Last year, I mentioned how the popular Murderbot Diaries series seems to make for a fairly entertaining read but it would be too expensive to buy each novella one by one. Then I realized that the series is available for reading on Kindle Unlimited which is cheap to get so now I can finally get the whole story. This is the second of a total of four parts that I believe should round out what amounts to the first book if it were published in a more traditional format.
Most people who talk about this Icelandic film try to be vague on what it’s about, judging that its twist is too central to fully enjoying it. That makes it impossible to really delve into any discussion about it however so consider this a spoiler warning. Lamb is part horror film part folk tale and I love that the audience inevitably tries to imagine all kinds of outlandish explanations to explain what we see, yet the truth, such as it were, is straightforward and literal. This may not be scary per se but it is very disquieting to watch and that means it’s good.
With the recent announcement of the retirement of Serena Williams, it seemed like a good time to watch this. As per its title however it is really about the father of the Williams sisters, Richard, and the beginning of the career of Venus. Richard’s role as the parental figure who planned for and pushed them towards world-beating success is the focus. As far as I can tell, it does an excellent job at being reasonably fair and accurate about the double-edged nature of this kind of intense coaching since childhood. That marks this as a little different from the run-of-the-mill sports biographical film and perhaps worth watching even if you don’t care much for sports.
So finishing up the DLC content as I’ve mentioned earlier ended up not taking very long at all. By my count, the DLC content includes two full maps with their associated missions, two Sniper Assassin maps and four Special Assignments set on the existing maps. However as I omitted writing about the Sniper Assassin mode at all in my previous post, I’ll include the first map of the set here as well.
I don’t understand the social dynamics of the debutante balls that are at the center of this film but since neither does the protagonist, I suppose that is rather the point. My wife noted how this American film weirdly feels British and that makes sense too because they are in essence enacting a watered-down imitation of the social conventions of the British aristocracy. Anyway for these astute observations and an on-point characterization of these barely adults and their infatuations, I give this film full marks and thoroughly recommend it.
This is a tough film to evaluate. It’s simple enough to understand what is going on and even its themes are readily apparent yet you might still be left wondering what exactly filmmaker Edson Oda intends to convey in it. The problem is that the premise is so strange, so deliberately abstracted from everyday reality that it overshadows the relatively straightforward theme of appreciating life in all of its myriad aspects. In the end, I appreciate that such a film could be funded and made at all but even as a science-fiction fan I find it difficult to muster much enthusiasm for it.
I think this is the first film I’ve watched that is entirely in the Welsh language and of course being one in the horror genre, it mines related folk tales and superstitions for good effect. Unfortunately that is pretty all that this film has going for it as it is otherwise a fairly straightforward and standard horror setup. Some of the gory imagery may be alright but it’s too restricted in its scope and probably isn’t worth your time.
