Netflix and quarantine: My Top 5 survival films
MANILA, Philippines — Movies have always been a safe haven from everyday life, but that sweet delectable bubble has been popped by the Coronavirus pandemic. Movie theaters may be closed, but while we need to stay socially distanced to come together as a people, we can still salvage film as a safe haven. Here are the five best survival films on Netflix Philippines.
1. Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Set in a dystopian future where pandemic infertility causes mankind to crawl to an unceremonious end, Children of Men is as tense as it is thought provoking. Here, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s long unbroken takes communicate a seething, prescient danger. Children of Men is a demanding film, but Cuarón always respects the audience’s intelligence, making his film a challenge worth solving.
2. The Revenant, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Rooted in brutish revenge and bogged in the desolate South Dakotan winter, The Revenant rides on the stunning technical achievements of cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki: the film is shot entirely on natural light, and uses unhinged camera movements to explore violence in the human condition. The Revenant also won Leonardo DiCaprio his first Academy Award for his unflinching method-acting performance as Hugh Glass.
3. Cast Away, directed by Robert Zemeckis
Zemeckis is usually associated with his most crowd-pleasing films — from Back to the Future to Forrest Gump. Cast Away is a remarkably more harrowing experience, following a plane crash survivor marooned on a desert island. Although it can test the stamina of impatient viewers, it ends as only Zemeckis films can — by reaffirming the heartwarming endurance of the human spirit. It’s a classic for a reason.
4. A Quiet Place, directed by John Krasinski
Krasinski capitalizes on a novel premise to deliver a masterclass in thriller filmmaking, leaning on impeccable sound design to control pace and tension. A Quiet Place also features a standout lead performance from Emily Blunt, whose character in one instance is given the impossible task of giving birth alone in a bathtub — in silence.
5. Snowpiercer, directed by Bong Joon-ho
Snowpiercer takes Bong’s signature themes of class disparity to a dystopia where the remains of mankind are hurtling on a train across an ice-capped Earth. It’s an exemplar in cogent sci-fi storytelling, but doesn’t always live up to its self-prescribed gravitas; that it isn’t as nuanced as Bong’s Academy Award-winning Parasite goes without saying, but then again, what is?
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