Encounters with Selves The idea behind this is promising: troubled couples escaping their problems and focus on their partner by encountering themselves — other versions of themselves. There is some scientific hocus pocus enlisted to enable this, but that is just incidental. And I have to admit that the execution is good. Yes, the camera… Continue reading Coherence (2013)
Tag: 2010s
Films released in the 2010s
The GrandMaster (2013)
Uppercut I’ve been in training of a sort and unable to view serious movies, so it was difficult to arrange for this, and the anticipation built. Now I regret not having prepared better. Filmmaking for me is calligraphy on water. A filmmaker’s art can be in the shape of what is written. Nolan, for example… Continue reading The GrandMaster (2013)
Jodorowsy’s Dune (2013)
The Exuberant Eye I am glad the man is alive and still making films, though they don’t drive my soul the way some work does. I like that he is aware of parallel narratives, is visual and fearless. His notions of sex and oppression are decoupled from the physical, and that is remarkable. For my… Continue reading Jodorowsy’s Dune (2013)
Haywire (2011)
Needles I saw this years ago and could not find anything useful to say about it. I saw it again because I am trying to understand what Soderbergh is doing with his life. He worries me because I have invested part of my life to films he has made. I know him to be capable… Continue reading Haywire (2011)
Looper (2012)
Annoyingly Trustworthy Monkey Time is all we must encounter; all else is urges. Narrative is built on this simple principle, usually with time forcing the cadence and agents with fate embodying the urges. So when time enters the story as a citizen, we have the opportunity for seriously disruptive experiences. You have to judge these… Continue reading Looper (2012)
Inception (2010)
Insides of Emma (The Fall of Angels) When I watch a movie, all sorts of machinery kicks in. I am aware of only some of that, and can massage and train only a bit of it — of what I see of myself. This machinery is based on layers, folding, recursion. It is just how… Continue reading Inception (2010)
Ice Age 5: Collision Course (2016)
Acorny I cannot recall which of the previous I liked and why. It may have been the story that included the telling of a story. But that depends on coherence, and what have here are several sties or skits smeared into each other. There are the obligatory Scrat sequences that give some relief from the… Continue reading Ice Age 5: Collision Course (2016)
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Head Space I really disliked the first one. The world building, in retrospect, was very impressive, building on a number of strong cinematic conventions that were ripe for evolution. But all the backstory and parallel plots, all the character development was within a single testosterone paradigm. I thought it a one-note elaboration on something dumb.… Continue reading Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Pacific Rim (2013)
Water, Ink Yes, I do find this man more disappointing than your average action director. It isn’t that his movies are any dumber than others. They aren’t. It is a reverse prejudice based on two qualities. He has a powerful visual ability, in beings, environments and machines. It irks me to no end that he… Continue reading Pacific Rim (2013)
The Hunger Games (2012)
More Games, Less Hunger I am seeing this a second time with pre teenagers, close to the target market for the books I assume. I think for them, the film is serviceable and as they see the series the plot complications will be engaging. But it reminds me of a persistent challenge in film and… Continue reading The Hunger Games (2012)