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Alicia Vikander’s multifaceted role in The Assessment deserves your attention.

The Oscar winner’s performance in Fleur Fortuné’s feature directorial debut may be the riskiest turn of her career, as the sci-fi thriller has her playing several different personas within the same character. The first of which is Virginia, an assessor who determines whether prospective parents like Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) are worthy of raising a child in their future world where resources are slim. Virginia subjects the husband and wife to a 7-day assessment period in which she herself portrays a child-like character that puts them through their paces in increasingly disturbing ways.

Naturally, Vikander had doubts before, during and after filming, but by trusting her process and her fellow collaborators, she eagerly took the plunge into the idiosyncratic part.

“It was a bit like taking a leap of faith, and I was like,...

With the upcoming release of Warfare, Alex Garland is once again poised to make waves within the film industry. Thus far, the war movie has received stellar praise thanks to a recent, early showing.

For those unfamiliar, Garland is renowned for his amazing screenplays, which include Dredd, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go, and 28 Days Later. He also steps behind the camera occasionally, having directed Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men, and the more recent, Civil War.

Garland is now back behind the director's chair for Warfare, which was co-written and directed by Ray Mendoza, a former Iraq War Navy Seal.

Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Warfare is an honest, harrowing, intense and powerful piece. It’s one of the first must see movies of the year. An incredible tribute to the unimaginable sacrifice this brave band of brothers made. Incredible stuff. Flawless #Warfare #WarfareMovie pic.twitter.com/6NgNzhQZIP

— Simon Thompson...

One of Elizabeth Olsen’s few post-Marvel starring vehicles, Fleur Fortune’s The Assessment debuted at TIFF in 2024 as one of the most divisive movies at the festival. Despite its intriguing premise and A-list cast, The Assessment doesn’t live up to its promise, delivering a sci-fi satire that feels overlong and underdeveloped.

The Assessment Review

The Assessment is set in a futuristic society where the ability to have a child is strictly controlled as a couple goes through a rigid and taxing set of tests to determine whether or not they have what it takes to become parents. This is a premise that, if more technology-focused, would not feel out of place as a Black Mirror episode. Yet despite an abundance of interesting ideas, The Assessment fails to deliver on much of its potential.

Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen in The Assessment, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Magnus Jønck.

Plot: In the near future where parenthood is strictly controlled, a couple’s seven-day assessment for the right to have a child unravels into a psychological nightmare, forcing them to question the very foundations of their society and what it truly means to be human.

Review: I love a good science fiction movie that does not rely on spaceships or robots to deliver a convincing and chilling portrait of a plausible near future. Some of the best episodes of Black Mirror have been the ones that are not too far from the technological reality we are already living in. The new film The Assessment takes the climate-ravaged future of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and combines it with the technological dystopia of Ex Machina with a dollop of The Handmaid’s Tale mixed in for good measure. Led by fantastic performances from Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel alongside a startingly original character played by Alicia Vikander,...

Exclusive: Mariana di Girolamo, Oscar nominee Tom Waits, Ailín Salas and Paola Giannini are boarding Martin McDonagh’s massive ensemble for Wild Horse Nine, opposite previously announced Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich, Parker Posey and Steve Buscemi.

The dark comedic drama, which we first told you about, reunites McDonagh with Searchlight Pictures, Blueprint Pictures, and Film4, following their recent collaboration on 9x Academy Award nominated The Banshees of Inisherin, with Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Anita Overland producing.

Chilean film, theatre and television actress di Girolamo starred in Pablo Larraín’s critically acclaimed Ema opposite Gael García Bernal, which gained her international recognition, as well as Kill The Jockey which premiered in Official Competition at the Venice Film Festival. She previously appeared in television series such as La Jauría and El Reino.

Waits reteams with McDonagh and Rockwell following their collaboration on Seven Psychopaths. His previous film credits also include Licorice Pizza,...

Fleur Fortuné’s near-future-set feature-length directorial debut, The Assessment, prods at current-day anxieties around having children amid a recrudescence of fascism and dress rehearsals for the climate apocalypse. Even as these two forces refuse to recognize each other’s authority, they skip into the future hand in hand.

Owing to their wealth and obedience, Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) live in a coastal modernist villa, insulated from the largely off-screen ravages of a dystopian climate apocalypse by an atmosphere-controlled forcefield. Mia cultivates gourmet algae in a greenhouse of her own design, where she also keeps an orchid that’s all she has left of her mother, who was exiled to the “Old World” for political dissidence. Aaryan is a programmer who, in a nod to Philip K. Dick, designs artificial pets to replace those lost in the “pet cull.”

Mia and Aaryan decide that what’s missing in their life is a kid,...

