1377 – Indie Game: The Movie (2012)

Indie Game: The Movie is a 2012 documentary film made by Canadian filmmakers Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky. The film is about the struggles of independent game developers Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes during the development of Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish during the development of Fez, and also Jonathan Blow, who reflects on the success of Braid.

After two successful Kickstarter funds, interviews were conducted with prominent indie developers within the community. After recording over 300 hours of footage, Swirsky and Pajot decided to cut the movie down to follow the four developers selected. Their reasoning behind this was to show game development in the “past, present and future” tenses through each individual’s story. (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

1374 – The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s North Carolina > Florida

The Peanut Butter Falcon is a 2019 American comedy-drama film directed and written by Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz, and starring Shia LaBeouf, Zack Gottsagen, Dakota Johnson, John Hawkes, Bruce Dern, Jon Bernthal and Thomas Haden Church with professional wrestlers Mick Foley and Jake Roberts and rapper Yelawolf making appearances in the film.

The film is a modern retelling of the Huckleberry Finn story, which takes Gottsagen’s own desire to be an actor and changes it into a quest to become a wrestler.

Its plot follows a young man with Down syndrome (Gottsagen) who escapes from an assisted living facility and befriends a wayward fisherman on the run (LaBeouf); as the two men form a rapid bond, a social worker (Johnson) attempts to track them. The film was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 9, 2019, by Roadside Attractions. The film went on to become a sleeper hit, earning a gross of over $20 million. (wiki)

imdb   /   rt

1372 – Society (1989)

timespace coordinates: 1980’s Beverly Hills, California

Society is a 1989 American body horror film directed by Brian Yuzna, and starring Billy Warlock, Devin DeVasquez, Evan Richards, and Ben Meyerson. Its plot follows a Beverly Hills teenager who finds his wealthy parents are part of a gruesome cult for the social elite.

Though the film was completed in 1989, it was not released until 1992. It was Yuzna’s directorial debut and was written by Rick Fry and Woody Keith. Screaming Mad George was responsible for the special effects.

Scottish comic book company Rough Cut Comics acquired the comic book rights to Society in 2002, producing an official sequel. The comic book series returned in 2003 with Society: Party Animal by writer Colin Barr and artists Shelby Robertson (issue 1) and Neill Cameron (issue 2). (wiki)

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1367 – Gemini Man (2019)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s U.S. / Colombia / Hungary

Gemini Man is a 2019 American action thriller film directed by Ang Lee. Starring Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, and Benedict Wong, the film follows a hitman who is targeted by a younger clone of himself while on the run from the government. (wiki)

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1362 – Our Planet (TV Mini-Series 2019)

Our Planet is a British nature documentary series made for Netflix. The series is narrated by David Attenborough and produced by Silverback Films, led by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, who also created BBC documentary series Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and The Blue Planet, in collaboration with the conservation charity World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The series addresses issues of conservation while featuring these disparate animals in their respective home regions, and has been noted for its greater focus on humans’ impact on the environment than traditional nature documentaries; centering around how climate change impacts all living creatures. It marked the first nature documentary Netflix has ever made. All episodes were released on 5 April 2019. A behind the scenes documentary was released onto Netflix on 2 August 2019.

imdb

1348 – Sweetheart (2019)

Sweetheart is a 2019 American survival horror/ creature feature directed by J.D. Dillard, written by Dillard, Alex Theurer and Alex Hyner, and starring Kiersey Clemons, Emory Cohen, Hanna Mangan-Lawrence and Andrew Crawford. (wiki)

Jenn has washed ashore a small tropical island and it doesn’t take her long to realize she’s completely alone. She must spend her days not only surviving the elements, but must also fend off the malevolent force that comes out each night. (rottentomatoes)

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1324 – Strange Days (1995)

timespace coordinates: 1999, turn of the century (near-future) Los Angeles (racial war zone / New Year’s Eve party) 

Strange Days is a 1995 American science fiction thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, written by James Cameron and Jay Cocks, and produced by Cameron and Steven-Charles Jaffe. It stars Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, and Tom Sizemore. Set in the last two days of 1999, the film follows the story of a black marketeer of SQUID discs, recordings that allow a user to experience the recorder’s memories and physical sensations, as he attempts to uncover the truth behind the murder of a prostitute.

Blending science fiction with film noir conventions, Strange Days explores themes such as racism, abuse of power, rape, and voyeurism. Although the story was conceived by Cameron around 1986, Bigelow found inspiration after incidents such as the Lorena Bobbitt trial and the 1992 Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King verdict.

Strange Days was a commercial failure and almost derailed Bigelow’s career (…) Nevertheless, the film’s critical standing has improved over the years, with many fans feeling that the film has been overlooked by a casual mass audience and misguided critics.

The scene where the crowd celebrates the turn of the new century at the end of the film was shot at the corner of the 5th and Flower streets, between the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and the Los Angeles Public Library. Over 50 off-duty police officers were hired to control an assembled crowd of 10,000 people, who had to pay $10 in advance to attend the event. The film-makers also hired rave promoters Moss Jacobs and Philip Blaine to produce performances featuring Aphex Twin, Deee-Lite, as well as “all the cyber-techno bands they could garner”.

In 2015, The Washington Post editor Sonny Bunch felt that Strange Days was still relevant, comparing the imagery captured by the SQUID units to that of first-person shooters or cellphone videos on YouTube. He added that events such as Jeriko One’s murder and the subsequent coverup of the crime contribute to activist movements like Black Lives Matter, and that their media documentation amplifies their reception and consequences. (read more: Themes)

wiki   /   imdb