High-concept sci-fi movies - S & D

The Thirteenth Floor, which got lost somewhere in the middle of the auteurist eXistenz and blockbuster Matrix. I'm not sure it's necessarily better than either of them -- they're all three different movies playing with a similar pitch. But I'd call it Search-worthy, in any case.

Brazil, but that's probably one of the ones you meant by "several Gilliam titles." (Does Fisher King count as sci-fi? Not really, I guess, but it really cracked my skull open as a teenager, in the best and Gilliamest of ways. I haven't seen it since, though.)

Vanilla Sky and Open Your Eyes (the movie VS is based on) are both very much movies about perception and identity.

I don't remember a damn thing about City of Lost Children, because I don't think I've watched it with the sound on, so I don't know if it was high-concept -- but Christ was it pretty.

Destroy:

Dark City. Nice concept, nice moodiness, limped on the follow-through.

Nothing else is coming to mind for Destroy, but that's because I'm looking at my DVDs to jog my memory..

Not sci-fi, but very much about the relativity of reality: Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (one of the best films ever).

Destroy:
Matrix, eXistenZ, Strange Days, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dark City, almost every big budget sci-fi flick made in Hollywood.

does Being John Malkovich count as sci-fi? if so search

also search: The City Of Lost Children, THX-1138, Starship Troopers (is it 'high-concept'? kinda), Event Horizon

I liked these movies not because of how original they were, or of how great the acting or plot was but rather, um... mostly because of the great visual setting combined with a kind of "campy" feel. It was both slightly creepy and slightly funny. Which is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for in a movie.

In hypercube as one of the characters jumps they let out a totally ridiculous sound "uhh" which may be a result of bad acting, but I thought was hilarious. Some of the other lines in the movies may be horribly written, but come out as so funny.

did you like Minority Report or Vanilla Sky?

Yeah, they aren't really good because of thier high-concept, but I think they would be considered high-concept films.

A.I. was awful but it publicized the "A.I. stands for artificial intelligence" meme so it is good in this respect.

(I think the term high concept is being misused here - its usually applied to comedies)

and A.I. had a lot of neat touches - whatever Kubrickian influences remained, dud film tho of course

City of Lost Children, by being as innocent and childlike as it was, I think it came off as very powerful and raw emotionally, kinda like a 6-year-old's nightmare. Plus the story is very fresh and creative. (Honestly, I think it's the most Gilliam-ish non-Gilliam film evah, which only makes me like it more.)

Matrix, on the other hand, now that the special effects are getting dated, is showing how lame it was.

As an action movie, it was so-so. The not very-special-anymore effects just get in the way nowadays. Total Recall was a better action film.

As some kind of intelligent sci-fi film - yeah right. When the guy at end gets SUPER KUNG-FU POWERS and beats up the bad guy, that pretty much trashes anything intelligent in the movie. It could still make for a good action movie, but like I said, its not even that.

If I want just the intelligent parts of the movie w/o the cheese, I can read some PKD.

But they way this control is expressed - via kung-fu - is cheesy. If you can control space and time, he could have simple stared at the bad guy and made him disappear. Visually, that wouldn't have been too exciting, and I can understand that and why they had a big fight at the end. One reason you can be smarter in books is you don't always have action.

The one-armed kung-fu at the end was the best part for me: a sense of humor with your apotheosis.

No one has mentioned Tarkovsky! So Solaris and Stalker then. Especially Stalker.

All of them?

close but no cigar...too busy thinking about the cigar that it caught 'phantom lung cancer' and died on its arse

I regard him with a sort of stunned awe.

The Matrix is less of a film and more of just a big stupid smormasboard of every idea ever - no less enjoyable for that tho - does anyone really care about the whole chosen one/Zion/machines takeover crap? no we've heard it all before just bring forth the bullet time and hyper-kung-fu pa-lease. i can't wait to see Neo having a big brawl with 100 Agent Smiths.

All too true.

