Contagion (2011): written by Scott Z. Burns; directed by Steven Soderbergh; starring about a million people: A superior modern outbreak story that spares us people chasing a monkey around. Instead, director Soderbergh and writer Burns show us the complete spectrum of human crisis response, from riots to scientists working away desperately in labs and on the ground.
A mutated flu strain erupts in Hong Kong and soon spreads by airline to America and other places. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) mobilize, but they're in a time crunch: the new virus has a high kill rate. And it may already be mutating.
The movie follows the outbreak on various fronts, from the personal front of Matt Damon and his daughter to the professional front of scientists Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, and Jennifer Ehle. Marion Cottilard leads the WHO in the field. Eliot Gould strives to map the virus at his private laboratory. Jude Law tries to make money as a muck-raking blogger who starts by questioning authority and ends by trying to make money off fake cures while also convincing the gullible to avoid any official cures.
Contagion hurtles along, paying more attention to science and medicine than almost any movie I can remember. The scientists may be fallible, but Contagion stresses that they're also the only hope in a crisis such as this. The final revelation of the virus' origin point takes a final jab at the corporate world and, I suppose, factory farming. In any case, one of a handful of Soderbergh's best movies. Highly recommended.
The Final Girls (2015): written by M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller; directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson; starring Taissa Farmiga (Max Cartwright), Malin Akerman (Nancy/ Amanda Cartwright), Alexander Ludwig (Chris), Nina Dobrev (Vicki), Alia Shawkat (Gertie), Thomas Middleditch (Duncan), Adam Devine (Kurt), and Angela Trimbur (Tina):
Writer Joshua John Miller is the son of Jason Miller (Damien Karras in The Exorcist and playwright of That Championship Season) and the younger half-brother of actor Jason Patric. He wrote The Final Girls to help process his reaction to his father's death. Jason Miller was a troubled man whose most famous role would always be as Karras. Joshua John Miller maps this onto slasher films, which seems a bit odd, but OK.
The recently orphaned, teen-aged daughter (Taissa Farmiga) of a minor actress (Malin Akerman) best known for her role in a slasher movie called Camp Bloodbath gets pulled, along with several friends, into that same movie because of some vague supernatural shenanigans. Once there, they have to survive while also trying to figure out how to escape. And the daughter tries to reconnect by proxy with her mother through the character in the movie.
I suppose The Final Girls is about as enjoyable as a parody of slasher films can be when that parody is PG-rated. There's little gore and no nudity. There is a lot of metacommentary on horror movies in the tradition of the Scream franchise. And there is a dynamite cast, which helps keeps things moving even when the movie pauses for sentiment and soul-searching. Recommended.
