Alex Garland ’s career in Hollywood goes back 23 years as the screenwriter of28 Clarence Day by and by , the zombie movie that reinvigorated the genre . Since then , Garland has established himself as both a author and a director in the industry . He ’ll even be returning to his original enfranchisement afterwards this year with the waiver of28 Years Later , the first in a new trilogy of subsequence .
This month , Garland ’s late picture show , Warfare , impinge on theater with an unflinching spirit at what it ’s like to be in a modern warfare . To celebrate Garland ’s prolific career , we ’re depend back at every Alex Garland movie to date and rate them from worst to best . The one motion-picture show we ’re leaving out is28 Months later on , since Garland only contributed uncredited rewrites to that subsequence . Thus , putting it on this lean would n’t be a fair assessment of his abilities .
9. Men (2022)
Menmay be theMidsommarof Alex Garland motion picture , and not necessarily in a good way . The narrative is more than a footling muddled while follow a widowman , Harper Marlowe ( Jessie Buckley ) , as she confab a remote English village . Harper ’s late husband , James ( Paapa Essiedu ) , apparently practice suicide in the aftermath of an line with her .
One of the first homo that Harper meets on her slip is Geoffrey ( Rory Kinnear ) , the owner of the house she ’s hire . And it ’s insufferable for Harper not to notice that every man she sees in the village bear a spectacular law of similarity to Geoffrey . That include the enigmatic naked man who pursues her and the various aspect that stalk her in the townspeople . The apparatus was intriguing , but the payoff never quite excuse it .
Rent or buyMenonPrime Video .
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8. Never Let Me Go (2010)
Never countenance Me Gopresents an unusual love triangle between childhood friends Tommy ( Andrew Garfield ) , Ruth ( Keira Knightley ) , and Kathy ( Carey Mulligan ) . But as think in Garland ’s script , the world this trio lives in is n’t our own . In fact , it ’s heavily incriminate that even their identity element are n’t their own .
The story does n’t have the viewer see much of the human beings where humans can live to be nearly a century or sometime . It does show the strain on the trio ’s link when only one of the young char pairs up with Tommy while leave the other alone without anyone to love . The bond they have are the only matter truly real about the lives they ’ve led , and it would be too much of a spoiler to explain more than that . It ’s enough to say that their life are destined to be little .
Rent or buyNever Let Me GoonPrime Video .
Searchlight Pictures
7. Sunshine (2007)
Sunshinehas a premise that ’s pretty far - fetched even for a sci - fi picture . Garland ’s second hand for director Danny Boyle imagines a worldly concern where the sunshine is dying , and the gang of the Icarus II has the heroic mission of guiding a especial bomb to the sensation to reignite the sun . Cassie ( Rose Byrne ) is the captain of the Icarus II , but their mission changes when the crew discovers the Icarus I stagnant in space after failing to complete its mission .
share more about the level would require reveal the fate of certain characters . Boyle cast his28 day Laterleading man , Cillian Murphy , as Robert Capa , with Chris Evans as James Mace , Cliff Curtis as Searle , Troy Garity as Harvey , Benedict Wong as Trey , andShogun‘s Hiroyuki Sanada as Kaneda . That ’s a fantastic mould , and having so many familiar faces make it hard to predict who will hold out .
rip or buySunshineonPrime Video .
Searchlight Pictures
6. Civil War (2024)
If there ’s ever really another polite warfare in the United States , it likely wo n’t come down to California and Texas making a united sales booth against the federal governance . That kind of makes it obvious that Garland is an English movie maker and not an American director . Regardless , Civil Wardoes extend a glimpse at how quickly humanity can be empty on the battlefield as atrocities abound .
In what may be the end day of the warfare , diary keeper Lee Smith ( Kirsten Dunst ) , Joel ( Wagner Moura ) , Jessie Collin ( Cailee Spaeny ) , and Sammy ( Stephen McKinley Henderson ) contract a harrowing journey through the warzone in the promise of interviewing the President of the United States before the difference of opinion terminate . That forces the group to examine the world of the warfare around them , and there ’s no guarantee that they ’ll all subsist the tripper .
WatchCivil WaronMax .