If anything, it's usually applied to action movies, but it's really not about genre as much as marketing. High concept is a pitch term -- pitches that can be summed up quickly and with an obvious hook ("it's 'Run Lola Run' meets 'Tarzan'!").

I don't know if that's necessarily the way James meant it in the question, though.

Even the Ministry concert and the animated Robin Williams?

Speaking of which, I can't imagine anyone wanting to destroy 2001: A Space Odyssey. This film is so smooth and gorgeous and harsh and enormous, I don't really know what to say...although, of all the films I've seen in my life, I think it tested my patience the most, so I could see the urge to destroy it.

as for AI, its saved by Teddy basically - the bear dam well rocks and thats the end of it.

Second for Solaris. Let's also hear it for Blade Runner.

Great low-concept sci-fi: Alien, Predator, Terminator, Dune.

And of course I think Alien is great great great.

(I'd actually include Terminator and T2 as good examples of what I was looking for, hstencil.)

Martin, I've just seen Minority Report (and it was partly what prompted asking the question), so I'd be interested in knowing what the twist they missed out/fluffed was. Maybe I should read the Dick piece rather than ask you to spoil it, though. I'll try and pick that up this week.

want some candy?

I cannot way for May 15th.

PS. If you don't like being able to jump up in the air and kick seven guys before they can draw their guns and then stop bullets, then U R ultra, ultra GAY.

Then there is Liquid Sky, which is worth watching for the New Wave scenery/soundtrack alone.

ARGH. My annoyance with Reeves has always been clear, of course. But if there's one thing about the whole Matrix superstructure around the films themselves that has bugged the fuck out of me, it's this taking-ourselves-too-seriously form of hype. Not that a lot of other things don't suffer from that as well -- bless The Lord of the Rings's heart, of course. ;-) But the philosophers deal, the rope-in-EVERYONE-from-comix-to-justify-us thing...fucking fuck. For all that he's more serious these days, I don't think Lucas takes his series to that level, he leaves that to the hyperfanboys, so why in god's name are the Wachowskis doing it? Forget the trappings, leave THAT to the fanboys, and just concentrate on blowing things up -- starting with Keanu. ;-)

But I'll second what Ned says about the taking-ourselves-seriously bullshit, and I'll lump it in with every pot-smoking dweeb who has ever turned to someone and said, "You know, this could be real," too, for added spite.

I agree with this, and I would add that the sappy ending made this movie even more creepy. The kid is a robot and at the end nothing is really real. (i like to say that the speilbergisms backfired a bit, because I don't really think that's what he would have intended)

Yeah, that's what bugs me about LOTR, watching the DVD extras is laughable because of how serious some of the people are taking it.

Also, Gattaca definitely, and Donnie Darko, though I'm hard-pressed to call DD "sci-fi" even though it often gets the tag.

eXistenZ was shite. By the end, the repetive "oh no! Are we still in the game or aren't we? OH NO!!!!" stuff really got boring.

Tep, you heathen! Ethan is hottttttt.

Tep, you heathen! Ethan is hottttttt.

Well, okay, I'll grant that :) And so's Uma in some movies (Pulp Fiction, anyway). But in terms of acting, they're neither plusses nor minuses for me.

That got me wondering which actresses would get me to see a movie based on eye candy alone, and no one's coming to mind, but that's probably just cause I'm tired. I'll bet I could make a movie called Eye Candy and BIG BIG BOOMS! and make eighty bazillion dollars, though.

(I'll also bet that at least eleven of you just misread BIG BIG BOOMS)

I forgot about Fight Club! My god. I didn't even really comprehend that as a sci fi flick but I reckon it is, at least if other people think so. Fight Club + The Matrix = analyse me please on the basis of two of my favorite films, thanx!

(the tv version of pit is even scarier)

Fight Club + Matrix + Harley Quinn likeness => I have a new ILX crush!

communion is a terrific movie, but it's really abt an upscale new family where the dad is going bonkers

I'm not actually sure how Fight Club is sci fi, and didn't think of it at all, but when someone else said it, I went for it. I'm starting to like sci fi if it includes Fight Club and Matrix. If only I could figure out how Goodfellas is sci fi and I will officially become a sci fi freak.

