The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise)

Lone in the time of Corona

Best title recommendations when shut in your house waiting for the pandemic all-clear (which will come who knows when)? Escapist fare--musicals, comedies, tales of fantasy, adventure flicks that glorify can-do characters acting in marked contrast to us in our self-quarantined homes: helpless, frustrated, wondering what bleak future is in store.

If on the other hand you're of darker disposition and don't need movies like Aladdin or The Lion King to remind you of all the exotic locations you're never going to visit this year; if you'd rather watch films not to forget your present circumstance but to remind yourself that things could be much much worse--there's always Robert Wise's adaptation of Michael Crichton's first bestseller.

Your Name (Makoto Shinkai, 2016), In This Corner of the World (Sunao Katabuchi, 2016)

Call me by Your Name

by Alex and Noel Vera

Watched Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name out of curiosity. Everyone hailed the movie like a messiah descended from heaven to unleash upon the world his holy greatness.

Is Your Name the work of a messiah?

The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell)

Every breath you take

Adaptations of HG Wells' The Invisible Man have always wrestled with the central premise: if you can't see the protagonist, how can he frighten you? How, stepping back a bit, does he make any kind of impression on the big screen? Unlike horror classics like Frankenstein or Dracula, silent filmmakers never risked an attempt; we had to wait till James Whale's 1933 version--with ingenious matte effects by John P Fulton and Frank D Williams--before we saw Wells' Griffin undo the bandages wrapped round his head, revealing nothing inside.

Kaiba (Anime TV series, Masaaki Yuasa)

Total recall

Calling Masaaki Yuasa the new Miyazaki would sound tired, not to mention inaccurate--he's a little wilder, a little less restrained; calling him Makoto Shinkai's contemporary would be unfair--he's so much better (more subtle less sentimental) than the blockbuster director of Your Name and Weathering With You.