I was never a particularly ardent fan of the original film, probably because I had first watched it when I was too young to really appreciate its themes. I admired its esthetics but the idea of bioengineered humans being slaves wasn’t novel enough to impress me. So going to the cinema to watch this sequel is less about Blade Runner and more about having confidence in director Denis Villeneuve due to his fantastic work on Arrival.
This is a novel originally published in 1982 so it’s another pick from Jo Walton’s What Makes This Book So Great. C.J. Cherryh is a well known name in science-fiction but I don’t believe I’ve ever read any book of hers before this. This novel is part of her Alliance-Union universe but I think it was a mistake to venture into it with this title. There’s very little exposition of the world in here and I believe I would have been better off starting with her best known novel Downbelow Station.
As you can easily notice on this blog, we’ve worked through so much of the most notable works of classical Hollywood that I’m beginning to run out. This one is considered one of classic film noirs but it’s not exactly at the top of the heap and I’m not sure that it’s good enough to be worth watching these days. Once again it stars Humphrey Bogart though here he isn’t yet another private investigator.
This marks the third film directed by Jiang Wen that we’ve watched so far. I believe that this actually constitutes most of his output as he is much more prolific as an actor than as a director. For the two previous films I’d watched, his style struck me as being very distinctive and unique for a Chinese director but I can’t say that I really liked them. This one is the exception. There’s still plenty here that I don’t understand but the experience of watching it is absolutely delightful.
True to its title, this is shortish film about a small scale conflict between two families and the children who get caught up in them. I’ve never seen anything by its director Ira Sachs before. His filmography isn’t very long but he seems to have been around for a while. There are at least a couple of recognizable performers in this low budget production but I’d bet most people would have a lot of trouble placing them.
Once again I find myself playing a game just when its sequel is coming out. It’s debatable whether or not this game was fully completed when development on it stopped due to some kind of dispute between the developer and the publisher. Since then they’ve patched things up and are now about to release the sequel but this version hasn’t been updated since. Anyway the tutorials are certainly insufficient and I found it impossible to understand what you’re supposed to do without referring to a fan-made guide online. But content-wise, I think this game is more than adequate and can provides many hours of gameplay provided you are patient enough.
This film is again obligatory watching due to its excellent reception from critics but it’s certainly puzzling to me how director Jim Jarmusch makes films that are each so different from one another. I’d found The Limits of Control to be almost incomprehensible and Only Lovers Left Alive to be a rather shallow comedy. I can’t say that I really cared much for either of them. Paterson on the other hand is easily one of my favorites of the year and is a pleasant, almost very light, watching experience.