Ha, I used to have a friend who'd imitate Fight Club in an attempt to look hard. The problem was, she made a fist with her thumb inside her fist.

If only I could figure out how Goodfellas is sci fi and I will officially become a sci fi freak.

At the end of the movie, Ray Liotta goes into hiding ... by travelling back in time and starting a major league baseball career under the name "Shoeless Joe" Jackson (which fits the naming scheme of those guys in the bar pretty well. I'm gonna get the papers, get the papers.)

My biggest Fight Club related problem is that when I say "I like Fight Club" everyone else goes "Oh, so you're an asshole".

what if you then say 'I meant the book you cockfarmer!'?

you heard me.

wild wild west owns this thread

Taken out of context, the answer to that question has always been "yes." In context, working Unlawful Entry in depends on the Madeleine Stowe connection with Twelve Monkeys, so once again time-travel is involved.

My biggest Fight Club related problem is that when I say "I like Fight Club" everyone else goes "Oh, so you're an asshole".

There's that, too, but screw those people.

With Teen Wolf, though, I meant the Tyler/Jack thing. Although if Michael J Fox stomped the hell out of Styles, that might be funny too. Mostly cause the guy's name is "Styles," he's asking for it.

I wish there were some more Existenz lovahs here. Such a great, funny movie. Too groggy to defend it more.

That's okay, though, because all of his directorial hooey is outweighed by his acting in Nightbreed.

Let me say in brief that I thought the visual style of the movie was perfectly appropriate & that another director probably wouldn't have had the balls to make it look so plain, so drab. In anyone else's hands it likely would've been much flashier, which would defeat the point.

I think you're right, James. Also, I haven't seen the film and may be misinformed. Also, describing a twist doesn't have a fraction of the impact of seeing/reading it.

I still haven't seen The Matrix. It's just sort of gotten away from me.

and what of The Abyss?

Silent Running-- Bruce Dern, lonliness and the environment in a movie about a ship on the edge of the solar system.
THX-1138 -- check the sample NIN ripped.
Videodrome -- snuff films, satillite TV, Deboarah Harry, James Woods and by the end you will feel kind of sleazy. Hard to believe Croenenberg got this made in the 80s.

A bit of Cheeze, but still kind of cool:

Omega Man & Solyent Green -- Chuck Heston's the last real man on Earth.
Wild Palms -- doesn't completely work, but hey it isn't like many people are trying this kind of thing. (The Stand miniseries is watchable in a similar kind of way.)

Minority Report sucked. PK Dick would be happy for the check, but I think he would have been pissed about alot of that film.

Gattaca, Pi and alot of the other films mentioned here are worth seeing. Pi is quite an ambitious indie film, the soundtrack is also killer.

Matrix is kinds dumb really.

Not if he'd seen Total Recall, surely. He wouldn't have liked the ending, but who does?

*awaits Return of the King patiently*

Well, maybe you don't have to imagine it, but now Ally does.

Gattaca I'm not nuts about, though I liked the production design a lot.

haha, yeah, ppl who think existenZ wasn't great are mentalists!
Also people who think the Matrix wasn't great are mentalists!

But I guess they would be being mental about slightly different things.

That's right Tuomas talked about some anime.

I'm very glad someone said Groundhog Day, but I can't believe no one's thought to mention Bill and Ted.

all this "eXist3nZ is smarter than the Matrix" pshawing = specious at best haha

Thank god for that.

The problem is that I don't think Beethoven would've been able to "hear" the keyboards because the vibration effect wouldn't have worked very well, because it's so minimal on keyboards. That kind of ruins some of the film for me.

