Soylent Green

(1973, Dir.: Fleischer)

This one surprised me. I’ve never much cared for a lot of the sci fi twist-type films from this era (Planet of the Apes, Logan’s Run), but this one impressed me. The best thing it does is not trot out exposition in a ham-fisted way, so the world created (as absurd as it is, really) feels that much more real and involving, from the overcrowding to the “furniture.” Smartly directed and smartly acted, it only loses a little just by the end, in a climatic battle that was actually much less intense than the build-up. Along with The Wicker Man, this made 1973 a good year for odd films.