Projections on the Wall-E I work in the broad area called AI. I also spent nearly a decade attached to the space station project (before it was international), and while my time was at Houston and with the engineering side, I know the kinds of folks shown here and their energies. This story is composed… Continue reading Goodnight Oppy (2022)
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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Some Dusty Pig The first Mad Max had a few strong attractions. It was overtly Australian in a few dimensions which hit a niche of the familiar exotic. It was pure science fiction in that it abstracted our world into a future where only the tiniest fragment of what we know was carried over and… Continue reading Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
The Sea Beast (2022)
Competent Navigation I am seeing many complaints about the ‘wokeness’ of elements of this. I suppose that is just how America is put together now. Some large number of vocal folks will find lucid history not to their liking. For me, I find the modern reworking of tropes from Moby Dick and Treasure Island refreshing.… Continue reading The Sea Beast (2022)
In The Night Garden (2007-2009)
Inception There seems to be quite a consensus that this doesn’t have any educational value. Such a stance presumes that kids need explicit teaching and preaching. Either you need to include an alphabet in your song like Sesame Street or have some obvious moral conclusion. How silly. Kids learn by what they see of how… Continue reading In The Night Garden (2007-2009)
King Richard (2021)
The Cosby Curse One of the effects of a rich society is the luxury of spending time watching sports, engaging with the intricacies of statistical pockets, and the supposed drama of its celebrities. Only film and its media feeders can similarly create such icons, so it is natural that the two overlap, with TeeVee as… Continue reading King Richard (2021)
Strange World (2022)
Ted’s Law Forget the story; despite the appealing message(s) this is not a decent way to spend time. But it does illustrate a principle I have noticed, which I believe applies universally in film projects and in most successful introspective AI projects. I modestly call this ‘Ted’s Law’. Here’s how it works in this case:… Continue reading Strange World (2022)
Death on the Nile (1978)
Faces and Places I recently rewatched this because of the Branagh version. We now have three: this Ustinov version, a later Suchet, and the recent Branagh. I see that my original comment — likely 20 years ago — was one of those deleted from IMDB by a fellow angry about unrelated remarks about proselytising christian… Continue reading Death on the Nile (1978)
Visual Acoustics (2008)
Speaking Space Here’s more about the challenge of architecture and cinema. It is not trivial, the problem of what spaces mean in films? What narrative role does it play? What vocabulary is relevant? This film is rather mundane in most ways. It is a biography of a fellow of influence. He’s quirky, but always in… Continue reading Visual Acoustics (2008)
A-Team (2010)
Architectural Plans I’m not going to denigrate what are usually called mindless summer movies, because I think there is something important here. Sure, the usual fears apply. Most people take the characters and world dynamics seriously. Yes, I know, but they would be doing that anyway. And young minds (say, younger than 30) are epigenetically… Continue reading A-Team (2010)
A Walk on the Moon (1999)
Nixon Wins This is a huge failure as a movie, but an interesting one in a way. At least for someone my age who lived through the period appropriated here. Here’s the basic challenge in showing a love story: how do you cinematically show the pulls on the heart? The usual solution is to fold… Continue reading A Walk on the Moon (1999)