Most of the short, independent horror films we take a chance on turn out not so well but occasionally we do get something like this which makes it all worthwhile. This is the feature debut of its director Rose Glass and it works both as a horror film and as an aperçu into the mind of someone suffering from an all encompassing delusion. While there are plenty of seemingly supernatural phenomena, this film is unambiguous in showing that it is all in the mind of the main character but that actually adds to the horror.
This is a thriller that is highly regarded by some, but I really don’t know what to make of it. On the one hand, it’s such an 80s film, with its synth music, fashion styles, lazy tropes and all, that it’s hard to take seriously. Yet it takes such a cynical view of the police to the extent that I don’t think we’re supposed to be sympathetic to the main characters at all. Plus the plot takes some odd, unexpected tangents here and there. On balance I have to say that I was disappointed, as this was made by William Friedkin who established his reputation with The French Connection.
This is the first time we’ve watched a film by director Kaneto Shindo though if the quality of this one is any indication we should have done so much sooner. It seems that the director specifically wanted to make this as a film with no dialogue at all and indeed there isn’t any. The only spoken words in the film are songs and chants yet there is no difficulty in understanding this simple but emotionally resonant piece.
Ever since I made a more concerted effort to keep up with the winners of recent awards, I’d had mixed success. It’s probably because I prefer hard science-fiction above all and this preference doesn’t track very closely with the type of work that usually wins in awards ceremonies. This book won a lot of awards and was Ann Leckie’s debut novel to boot. It’s more space opera than science-fiction and I have some issues with how casually it treats the existence of AI. But it is a very strong novel that does make me want to read more about the universe it is set in.
There are an awful lot of documentaries about photographers but I believe that this one, even though it is supposedly about Pete Souza, really has Barack Obama and his presidency at its center. As Obama’s official White House photographer for both of his terms, Souza was basically present at every key moment. Yet after the end of Obama’s presidency, Souza was so angered by what he saw Trump doing that he used those photographs to essentially troll Trump and thereby became a celebrity in his own right. There are some bits about Souza himself in it but mainly this is about reminding everyone of the essential humanity and empathy that should be in the office of the US president but is wholly absent from Trump’s White House.
This is the second film we watched by the Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer and it is once again a masterpiece even as it extols a cause I dislike. It is tempting at first to view the subject of faith in this film with some ambiguity as even the characters who profess the strongest faith are mired in pointless bickering. But as the film builds in intensity, it leaves you in doubt whatsoever where it stands and overwhelms you with the sheer force of its message.
According to my Steam records, this is the game that I had left unplayed for the longest time. I loved the first Dirt Rally so much that I bought this sequel quite eagerly. But I also knew that I wouldn’t want to play on anything other than a real driving wheel and I kept putting off that expensive purchase. I did finally get around to buying one this year, choosing Thrustmaster’s T300 and after resolving some initial problems getting everything to work, the gaming experience has been everything I’d hoped it would be. I’ve now put in more hours into than I have into the first game and I still feel that I’ve only completed a fraction of the game and there is still so much room to learn and improve.
