Sundance's The Pink Cloud proves post-pandemic sci-fi will never be the same

The Pink Cloud.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock, Screenshot/YouTube)

You can't argue with Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2020: the obvious, accurate "pandemic." But when I think back on last year, the word that stands out is surreal. It's what "we reach for when reality threatens to overwhelm us," NPR wrote in a 2013 story about how the media describes mass shootings and other tragedies, going on to use the adjective in a sentence uttered by a hypothetical disaster witness: "It was surreal … like a scene in a movie."

So what happens when you reverse it, when a scene from a movie is as surreal as real life?

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.