Another important scene is the scene where they use time travel to trick Ted's father. I mean, it takes a lot to think of putting a tape recorder in the police station after the fact and then going back into time to the appropriate point after placing the tape recorder. Unfortunately, I do not feel they really explored this enough: is it possible to do such a thing? Doesn't it conflict with the time-space continuum? How did they get through it the first time in order to remember to go back into time to place the booby traps? If they didn't get through it properly the first time, to figure out the set up, then how did they go back through time to set it up, because conceivably, Mr. Logan would've immediately shipped Ted off to Alaska upon finding them in the police station without the time travel trickery of the garbage can/tape recorder.

I think they must have found a plot hole in the past somewhere.

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey also has an interesting conceit to it, that is the relevance of death in the modern construct of the "dude"; however that whole battle of the bands thing is totally gay.

Oh, jinx.

(I swear I typed that before Ally's last comment.)

There is another time-space continuum loophole in Back to the Future, by the way. Mainly, Doc not dying. How did he know prior to dying that he should go back in time, tape up Marty's note (from the past), and read it to get a bullet-proof vest?!

most respectfully I must disagree, sirAREYOUNUTS?!?!?!

Doc does have a time machine. so it is possible~perhaps they deleted a scene or two.

Yeah Robert Zemeckis has taken to heart the cliches about decades that are used to sell cola ads. 50s = straightlaced. 60s = wild and crazeee. Forrest Gump is the best example. I still think the Back to the Future movies (well the first one) are pretty good.

I need to see them again, and Bill and Ted of course. Which one was Keanu anyway? I forget. And who was the other guy?

Re: Doc--how could he keep the torn up note if he ripped it up right before he died? Also, if he keeps it and then doesn't die, why would Marty give him the note?

This mechanism of contradiction is of course is most effectively displayed in The Time Machine, in which Guy Pearce discovers that he cannot go back in time to save his wife's life, because the only reason he built the time machine was because of her death. If she is saved, then he has no reason to build the time machine, and as such could never go back in time. So instead he shags Samantha Mumba, which is pretty good as far as consolation prizes go.

But maybe I'm wrong about when he rips it up.

Speaking of Robert Zemeckis, who else besides me liked What Lies Beneath?

i need to back up the one (!!) mention of Seconds so far. and add the wives stepford.

ALTHOUGH--why does Marty go to the past to begin with? I believe this runs into the same issue as found within The Time Machine.

Because... uh, because... yeah, about that one. That one was because he, let's see, he umm. Yeah. I have to go now.

The terrorists still show up, and Marty still thinks Doc's dead -- Doc gets knocked down, but he's got a bulletproof vest on. So from Marty's perspective, that whole thing looks the same -- it's just that Doc gets back up all "dig me and my bulletproof vest," but by then, Marty's already hit 88. Or am I remembering wrong?

The Libyans Doc got the plutonium from -- he used it to fuel the Delorean, instead of making a bomb for em.

I've never seen Donnie Darko, but if you ask me, on a totally unrelated note, 88 really isn't a very fast speed to be causing a time travel situation.

88, i think, is an appropriate number because it fills all the spaces on digital watches.

Plus, other elements of the set design and special effects are really graceful and successful in creating a weird mood and setting. There's this part where they're standing on a narrow bridge over an incomprehensibly huge techno-chasm stretching up and down for miles, and it's very much like the weird locale in the climax of "Empire Strikes Back."

The first film to explore the solar system beyond the moon is Aelita. This film takes place in an interplanetary future where the lovely (and oppressive) Queen Aelita rules the planet Mars. A Moscow engineer has recurring dreams of her, and builds a rocketlike space ship that he can use to find her. A group of men travel to Mars, where they encounter a full-blown society of Martians led by the Queen.

HG Wells was there first.

I think the "high concept" in Bill and Ted 1 is more intriguing than the high concepts in most of the movies on this thread.

(i have seen bits of it, in chris marker's "the last bolshevik")

music for forbidden planet = by louis and bebe barron (bebe is interviewed in one of the "incredibly strange music" books => the interviewer's approach to background research wz obv a bit "high concept", as the first q wz "so what's louis up to these days", and bebe said "well, actually he died last week — you do know we've been divorced for 20 years, don't you"... )

(that's from memory, but it's along those lines..)

