The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise, 1971)

Where Soderbergh's Contagion goes global in its tale of a virus run amok, The Andromeda Strain (based on Michael Crichton's novel) focuses on one location for the majority of its running time. And yet, it's the far more stylish film. The severe reduction in setting elicits a corresponding orgy of late 1960s/early 1970s avant-pop aesthetics - 2001-inspired production design courtesy of Boris Levin, solarized special effects via Douglas Trumbull, creepy Wiseian deep focus, multiple split screens, and an electronic Gil Mellé score atonal enough to receive the Creel Pone treatment in 2006. 

After a rural New Mexico town is decimated in its near entirety, the U.S. military sequesters a four-scientist team in an Area 51-type bunker 16 hours below the ground to determine if an alien organism is the cause. We know precious little about the personal lives of each scientist. They're brought on board solely due to their expertise so Wise devotes most of the film to their professional activity (although Kate Reid's sardonic Dr. Ruth Leavitt bristles under the frequently sexist proceedings). This avoids the dreary character arcs and heteronormativity and anti-unionism of Contagion and affords a deeper concentration on the workings of the bunker. In fact, the story becomes so obsessively processual that details accrue less into a story than a skein of technological (and professional) oppression (and intoxication). A Siri-like voice constantly intones, more random and ambient than HAL ever was (Dr. Leavitt rolls her eyes when the voice refers to the team as "gentlemen"). Sleek, germfree hallways and automatic doors lead nowhere. And screens, so many screens. Screens to touch, screens to analyze, screens that absorb the frame. Somehow it feels very much a film of its time and yet strikingly up to date.
Grade: A-minus

I could have flooded this post with chic screenshots. So here's a juvenile one along with an example of Wise's creepy deep focus.

Side note: After watching this film, I fell down an obscure books hole and came across the 50 Watts blog and the astounding post about the psychedelic drawings in a 1972 textbook called Biology Today. And look who was a contributing consultant!