daily stream: a warning from the distant future
2020’s *Last and First Men* is finally streaming in the US; also available in the UK
I’m not much of a fan of experimental film, but I absolutely love 2020’s uniquely astonishing Last and First Men. Based on the hugely influential 1930 science fiction novel of the same name by British philosopher Olaf Stapledon, this is the feature directorial debut of film composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (no relation). Like an illustrated audiobook — read by Tilda Swinton, speaking to us as a person of the 18th human species billions of years in the future — this is a cinematic tone poem contemplating the biggest, headiest issues that humanity ever confronts: evolution and extinction; the depths of time and the unfathomable expanse of the universe; the meaning of life, and what meaning we give to it. Why finding meaning — and ensuring a future for our children and our children’s children — is all that we have. (Read my review.)
US: stream on Metrograph, Shudder, and AMC+ (the latter two via Prime)
UK: stream on BFI Player (via Prime); rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See Last and First Men at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
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