Movie Recommendation: Sunshine
Before tonight, it had been a while since I’d seen a movie that transported me (emotionally speaking) so far from the norm. I think much of the reason I (or anyone) enjoy movies is for their ability to temporarily capture your mind, move it somewhere else, and leave it there for a while. I attained this drug-like effect from the new apocalyptic thriller Sunshine.
One’s ability to enjoy this movie is likely directly tied to accepting its rules. You have to swallow the premise that the sun is burning out and that humans have built a ship capable of relighting it. If you can overcome the mental hurdle of that improbable constitution, Sunshine should prove highly enjoyable.
The feeling this movie left me with was one in the same vein I get from imagining a comet heading right to Earth, or learning our solar system will soon consumed by a black hole. These aren’t thoughts I’ve always enjoyed. Not more than a couple of years ago I think they would have scared me. Now I experience borderline euphoria when pondering the fragile and helpless nature of our existence. Sunshine was a great reminder of the meaningless, yet downright ecstatic nature of our consciousness.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
I saw this movie this weekend and loved it. Very well made, especially for a $50m British film. While I agree with everything that you said about the euphoric, transportation from the norm, it’s also one of those movies that examine the human psyche. I found that a very interesting and entertaining aspect of the film. It was like Alien without a creature or Event Horizon without the sodomy.
I would definitely put it at the top of the list with apocalyptic movies. I’m having trouble coming up with something that begins to compare, unless you count movies like Children of Men and, another Boyle/Murphy movie, 28 Days Later…in which the threat comes not from space, but Earth itself.