In general, science fiction movies tend to err on the weirder side of media, and that’s just a fact of their nature. But, there are some weird movies on Netflix that fit too nicely in the sci-fi genre, and Bigbug is at the forefront of those films. 

Bigbug was released fairly recently, in February 2022, and it’s garnered meek media attention. This French movie imagines a Jetsons-like future with a sinister twist: AI bent on human humiliation and destruction. 

Keep reading to get the full scoop on Bigbug, one of the weirdest movies on Netflix this year. 

Some Background

Bigbug was written, directed, and produced by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jeunet and released on Netflix in February 2022. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-sWlgFhUGo

Jean-Pierre Jeunet has developed a reputation as a science fiction writer and director. Over the course of his career, he’s imagined many futuristic worlds, some bleak, some optimistic. His first feature film, Delicatessen (1991) takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where famine has ravaged much of the population. His characters live above a delicatessen, and are picked off by the butcher who runs the shop, eventually turned into meaty treats. 

Jean-Pierre Jeunet was even the director or Alien Resurrection, and his film Amélie was nominated for a few Academy Awards. 

Suffice to say that he’s a pretty established guy, and Bigbug is his first feature film to come out in the past 10 years. 

Bigbug stars Isabelle Nanty, Elsa Zylberstein, Claude Perron, Stéphane De Groodt, and Youssef Hajdi, among others. The film received lackluster reviews, including a 5.7/10 on Rotten Tomatoes and an even lower score on Metacritic. 

Despite this, I found the film to be profoundly interesting, both visually and narratively, as well as quite odd. Here’s a brief summary of the plot:

Bigbug Summary

Alice, a suburban mother and artist, lives in a smart home that’s equipped with multiple different robots, some of which are designed for cleaning, others act as maids. When the film starts, we see Alice flirting with Max, a man who pretends to take interest in her artistic endeavors and her bookish nature.

As the story continues, many other characters come into the house, including the neighbor, Alice’s ex-husband and his girlfriend, and Alice’s daughter, Nina. Once all the characters are inside the house, the systems AI, Nestor, locks the doors, citing code C4 because the outside danger level surpassed acceptable limits. 

On the news, the characters see a terrible traffic jam, due to automated car malfunctions. And frequently, the television will play the show Homo Ridiculous, which features humans in humiliating situations for the Yonyx clones. The Yonyx are a group of intelligent, violent, AI clones that despise humans. 

Most of the movie revolves around the characters trying to get out of the house, while the robots working to please their human counterparts by searching for what it means to be human. 

Eventually, things come to a head when the Yonyx show up, but I won’t ruin the ending for you!

What’s So Weird About Bigbug?

Bigbug has a bit of a weird feeling to it for a few reasons. First, it was originally in French, but I watched the English dub on Netflix. The voices and the lips of the characters didn’t match up, which made the whole thing rather trippy, especially since there is supposed to be a big contrast between the robots and AI and the humans. But with the dub, it makes everyone feel a bit like a glitching robot. 

Another element of the film that was confusing–and somewhat uncomfortable at times–was the sexual overtones. Pretty much all the of the characters, aside from one or two, were driven by sexual urges, and often ended up being sexually frustrated. Alice and Max spend most of the movie skirting around other characters trying to have sex, while Nina and Max’s son, Leo, have a similar relationship. 

Even the robots get oddly sexual. Monique, the maid-AI, follows around Max trying to be seductive like Alice, and the whole thing just comes off as cringy. 

I think that the sexual nature of the film helps to portray the humans as driven by instinct, which gives them an animalistic feeling. When contrasted with the Yonyx, who are hard, smart, and cold, the humans just feel kind of lame and useless without their technology. 

And that hunts at one of the larger themes of the film, which is whether or not humans are important in a world where robots and AI are ten times smarter, faster, and more efficient than humans. 

It’s a common theme in science fiction, dating all the way back to the 1920s and even something that we are seeing unfold before our very eyes, with things like Google’s AI and Blake Lemoine’s leaked interview. 

The key takeaway from Bigbug is veiled behind flashy suburbanite futurisms and sexual desire. Its message is simply that humans are lucky. Despite their flaws and their antics, their technologies eventually get too smart for their own good. Some might even say that our saving grace is that we’re simple creatures! And being simple isn’t always a bad thing. 

So despite being just a weird movie on Netflix, Bigbug shows us that the more complex we become, the more problems we encounter. What’s wrong with reading books, practicing calligraphy, and drinking vodka shots? Seems like a good way to pass the time to me. 

If you liked this movie review, check out some of our other reviews:

The near future is filled with the typical Marvel movies and old sci-fi remakes, but are there any new, inventive sci fi movies on the horizon?

There are, in fact, a few upcoming sci fi movies that might be worth watching. Here are 5 that we thought were neat:

Don’t Worry Darling – September 23^rd

It’s the 1950s, and a group of scientists are working on a secret “Victory Project” deep in the desert. No one really knows what the Victory Project is, and as the wives of the community start to unravel the mystery, it becomes clear there’s far more going on at the Victory headquarters.