This is a tough one. How was King Kong created? If he is just some big ass gorilla then its prob not sci fi.

Godzilla is certainly sci fi though. And so is Godzilla vs. King Kong, which is possibly the greatest movie ever (After AI).

Also, Weird Science. I swear to god that the nerdy kid in that movie taught my English class in college. I'm not kidding, it really was him.

invasion of the bodysnatchers (1978 version)
existenz and
soylent green

are all on english terrestrial tv in the next couple of weeks. check press for details.

andy
other listings magazines are available 8)

Also, you spend too much of the movie wishing Haley Joel Osment would catch a bullet and he DOESN'T. Seriously, how much better would that movie have been if every scene involved pounding that mewling little wussbag android in the face with a sledgehammer?

EXACTLY, only replace "20 minute" with "several months" (at least in Subjective Dan-Is-Irritated Time).

The Billion Dollar Hobo (1978) G; Tim Conway plays a bumbler whose inheritance rests on a relative's demand that he become a Depression-era hobo. Will Geer, Eric Weston. (1:40 **) - Mon, 9 AM (SHO).

Yes, it's on Showtime, and TV Guide gave it two stars.

Well, that's a bit unpleasant isn't it?

But oh so deserved.

i just noticed TDTESS in the tv listings mag, wednesday ch4 matinee for all the english people interested. and later that night Mystery Science Theatre is dissecting This Island Earth on itv.

andy

COME ON PEOPLE

I really love both of these films but they are a bit difficult to watch straight through while dead sober, like those "To Be Continued" Dr. Who episodes where you get to the climax and you can't remember what they're even fighting about.

xpost Tep "high concept"

No, he did do that, ryan. He knocked it over and rolled around on the ground. That would be shocking to the audience, I agree. However, they acted with shock and disgust when he started playing as well, and are seen to be looking at one another in disbelief as to what their ears are hearing--but I have a hard time believing that none of them have heard Chuck Berry before

Chuck Berry recorded "Maybellene", the first song of his that just about any white kids would have possibly heard, in May 1955. I think it's highly likely that kids in suburban California in 1955 had never heard (of) him.

NB Tomorrow I am going to 1971 and I am taking my sampler workstation with me

On the sci-fi tip -- I've been renting Sapphire & Steel, a 1970s British sci fi show, and it's weird but really frickin cool (I've watched the first series and am watching the second one right now).

Is this one also going to be filmed in a shopping mall?

i mean what the hell is the definition again? i can't remember!

http://www.screentalk.biz/art043.htm

The thing about the "high concept movie" is that the term/category/whatever didn't develop for the benefit of script readers, it was to differentiate movies whose concepts are the selling point (maybe Star Wars does count in that sense...), as opposed to the ones (like Casablanca) that would be advertised according to the cast or director. It wasn't about "how does a screenwriter sell this to the studio," since this was back when that wasn't a going concern; it was "how does the studio advertise this movie, what elements do we focus on."

Lolita the movie is a high-concept movie, but the book isn't a high-concept book; cause the movie's high concept is "How did they ever make a movie out of Lolita?"

The Quiet Earth, a less high concept but still really good post-apocalyptic 80's australian sci fi movie- i liked it a lot last time
i saw it many years ago, anybody else??.

I also watched Logans Run for the first time at the weekend and was sorta impressed, apart from the dodgy buck rogers outfits.

points for Silent Running, too. I wrote a paper in the spring comparing it with Soylent Green and Logan's Run for class analysis.

x-post. I LOVE Logan's Run. The carousel scene is among the most disturbing I've seen filmed; though, the slo-mo 'love room' chase scene is among the most ridiculous. There's a whole lot going on in it too... see: 'Don't trust anyone over 30' becomes 'There is NOBODY over 30!'

destroy: supernova, red planet, mission to mars, etc.

The Returner is an excellent sci-fi movie, though not particularly high-concept. But it does have super CG japanese transforming alien robots and time travel. The plot is completely lifted from the Terminator, except you have robot-aliens instead of robots.

not from the reviews that i've read, or even from the Onion's take on the DVD's commentary track.

