animation, movies, Uncategorized

1011 – The House That Jack Built (2018)

timespace coordinates:  1970s and 1980s  Washington.

!extreme violence!

THTJB-AlternatePosterThe-House-That-Jack-Built-Movie-Poster-LarsThe House That Jack Built is a 2018 psychological horror art film written and directed by Lars von Trier, starring Matt Dillon in the title role of Jack. The story follows Jack, a serial killer, over the course of 12 years in the 1970s and 1980s in the U.S. state of Washington. The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, marking von Trier’s return to the festival after more than six years. (wiki)

The shot of Jack and Verge standing in a boat strongly resembles the painting “La Barque de Dante” by Eugène Delacroix, which was in itself influenced by “The Raft of the Medusa” (Le Radeau de La Méduse) by Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault. (read more: trivia)

von Trier described the film as celebrating “the idea that life is evil and soulless”.

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

movies, music

1005 – Mysterious Skin (2004)

timespace coordinates: summer of 1981 > Christmas Eve 1991 Hutchinson, Kansas / New York City

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Mysterious Skin is a 2004 Dutch-American drama film directed by American filmmaker Gregg Araki, who also wrote the screenplay based on Scott Heim‘s 1995 novel of the same name.

Mysterious Skin tells the story of two pre-adolescent boys who are sexually abused by their baseball coach, and how it affects their lives in different ways into their young adulthood. One boy becomes a reckless, sexually adventurous male prostitute, while the other retreats into a reclusive fantasy of alien abduction. (wiki)

The film score was composed by Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie.

mysterious-skin-md-webimdb


movies

0997 – Fargo (1996)

timespace coordinates: winter of 1987, Minnesota / FargoNorth Dakota

Fargo is a 1996 black comedy-crime film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan CoenFrances McDormand stars as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant Minnesota police chief investigating roadside homicides that ensue after a desperate car salesman (William H. Macy) hires two criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife in order to extort a hefty ransom from his wealthy father-in-law (Harve Presnell). the score to Fargo is by Carter Burwell

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Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014)

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter is a 2014 American drama film co-written and directed by David Zellner. The film stars Rinko KikuchiNobuyuki Katsube, Shirley Venard, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, and Kanako Higashi. The story is based on the urban legend surrounding Takako Konishi in search of the fictional ransom money seen buried in the snow from the 1996 film Fargo. (wiki)

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movies

0989 – Shoplifters (2018)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s Tokyo

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Shoplifters (Japanese: 万引き家族 Hepburn: Manbiki Kazoku, direct translation Shoplifting Family) is a 2018 Japanese drama film directed, written and edited by Hirokazu Kore-eda. Starring Lily Franky and Sakura Ando, it is about a family that relies on shoplifting to cope with a life of poverty.

Kore-eda wrote the screenplay contemplating what makes a family, and inspired by reports on poverty and shoplifting in Japan. (wiki)

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movies

0976 – The Hole in the Ground (2019)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s Irish backwood rural town

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The Hole in the Ground is an 2019 horror thriller film directed by Lee Cronin, from a screenplay by Cronin and Stephen Shields. The film stars Seána KerslakeJames CosmoKati OutinenSimone Kirby, Steve Wall and James Quinn Markey. The story follows a young woman who begins to suspect that her son’s disturbing behaviour is linked to a mysterious sinkhole.

imdb   /  rottentomatoes

games

953 – Saints Row IV (2013 video game)

joc-pc-deep-silver-saints-row-iv-178770Saints Row IV is an open world action-adventure video game with third-person shooter elements developed by Volition and published by Deep Silver. It is the fourth title in the Saints Row series. In the game, the playable character is the leader of the 3rd Street Saints, a street gang that has become the world’s most powerful and popular organization, and must fend off an alien invasion after becoming President of the United States and receiving superpowers.

The player is free to explore their environment while completing main and side missions at their leisure. The game incorporates elements from science fiction video games and films, and continues the series’ reputation for over-the-top parody. It was released in August 2013 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and was later ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Linux in 2015.

The game is set in a nearly identical simulation of Steelport, the fictional city setting from Saints Row: The Third, though individual story missions have new, custom-designed levels. 

Saints Row IV‘s story parodies science fiction video games, especially Mass Effect 2, as well as films like The Matrix and Zero Dark Thirty, and other “nerd culture”. Some story missions are propelled by individual characters’ existential crises, as each Saint character is stuck in a personal simulation of their own hell, and must be rescued by the player. Other elements borrowed from video game culture include BioWare-style character romances games and a Metal Gear-style mission with an unhelpful partner.

Saints Row IV received several limited and summative edition releases, and was briefly banned in Australia.

System Requirements (Minimum) CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 | AMD Athlon II x3. / OS: Windows Vista (x86 or x64) / VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX 260 | AMD Radeon HD 5800 series. / FREE DISK SPACE: 10 GB. / DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 896 MB.

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movies

0949 – Den skyldige / The Guilty (2018)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s Denmark

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The Guilty (Danish: Den skyldige) is a 2018 Danish thriller film co-written and directed by Gustav Möller. The film stars Jakob Cedergren,  Jessica Dinnage, Omar Shargawi and Johan Olsen.


“Sleek, well-acted, and intelligently crafted, The Guilty is a high-concept thriller that wrings maximum impact out of a handful of basic – and effective – ingredients.”  Rotten Tomatoes

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