Dear Watchers,How do you like your aliens? Adorable, quippy and tugging at your heartstrings? Or sexy, scary and tugging at your drawstrings? We have both kinds on this Genre Movie Wednesday. One of them is from a blockbuster you’ve most likely heard of. The other is from a psychosexual thriller you’ve most likely not. Our expert in sci-fi, Elisabeth Vincentelli, has more to say below about why she finds these two distinct movies appealing, and what each has to say about human-extraterrestrial relations. Read her thoughts, then head here to see a few more of her out-of-this-world recommendations. Happy Watching. ‘Project Hail Mary’
Where to watch: Stream “Project Hail Mary” on Amazon Prime Video. Writing about sci-fi movies involves watching a lot of despair-inducing stories that deal with intractable challenges, including environmental wreckage and technology run amok. But problems always have solutions in the two movies based on Andy Weir novels — “The Martian” (2015) and now “Project Hail Mary.” Like its predecessor, this film from the directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller may be set in outer space, but it relies on quaint values like tinkering, perseverance and ingenuity, and it emphasizes the importance of cooperation. In “Project Hail Mary,” Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) is the only survivor of a last-ditch mission to stop cosmic microorganisms from eating away at the sun’s energy and causing an extinction event on Earth. A gifted biologist who ended up teaching kids before being selected for the one-way journey to outer space, Ryland teams up eventually with an envoy from the equally endangered planet Erid, whom he names Rocky. The movie mines their relationship to sometimes cavity-inducing sweetness, but it’s hard not to be seduced by the odd couple’s chemistry as they attempt to defeat the so-called astrophage. In our current moment, a movie about building alliances with aliens to solve universal problems feels downright refreshing. Unexpected bonus: a dryly funny turn by the German actress Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”) in a key supporting role. ‘Touch Me’
Where to watch: Stream “Touch Me” on Shudder. Rent or buy it on major platforms. If you’ve ever mused about what Lovecraft as a psychosexual horror rom-com would be like, this movie from Addison Heimann offers the beginning of an answer. “Touch Me” starts with an extended monologue in which Joey (Olivia Taylor Dudley, “The Magicians”) recounts to a therapist her relationship with a tracksuit-wearing, human-looking alien named Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci). This is only delayed gratification because we do get to meet Brian, a pansexual being who has his way with both Joey and her gay roommate, Craig (Jordan Gavaris, from “Orphan Black”). Heimann plays the two friends’ complicated relationship for comedy, and their interactions with Brian have a surreal flair — which is bound to happen considering the alien is, er, tentacled. The portrayal of Brian’s hold on his partners lands like a satire of codependency and of gurus who use sexuality to control people while pretending to heal them. “Touch Me” meanders at times, but Heimann applies a distinctive aesthetic and sensibility — neon fetishism? — to this close encounter of the kinky kind.
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