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)
Tag: f2022
Films released in 2022
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)
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)
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Dimensions This comment is of a threeD viewing in a well appointed theatre. Quite apart from all else, this is the best blocking of a 3D film I have ever experienced. If you can, have this experience in a proper setting. We used to have to worry about the quality of the film stock so… Continue reading Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Elvis (2022)
Whole Lotta Shakin’ Baz reinvigorated film. It was a simple concept, and advanced by others long before: having the camera in the chaos. My first experience with this was “Red Shoes”, which though novel in its time isn’t even notable today. What Moulin Rouge did was merge the noir concept — which makes the viewer… Continue reading Elvis (2022)
Confess, Fletch (2022)
Padre For some reason, the noir detective — and the companion trope of sky — is easy to turn comedic. One of the tried and true techniques is the Nick Charles model of coolness, plus joke lines intended directly for the viewer not the on-screen companion. I cannot recall the earlier versions with Chase, and… Continue reading Confess, Fletch (2022)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
A Hidden Nation There seems no way to remark on this without anchoring it in what I believe is a new cinematic vocabulary. We all cheered when Gal Godot, in the first of that series, established a woman hero. But that character was spooky strange, literally born from a cartoonist’s sexual fetish, and designed on… Continue reading Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022)
Hideous Sun Demon I am not the intended target audience for this. That seems to be the kind of young folks that go to slasher films and that also like folded narrative and explicit twists at the end. But I am an engaged viewer in any film that experiments with a self-referential layer, even if… Continue reading Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022)
Enola Holmes 2 (2022)
Confidence Games Three things to like in this. The first is the obvious breaking of the fourth wall. Rather than be sly like Bruce Willis often was, this is in your face old school in-action narration. It is refreshing. Not so sure it will still work in a third film, though. The second is simply… Continue reading Enola Holmes 2 (2022)
See How They Run (2022)
More Layers The film itself is lovely, after the style of Anderson but with softer edges and more welcome split screens. The use of the splits is cinematically reflective of the story. That’s the real star here, though most folks focus on the comedic cops. So, what we have is a movie about a movie… Continue reading See How They Run (2022)