An older main character that can somehow survive just about anything. A journey toward certain death through reckless violence. A man’s psychological entrapment becomes his own unique kind of living purgatory. These are only a few of the themes found in the John Wick franchise. They're also key components of Karl Urban's character in the 2012 sci-fi action movie Dredd, written by Ex Machina and Civil War filmmaker Alex Garland.

Released in 2014, the first John Wick movie was a surprise hit and paved the way for many more to come. Besides the four movies, there are an additional four in the works, including an official fifth chapter, two spin-offs, and an animated production. But no matter what, the genre of John Wick seemingly stays the same throughout the numerous projects. That is, a modern-day crime action movie. But what if you wanted to watch that same type of one-man-army protagonist in a different setting?...

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

"Alan called me into his office one day and said, 'Here's the thing. It's Disney's 'Cinderella.' It needs to be the definitive 'Cinderella' for generations to come, so if you need to spend a little more, spend it, to make sure it's one for the time capsule.' " Those are the words of Disney's then-production president Sean Bailey speaking about the studio's 2015 live-action "Cinderella" to Variety in 2016. The "Alan" he's referring to was Disney chairman Alan Horn. Needless to say, the studio viewed this as an important project.

Whether or not it's the definitive version of "Cinderella" is certainly up for debate. Disney's 1950 animated version of "Cinderella" is still very well regarded, particularly amongst fans of classic animation.

A surprising collaboration between Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan has taken a new twist. Two weeks ago, we learned that Alicia Vikander would join Jake Gyllenhaal in the film, but she has now exited the project. According to Deadline, Bridgerton's Phoebe Dynevor is now in negotiations to replace Vikander. Described as a "supernatural romantic thriller," the project will be adapted into a film helmed by Shyamalan and a novel written by Sparks.

Vikander is an Academy Award-winning actress who rose to prominence with roles in 2012's Anna Karenina and A Royal Affair. She went on to appear in movies including Ex Machina and The Danish Girl, with the latter earning her an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category. Dynevor, meanwhile, is one of Hollywood's rising stars, best known for her portrayal of Daphne Bridgerton in Netflix's hit Bridgerton, which gained her international recognition. Dynevor has starred in movies including The Colour Room,...

Filmmaker Barry Jenkins, director of Disney's Mufasa: The Lion King as well as the Oscar-winning Moonlight, will be teaming up with the highly sought-after Glen Powell, star of Twisters and Top Gun: Maverick, for a big-budget science fiction thriller. The project, titled The Natural Order, will be released by Universal, with Jenkins set to direct the picture and Powell set to produce and star.

The Natural Order is an adaptation of an as-yet-unpublished novel by Matt Aldrich, who will co-write the script with Jenkins. Aldrich previously co-wrote Coco for Disney, as well as the drama Spinning Man in 2018. The Natural Order will be his debut novel, which is said to be a high-concept sci-fi thriller about the pursuit of eternal life. More in-depth plot details are being kept under wraps for now.

The film will mark the first production of Powell and Dan Cohen's company Barnstorm, whose first-look deal with Universal began last month.

Exclusive: Portishead co-founder Geoff Barrow has just wrapped his first feature film dubbed Game, which he co-wrote and produced via Invada Films, the newly launched arm of his Bristol-based Invada Records. Here we’ve got an exclusive first-look image from the film.

The thriller, which stars Marc Bessant and Jason Williamson and is the directorial debut of filmmaker John Minton, is set against the backdrop of the 1990s rave culture where two men – one a thief and one a poacher – must use their wits to survive.

It’s an idea that originated through a conversation between Barrow and Bessant, who then brought Minton and Rob Williams aboard to help with writing the story. Williams wrote the final screenplay.

The project was shot in and around Bristol in the UK and is now in post-production.

“John Minton and I have worked together for over 20 years on music projects and have always...

Starring the talented Natalie Portman in its titular role, Annihilationmade its theatrical release on February 23, 2018. After its long stint on Netflix, Annihilation will now receive the axe in international markets this March as a part of the streamer's ongoing content reshuffling efforts. The streaming giant frequently rotates its catalog due to licensing agreements and cost-cutting measures, a practice that has time and time again left subscribers frustrated.

Directed by Alex Garland, the name behind Ex Machina (2014), Annihilation is an adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's novel of the same name and was produced by Scott Rudin, Eli Bush, and Andrew Macdonald. With its ambitious narrative, stunning visuals, and thought-provoking themes, Annihilation was widely successful on the streamer, earning itself a cult following. The film went on to receive critical acclaim and, despite not being a major commercial success, was soon cemented as one of the best original sci-fi horror films of the decade.

Quick LinksMovies Coming to NetflixMovies Coming to Paramount+Movies Coming to HuluMovies Coming to PeacockMovies Coming to ShudderMovies Coming to Prime VideoMovies Coming to Max

Movies serve as more than simply a medium through which we get experience; they are an emotion we like to incorporate into our lives. Numerous films are released each month on multiple streaming services, which is quite convenient for many of us. However, with so many alternatives at hand, it can be a hassle to pick the right film. To make things easier, we've compiled a directory of every film coming to major streaming services in March 2025, including Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and more.

Movies Coming to Netflix

Netflix

Here's every movie coming to Netflix in March 2025:

Annie (2014) — March 1

Black Hawk Down (2001) — March 1

Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982) — March 1

Cell 211 (2009) — March 1

Midnight in the Switchgrass — March 1

Runaway Jury (2003) — March 1

Sicario (2016) — March 1

Ted (2012) — March...

“Companion” is a darkly comedic sci-fi horror thriller that doubles, as TheWrap’s review notes, as a heightened commentary on one-sided relationships. It is also the rare film featuring artificial intelligence that chooses to take the side of its android character, Sophie Thatcher’s robot companion Iris. Movies have been warning audiences of the dangers of AI since, well, practically the dawn of cinema. Now, as AI becomes an increasingly real part of daily lives, cautionary tales about the boundary-pushing technology have only become more common.

“Companion” is not the only film that paints AI in a semipositive light, though. Here are five others that treat their robot characters with a more sympathetic hand.

“Ex Machina” (A24) “Ex Machina” (2015)

Writer-director Alex Garland’s “Ex Machina” follows Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a low-level coder who is invited by the genius, reclusive CEO (Oscar Isaac) of the tech company he works at to...

Editor’s note: this list was originally posted January 2025. It will be periodically updated to reflect new release date announcements.

It’s rare for a studio to become a brand, but A24 has managed it. Since its humble beginnings as a New York-based distribution company founded by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John Hodges in August 2012, A24 has become synonymous with quality for film lovers, the place that releases the must-see indies everyone is talking about.

A24’s first film was the little-seen and little-loved “A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III” from Roman Coppola, which hit theaters in February 2013 to muted fanfare. But the movie that really put the company on the map was “Spring Breakers,” Harmony Korine’s wild crime comedy that released in March that same year and established many of the conventions associated with the brand: Artful neon cinematography, shocking content and stylized violence,...

Before Oscar Isaac starred as X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron in the Star Warsfranchise, he led another science fiction classic, writer/director Alex Garland's Ex Machina.The 2014 film also starred Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander and won a 2015 Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. Now, fans of the sci-fi drama can stream Ex Machina on Paramount+.

In the film, which currently boasts a 92% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, Gleeson portrays Caleb Smith, a programmer at a giant Internet company, who wins a contest in which the prize is spending a week at the palatial private estate of his firm’s CEO, Nathan Bateman, played by Isaac.

After he arrives at Nathan’s home, Caleb learns that he’s been invited by the CEO to be a control subject to interact with an artificial intelligence machine named Ava (Vikander). Nathan is trying to figure out to see if Ava...

A24 has released a first look at Warfare, the new visceral cinematic event directed by Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland. Mendoza was the military supervisor for Garland’s Civil War.

Warfare embeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs in the home of an Iraqi family, overwatching the movement of US forces through insurgent territory.

A visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare, told like never before: in real-time and based on the memory of the people who lived it.

The film was written and directed by Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland, whose directing and writing credits also include Ex Machina, Annihilation and Men. Garland previously wrote 28 Days Later, Sunshine, 28 Weeks Later, Never Let Me Go and Dredd as well.

The movie stars D’Pharaoh Woon-a-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman, and Henrique Zaga,...

It’s rare nowadays where valuable tension or fear is not ruined by cheap jump scares. This is where directing duo Will Howarth and Tom McKeith buck that trend with thriller In Vitro.

Australian cinema recently and over the past few years is enjoying a period of success and that trend seems set to continue.

When a film opens to rural landscape complete with a dark looming sky accompanied by an ominous score it clearly signals something is brewing. Those shots that we see throughout do well as a reminder of the secluded setting and generates that feeling of being trapped.

All contained within one location of a cattle farm we meet married couple Jack (Ashley Zukerman) and Layla (Talia Zucker).

This is a thriller with hints of horror and elements of sci-fi where it doesn’t dive too deep into the latter. It’s somewhere in the near future,...

When you purchase through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

This March, Paramount+ is bringing you a ton of entertainment with the much anticipated true crime drama series Happy Face and also the streaming release of the horror comedy film Rumours. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Paramount+ this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 10 best films coming to Paramount+ in March 2025 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Up In The Air (March 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90% Credit – Paramount Pictures

Up in the Air is a comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Sheldon Turner. Based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Walter Kirn, the 2009 film follows Ryan Bingham, a man whose job is to travel places and fire people from their jobs.

Exclusive: Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to The Assessment, a sci-fi thriller starring Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Elizabeth Olsen (His Three Daughters) and Himesh Patel (Station Eleven), which will be released in theaters on March 21, after world premiering at last year’s Toronto Film Festival.

Marking the feature directorial debut of veteran music video helmer Fleur Fortuné, the film follows Mia (Olsen) and Aaryan (Patel), a successful couple who hope to become parents in a near future where resources are extremely limited and the government keeps firm control over reproduction. In looking to do so, the pair are assigned an assessor named Virginia (Vikander), who moves into their home for seven days to evaluate whether they deserve to move forward in their parenting journey. What Mia and Aaryan are hoping is a routine test quickly unravels into a psychological nightmare, forcing them to question the very foundations of...

‘Elevated horror’ gets a bad reputation – but the era is easier to identify now it’s definitively ended with such films as The Monkey.

Hot off the critical success of his Silence-Of-The-Lambs-ish serial killer thriller, Longlegs, you could be surprised to find the next film Osgood Perkins’ name appears next to on a marquee is very, very silly.

The Monkey, which arrived in UK cinemas last week, shares a name and a simian mascot with the Stephen King source text. It even shares a certain amount of the author’s nihilistic wink-wink sense of humour. But where even King’s goofiest tales usually possess some amount of sinister melodrama, Perkins mines the “toy monkey that makes random people explode in gnarly ways” premise for damn-near every laugh it’s worth.

Theo James plays two comically opposed twins – one so terrified of a toy monkey he refuses to maintain any long-lasting relationships,...

Two of A24's best movies, Moonlightand Spring Breakers, are returning to theaters in IMAX, but interested cinemagoers will have to be quick as both titles are back on the big screen for one night only. As reported by Variety, Barry Jenkins's coming-of-age drama Moonlight, which first opened in theaters in 2016, will return on Feb. 27 as part of the A24 x IMAX Present screening series that showcases A24 classics by screening them in the large format for the first time. The other feature film picked out this time is Spring Breakers, the 2013 crime comedy, written and directed by Harmony Korine, which will be re-released on Mar. 19.

Moonlight made waves upon its initial release and had a very busy awards season because of it. The critically acclaimed movie took home three Oscars,including Best Picture at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017. The story presents three stages of life for its...

The A24 x IMAX Present screening series is kicking off 2025 with a stellar lineup.

IndieWire can announce that Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning “Moonlight” and Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers” will both be in IMAX for the first time ever, courtesy of the studio.

“Moonlight” will screen for one night only on February 27 as part of the A24 x IMAX monthly screening series. Tickets are now available here. “Spring Breakers” will screen March 19, with tickets on sale February 21. Both films will screen across IMAX locations nationwide, and at select locations internationally.

“Moonlight,” which IndieWire awarded the title of best film of the 2010s, won Best Picture in 2017. Auteur Barry Jenkins adapted Tarell Alvin McCarney’s play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” for the screen; the story follows a queer boy as he comes of age in Miami.

“Spring Breakers” centered on a group of college freshmen who venture to St. Petersburg,...

Paramount has announced the lineup of movies, TV shows and live sports coming to Paramount+ in March, which will mark the streaming service’s fourth anniversary. The Paramount Plus March 2025 schedule includes the updated Women Who Move Mountains collection, which shines a light on the real and fictional women who inspire.

For Women’s History Month, new additions to the collection include A League of Their Own, Annihilation, Blue Crush, Ex Machina, Failure to Launch, Julie & Julia, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Lara Croft: The Cradle of Life, Marie Antoinette, Practical Magic, Room, Sugar & Spice, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Women and more.

Happy Face

Speaking of strong leading ladies, don’t miss the premiere of the original series Happy Face, inspired by the true-life story of Melissa G. Moore (played by Annaleigh Ashford) who discovered that her once beloved father, Keith Jesperson (Dennis Quaid), was the prolific serial killer known as Happy Face.

Quick LinksEx Machina Is a Dark Twist on the Same IdeaNathan and Josh Are Cut From the Same ClothEx Machina and Companion Function Best as a Social Commentary

The Boys star Jack Quaid continues his track record of heightened fare in which he may or may not be a murderer. While he plays innocent Hughie Campbell in the superhero satire series, his feature films are another story. In Companion, the actor plays Josh, a seemingly normal guy taking his totally human girlfriend to a lakehouse for the weekend. But what is actually going on is much more insidious.

Revealed in the second trailer for the film, his girlfriend, Iris, is a robot companion Josh uses for what the audience would generally imagine a 30-something man would use an attractive robot for. Iris is stripped of any self-awareness and control of her own body in this refreshing sci-fi feminist film. It...

Upon the release of Companion, many were quick to compare the sci-fi horror comedy to Alex Garland’s 2014 directorial debut Ex Machina. While Ex Machina is a proper sci-fi thriller and Companion more of a dark comedy slasher, there are some obvious similarities between the two films. In many ways, Companion feels like a spiritual successor to Ex Machina. Had Ex Machina’s arrogant tech CEO Nathan (Oscar Isaac) succeeded in his humanoid AI robot experiment and taken them to market, they would probably look and behave like Iris (Sophie Thatcher) in Companion.

El director de ‘El Laberinto del Fauno’ reúne a un reparto de lujo. © Netflix

Netflix ha desvelado la fecha de estreno y el primer vistazo a Frankenstein, el proyecto soñado del aclamado cineasta mexicano Guillermo del Toro que, tras ganar su tercer Óscar con Pinocho, vuelve a confiar en Netflix para su próxima película en torno al monstruo más icónico de la literatura.

La historia no necesita presentación: un científico brillante, pero cegado por su propio ego, desafía a la naturaleza y crea vida, sin medir las consecuencias. El resultado es un experimento monstruoso que acabará devorándolo todo, incluido a él mismo.

El reparto que ha reunido Del Toro para para dar vida (nunca mejor dicho) a su versión del clásico relato de Frankenstein o el moderno Prometeo, la conocidísima obra de Mary Shelley, es de primer nivel (y monstruosamente increíble): Oscar Isaac será Frankenstein, el atormentado científico, Jacob Elordi...

Companion is a 2025 sci-fi thriller starring Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quiad with major contributions from Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, and Rupert Friend. Initially focused on a couple enjoying a weekend retreat, Companion soon morphs into a chillingly poignant examination of technology, gender, and the illusion of domestic bliss.

The filmhas earned strongly positive reviews, with the leads being praised for their captivating performances. Moreover, Companion has been embraced in large part due to its refreshing contribution to the discussion surrounding artificial intelligence, leaving audiences with a story that hits close to home.

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CompanionRThriller Sci-Fi4.5/5Release DateJanuary 31, 2025Runtime97 MinutesDirectorDrew HancockWritersDrew HancockCast

Sophie Thatcher

Jack Quaid

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Films such as M3GAN and Ex Machina offer entertaining and nuanced glances at the inner workings of their android characters, especially...

The independent movie-making studio A24 has become a mainstay at movie theaters and awards ceremonies over the last decade, crafting some of the most artistically interesting films of the last few years. From horror to drama to comedy to science fiction, A24 has become one of the most reliable studios for creating a variety of films with a range of tones that are sure to capture the attention of film fans everywhere.

Because A24 films are independent movies with often fairly low budgets, they hang on dramatic performances, excellent cinematography, and captivating screenplays in order to keep audiences invested. Some of A24's best films also feature some of the best endings, as these movies understand that the quality of a narrative is only as good as its conclusion.

Eighth Grade Ends With a Heartfelt Message to All Gen Z-ers

Stepping down from his career as a stand-up comedian after...

It has often been said that cinema reflects our collective anxieties, and in Companion, writer-director Drew Hancock zeroes in on one of our most persistent modern fears: the encroachment of artificial intelligence into the deeply human realm of intimacy.

At once a darkly comic sci-fi thriller and a razor-sharp satire on misogyny in the digital age, Companion takes well-worn genre tropes and injects them with a pulpy, anarchic energy. But while it boasts a game cast, a thrillingly unhinged lead performance from Sophie Thatcher, and some wickedly effective tonal shifts, the film ultimately struggles to distinguish itself from the weighty lineage of AI-fixated thrillers that precede it.

Thatcher plays Iris, a seemingly ideal girlfriend, meticulously dressed in 1950s technicolor housewife garb as she wanders through an eerily vacant supermarket in the film’s opening moments. This Stepford Wives-esque introduction sets the stage for the film’s biting critique of patriarchal fantasy—because,...

The 2012 comic book adaptation Dredd has become a streaming hit on Max. As more people revisited the film or experienced it for the first time, it moved up from the #8 spot on the top 10 movies list to #3. Karl Urban stars as the titular character in the film, which takes place in the violent and crime-ridden Mega City One. Cops called Judges, who serve as judges, juries, and executioners, patrol the streets and deliver brutal justice.

Urban's Dredd and his rookie psychic partner Cassandra (Olivia Thirlby) enter the dangerous territory of powerful drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), with a power struggle ensuing and the two Judges trapped in an apartment complex filled with hardened criminals. In the vein of the Indonesian action film The Raid: Redemption, Dredd traps its characters and creates tension in the confined environment with thrilling action sequences.

Before Garland would impress audiences with his official directorial debut...

From rogue androids to emotional AI, these sci-fi movies dive into the future of artificial intelligence.

I haven’t seen “Companion” yet, but it’s been on my list for a few months. It’s a sci-fi horror-thriller about an AI robot named Iris (Sophie Thatcher), who was built to be the perfect companion (in more ways than one…) until she starts questioning everything about her existence. The movie dives into themes of control, identity, and what it really means to be human. With AI being such a hot topic these days, it got me thinking about some of the best sci-fi movies featuring AI-powered robots - so here are seven of my favorites you can stream right now.

Top 7 sci-fi robot movies you can stream right now

No. 7: ‘M3GAN’

No. 6: ‘Ex Machina’

No. 5: ‘I, Robot’

No. 4: ‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence’

No. 3: ‘RoboCop’

No. 2: ‘The Terminator’

No.

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Companion is a sci-fi thriller film written and directed by Drew Hancock. The 2025 film follows a young couple going on a weekend getaway with friends at a remote cabin. Their fun getaway soon turns bloody when it is revealed that one of them is a companion robot. Companion stars Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillen, and Rupert Friend. So, if you loved the thrilling story, sci-fi elements, and compelling characters in Companion, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

M3GAN (Starz & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Universal Pictures

M3GAN is a sci-fi horror thriller film directed by Gerard Johnstone from a screenplay by Akela Cooper. The 2022 film follows Gemma, a brilliant roboticist who takes in her niece, Cady, after she lost her parents in an accident. Gemma designed a lifelike doll known as M3GAN,...

This article contains spoilers for "Companion."

In 1985, John Hughes directed the off-beat sci-fi sex comedy "Weird Science," about two teenage boys who use a supercomputer to generate their ultimate dream girl (played by Kelly LeBrock). The following year, Wes Craven put out "Deadly Friend," where a teenage boy refused to accept that the girl he had a crush on had become brain-dead, and implanted his robot's processor to bring her back. The year after that, Pamela Gidley starred in the titular role in the sci-fi action flick "Cherry 2000," where in the at-the-time-not-so-distant future of 2017, society has become hypersexual but so averse to intimacy that gynoids have become the dominant substitute for wives.

Robot girlfriends are nothing new, with "The Twilight Zone" even examining the psychology behind human beings finding romantic connections and emotional fulfillment with androids in the 1959 episode, "The Lonely." But as technology continues to advance and we...

Stars: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén, Rupert Friend | Written and Directed by Drew Hancock

Written and directed by Drew Hancock, this deliciously dark horror is produced by the team behind Barbarian, which should tell you something about the number of twists to expect. In fact, on that note, if you have somehow made it this far without actually knowing what Companion is about, then you should definitely stop reading now and go in as cold as you can, for maximum enjoyment.

Still here? Okay then, but be warned that the main twist occurs around 24 minutes into the movie and is essentially the basis of the plot from that point on. It’s clear that the filmmakers intended that reveal to be a surprise to the audience, but clearly the marketing department had other ideas, much like the publicity for Terminator 2: Judgement Day completely...

The sci-fi horror outingCompanionhas now been unleashed, and audiences are loving the feature film directorial debut from Drew Hancock. After getting a lot of love from critics, and landing a "certified fresh" score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, verified users have now had their say, with Companion now boasting an equally impressive 94% on the Popcornmeter. Written and directed by Drew Hancock,Companion follows a group of friends on a weekend getaway at a remote mansion owned by a billionaire. Iris, Josh's new girlfriend, feels a bit awkward in the group, and it gets worse when the host, Sergey, attacks her. Iris shows up drenched in blood and in absolute shock. But no worries, Josh can tell Iris to shut herself down at any time. Wait, what?

That's right, Iris is a companion robot. And you would imagine that Companion follows this tried-and-tested sci-fi plot in ways we've seen before. But Hancock,...

Companion, the feature debut from writer-director Drew Hancock, is a wickedly funny dark comedy that is both hilariously funny and deeply unsettling. This isn’t your typical sci-fi thriller; it’s a scathing satire of modern dating, expertly blending the chilling eeriness of The Stepford Wives with the seductive danger of Ex Machina and the unsettling artificiality of Westworld.

The story opens innocently enough, with Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid) meeting-cute in a grocery store before heading off to a lakeside weekend getaway with Josh’s friend group. Iris, with her retro-chic bangs a la Zoey Deschanel and earnest vulnerability, is an outsider among the sharp-tongued characters—until the reveal of her true nature: she’s an “emotional support robot” — or it you wanted to be cruder, a sex robot — designed to be the perfect partner to resident thirty something douchebag, Josh. This twist isn’t so much...

Babygirl Worldwide Box Office: 5th Weekend Update ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl moves past another interesting milestone at the worldwide box office. The film is closer to entering the top 15 highest-grossing films of A24. It will achieve that feat once it surpasses Ex Machina’s global haul. The film had been in the news because of Kidman’s Oscar snub in the Best Actress category. Scroll below for its box office deets.

Ex Machina is a 2014 British sci-fi film released in the US by A24. It features Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Isaac in key roles. Ex Machina won the Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. The movie also collected $25.44 million in the US and $37.39 million worldwide. According to Box Office Mojo’s data, it was made on a budget of $15 million only, excluding the marketing cost.

Luiz Fernando’s latest report revealed A24’s R-rated thriller,...

In the promotional tour for the UK release of “Ex-Machina” in January of 2015, writer-director Alex Garland lamented the relative failure of “Sunshine,” “Never Let Me Go” and “Dredd” by commenting that his films miss some mainstream sensibility’ and ‘… just don’t break out’. It’s interesting to look back on that statement now following the recent box office success of “Civil War.” Has Garland’s sensibility changed? Or has the cinematic dial shifted to a place in which his films have now become more conscionable to the masses? To answer this question, we must go back to Garland’s childhood…

Obsessed with the sci-fi fables of J.G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury, as well as old episodes of “The Twilight Zone,” Garland channeled his interest in artificial intelligence into his screenplay for his directorial debut “Ex-Machina.” What started as an “epiphany” based on Murray Shanahan’s ‘The Technological Singularity’ evolved into...

From Ex Machina to Civil War, Alex Garland’s varied work as a writer-director explores the inherent flaws that make us human.

Nb: The following contains spoilers for Ex Machina and Men.

It’s a sign of how gifted Alex Garland is as a storyteller that he can move between forms seemingly without effort. A pair of best-selling novels in the 1990s led to his screenwriting work in the 2000s and some videogame industry writing.

It was during the difficult production of 2012’s Dredd that Garland first turned his hand to directing (albeit uncredited), before making his directorial debut with Ex Machina just over a decade ago. In the years since, Garland has continued to forge an individual path through the movie business, writing and directing movies that are uncompromising and unmistakably personal. Although different in terms of their plots and even genres, they’re all united by common themes...

The Terminator's cult following has only grown over the years, especially among tech noir science fiction fans. The film’s appeal extends beyond its niche, however, spawning a franchise made for the mainstream audience.

James Cameron's The Terminator streams for free on Tubi on Feb. 1. Released in 1984, this science fiction classic ranks as one of the genre's best films from that decade, which was then saturated by standouts like Predator, Aliens, RoboCop, and Blade Runner. The Terminator received mixed reviews but was a commercial hit, earning $78.3 million against its $6.4 million budget. It has spawned five sequels so far, most recently 2019's Terminator: Dark Fate. Despite anticipation for that film's release, it's the franchise's biggest disappointment to date (it grossed $250 million against a $185 million budget.

Related 10 Ways the Terminator Franchise Embraces Sci-Fi Clichés

The Terminator movies make creative use of familiar science fiction cliches and tropes to tell a...

Fresh off the success of Civil War, Alex Garland and A24's latest collaboration, Warfare, has officially received its theatrical release date.

Per Deadline, the Iraq war film, Warfare, will hit theaters on April 11, 2025. Garland directs alongside Navy Seal veteran Ray Mendoza and both are credited as screenwriters. According to the outlet, "Warfare embeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs in the home of an Iraqi family, overwatching the movement of U.S. forces through insurgent territory. A visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare told in real time and based on the memory of the people who lived it."

Related Alex Garland Reflects on Ex Machina Providing an "Antidote" to Toxic Movie Sets He Worked On

Director Alex Garland celebrates the tenth anniversary of Ex Machina by praising his cast and the "good vibe" his film generated behind the scenes.

Mendoza, an Iraq War veteran, teamed with Garland on the director's previous film,...

Take a sprinkling of the “Be Right Back” episode of Black Mirror, a spoonful of Ruby Sparks, a dollop of Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, and a good dose of Drew Hancock’s laser-focused vision, and out bakes Companion. The rom-com turned action thriller-horror takes a fairly familiar concept and recognizable moving parts, but as a whole, it is something wholly unique to behold. It’s equal parts an Ex Machina-esque look at humans’ evolving relationship with technology and AI, and a painfully accurate and ugly depiction of modern dating, and how men’s treatment towards women, even those they proclaim to love, can still be laced with controlling misogynistic sentiments disguised as nice guy behavior.

A24’s latest high concept horror film has the grandiose title of Opus, and the trailer has landed. Take a look here.

Film studio A24 has proved itself to be a frontrunner in bold, original, risk taking storytelling, usually with small budgets and tidy profits. From distributing daring titles like Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, Alex Garland’s directorial debut Ex Machina and Robert Eggers’ The Witch, it soon moved into producing. Examples? The Safdie Brothers’ anxiety inducing Uncut Gems, Ari Aster’s Hereditary and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Oscar winning Everything Everywhere All At Once. A24 has become quite the stamp.

