I’ve had this book on my wishlist for a couple of years now but only recently bought it on Google Books. This one is a collection of essays, all of which you can actually read for free on the Tor website as a series of blog posts by Jo Walton. The original idea of the column was that, as the subtitle states, she would re-read the classics of science fiction and fantasy and write about her thoughts on them. I found it more convenient to read a curated set of the best ones in the form of a book and it turns out that it’s not so much about the classics of the genre as some of Walton’s favorite books.
The synopsis of Green Room makes it sound like a generic splatter film, a genre that I have absolutely no interest in and would have passed over without a second thought. What makes this film deserve a second look is that it was directed by Jeremy Saulnier, who made waves a few years ago with the utterly fantastic and mostly Kickstarter-funded Blue Ruin. This one seems to have been made using a more conventional funding model, raising enough money to get Patrick Stewart onboard. It’s actually a bit odd too see such a famous actor slumming it up with all of the unknown ones, though those who have seen Blue Ruin will recognize Macon Blair here in a supporting role.
Farewell My Concubine is probably the single most famous film by its director Chen Kaige and one of the representative works of the so-called Fifth Generation movement of Chinese cinema. After watching Yellow Earth a few months back, it seemed natural to progress to this one as I’ve never seen it before. My wife claims to have watched it many times already but she was insistent that I gain more exposure to Chinese films.
This is once again a tiny game that was part of the Humble Narrative Bundle and that I would never have noticed otherwise. This isn’t really a game at all. It’s basically an attempt to tell a linear story using a bunch of unconventional elements. It’s told from the point of view of the game’s creator, Nina Freeman, and is apparently based on her real life. She’s a college student who feels insecure and seems prone to self-denigration. She likes playing video games and this story tells of how across a number of months spent in a fictional MMO called Valtameri, she falls in love with a boy she meets online.
This film needs no introduction. If nothing else, everyone knows about its famous orgasm scene. It also launched the career of Meg Ryan who would unfortunately then be forever typecast as the love interest in many similar rom-com movies. I’ve never watched it however as I was only thirteen years old when it was released and I suspect that most guys would watch it only if it were with a girlfriend. So when my wife wanted to add this to our list I was okay with watching it. After all, no one can deny the cultural influence it has had.
Michaelangelo Antonioni is apparently one of the great Italian directors and it’s on me that I have neither heard of him nor watched any of his films. This one regularly makes it onto lists of the world’s greatest films so it was an obvious choice to get to get to know this director. Unfortunately it was very wrong of me to expect something similar to Federico Fellini. While it isn’t difficult to tell what’s going on in this film, it is often impossible to figure the why of it or what to expect next. This made L’Avventura a very frustrating watch for me.
I bought this based on how much I’ve liked the previous games by Klei Entertainment and the good things I’ve read about it. I don’t think I’ve ever tried a turn-based stealth game either. Unfortunately it didn’t quite sink in for me that this is really a kind of rogue-like game and my personal gaming history has taught me that I simply don’t have the perseverance for this type of gaming experience. When I make gains in a game, I prefer to keep them instead of trying and failing over and over again. Invisible, Inc. really does play like that which is why I shelved it in short order.
