Why You Should be Excited About Hiro Murai’s ‘Man Alive’

The ‘Atlanta’ director is making an original sci-fi film with the creators of ‘It Follows’ and ‘Legion.’

It’s no secret that Hiro Murai is having a great year. In addition to directing standout episodes of Atlanta and Barry, he also helmed the music video for Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” Quickly becoming one of the biggest online talking points, the video is a visual feast of provocative imagery.

Murai’s flair for visual storytelling and ability to warp the viewer’s sense of reality are all over that sequence. And just thinking about how he’ll handle the struggle to survive an alien invasion makes us very excited.

That surrealism also goes hand in hand with his mastery of the ‘gut punch,’ something that should absolutely carry over to his first feature. You needn’t look further than Atlanta‘s pilot, “The Big Bang”, for evidence of this. The episode opens with a startling shooting and later sees Donald Glover’s Earn interacting with a bizarre Nutella-sandwich-eating stranger on the bus.

And throughout the rest of the series, Murai has continued to demonstrate why he’s a perfect fit for what’s been best described as Glover’s “Twin Peaks with rappers.”

Mitchell on re-write duties is also cause for anticipation, after the way he played on fears about sexuality in It Follows. Additionally, early reviews of his upcoming follow-up Under the Silver Lake (including our own) indicate that his knack for the disturbing isn’t going anywhere. If that sense of dread is brought to Man Alive‘s script, we could be in for something very special here.

Recent years have seen a significant rise in quality sci-fi, both in film and television. Filmmakers such as Alex Garland and Jeff Nichols have offered up original ideas, putting the genre in an exciting place. New perspectives on the world around us have also come from adaptations of books and contemporary updates of older films. Despite low box office numbers, films like Annihilation and Blade Runner 2049 have been eaten up by sci-fi fans.

The promise of television’s boldest voices, including Murai and Hawley, bringing original sci-fi to the big screen is worth celebrating. Especially when entire films fail to pack the same punch as the “This Is America” video’s opening gunshot. We’re looking at a filmmaker who’s only scratched the surface of his cinematic potential here. One with a fresh and unique vision to bring to viewers.

Whether you’ve been following him for years or you had your first taste from the unforgettable Childish Gambino video, Hiro Murai’s first film is one to look out for.

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