SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Elio,” now playing in theaters. Disney Pixar’s latest animated feature, “Elio” centers on a young orphan boy who is desperate to be abducted by aliens.

Undisputed genre classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and Interstellar are surely among the most important sci-fi ...

For nearly five decades, Steven Spielberg has helped define what alien stories mean to movie audiences. Sometimes they arrive as cosmic miracles. Sometimes as existential threats. Sometimes as ...