A Vast Profitmaking Enterprise. The big division in films for me is whether it nourishes me or not. We build our lives from stories, lucidly if we are lucky. Films are the bath in which we rejuvenate — some films. All other film experiences are to be taken apart for profit, to tell me why… Continue reading Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Tag: f2015
Films released in 2015
Z is for Zachariah (2015)
M is for… Any film is a matter of how life is abstracted and that is especially so in science fiction. In this film, we have three primary abstractions. The world. As with many science fiction movies, they simply make the world go away, except for our three characters. We get the slightest of explanations,… Continue reading Z is for Zachariah (2015)
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
Han Shoots Last Movies can do a lot of different things for us, from giving us 90 minutes away from stress to providing a skeleton on which we build lives. The films that matter to me are these latter ones. Much of what we think of evil, nobility and love we gather from films to… Continue reading Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
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)
Female Fantasy (2015)
Mass Transit This short is just barely listed in IMDB, with no reviews or ratings. It has no dialogue. The ‘story’ is simple: a young woman sits next to a guy at a bus stop and has a fantasy about having sex with him. On the surface, what we see is her masturbating and fantasising,… Continue reading Female Fantasy (2015)
Terminator Genisys (2015)
Reincarnation What do you do if your strategy is copying old successes, and the copies don’t do as well as you like? This strategy of ‘rebooting’ is mainstream now. We accept it, so long as the new franchise shows promise. That means that some storylines can be refreshed and the tone of the thing can… Continue reading Terminator Genisys (2015)
Mifune The Last Samurai (2015)
Cut Vision is the strangest thing. If we see too much of something we believe it less. Stories are like this; the things that are left out can carry the agency more powerfully, and often the missing is referenced by the obvious. I like filmmakers that understand this. Scorsese is all about the lead actor.… Continue reading Mifune The Last Samurai (2015)
David Bull: The Great Wave (2015)
A Hello Now that I am free from posting on IMDB, I can watch films and study alternative film sources that matter. Movies emerged from a context. I understand that context in the West well enough for my purposes. The narrative devices I study are inherited from literary traditions, but I need to spend more… Continue reading David Bull: The Great Wave (2015)