Wandering aimlessly through the streets of Los Angeles seems, at the end of the day, like nothing more than a mundane struggle for existence. The massive billboards hanging over the city’s gray streets and the consumerist messages repeated like parrots are like an invisible web designed to numb the human mind. Directed by John Carpenter, this dark sci-fi and action nightmare explores social decay and the barrage of capitalism along an unconventional narrative arc. A pair of sunglasses found by chance by an ordinary worker transforms everything around him with razor-sharp clarity. The true faces behind the advertisements and the mind-control messages are revealed one by one. As the system seeks ways to silence those who have awakened to this reality, a sense of alienation and conspiracy theories slowly but overwhelmingly take over the entire city.

4 nominations total