Tag: beach
0905 – Under the Silver Lake (2018)
timespace coordinates: 2011 Los Angeles

Under the Silver Lake is a 2018 American neo-noir mystery film written, produced and directed by David Robert Mitchell. Set in Los Angeles, it stars Andrew Garfield as a young man who sets out on a quest to investigate the sudden disappearance of his neighbour (Riley Keough), only to stumble upon an elusive and dangerous large-scale conspiracy.
Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out gave the film a perfect five rating, calling it “Hypnotic, spiraling and deliriously high” and stating “the ambition of Under the Silver Lake is worth cherishing. It will either evaporate into nothingness or cohere into something you’ll want to hug for being so wonderfully weird.” Eric Kohn of IndieWire gave a positive review, calling it “a bizarre and outrageous drama grounded in the consistency of Garfield’s astonishment at every turn. […] Aided by cinematographer Mike Gioloukas’ sunny visuals and a searching Disasterpiece score, the movie becomes a bittersweet ode to wanting answers from an indifferent world overwhelmed by superficial distractions. The homage can be irritating and some of the transitions work better than others across an unwieldy running time — but even the flaws speak to the movie’s beguiling raison d’être. It’s fascinating to watch Mitchell grasp for a bigger picture with the wild ambition of his scruffy protagonist.”
Owen Gleiberman of Variety gave a positive review, calling it “a down-the-rabbit-hole movie, at once gripping and baffling, fueled by erotic passion and dread but also by the code-fixated opacity of conspiracy theory. The movie is impeccably shot and staged, with an insanely lush soundtrack that’s like Bernard Herrmann-meets-Angelo-Badalamenti-on-opioids. When it’s over, though, you feel like you’ve seen a meta-mystery made by someone who spent too much time scrawling notes in the margins of his frayed copy of Infinite Jest. (wiki)

0904 – Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
timespace coordinates: 1969, a shady hotel on the California–Nevada border

Bad Times at the El Royale is a 2018 American neo-noir thriller film written, produced and directed by Drew Goddard. (wiki)
Seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at Lake Tahoe‘s El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past. Over the course of one fateful night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption… before everything goes to hell. Jeff Bridges, Chris Hemsworth, Jon Hamm, Dakota Johnson and Cynthia Erivo lead an all-star cast in BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE. (rt)
900 – NeonCode (2018 video game)
NeonCode is a one hour long cyberpunk-retrowave adventure game (one-man project). It was inspired by classics such as the Blade Runner-movies, Miami Vice, Grim Fandango and the games of Telltale. The game is mixing the open world gamestyle with some classic adventure game elements.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM): OS: Windows 10 / Processor: AMD A8-5600 or similar i5 /Memory: 8 GB RAM / Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GT710 or similar (2Gb VRAM) /Storage: 5 GB available space
***NeonCode is a free adventure game***
0897 – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (2017 video game)
timespace coordinates: late 8th century at the border of Helheim

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a dark fantasy action-adventure game developed and published by the British video game development studio Ninja Theory. Self-described as an “independent AAA game“, it was created by a team of approximately twenty developers led by writer and director Tameem Antoniades.
Inspired by Norse mythology and Celtic culture, Hellblade follows Senua, a Pict warrior who must make her way to Helheim by defeating otherworldly entities and facing their challenges, in order to rescue the soul of her dead lover from the goddess Hela. In parallel, the game acts as a metaphor for the character’s struggle with psychosis, as Senua, who suffers from the condition but believes it to be a curse, is haunted by an entity known as the “Darkness”, voices in her head known as “Furies”, and memories from her past. To properly represent psychosis, developers worked closely with neuroscientists, mental health specialists, and people suffering from the condition.

The game blends several genres, including hack and slash, puzzle solving, and psychological horror. Voice acting is an integral part of the game, while its cutscenes combine motion capture by Melina Juergens, and live action performances by other actors. (wiki)
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7, 8, 10 / Processor: Intel i5 3570K / AMD FX-8350 / Memory: 8 GB RAM / Graphics: GTX 770 with 2GB VRAM / Radeon R9 280X 3GB / DirectX: Version 11 / Storage: 30 GB available space / Additional Notes: Minimum spec screen resolution: 1280×720
877 – The Secret Life of Rockpools (2013 Documentary)
Paleontologist Professor Richard Fortey embarks on a quest to discover the extraordinary lives of rock pool creatures. To help explore this unusual environment he is joined by some of the UK’s leading marine biologists in a dedicated laboratory at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. Here and on the beach in various locations around the UK, startling behaviour is revealed and new insights are given into how these animals cope with intertidal life. Many popular rock pool species have survived hundreds of millions of years of Earth’s history, but humans may be their biggest challenge yet. (docuwiki)
865 – The Battle of Visby (2020 Video game)
timespace coordinates: small Scandinavian island, Gotland during the summer of 1361 / The battle of Visby
The story is told from a first-person perspective where the player takes roles of different characters experiencing the events that lead to the battle.
It is made in Unreal Engine by a one-man team.
The experience is about 1-2 hours long and focused on narrative storytelling.