Alastair JR Ball is a London based science fiction and politics writer. When not writing he can usually be found in a pub, art gallery or the cinema. He gets stuff ready in advance
For the last few years, I have been predicting that change has been on the horizon for Hollywood, due to the marshalling of a range of factors – AI, streaming wars, lean economic times, social…
The Galactic Empire in Star Wars is an oppressive state that tramples on the freedom of its citizens to preserve its power. However, there are many types of oppressive states, from those that existed in…
I was very pleased that one of the biggest cultural events of 2023 was the world’s most unlikely cinematic showdown. Christopher Nolan’s dark biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of the Manhattan Project and creator…
In 2022, the cinema was back in a big way, and I was very pleased to be able to watch 36 films released this year; either at the cinema or on streaming services. The world…
Netflix’s hit Korean sci-fi drama The Silent Sea has a claustrophobic intensity that makes it addictive watching. The drama takes place in the confined space of a moon base, where murderous inhuman creatures stalk the…
Reading back my summary of film in 2020, I was reminded of the desperate state cinema was in a year ago. In 2020, cinemas were dogged by closures and low audience numbers, due to many…
Frank Herbert’s novel Dune is inherently political. The book is so clearly laced with politics that a meme has appeared in Dune fandom mocking those who deny that it is a work of political fiction….
Would you put a chip in your brain to find true love? This either romantic or dystopian question is the premise of Netflix’s French sci-fi thriller Osmosis. The show is set in the eponymous tech…
On an episode of the Moderate Fantasy Violence podcast, I described Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible films as “the little franchise that could,” alluding to the streak in the British character that always roots for the…
Now that lockdown is ending and we’re taking our first tentative steps outside again, I have decided to write a tribute to Tom Coley’s list of the new music he discovered during lockdown. My list…
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