I know I missed last week. I do apologize. A 10-page paper on Charlie Chaplin was keeping me quite busy. But I am back and on Spring Break, which means more time to watch and review movies, which means more stuff for y’all to read. Let’s get to it:

I just realized that one of the movies I originally planned to showcase at the very very beginning of Movie of the Week has totally been forgotten about, and considering that it’s director just won Best Director at the Oscars just two weeks ago, I figured it’s about time I finally get to it.

I am talking about Children of Men, one of the truly underrated sci-fi films of the 00’s. Ironically it was the last film that Alfonso Cuaron directed before beginning his long journey to make Gravity, and it also has Chiwetel Ejiofor from 12 Years a Slave in it. So, there’s that.

I remember seeing this movie at Christmas time at the Pacific Place Theater in Seattle with my brother. I had seen the previews for months and was so excited for it, yet I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The movie was grim, there was far less action than I had expected, and yet when it was over I knew I had seen something great.

Coming back to it years later when I could actually appreciate it for what it is, I realize now that it is a masterpiece in sci-fi. Watching Children of Men after watching Gravity, you can really see his skillful ability to craft excellent long-takes that are so fluid and memorizing.

For those of you who don’t know the story, Clive Owen plays Theo, a man living in the year 2027, a time when women are infertile (though in the source material it is men who are infertile) and people no longer celebrate the oldest people dying, but the youngest. His ex, played by Julianne Moore, pulls him into transporting the only known pregnant woman on Earth to a supposed safe-location.

The movie is very intense and is not one that will leave you any time soon. It is just a shame how few people seem to know of this movie. Hopefully now after the success of Gravity people will look back at this movie and see the greatness Cuaron had almost 8 years ago. Of course, we can’t forget that the guy who directed Gravity also directed The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Yep, that was Cuaron.

And here is Children of Men: