Best – Europa Report
Found footage movies are usually resigned to the horror genre, so the hard sci-fi Europa Report deserves some credit simply for existing. The film, which follows a crew of astronauts on a mission to the titular moon of Jupiter in search of life, is one of the most painstakingly accurate sci-fi flicks in recent memory. That accuracy, coupled with a faux-documentary format that heavily utilizes on-board cameras and crew interviews, sells the film as a highly realistic movie about space exploration.
That’s all well and good, but the real strength of Europa Report is how, despite the confines of found footage, director Sebastián Cordero slowly builds an atmosphere of almost suffocating dread. It would have been easy to fall back on the hard science behind the story, but Cordero goes one step further, adapting the found footage format to subtly communicate the heart-in-mouth anxieties of deep space travel, dwelling on long silences and crawling seconds of uncertainty. Without the found footage aspect, Europa Report could have dissolved into another lame sci-fi flick, but the limitations keep it grounded, thrilling and utterly absorbing.
Being a smaller film, many of you may have missed it, so I’m including the trailer below so you can get an idea of what it’s all about.
