Alex Garland is one of my guys. Both his solo writing and writing/directing efforts have been some of my favorite movies of their respective release years.
Marked the movies he directed in Black, that he only wrote in Orange, and that were made based off a book he wrote in Blue. Also I never watched “The Tesseract” and I don’t have any plans too, so that will be one missing from this list.
Letterboxd list: Alex Garland Filmography Ranking
10.
The Beach (2000)
Maybe the book is good, I never read it, but the movie unfortunately just isn’t my favorite (Despite some fun performances and song choices).
8.
Men (2022)
Classic in the “Hearing it was bad only to finally watch and like way more than others seem to” list.
7.
Never Let Me Go (2010)
Reminds me a lot of the book in that it sort of just slowly dread-vibes along with everyone marching towards their predetermined fate while I read/watch wanting to yell at them to all run away.
6.
Ex Machina (2015)
The most in need of a rewatch for me. I loved it back in 2016, but aside from the dancing, hallway, and end a lot of it has faded from my memory. Could easily shoot up near the top with a second watch.
5.
Civil War (2024)
The most recent release and watch. Not sure what to say about it, but I’ve been thinking about it since getting out of the theater.
Definitely going to watch a second time.
4.
28 Days Later (2002)
I couldn’t believe how low quality the picture was when rewatching recently. I thought I had some sort of corrupted video. I remember so many of the scenes so vividly from watching 20 years previous. The animal testing site, empty London, the army asshole house, and especially the blood drop eyeball scene. It was like HD in my memory.
That just speaks to how well 28 Days Later got under my skin. The low quality made it almost more real. Still loved it upon rewatch.
3.
Devs (2020)
I watched this during the height of the pandemic so this rating can’t be completely trusted. But also I remember thinking it was damned good and there’s really nothing more I could have asked for at that time.
Also the cast was amazing then and has only gotten more so as the years pass.
2.
Annihilation (2018)
Maybe the largest jump up from book to movie I have ever experienced. I heard the books were a great creepy vibe, but I only found them boring.
The movie on the other hand gets unsettling vibes immediately, first shot, and doesn’t let up until the very end.
Such a step up its a god damned cliff.
1.
Sunshine (2007)
One of my favorite movies.
Some of the best actors, with a great script and score, by a director at his peak.
I know people have complaints about the last act and to those people I say nothing because I care of their opinion not.
