This is of course the film whose real world inspiration was the Harvey Weinstein affair though none of that is mentioned within the film itself. In fact, the film delicately deals with the controversial subject matter by side-stepping the boss entirely so that he is never seen and the main character here is his assistant. This brilliant move ensures that the film doesn’t feel exploitative in the least and refocuses the issue on the complicity of the industry as a whole in his wrongdoings.
This is a lesser Alfred Hitchcock film that I added to my list originally because the director mentioned in various interviews that it is one of his favorites. I think this was probably because it is one of his earliest Hollywood films that was a great success and clearly establishes his signature style. Watching this now, it feels too straightforward to be truly great but there are perhaps some interesting insights to be had in its themes.
This is a Nigerian film that made headlines a couple of years ago and given the growing prominence of Nigerian cinema, it seemed appropriate to watch one of them. It has been lauded as a film about female empowerment but I think this applies more to real life more than the in-story events. Lead actress Genevieve Nnaji is also the director and main scriptwriter so it’s very much her show.
I haven’t been so diligent as to buy anything close to every edition of this annual anthology of the year’s best science-fiction stories but this has indeed been a semi-regular fixture of my life ever since I started reading fiction from way back during my school days. This particular edition however is the very last one as editor Gardner Dozois died in 2018. This truly marks the passing of an era for although he is not well known for his own writing, his editing work has been influential in the field for decades and as this volume illustrates, he does invaluable work in documenting what happens in the field of science-fiction every year.
This is one of those based on a real story films about events that took place in the early 2000s. In some ways, it’s a fairly straightforward recounting of the story and doesn’t boast of anything especially dazzling. But I rather appreciate how it is clear and informative with only very minimal embellishment of the facts. Also, the film highlights the role of student reporter Rebekah Rombom in breaking the story though her name is changed for the purpose of this film but doesn’t mention that its scriptwriter Mike Makowsky was also a student in the same school during that time.
My post about the previous Michelangelo Antonioni film we’ve watched, L’Avventurawas not very kind to it. That was probably because I didn’t really understand it. La Notte is considered the next film of a trilogy and for a while it seemed like it would be heading the same way. Then everything clicked together during the final scene and now that I have some time to process, the more I think about this film, the more I like it. This is usually a sure sign that the film is a true masterpiece.
A long time ago when I had a PSP, my two favorite games on it were Burnout Legends and some version of Monster Hunter. Unfortunately I was never able to get very far with the latter no matter how much I loved the concept as I found the controls very difficult on a handheld platform, particularly as there was no lock-on feature and you needed to manually control the camera while controlling your character at the same time. Anyway that’s why through the years I kept an eye on the series and of course I eventually bought it when an English version finally made its way to the PC.
