ways. The pacing may be too deliberate for some, but the payoff is well worth the wait, and the philosophical questions swirling around every scene make the film psychologically engaging even in the quietest moments.
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