Annihilation

One year after her husband, Kane (Isaac), an Army Special Forces soldier, went missing while on a mission, biology professor Lena (Portman) is shocked to find him at home with his health rapidly worsening. She learns that he'd been sent to investigate an anomalous electromagnetic field called The Shimmer, which appeared without explanation three years prior, and he was the only survivor from among a number of military teams sent into the anomaly. Due to her expertise in cellular biology, Lena is recruited for an expedition into The Shimmer, but once they are inside the anomalous bubble, the members of the team find themselves forgetting pieces of time and come under attack by animals with bizarre and dangerous mutations. As the members of the team push towards the lighthouse where the growing anomaly first appeared, the level of danger escalates, putting them all at extreme risk.

Director: Alex Garland. Stars: Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, Benedict Wong, Sonoya Mizuno. 2018. 115 min. Adventure.

Miss Stevens

A young high school teacher (Rabe) takes three of her students to a drama competition in California for a weekend, bonding with all three of them, but especially with Billy (Chalamet). She discovers the two have a lot in common, including a lack of friends or romantic interests in their lives. As her weekend with the three teenagers drags on, she's forced to confront her own issues with her life as she sees it thorough the eyes of her students, even as she pushes all three to persevere through some of life's more difficult moments.

Director: Julia Hart. Stars: Lily Rabe, Timothée Chalamet, Lili Reinhart, Anthony Quintal. 2016. 86 min. Comedy.

What We Started

The evolution of electronic dance music is chronicled in this documentary, primarily through examining the lengthy careers of Martin Garrix and Carl Cox. Through interviews with artists and industry insiders, the music genre's relationship with pop culture is closely examined and its pervasiveness explored.

Directors: Bert Marcus, Cyrus Saidi. Stars: Carl Cox, Martin Garrix, Chip Eberhart, Steve Angello. 2017. 94 min. Documentary.