Garth Davis’s Foe is absolute chaos. Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan star as Junior and Hen – a married couple who rock white t-shirts like nobody’s business while going about their humdrum lives in the Middle of Nowhere, USA. One night, the two are startled by a loud knock at the door. It’s a man with piercing eyes named Terrance (Aaron Pierre), who tells the couple he works with the government.

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The world is in trouble, he explains. Humans have messed up the planet beyond repair. But there’s hope to be found in a new program in which people are chosen to spend two years in space, all in preparation to colonize space stations once Earth is no longer inhabitable. Junior is offered a position in this special secret program. Terrance highly insinuates that it is not an invitation Junior is allowed to turn down.

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The couple is given about a year until, they are told, Junior will be whisked away on his mission. During that year the couple’s relationship goes through some wild ups and downs. We are treated to a Jack Torrance-esque emotional breakdown from Junior – one in which Mescal’s intense emotion feels as if it’s grabbing you by the throat and suffocating you through the screen. Both Mescal and Ronan are fierce, fearless, and intoxicating. Yes, the plot is unnecessarily convoluted, but I was unable to look away from the pair’s raw emotion. 

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Just when you think things can’t get any crazier, the film offers up a third act twist that is nothing short of jaw-dropping. I was thinking about Foe for days after I watched it, and the overarching themes of AI and climate change it explores. Is it a mess? Yes. Did I love it? Also, yes. Leave any expectation of realism at the door and buckle up for an insanely entertaining sci fi.