This film was directed by Olivia Wilde, and stars Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, and Chris Pine.

From the trailer, we see a lot of intense moments, all set an idyllic 1950s town with classic cars, muted lighting, and sensible fashion. It looks to be a visually stunning film as well as a psychological thriller.

Cryo – June 24^th

This one seems like some sci-fi films we’ve seen in the past, and I’m always wary of stories—books or movies—that start with characters waking up from sleep, be it a coma, cryosleep, or just a nap.

But Cryo looks interesting because it’s more horror than science fiction. Five scientists wake up out of their cryopods and explore a creepy bunker. None of them know how they got there, but they start to realize that the key to what happened is hidden in their memories. It’s a slow-burner, it seems like, with the plot driven on by a murderer who’s preying on the newly-awakened scientists.

This film was written by Barrett Burgin and Mason D. Davis, and stars Michael Flynn, Jyllian Petrie, Emily Marie Palmer, Morgan Gunter, and Curt Doussett.

Prey – August 5th

On first glance, this film seems like an original idea. The year is 1719, and a young Comanche Native American girl discovers a mysterious predator in the woods, and brings her tribe together to fend it off.

But, come to realize this is a movie in the Predator franchise, and that mysterious hunter is—yup, you guessed it—Predator.

I’m on edge about this one, especially since all the characters who are Native Americans are speaking English. At this time period? They’d be speaking their native language.

But, who knows, it looks like it is suspenseful and interesting, at least. This film is coming to Hulu instead of to theaters.

Nope – July 22^nd

This movie from the genius Jordan Peele, and it looks awesome. From the trailers we’ve seen so far, it looks like a weird, western, horror film with touches of unexplainable alien activity.

The film follows two black horse ranchers who specialize in training horses for Hollywood films. But one night, all the power goes out and strange lights appear on the horizon, spooking all the horses. Madness ensues. It begs the question “What’s a bad miracle?”

This film stars Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Steven Yuan.

Distant – September 16^th

There’s no trailer for Distant yet, but we do know the rough premise. The movie follows an asteroid miner that gets trapped on a distant planet and has to find his fellow miner before her runs out of oxygen and supplies.

The film is part sci fi, part horror, with the main characters squaring off against terrifying creatures and a ticking clock.

The film stars Anthony Ramos and was written by Josh Gordon and Will Speck.

IF you liked this post, consider checking out some of our other content. Here’s a list of all the upcoming sci fi books you’re going to want to read this summer:

Every once in a while, you come across that one movie that really stick out, whether it’s a super unique concept or just an off-the-wall sort of film.

I recently found a sci fi movie on Amazon Prime that presents itself as a documentary, when it’s actually a sci fi concept film. The History of Time Travel is filmed like a classic documentary but it’s anything but that, and it’s certainly not a Doctor Who film, either.

Here’s a complete review of The History of Time Travel.

Some History

The History of Time Travel was an Austin Film Festival movie in 2014, but it had been in various stages of production since 2010.

The writer and director, Rick Kennedy, has worked on a few other films, most of which you’ve probably never heard of. A Year from Now is a Christmas Carol meets Groundhog Day film, and his first film, The Line, is about a prisoner escaping from Nazi Germany.

Of his work, The History of Time Travel stands out as a unique entity, mainly because the idea of filming an obviously fictional story as a documentary is particularly boggling.

In an interview with the Austin Film Festival, Kennedy says that some people “might enjoy the sci-fi elements more, or find the alternate histories interesting, or appreciate the humor and the absurdity of the whole thing,” and I certainly think he’s hit the nail on the head there.

The Premise

So, as you’ve probably guessed, The History of Time Travel is a fake documentary. It employs the classic documentary narrator to make ominous comments, and all of the “experts” and first-hand accounts seem to be on the same page about the story.

And the story revolves around Edward Page and his family. Page was an MIT graduate in the late 1930s and later became a researcher for the Indiana Project, a clandestine project funded by the Pentagon to create time travel.

The Indiana Project and the Manhattan Project ran parallel for many years, but after WWII ended with the atomic bomb, the Pentagon began to cut funding to time travel research.

At some point, someone designs a portable time machine. And I say someone because as the film goes on, it becomes unclear who invented the machine. Originally, it was Edward’s son, Richard, but as Richard goes back in time to fix his family, the timelines start to get jumbled.

Just know that there is a time machine, and it does work, and you’ll know. The history gradually starts to change as the film goes on. Even though Richard only intended to change one or two aspects of the world when he went back in time, he ended up changing the whole trajectory of American history.

Nixon is assassinated in Dallas instead of JFK, Russians land on the moon first—the list goes on.

