Five science-fiction films to stream, from 'Bugonia' to 'Speed Train'

The New York Times highlights five science-fiction films to stream now, ranging from Yorgos Lanthimos’s Emma Stone vehicle "Bugonia" to the B-movie actioner "Speed Train." "Bugonia," listed as streaming on Peacock, is described as a baroque remake of the South Korean film "Save the Green Planet!" (2003).

Stone plays a chief executive, Michelle, who is kidnapped by Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a man convinced she is an Andromedan; the reviewer notes a deep sadness behind the film’s flamboyant exterior and praises its visually stunning, cosmic ending. The piece also profiles "Hoshi 35," in which a comet creature prompts a remote village to sacrifice willing young "priestesses," and notes that Megumi Odaka appears in her first feature since 1995.

Blake Ridder’s "Manor of Darkness" is likened to classic Hammer horror: unsettling events (water turning to blood, a chest that emits black smoke) precede a plot in which four would-be burglars discover they are trapped in a time loop after one, Laura (Kim Spearman), is stabbed by the house’s owner, Lucas (Stuart Wolfe-Murray).

The reviewer says Ridder, working on an apparently modest budget, manages effective frights and attempts a new spin on the time-loop and haunted-house genres.

Key Topics

Culture, Bugonia, Emma Stone, Yorgos Lanthimos, Speed Train