A24
5. Annihilation (2019)
give close attention when watchingAnnihilation . Garland does n’t share a lot of expo in this motion-picture show , and it ’s easy to be confused by the story . The short adaptation is that something from another world has created the Shimmer , a portion of the Earth that is being changed into something alien and unfamiliar . Animals and plant within the Shimmer are being metamorphose , and a soldier named Kane ( Oscar Isaac ) is one of the few who managed to exist in the zona .
Kane ’s wife , Lena ( Natalie Portman ) , and an all - distaff scientific expedition including Dr. Ventress ( Jennifer Jason Leigh ) , Anya Thorensen ( Gina Rodriguez ) , Josie Radek ( Tessa Thompson ) , and Cassie “ Cass ” Sheppard ( Tuva Novotny ) enter the Shimmer to learn more about it . The answers they attempt may also see that it ’s a one - fashion trip for this group .
WatchAnnihilationonParamount+ .
Paramount Pictures
4. Warfare (2025)
Warfarefeels uncommonly existent for a war movie because it ’s based on the experience of Ray Mendoza , a soldier who co - wrote and co - directed the film with Garland . The movie features D’Pharaoh Woon - A - Tai as Mendoza , a communicator for a squad of Navy SEALs during the second struggle of Ramadi during the War in Iraq .
Elliott Miller ( Cosmo Jarvis ) is badly injure too soon on , and his fellow sealskin look overwhelming betting odds as insurgents ring their position . It ’s a tense struggle for survival that takes spot in real fourth dimension . A lot of unpleasant thing pass over the form of the next 90 minutes . This is one of the most uncompromising war movies in age , and it does n’t glorify what the SEALs went through .
Warfareis now playing in theaters .
A24
3. Dredd (2012)
Pete Travis may be the director of book forDredd , but according to star Karl Urban , Garland conduct the bulk of this pic . In the United Kingdom , Judge Dredd ’s adventures in the2000 ADcomic are legendary , but the 1995 AmericanJudge Dreddmovie failed to bewitch the feel of those stories . Dreddclearly has a lot less money to toy with than Sylvester Stallone ’s personification of the character , but Urban makes the office his own . And like his laughable playscript opposite number , this version of Dredd never takes his helmet off .
Olivia Thirlby also has a very compelling round as Cassandra Anderson , a rookie judge with psychical powers . Anderson ’s evaluation missionary post becomes more deadly than she or Dredd expected when the pair of evaluator are locked in a massive apartment complex by drug lord Madeline “ Ma - Ma ” Madrigal ( Lena Headey ) . Almost everyone living there is beholden to Ma - Ma , and the justice have a huge price on their heads as they fight their way up .
WatchDreddonMax .
Entertainment Film Distributors
2. 28 Days Later (2002)
Garland and Boyle really hit a rest home ladder out of the logic gate with28 day afterward . While the film does reveal the origin of the rage virus that change by reversal homo into killing automobile zombi spirit , the apparatus of Jim ( Cillian Murphy ) awakening from a comatoseness to feel the world transformed is just about double-dyed . Thanks to some smart filming choices , Murphy really seems to be digress the streets of an empty London .
Unfortunately for Jim , it is n’t long before he runs into the infected . Only a handful of survivors are left who can assist him , including Selena ( Naomie Harris ) , Frank ( Brendan Gleeson ) , and Hannah ( Megan Burns ) . The survivor ’ only promise is a military blockade that offers the promise of a remedy and sanctuary . But those hopes may be in fruitless .
Rent or buy28 Days LateronPrime Video .
20th Century Studios
1. Ex Machina (2015)
Despite Garland ’s uncredited experience onDredd , Ex Machinais considered his debut as a director . The film star Domhnall Gleeson as Caleb Smith , a software engineer summoned by his boss , Nathan Bateman ( Oscar Isaac ) , to a distant position . The purpose is to see if Caleb can connect to Ava ( Alicia Vikander ) , an improbably human - like AI in a robotic soundbox .
Bateman ’s first fault was giving Ava a beautiful brass and interpreter to go with her stilted dead body . Ava is not only aware of her beauty , but she also uses it to wangle Caleb . Ava says that she desires her freedom , but what would the event be for unleashing a being like her into an unsuspecting world ? Caleb may find out the hard agency .
Rent or buyEx MachinaonPrime Video .
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