I'm Still Alive
As I said previously in another article I am in a very bad position financially. To the point that back when I wrote it I believed that I might actually be dead. Later I wrote an update that didn't work much as an update, because it was more a philosophical piece about how I want to get out my problems ( as in how do I justify trying to get out of my problems ). So I hope I will not diviate this time around from actually writing an update.
The Killer
I miss the times when you could see a David Fincher movie in the cinema. The last time he made a true cinema picture was almost 10 years ago in 2014. Since then he fully embraced the DRM filled streaming dis-service models. And his latest film The Killer is a straight to Netflix production. And it seems like he himself feels a bit off about it. Because if we take the character as a proxy for Fincher himself. This character is complex in how much he tries to justify himself being a terrible person.
Spy Kids Armageddon
I did not expect Spy Kids Armageddon to be any good. It is written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. A guy who doesn't care about quality that much. His view on film-making was shaped by his first filming experience in 1992 when he made El Mariachi. A movie so cheap that it was weird to a lot of people that it was an action film. Rodriguez has this idea that he can cheat his way into making anything at all. Using as he says "creativity instead of money". So most of his movies tend to look like the Star Wars prequels. A lot of pretty noticeable green screen. Tons of CGI where most other people would use practical props. And strange camera work which is probably more dictated by the limitations of his methods, and not by actual directorial decisions.
Is Agenda Bad For Discussion
The studio was full of people and the host was mentally preparing for the cameras to go live. The cameras started rolling which filled the room with tension. And the producers behind the cameras started counting the count-down. The host touched his tie in a nervous manner, to make sure that it sits nicely. The countdown went - "5 - 4 - 3 - ..." - from that point on, the producers counted only with their fingers, to avoid accidentally being heard counting on the broadcast itself. They showed 2, then 1 and then pointed to the host, which meant that it's the time to start.
Please Help Me Debunk This Theory
I know that philosophy is not a science. Because it is about what we cannot know, as some smart people out there say. But I've got here a philosophical theory which I want you to debunk. The theory is something I truly believe in, and therefor I'm biased towards it. So I suppose you could be better at debunking it, since you are not me.
Something Evil
Conceptually the film is very much like Stanley Kubrick's "The Shinning". It deals with a parent going slowly insane and becoming a threat to the children. Both movies suggest a possibility of a supernatural explanation of the insanity. But the movies are made in such a smart way where there is enough doubt in those supernatural occurrences that you can read it as psychological deterioration only. Which is a very interesting challenge to a filmmaker. And young Spielberg pulled it off.
Quarantine
It was the beginning of 2020. The model of Neonspeedster for Moria's Race was already done. I was sitting at home on the Quarantine. It was the beginning of the corona-virus mayhem. Everybody was locked at home. I was bored. And so I made a MIDI album.
Moria's Race
An adventure of a little girl ( Moria ) that is so obsessed with racing that she throws her caution out of a fast racing car's window.
Should Paternalism Be Illegal
Sheiny was in Mendel's house that day. She was looking at some random things on her computer. You know... Getting into a yet another rabbit-hole on Wikipedia. She clicked on a link to an article about Paternalism. And on the right side, beside the text of the article, there was a picture with a caption "Child on a leash". The picture is depicting a child with a rope tied to her torso, which is held by an elderly woman. This image infuriated Sheiny to such an extend that for the next few minutes she could not even talk. How dare they?
Challengers
I was skeptical of Luca Guadagnino's films like Call Me By Your Name until I saw them. It felt like Luca is making high brow dramas that are designed solely as tear-squeezers that appeal to contemporary politics. But then I saw his movies. From Call Me By Your Name to instant horror classics like Bones And All he proved time and time again that he is truly great. His movies are insanely visceral emotional roller-coasters that are not afraid to be sincere, while every other movie these days cannot take anything seriously. But then came a trailer of Luca Guadagnino making a movie about Tennis.
Nope
I was avoiding Nope for a few reasons. One of them was because people kept saying that it is very disturbing. It has a scene which I thought was to traumatize me. Now that I actually saw the film I can tell you that Jordan Peele, the director of Nope is not Lars Von Trier and therefor the scene is not actually that bad. To be quite frank, it seems like shooting that scene the way Lars Von Trier would have done it probably goes against the message of the movie.
