Vesper

In the world of film, most visions of the future look like inferior copies of "Blade Runner," "Mad Max," or a "Star Wars" ripoff. So it's pretty rare to get a bold new vision of the future; "Vesper" is pretty unique. What's it all about? It follows the story of Vesper (Raffiella Chapman) who lives in the wastelands outside of the wealthy citadel (where all the rich people live) with her bedridden father. She forages in the mud for edible roots and eats grub-slime soup. The world of "Vesper" is one which is dirty, wet, organic, and dismal. Vesper's world is a place where genetic engineering has run amuck; the closest film I've seen to something similar is Alex Garland's "Annihilation." Vesper communicates with her father with a flying google-home like device which kind of looks like an old apple computer with the guts of a pumpkin if you peek inside. Her father is like a droid sidekick as she sneaks about stealing seeds from her uncle (Eddie Marsan - he is a great character actor) in hopes of growing food. A ship from the citadel has crashed bringing with it a genetic designer and his daughter who seems to have a strange power to heal. "Vesper" has the organic sliminess of a Cronenberg film without being overly grotesque but it's just as smart. Catch one of the most original science fiction films to come out in decades, now on streaming services.