0344 – Monsters (2010)

Monsters (IMDB) is a 2010 British science fiction monster film written and directed by Gareth Edwards in his feature film directorial debut. Edwards also served as the cinematographer, production designer, and visual effects artist. Monsters takes place years after a NASA probe crash in Mexico which led to the sudden appearance of giant tentacled monsters. It follows Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy), an American photojournalist tasked with escorting his employer’s daughter Samantha Wynden (Whitney Able) back to the US by crossing through Mexico’s “Infected Zone” where the creatures reside.

 Monsters: Dark Continent, a sequel, was released in the UK on 1 May 2015.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935302/

0341 – Coherence (2013)

Coherence is an American science fiction thriller film directed by James Ward Byrkit in his directorial debut.

Byrkit came up with the idea for Coherence after deciding that he wanted to test the idea of shooting a film “without a crew and without a script”. He chose to shoot in his own home and developed the film’s science fiction aspect out of necessity, as he wanted to “make a living room feel bigger than just a living room”. While Byrkit did have a specific idea for how the film would unfold, he selected improvisational actors and gave them the basic outline of their characters, motivations, and major plot points. 

Byrkit told an interviewer, “For about a year, all I did was make charts and maps and drew diagrams of houses, arrows pointing where everyone was going, trying to keep track of different iterations. Months and months of tracking fractured realities, looking up what actual scientists believe about the nature of reality — Schrödinger’s cat and all that. It was research, but despite all the graphs and charts, I think our whole idea was that it has to be character-based. We want the logic of our internal rules to be sound, and we wanted it to be something people could watch 12 times and still discover a new layer.” (read more)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2866360/

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“The ancillary promise is that, through green consumerism, we can reconcile perpetual growth with planetary survival. But a series of research papers reveal there is no significant difference between the ecological footprints of people who care and people who don’t. One recent article, published in the journal Environment and Behaviour, says those who identify themselves as conscious consumers use more energy and carbon than those who do not.”  Too right it’s Black Friday: our relentless consumption is trashing the planet   –    George Monbiot

0330 – Arrival (2016)

spacetime coordinates: 2010s  Montana

Arrival is a 2016 American science fiction drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Eric Heisserer, based on the 1998 short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang. It stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker, and follows linguist Louise Banks, who is enlisted by the U.S. Army to help translate communications from one of several extraterrestrial craft that have appeared across the world. She must find out why they have arrived on Earth before tensions lead into war.

The film received widespread critical acclaim, including praise for Adams’s performance, Villeneuve’s direction, and its exploration of communicating with extraterrestrial intelligence.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/

325 – Dark States (TV Mini-Series 2017)

Louis Theroux visits three American cities and examines a uniquely devastating human crisis in each – opioid and heroin addiction in Huntington, sex trafficking in Houston, and murder in Milwaukee.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7492256/

321 – Logan Lucky (2017)

spacetime coordinates: 2010s West Virginia

Logan Lucky is a 2017 American heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh, based on a screenplay by debutante Rebecca Blunt. Soderbergh came out of retirement to direct the film and to distribute it independently through his own company Fingerprint Releasing. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough, Daniel Craig, Seth MacFarlane, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, Katherine Waterston and Sebastian Stan, and follows the unlucky Logan family who plan to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway, and try to avoid getting caught by the FBI.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5439796/

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