ANNA KARENINA 2: IRON CYBORG
coming to a theatre near you, summer 2005

Now I'm not so sure.

OTM to stalker, zardoz, the thing, bill&ted, existenz (as funny as B&T)

destroy: AI, vanilla sky (and open your eyes), primer, minority report, a scanner fartly

Ad tagline: "He was prepared on the surface - but not for the stain that came bleeding through!"

Wonky low-budget effects, Gilliamesque humour, mixed with commentary on Russian society during the 80's (which I'm sure mostly went right over my head, save the theme of the scarcity of resources). Totally worth seeking out.

ugh, i just watched 'primer' for the first time and feel like i'm coming down from acid (ick.) i mean, i liked it, and 'got' it, but it's raining out and hot and i have a paper to write, so i feel like a buzzing ball of paranoia now. O_o

I keep trying to watch this movie called Avalon which is sort've like this Russian military fetishist Matrix, but the score & sound is so droney and I always watch it late at night, I never make it long without passing out.

Fantastic Planet is a beautiful headfuck.

also lol @ anyone who says S: Donnie Darko and D: 2001 and/or The Matrix

The Wrath of Khan fits here, certainly.

CETI ALPHA 6 IS REALLY CETI ALPHA 5!

as far as high-concept sci-fi movies go, it's no Groundhog Day

lol @ anyone who says S: Donnie Darko

Astoundingly great blog essay about the robotics and design of Huey, Dewey, & Louie and the actors who played them. Be sure to read the comment at the end.

THX 1138--looks great, but I didn't get much out of it otherwise. The Orwell estate should have sued. Afterwards, I watched the short documentary on Zoetrope included in the two-disc DVD. I think I would have been one of those decrepit old Warners executives sitting there after the screening, wondering what to do with the film.

the ending is so fucking terrible. and of course all the CGI added later is awful

agree that the overall design is its lone redeeming quality

introduced my friends to eXistenZ over the weekend

fyi, Silent Running on Film4 today UKer's

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B4vLmgNCAAA6dQH.jpg

anyone know this Polish guy from the '80s?

https://www.filmlinc.org/series/sci-fi-visionary-piotr-szulkin/#films

no but looks interesting

a couple of his are on YT in goodlooking subtitled form

Surprised neither Interstellar nor Edge of Tomorrow were mentioned in any revives.

last action hero sounds unbelievable if you describe it -- basically the gremlins 2 key and peele sketch.

last action hero is more like a no concept scifi movie

just watched a brilliant sci-fi visual essay based on Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men narrated by Tilda Swinton, featuring lots of doomed monuments 2 billion years in the future. good stuff.

I was hoping that would be great. It isn't streaming anywhere, is it?

in the unfilmable pre-1940 science fiction dept, I saw the 1982 german TV version of Zamaytin's 'We' on youtube a few weeks back. they do a lot with video feedback to suggest the crowds of thousands eating and exercising in perfect synchronization in endless glass tunnels. probably only for severely dedicated fans of the book but I had a good time grabbing screen captures with the bad english subtitles.

I got it off the torrents and it looked like a dvd rip. It does so much with so little it's quite a trip.

i saw Upside Down last week (Sony Movies?). two planets, 100 or so metres apart, but with gravity affinity so things from planetA always gravitated towards planetA etc. and there was one skyscraper that bridged the two planets and on floor 0, the middle floor, people were working on the floor and the ceiling. (oh, and one planet was poor, the other rich, so there's a class thing there as well)

i lost interest about an hour in.

oddest thing was never having heard of such a film before. was released in 2012 and had name stars in it but...

that isn't so much high-concept as unforgivably stupid tbf

That's the kind of premise that would get you rejected from every short story market going on the grounds of extreme implausibility and poor physics.