Paying With Freedom
"Your honor..." - said the lawyer, standing in a court, which was being broadcast on a screen in the living-room of Mr. Hambleton's house - "...there is no denying that my client is guilty in the murders of all of those people that were mentioned in the case so far. The evidence provided by the police are undeniable. The jury would also agree that the fact that my client did commit all those murders are beyond reasonable doubt. And my client doesn't try to conceal this fact either. Right?" - the lawyer looked at the cage standing in the corner of the court room. There was sitting a man. He had chains all over him. Two policemen were guarding the cage itself. The man looked up, exchanged a stare of understanding with the lawyer and said - "I did commit those murders, sir."
Is Tolerance The Right Word
I do not know how to put it into words, therefor I'm trying to write this article, but it seems like the question of tolerance / intolerance is the wrong kind of question. And it seems like this poor choice of a word to describe a correct concept lead us into the divide that we are experiencing today.
The Boss Fight To Freedom
Chloe took it upon herself to edit the porn-film that they've shot, since Sheiny was busy writing the screenplay for the real movie. Chloe was not stupid. She knew how to edit. She knew what the final product should look like better than Sheiny did. And she assisted Sheiny with editing for some time. This should not have been a great challenge for her.
Julian Assange vs Josiah Mizukami
Imagine being locked up in prison for something that's legal. And not even merely legal. For something that is a human right. There is this very small human right, I don't know if you know about it, it's called the Freedom Of Speech. An ability to express your opinion without being persecuted for it. And it's more than essential. It's the cornerstone of things like Freedom in general. Sometimes though bad people that are trying to persecute you for this anyway - are smart. And they will look for any other way of shutting you up if this one is not available for them. Good example is Julian Assange. Not so good example could potentially be Josiah Mizukami.
Bones And All
It is very hard to describe the style of Luca Guadagnino, the director of Bones And All. His films are very good. But it seems like he is not interested in plot, which is weird, considering that the movies are good. He is famous for his erotic dramas, films centered around a sexual tension between people, like his perhaps most acclaimed movie Call Me By Your Name, in which all the substance comes from very subtle things. A character looks a certain way on another character. Or perhaps holds onto another character's hand for way too long. And you have to piece together all these little clues to even start feeling some kind of presence of a plot. Because if you don't pay attention it all looks like people just casually hanging out. And then suddenly a payoff happens, which would make sense only if you paid attention to the little clues.
RRR
A movie titled simply "RRR" is perhaps the greatest achievement in the entire Indian cinema landscape. You are probably familiar with the term "Bollywood". There is a misunderstanding in the world that Bollywood simply means Indian cinema. It's not necessarily true. Bollywood is Indian cinema from the center of India. And Bollywood movies all shot in the Hindi language. India has a dozen or so states and a dozen or so languages. Each state and even each little region of those states have different languages and dialects. RRR was made in the state called Andra Pradesh ( Telugu: ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ ) where people speak Telugu ( Telugu: తెలుగు ). And the movie is a part of Tollywood, not Bollywood. Though quite frankly, even that is not true, since the director of the film Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli ( Telugu: కోడూరి శ్రీశైల శ్రీ రాజమౌళి ) known as simply S. S. Rajamouli ( Telugu: ఎస్. ఎస్. రాజమౌళి ) treated this film as an all Indian movie, using actors from different states of India, and dubbing the film into multiple Indian languages. Making the film Indian in general, not simply Tollywood.
Subscription
Though unfortunately Subscriptions in software today are the norm, they are a malicious functionality. Any software that you already have installed should work whenever you want it to work. Having a timer implemented in it, so it will refuse to work, unless you pay every once in a while, is malicious.
Overworked And Underpaid
We all heard by now that the situation in Hollywood is not very good at the moment. A lot of Visual Effects artists are overworked and underpaid resulting in some atrocious CGI like in The Flash 2023. Studios even considering replacing those overworked and underpaid VFX artists with AI technology. Because it can make better images and complain less about its conditions at work.