Its next release is the thriller Opus. And the synopsis for it reads as follows…

A young writer is invited to the remote compound of a legendary pop star who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago. Surrounded by the star’s cult of sycophants and intoxicated journalists, she...

The director behind one of A24's biggest projects has finally announced the theatrical release date for his next film. Alex Garland, known for the dystopian Civil War as well as sci-fi staples like Ex Machina, has created another unmitigated depiction of violence and humanity in the upcoming Warfare, which is set to debut in the United States on April 11.

Writtena and directed alongside war veteran Ray Mendoza, and based on his experiences as a Navy Seal during the Iraq War, Warfare follows a platoon of Navy SEALs during a mission through insurgent territory in 2006. The film has been described as a brutally visceral close-up of the violence and suffering intrinsic to active warzones, informed by the harrowing perspective of someone who has actually witnessed such atrocities. Reservation Dogs star and Canadian/Oji-Cree actor D'Pharoh Woon-a-Tai portrays the film's fictional version of Ray Mendoza, accompanied by an ensemble cast that includes Will Poulter,...

Warfare's release date has been announced by A24, and it means that Alex Garland's new movie could repeat Civil War's success. After Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men, and Civil War, Garland co-wrote and co-directed his next project alongside Ray Mendoza, and the film is based on the former's experiences during the Iraq War, following a platoon of Navy SEALs on a mission through insurgent territory in 2006. The cast includes D'Pharaoh Woon-a-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman, Henrique Zaga, Joseph Quinn, and Charles Melton.

Per Deadline, A24 has set a nationwide theatrical release for Warfare on April 11. This is around the same time that Alex Garland's Civil War opened to much box office success for the studio in 2024. Other movies opening on April 11 include Christopher Landon's thriller Drop from Universal/Blumhouse, the espionage thriller The Amateur...

The Twilight Zone earned its status as a classic thanks in part to its short, punchy formula. Episodes typically fit into a half-hour format: running about 25 minutes without commercials and providing just enough narrative heft to deliver the signature twist ending with some power. The running time was subjected to a real-world test when the series switched to a 60-minute format in Season 4. The episodes lost some of the magic, and the show returned to a 30-miunte run time for its fifth and final season. That restored a good deal of what was missing, and included such classics as "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," "Number 12 Looks Just Like You," and "The Masks."

Despite that -- and the format's clear need to keep the running time short -- a number of classic episodes would work well as a feature-length movie. Indeed, at least a few of them have turned up in feature-length form,...

28 Days Later marked the second collaboration for director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland after 2000's The Beach. While the latter isn't widely seen as a seminal work for either creative, the former certainly is. The 2002 zombie thriller stars Cillian Murphy as Jim, a survivor who attempts to traverse London in search of sanctuary following the outbreak of the Rage Virus in the U.K.

Boyle and Garland returned as executive producers for the sequel, 28 Weeks Later (2007), but Boyle is now back as director and Garland as screenwriter for the upcoming 28 Years Later, which marks a reunion after 18 years of working on their own projects. In those 18 years, Boyle directed movies like Slumdog Millionaire (2008), 127 Hours (2010), and Steve Jobs (2015), while Garland moved into directing with projects like Ex Machina (2014), Annihilation (2018), and Civil War (2024). Now, it's been revealed why the pair didn't work together for so long.

Murphy...

It takes a lot for a movie to be considered a true masterpiece, but there are a few sci-fi gems from recent years which can claim this status. Many of the best sci-fi movies of the last 20 years have reached a rare level of prestige, winning awards and being tagged as classics. They have also helped to redefine the boundaries of the sci-fi genre, either by incorporating other genres or by creating entirely new concepts.

Movies like Everything Everywhere All at Once and Ex Machina show the potential of sci-fi to create experiences like no other genre, especially when directors pursue their unique visions. Often, it's the most original movies which are the ones that get described as masterpieces. Even if these movies explore seemingly familiar sci-fi concepts, they can find interesting new ideas.

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) The Oscar-Winner Pushes The Multiverse To Its Limits

Everything Everywhere All at Once...

Babygirl is climbing a major chart as it nears one full month in theaters. The A24 movie, which was written and directed by Halina Reijn, stars Nicole Kidman as Romy Mathis, a CEO who begins an illicit affair with her intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson) which allows her to explore her repressed sexual desires. The Babygirl release kicked off on Christmas Day and, while it was the third highest-grossing new release of the day behind Nosferatu and A Complete Unknown, it has quickly earned back its $20 million budget in theaters.

Per The Numbers, Babygirl has reached a worldwide gross of $29.3 million as of Friday, January 17. This sees it climbing the chart of the highest-grossing A24 movies of all time, surpassing 2017's The Disaster Artist ($28.72 million) to become the nineteenth best-performing release by the independent studio and distributor. However, it is still quite far from the grosses of the movies at the top of the chart,...