I try to read a diverse selection of science-fiction but one of the biggest holes in my reading are the works of Polish writer Stanislaw Lem. He is indisputably one of the greats of the genre and Andrei Tarkovsky’s adaptation of his Solaris is one of the greatest films of all time. I chose not to begin with that as it seems a little obvious and I have already watched two adaptations of the novel. The Invincible isn’t as well known but I have read about how it’s eerily prescient about some science-fiction tropes that would become commonplace only much later.
This wouldn’t be my first choice of a television series to watch but my wife mentioned it and it is intriguing to have a faithful adaptation of a novel be directed by Barry Jenkins. My concern was that a series like this would amount to little more than a testament to almost endless suffering. As it turned out, this series is mostly fantasy with little reference to real historical events. That allows it to throw in all kinds of ideas that can be interpreted as metaphors. But that also means it never feels quite real and the series is structured entirely as the main character Cora running from one situation to another with no end in sight, making watching it an unsatisfying experience to me.
Since it’s not likely that I will ever get to actually watch a live performance of this musical, I will have to be content with this recording of one such performance. In case you’re living under a rock, this is of course the musical biography of American founding father Alexander Hamilton, written and composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and starring himself as Hamilton. With a running length of two hours and forty minutes watching this is a serious commitment but it is worth it as this is truly a masterpiece that so perfectly encapsulates that piece of American history. It commemorates the deeds of the Founding Fathers, and serves as a surprisingly complete biography of Hamilton, but it also highlights their flaws and how they were, in the end, mere mortals.
Magnus von Horn is an up-and-coming Swedish director who studied in Poland which explains why he has made a Polish film about the life of a social media influencer. This is of course a very hip subject and it might be easy to imagine what direction such a film might take. Yet this film continually surprised me with its choices. I’m not sure that it’s all good and plenty of the problems experienced by the protagonist are unrelated to her being an influencer. But it is well made and intriguing and that’s enough to win von Horn plenty of fans among the critics.
This was a free game on Epic and these days I choose to not even accept them if I know I’ll never play a title. This one attracted me due to it being set in 14th century France and ostensibly being about the black plague. I also believed that it would be a narrative-heavy, relatively short game with light gameplay mechanics. As it turned out these impressions were all incorrect. Instead this is a full-on stealth game with significant combat mechanics, is fairly substantial in length and the plague is represented only as the endless horde of rats that is your primary antagonist. I was miffed for a long while for not getting the game I expected but honestly the game is solid enough that it eventually managed to win me around anyway.
This is a strong Hong Kong film that was the directorial debut of Norris Wong who also wrote the story. The title refers to a particular neighborhood in Hong Kong and the setting is one specific shopping mall there that specializes in weddings. The director apparently grew up right opposite the mall and is so often the case for good films, this immediate, personal connection lends it a powerful sense of authenticity, all the so as the director is herself a woman and can relate to the main character.
Video game movies have a terrible track record but they do seem to be getting better. This one has as video gamey a theme as you can imagine and it’s a surprisingly fun and effective action movie. I credit this to Ryan Reynolds’ enthusiasm for the project as this fits perfectly with the comedic persona he has cultivated. Of course this isn’t to be considered a serious science-fiction film as there is no consistency at all to the rules of the world and video game development definitely does not work like that. But the world has been begging for a video game movie like this for ages and this does deliver.
