1137 – Psycho Beach Party (2000)

timespace coordinates: 1962 Malibu Beach, California

Psycho Beach Party is a 2000 comedy horror film based on the off-Broadway play of the same name, directed by Robert Lee King. Charles Busch wrote both the original play and the screenplay. As the title suggests, Psycho Beach Party, set in 1962 Malibu Beach, is a parody of 1950s psychodramas, 1960s beach movies and 1980s slasher films.

Florence Forrest (Lauren Ambrose) is a Gidget-like character determined to learn to surf, and earns the nickname “Chicklet” from the surfer guys. However Chicklet begins displaying multiple personalities, experiences inexplicable blackouts, and fears that she might be the one responsible for a series of mysterious murders in her beachside town. The deaths are investigated by Captain Monica Stark (Charles Busch), who also suspects Chicklet’s mother (Beth Broderick), Chicklet’s best friend Berdine (Danni Wheeler), surfing guru the Great Kanaka (Thomas Gibson) and B-movie actress Bettina Barnes (Kimberley Davies). (wiki)

imdb   /   censorship

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Los Straitjackets – Tempest (Psycho Beach Party)

1135 – Us (2019)

timespace coordinates: 1986 – 2019 Santa Cruz, California

Us is a 2019 American psychological horror thriller film written and directed by Jordan Peele, starring  Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker. The film follows a family who are confronted by murderous doppelgangers known as “the Tethered”.

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themes and interpretations

Critic Jim Vejvoda related the Tethered to “urban legends” and “xenophobic paranoia about the Other”, (…) Journalist Noel Ransome viewed the film as being about “the effects of classism and marginalization”, writing “the Tethered are effigies of this same situational classism. They’re trapped—mentally and physically—and ignored”. Joel Meares of Rotten Tomatoes also noted that the Tethered, referencing the “we’re Americans” line, are representatives of the duality of American society, how some citizens can afford to live on top of the class system, while others are stuck in illiterate poverty. He also noted the title Us could mean “U.S.”, or United States.

The Tethered’s red jump suits and single glove were an allusion to Michael Jackson along with the “Thriller” shirt seen on young Adelaide, and Peele has stated that Jackson was “the patron saint of duality”. Peele referenced many other instances of 1980s culture, including allusions to The Lost Boys and Hands Across America, stating “Everything in this movie was deliberate, that is one thing I can guarantee you. Unless you didn’t like something and that was a complete accident”.

The film contains numerous references to Jeremiah 11:11, which reads: “Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them'” (NIV). Critic Rosie Fletcher commented on the context, with Jeremiah warning Jerusalem was facing destruction due to false idols, and expressed the opinion that the film’s characters also “worshiped the wrong things”…  (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

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LUNIZ — I GOT 5 ON IT

1134 – Mr. Nobody (2009)

timespace coordinates: 2092 > 1983, 1989, 2008, England / Canada

Mr. Nobody is a 2009 science fiction drama film written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael and starring Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh Dan Pham, Rhys Ifans, Natasha Little, Toby Regbo and Juno Temple. The film tells the life story of Nemo Nobody, a 118-year-old man who is the last mortal on Earth after the human race has achieved quasi-immortality. Nemo, memory fading, refers to his three main loves and to his parents’ divorce and subsequent hardships endured at three critical junctions in his life: at age nine, fifteen, and thirty-four. Alternate life paths branching out from each of those critical junctions are examined. The speculative narrative often changes course with the flick of a different possible decision at each of those ages. The film uses nonlinear narrative and the multiverse hypothesis style.

The film was mostly funded through European financiers and was released in Belgium on 13 January 2010. Since its original release, Mr. Nobody has become a cult film, noted for its philosophy and cinematography, personal characters and Pierre Van Dormael‘s soundtrack. (wiki)

imdb

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themes   /   chaos theory, string theory, butterfly effect   /   Eternalism (philosophy of time)   /  Big Crunch

1133 – Storm Boy (2019)

timespace coordinates: 1959 < 2017,  Coorong and Adelaide, South Australia

Storm Boy is an Australian drama family film based on the novella by Colin Thiele of the same name. The adaptation was directed by Shawn Seet and stars Geoffrey Rush and Jai Courtney. Thiele’s novel was previously adapted in 1976. (wiki)

imdb

1132 – Upstream Color (2013)

“I love to be alone. / The sun is but a morning star. / The wildest sound ever
heard makes the woods ring far / and wide. / Faint tinkling sounds borne to my ear. / Their roots reaching quite under the house. / Fearing that they
would be light-headed. / For want of food and also sleep. / Prevailing blue mixed with yellow of the sand. / Sunshine is the color of the water. / I used to wonder at the halo /
of light around my shadow / And fancied myself one of the elect.”

Upstream Color is a 2013 American experimental science fiction film written, directed, produced, edited, composed, designed, cast by and starring Shane Carruth. The film is the second feature directed by Carruth, best known for his 2004 debut Primer. Upstream Color stars Amy Seimetz, Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, and Thiago Martins.

Upstream Color is about two people whose behaviors are affected by a complex parasite—without knowing it—that has a three-stage life cycle in which it passes from humans to pigs to orchids. (wiki)

themes   /   Walden   /   imdb

original soundtrack

1131 – Game Night (2018)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s Atlanta

Game Night is a 2018 American black comedy thriller film directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein and written by Mark Perez. It stars Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, and follows a group of friends whose game night turns into a real-life mystery after one of them is kidnapped by apparent burglars. The film’s supporting cast includes Billy Magnussen, Sharon Horgan, Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury, Jesse Plemons, Michael C. Hall, and Kyle Chandler. (wiki)

imdb   /   rt

1130

Cold Pursuit (2019)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s  Colorado ski resort of Kehoe

Cold Pursuit (imdb) is a 2019 American black comedy action film directed by Hans Petter Moland (in his Hollywood debut) from a screenplay by Frank Baldwin. The film stars Liam Neeson, Laura Dern, Emmy Rossum, William Forsythe, and Tom Bateman. It is a remake of the 2014 Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance (Kraftidioten), also directed by Moland, and follows a snowplow driver who sets out for revenge on a local drug lord following the murder of his son. (wiki)

Kraftidioten (2014)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s Tyos, Norway

In Order of Disappearance (imdb) (Norwegian: Kraftidioten) is a 2014 Norwegian black comedy action film directed by Hans Petter Moland and starring Stellan Skarsgård.

The Battle of Kosovo (1389) was a battle between the combined army of Serbians and Bosnians against invading Turks of the Ottoman Empire. Both armies suffered heavy casualties, both being basically annihilated. The eventual outcome was the annexation of the Serbian provinces by the Ottomans. The Battle of Kosovo is significant in Serbian history and integral to Serbian national identity.

The symbol shown after Greve’s death is Humanist.