319- ] English Literature
Alex Garland
The
5 Best Alex Garland Movies
The prolific writer
and filmmaker just released his fifth movie.
The 5 Best Alex
Garland Movies
'Ex Machina' Credit:
A24
Jason Hellerman
Apr 15, 2025
Alex Garland has
established himself as one of contemporary cinema's most distinctive voices.
The guy was an
acclaimed novelist and screenwriter (The Beach, 28 Days Later, Sunshine) and is
now pioneering his way as a director who crafts thought-provoking and often
unsettling genre films.
Today, I was pumped
to sit down and rank the five movies he's directed.
Let's dive in.
1. Ex Machina
This is one of those
movies I recommend to everyone. And one that seems to get more and more
relevant as we see the rise in AI.
This sci-fi thriller
follows a programmer testing the consciousness of a sophisticated AI (played by
Alicia Vikander), with really strong performances from Oscar Isaac and Domhnall
Gleeson.
It earned Garland an
Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and won for Best Visual Effects.
It holds high critic (92% RT) and audience scores (86% RT).
And it has an ending
that feels so ominous.
2. Warfare
Garland's most recent
directorial effort, Warfare, which he co-directed with Ray Mendoza, this film
reconstructs a real combat incident involving Navy SEALs in Iraq.
I found it to be
quite powerful. The story forces you to feel and puts you in these heroes'
shoes as they try to return home alive. We really should do more for these
guys, and this should be a movie that is mandatory viewing for all Americans.
It has debuted to
exceptionally strong critical (95% RT) and audience (93% RT) scores on Rotten
Tomatoes, the highest for any Garland-directed film currently.
3. Civil War
A really creative
look at a dystopia that could tear Americans apart and start chaos. In it, we
follow journalists traveling across a fractured United States during a modern
civil war.
Humanity is at its
center as we dissect how these things happened and the inevitable way they'll
end, with a corpse in the White House.
It became a
commercial success and received generally positive reviews (81% RT) for its
intense action sequences, technical craft, and performances, particularly from
Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons' sunglasses.
4. Annihilation
This is a weird one
that you can revisit again and again to explore its depths. It's an atmospheric
cosmic horror film based on Jeff VanderMeer's novel.
We follow a biologist
(Natalie Portman) entering a mysterious, mutating environmental zone. While
critically acclaimed (88% RT), its abstract and I'd say often experimental
themes led to a more moderate audience reception (67% RT).
5. Men
Folk horror in rural
England has never been creepier. The movie stars Jessie Buckley as a woman
haunted by various men (all played by Rory Kinnear) during a countryside
retreat.
I liked the overall
idea and metaphors at play, but this one kind of felt like it kept me at bay
more than the other movies welcome you in,. It holds the lowest critical (69%
RT) and audience scores among his features, but is still worth watching because
it's art and I like to watch this filmmaker work.
Summing Up the Best
Alex Garland Movies