I dig Jóhann Jóhannsson's score for 'Last and First Men', need to find that film.

didn't he direct it as well?

ah yes he did!

i saw Upside Down last week

I saw it years ago. absolute trash, the nadir of that brief period where you couldn't throw a rock without hitting some "cutesy indie sci-fi". even worse than Another Earth somehow

xxp
I'd read some comment that it was more like a movie you'd see as part of an art installation, but the simple narrator and images of imagined monuments combo was quite powerful and evocative and much more than just "experimental film" imo

.. and the score as well of course

not deriding "experimental film" there, just meant I wouldn't want to watch a bruce nauman vid in my living room when I'm in the mood for a movie!

Looking forward to seeing it. It was Jóhannsson's only (completed) film, before he committed suicide in '18.

xp lol

Anyone see "Coherence?"

There's also Triangle, Time Crimes, Source Code ...

coherence was great

Mr. Nobody and Mood Indigo maybe also in this category as well?

(thinking of Simon H's summary specifically)

Timetrap on Netflix is kind of neat, don't let the beginning put you off.

i loved it!

I dig Jóhann Jóhannsson's score for 'Last and First Men', need to find that film.

If you're still picking up physical releases, the film is packaged with the score cd. I don't remember ordering my copy as a 'deluxe' edition, so pretty sure it's the standard. Going to watch it by the weekend.

Anyone see "Coherence?"

There's also Triangle, Time Crimes, Source Code ...

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 27 May 2020 13:39 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

ARQ, Endless, ...

oops, The Endless

If you ever get to see Hitoshi Matsumoto's Symbol, I would highly recommend it. It starts out like one of those Cube-style ontological mysteries, where a dude wakes up in his pajamas in a completely empty room with bright white walls and floor, and he has no idea how he got there or how to get out... But it gets way weirder than these kind of stories usually do, it's just an unique piece of high-concept film-making that's also very entertaining. And the less you know about the plot before starting the film, the better.

Been hearing good things about The Vast Of Night, a super lo-budget sci-fi flick on Amazon.

what are some low-concept sci-fi movies

surely like Dark Star

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

fwiw the Wikipedia definition of "high-concept" is pretty different than what the OP is asking for here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-concept

This thread might as well have been called Sci Fi Movies tbf

been rolling my eyes at the title/initial post discrepancy for years but hey, love some science fiction over here

The more completely you can imagine the entire movie from one brief phrase or sentence, the higher the concept. The purest example of any 'high concept' movie was "Snakes on a Plane". Some other strong competitors would be "Hobo with a Shotgun", "Cowboys vs. Aliens", or "Alien vs. Predator". Not many sci-fi films fit that mold. There's usually too much exposition required compared to true 'high concepts'.

My bad for reviving this thread but it was for a sci-fi movie based on writing that was considered unfilmable with no cast other than Tilda Swinton's fabulous voice and I found it a very powerful and unique movie, it wasn't some Netflix cack and erm it was late and there are loads of shite threads!

It's fine I was just confused

The high concept of many sf films is “(x) in space”

The Vast of Night was really good xps

The Vast Of Night

the first 20 minutes has some of the most unbearable, tinnitus inducing, phoney blabber i have ever witnessed in a movie. guess the screenwriter wanted to fill some 'atmospheric gaps' or whatever.

now let's see the rest.

loved the long tracking shot from parking lot to the basketball match and back. something between steadycam and drone shot.

the whole thing felt more like a (successful) job application than a complete movie.

Magic spoiler: apparently four different shots in different locations seamlessly spliced, and no drones used at all. It was iirc go kart and gimbal, and if you tried to walk the shot it's not physically possible.

Limited The Vast of Night discussion across a smattering of threads.

I really liked this movie, though it wasn't perfect. The pacing was so deliberate and I liked the in media res opening established the world of the small town so nicely. Also interesting how they used different shots/editing for different scenes. The meta TV scenes were cut like a sitcom or other old TV show, while the proper movie had some really interesting long tracking shots. The two leads were good, but I wasn't sure the actor playing the elderly mom in the house was up to it.

The budget must have been microscopic.

Love that movie. Great comfort viewing.