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Julia Fair’s 30 Movies to Stream When You’re Ordered to Stay at Home: A Grown Up’s Guide

During Week One we visited movies about whether “Man Deserved His Comeuppance.”  Week Two we looked over “The Good Guys Always Win in the End.” Week Three we took a look at smart and inspiring…

During Week One we visited movies about whether “Man Deserved His Comeuppance.”  Week Two we looked over “The Good Guys Always Win in the End.” Week Three we took a look at smart and inspiring leadership.

This week?  

No Seriously, let’s go back a little bit and talk Dystopia

Maybe you just want to dwell, think about how much worse it could all be.  Sometimes the best medicine is to realize the nightmare scenarios movie makers can dream up are actually far worse than anything any of us will ever have to deal with.

28 Days Later:  This British Zombie film remade the genre.  Slow shambling zombies became fast running zombies that turn rabid in an instant, set against the backdrop of an empty London.  How they shot those empty streets is a story in and of itself. This low budget film is still rough around the edges, and part of its greatness is what it is able to pull off given its humble beginnings, but it packs a punch.  


A Quiet Place:  This might be too terrifying even under good circumstances.  A phenomenal horror/survivalist movie set along the backdrop of a humanity-ending invasion.  But if you are wondering if you can handle toilet paper stocking woes, this might make you feel better about the level of preparation you aren’t having to deal with.  


The Hunger Games:  Teenagers are selected to fight to the death, in order to keep the population suppressed and obedient.  A classic, and good popcorn escapism.  


Mad Max, Fury Road:  There’s not a lot of plot here, nor a lot of dialogue, but the cinematography and set designs are truly phenomenal.  Worth a watch just to appreciate a director trying to do something new. 


Children of Men:  One of the best films in history, phenomenally written and directed.  Not a movie for everyone, but Alfonso Cuaron delivers a film both thoughtful, poignant, and darkly beautiful.  What would humankind do if they no longer could have children? What would the world look like? And what truly matters?


ABOUT JULIA FAIR.  Julia moved to Bainbridge Island three years ago with her husband and two children, and has found her work home at IslandWood. An original native of Mississippi, Julia started her career working on the successful independent film, The Blair Witch Project. Her first produced feature length scripts, Believers and Alien Raiders, were released on DVD by Warner Brothers home video, and she strongly encourages you to rent them as she does still receive residuals on them. Quentin Tarantino counts Alien Raiders as one of his personal favorites, just saying.  Outside of writing, Julia has been heavily involved in research as well as viral marketing for a variety of science fiction and paranormal movies and shows, such as In Search Of and Hellboy. Her experience as an intensive and detailed researcher, as well as a horror and fantasy/sci-fi maven led her to be tapped by Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios where she worked behind the scenes in the Brain Trust for both Stephen King’s The Dark Tower and Michael Bay’s Transformers.  She recently spoke at the Library of Congress, discussing the making of modern myths and how Blair Witch, like War of the Worlds, reveals the way humans can seek out and even forcefully choose to believe misinformation. She enjoys long walks, nature, white papers from the National Institute of Health, the companionship of good friends, and dystopian sci-fi.