Start the week with a film: In ‘Strange Days’, a dystopia that is already here

The dystopian film is unsettling – and prescient. Movies about societies on the brink of or in the throes of collapse examine scenarios that are ultimately not too far-fetched. The exaggerated production design, heightened stakes and sense of accelerated decline suggest worlds different from our own but very much within the realm of possibility.

Strange Days (1995) fits the label to the hilt. Kathryn Bigelow’s thriller repurposes the conventions of film noir to explore voyeurism, racism and the perils of unchecked technology.

The film is available on JioHotstar. Written by James Cameron and Jay Cocks, Strange Days unfolds in Los Angeles in the final two days of 1999. The city is mired in chaos. The streets are too dangerous to walk on. Armed men guard stores. Anti-police sentiment is high.

The disorder suits the black marketeer Lenny (Ralph Fiennes) just fine. Not for nothing is Lenny famous for saying, “One man’s mundane and desperate existence is another man’s Technicolor.”

Lenny deals in SQUID, a recording device that is worn like a crown of thorns and that clandestinely captures whatever the wearer is seeing. Since the device is connected directly to the cerebral cortex, it also replicates the physical and emotional sensations created by the footage.

SQUID buyers participate in gruesome, sexually explicit experiences...

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