Sci-fi director Neill Blomkamp has a tortured filmography: a smart, trenchant mockumentary in District 9; a tense, ugly blockbuster in Elysium; and whatever the fuck Chappie was. While his production design and ideas always seem to signal a major talent, the final product has varied wildly. That’s part of why his aborted Halo film and in-limbo Alien sequel remain so alluring in fan’s minds: One can imagine the heights those films might achieve without ever having to sit down and, you know, watch them.
So you can mark these two seconds-long films, posted to Instagram yesterday and today, as Blomkamp at his best. The first depicts Trump’s motorcade rounding the corner on its way in to Washington:
The second features Blomkamp’s cartoonish reimagining of Air Force One:
Both are spot-on edits, featuring the sort of carefully attuned digital effects and weathered, realistic design concepts that all of Blomkamp’s films do. It’s a cliché at this point to note that the best sci-fi holds up a mirror to our society, but that’s exactly what Blomkamp’s done here. His dedication to realism and vérité only draws the garish pomposity of Trumpism into greater clarity. Here’s hoping for much more.