Who's in It: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Danny Huston, Peter Mullan
The Basics: It's 2027, and the world has pretty much come to an end, but people still carry on in a global living hell of chaos and despair. And to aggravate the situation, a global infertility crisis means that no one on the planet's given birth in about 18 years. So when Owen finds himself saddled with a miraculously pregnant young woman, he has to transport her to safety. Finally, a Nativity Story I can get behind.
What's the Deal? They're calling it Children of Men, because if they'd called it Brutality, Misery, Depression and Suicide, fewer people would probably want to see it. All that's missing from the future shock is gangs of roving zombies. Anyway, it's still a lot of fun — evil dystopias are always a kick, just check out Soylent Green if you don't believe me — but it's not as deep and heavy as it probably thinks it is.
My Favorite Moments: The commercial for Quietus, a peaceful suicide drug whose ad slogan is: "You decide when." Also, when the pregnant girl decides that she wants to name her kid Bazooka — but only if it's a girl.
Danny Huston — Human Creepiness Barometer: His presence in just about any movie is your mark of soured weirdness. He was Nicole Kidman's husband in the intergenerational love-obsession story Birth, and he was an emperor in Marie Antoinette. Here, he's a rich guy living above the squalor, eating fancy food while everyone else cannibalizes each other below. He's pretty skilled at being a "something's off" signifier.
Screen Time Fake-Out Alert: The movie "stars" Julianne Moore, but she's not in it all that much. Just so you know.