These days in the United States they are upside down with a series of unidentified flying objects (UFOs, wow) that are happening in the skies of their territory. Of course, you read the word UFO and one starts to think about visitors from other planets and some of the most fanciful things that we have probably inherited from the history of cinema.
Not all of them end up flying as high, as there are proposals that have focused above all on the human impact and drama more than in the overflowing display of extraordinary technology from outside this planet. These three movies that can be seen on different streaming platforms are the most interesting for these days of UFOs and other inexplicable phenomena.
‘Encounters in the third phase’ (‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, 1977)
Address:Steven Spielberg. Distribution: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Francois Truffaut, Cary Guffey.
If we look at what Steven Spielberg told in ‘The Fabelmans’, cinema is one of the best tools to help make sense of the things that happen around us. Here, in the key of science fiction with extraterrestrial intrigue, he gets fully into the disintegration of a family due to obsession for trying to decipher what escapes our understanding.
With an incredible scale that spans the entire world and, at the same time, skillfully focuses on the intimacy of a family that is breaking up through its father. It is one of the most special films that Spielberg has made, from the personal reasons (in a way, the divorce of his parents touches here) to the particularities of an exciting story with interesting adult aftertaste.
See in Filmin | Criticism in Espinof
‘Signs’ (‘Signs’, 2002)
Address: M. Night Shyamalan. Distribution: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Cherry Jones.
Closely related to the previous one for various reasons, from the treatment of a family in shock at the arrival of an inexplicable phenomenon until the initial comparisons that were made with Shyamalan and Spielberg. Although it has enough personal essence to value it beyond how well it can dialogue with ‘Encounters in the third phase’.
One of Shyamalan’s most exciting films, which well dissects the state of despair and hysteria generated by something that is beyond our comprehension, and also carefully establishes the paths for a family to heal and become stronger together. She is still tremendously current in many aspects, and her sense of fantasy ends up placing her as a director’s must.
Watch on Disney+ | Criticism in Espinof
‘The Vast of Night’ (2019)
Address: Andrew Patterson. Distribution: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz, Bruce Davis, Gail Cronauer.
One of the biggest surprises in recent science fiction It was this indie rescued by Amazon that oozes passion for classic science fiction, including ‘The Twilight Zone’, while capturing the US obsession with the UFO phenomenon in the 50s through radio broadcasting. The local broadcast programs that act as storytellers at a time of restlessness and instability.
Andrew Patterson gets a lovely movie, with friendly commonplaces that it appropriately embraces. Very much in love with its staging and its sequence shots which, by the way, are spectacular although sometimes they disrupt the organic rhythm of the piece. Although it is more estimable and honest in its tributes than other nostalgic proposals of the genre.
Watch on Amazon Prime Video | Criticism in Espinof