Eventually, we reach a point where the rabid flurry of timelines convene, and the world returns to normal. Not to the normal of the first half of the film, but to our normal. The History of Time Travel becomes The Theory of Time Travel, and it’s on the Science Fiction Channel instead of the History Channel.

The Verdict

At first, the scripted nature of the movie made it feel very stiff and unrealistic. Sure, they had the conventions of a documentary, but everything seemed to line up too easily, and that’s how you knew it was scripted.

The experts—which included a sci fi author, a philosopher, and a few time-travel physicists and historians—all had a similar way of storytelling, which made it evident they were reading a script. Instead of acting as individual characters, they were simply voice actors reading lines.

They spent a lot of time in the first minutes of the movie discussing the family life of Edward Page, in pretty vivid detail. I didn’t quite understand why until the movie started to branch off into different timelines, and we literally saw our history change before our eyes.

I think that the film is bold and interesting. It takes the medium of the documentary and turns it into a sci-fi concept film, and that’s something I would have never paired together. It gives me the vibe of the Ancient Aliens TV show and other similar conspiracy-theory documentaries, but with a more creative flair.

The History of Time Travel had a fairly small budget, but the production value was pretty good. There were a few points where I giggled at the poorly Photoshopped “evidence”, but I think that only contributed to the humor.

Overall, I’d give the film a 7/10. It had an original concept, and even though it stumbled through the first twenty minutes, it ended with a potent question about time travel: “Would we even notice if it happened?”

Is it the best sci fi movie on Amazon Prime right now? Not by a long shot, but it’s certainly worth watching if you’re tired of all the lasers, spaceships, and aliens that populate mainstream sci fi film.

In my free time, I enjoy scouring streaming services in an attempt to find great sci fi movies. I found Prospect on Netflix earlier this year, which was a good space westernish sci fi film.

But after that, I went on the hunt again, this time turning to Amazon Prime Video. Prime Video is home to a lot of interesting speculative fiction movies and shows, including the upcoming Wheel of Time series.

In my search for the best sci fi on Amazon Prime, I found The Mandela Effect, a 2019 film that saw limited release in theaters.

The Details

The Mandela Effect was first showed at the Other Worlds Film Festival in the later half of 2019, and then it moved onto various streaming services, including Amazon Prime.

The film was written and directed by David Guy Levy, whose other work includes the horror film Would You Rather and the 2011 film, A Love Affair Of Sorts.

The Mandela Effect stars Charlie Hofheimer, Aleksa Palladino, and Robin Lord Taylor. Despite high hopes for the film, it received harsh reviews from critics, scoring a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Premise

The story follows a game developer, Brendan, as he and his wife grieve the loss of their young daughter, Sam. After Sam’s unfortunate passing, Brendan starts to notice irregularities in his day to day.

He clearly remembers a children’s book series as The Berenstein Bears, but later finds out it’s actually called The Berenstain Bears. A series of other events lead him to begin researching the Mandela Effect, a theory about clear memories of things that never happened. The effect is so named because people vividly remember South African president Nelson Mandela’s death in the 1980s, but in reality, he died in 2013.

Brendan continues to explore the world of alternate realities and parallel universe in hopes of bringing back his daughter, but when he begins to tamper with reality, the world starts to change around him.

Even though this film received scathing reviews, I think it’s underappreciated, and arguably one of the top sci fi movies on Amazon Prime, and here’s why:

Signals Sci Fi Movie Review

The Mandela Effect takes a well-known theory and runs with it. The examples provided in the film of the effect are real-life examples, and it really got me thinking about our reality.

But the film does more than just raise questions. It sparks emotion.

Watching Brendan obsess over the idea of alternate realities and life as a simulation, all the while grieving for his daughter, instilled in me a keen sense of sympathy for him.

The pain he felt after Sam’s death was palpable, and the tension throughout the rest of the film as he teeters on the brink of sanity made it hard to step away from.

What started as a seemingly normal film gradually built into a deeply unsettling sci fi horror flick that had me thinking long after the credits rolled.

That’s what good films do for me, especially the best sci fi movies. They make you wildly uncertain of your spot in the universe, and they spark new ideas to help you think outside the box. In this instance, outside the simulation.

The Verdict

I do think the film stumbled over itself a bit when it came to the scientific aspects. I’m neither a game designer nor a quantum physicist, but I could tell some of the technical stuff was watered down for the audience.

The movie does play into the trope of the hacker man, where he’s holed up in his basement surrounded by screens that run with code. These types of scenes always irk me a little, and compared to the fleshed out technical jargon of, say, Mr. Robot, The Mandela Effect’s computer science falls short.

However, visually the film was well-refined. Scenes contrast from dark to light to dark again, which reaches a neat, critical point near the end. The musical choices varied, but overall, nothing felt out of place, and it added to the horror aspects.

Overall, the film was a good watch, and certainly a high point for David Guy Levy’s career.

While The Mandela Effect isn’t the best sci fi movie on Amazon Prime, it is certainly one of the best.

I give it an 8.5 out of 10.