0436 – Looper (2012)

spacetime coordinates: 2044  Kansas City < 2074  Shanghai

Looper is a 2012 American science fiction thriller film written and directed by Rian Johnson, and produced by Ram Bergman and James D. Stern. It stars Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Emily Blunt. It revolves around criminal syndicates using contracted killers called “loopers” to kill victims sent through time travel.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1276104/

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James vs. His Future Self (2019)

spacetime coordinates: Sudbury, Ontario, in 2018

James vs. His Future Self is a 2019 Canadian science fiction comedy film, directed by Jeremy Lalonde. The film stars Jonas Chernick as James, a scientist researching time travel whose life is turned upside down when his older self (Daniel Stern) arrives from 17 years in the future to demand that he stop. The cast also includes Cleopatra Coleman, Frances Conroy, Tara Spencer-Nairn and Tommie-Amber Pirie. (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

416 – Code 8 (2016)

Code 8 is a 2016 short sci-fi action film directed by Jeff Chan and written by Chan and Chris Paré. Starring Robbie Amell, Stephen Amell and Sung Kang, the film is expected to be expanded into a feature length project to shoot during the summer of 2017 for a release in early 2019.  The film is a futuristic vision taking place in a world where 4% of the population are born with some type of supernatural ability. Instead of being billionaire superheroes, most ‘specials’ live in poverty and resort to crime, forcing the police to become more militarized.

imdb – 2016   2019

415 – True Detective (TV Series 2014– )

True Detective is an American anthology crime drama television series created and written by Nic Pizzolatto. The series, broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States, premiered on January 12, 2014. Each season of the series is structured as a disparate, self-contained narrative, employing new cast ensembles and following various sets of characters and settings.

The first season, starring Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Potts, and Tory Kittles, takes place in Louisiana and follows a pair of Louisiana State Police homicide detectives, and their pursuit of a serial killer over a 17-year period. True Detective‘s first season explores themes of philosophical pessimism, masculinity, and Christianity; critics have analyzed the show’s portrayal of women, its auteurist sensibility, and the influence of comics and weird horror fiction on its narrative. (read more here)

True_Detective#Opening_sequence

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2356777/

0414 – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a 2017 black comedy crime film written, produced, and directed by Martin McDonagh. It stars Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, John Hawkes and Peter Dinklage. The film follows a mother who, when the police in her town fail to find a suspect in her daughter’s murder, purchases three billboards to call public attention to the unsolved crime, polarizing the community. (soundtrack by Carter Burwell)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5027774/

0412 – Loving Vincent (2017)

spacetime coordinates: Arles 1891

Loving Vincent is a 2017 animated biographical drama film about the life of painter Vincent van Gogh, and in particular, the circumstances of his death. It is the first fully painted animated feature film. The film, written and directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, was an international co-production between Poland and the United Kingdom. The development was funded by the Polish Film Institute, and partially through a Kickstarter campaign.

Each of the film’s 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas, using the same technique as Van Gogh, created by a team of 125 painters.

Rotten Tomatoes‘ consensus states: “Loving Vincent‘s dazzling visual achievements make this Van Gogh biopic well worth seeking out – even if its narrative is far less effectively composed.”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3262342/

0402 – Drowning by Numbers (1988)

Drowning by Numbers is a 1988 British-Dutch film directed by Peter Greenaway.

The film’s plot centres on three married women — a grandmother, her daughter, and her niece — each named Cissie Colpitts. As the story progresses, each woman successively drowns her husband. The three Cissie Colpittses are played by Joan Plowright, Juliet Stevenson and Joely Richardson, while Bernard Hill plays the coroner, Madgett, who is cajoled into covering up the three crimes.

The structure, with similar stories repeated three times, is reminiscent of a fairy tale, most specifically ‘The Billy Goats Gruff‘, because Madgett is constantly promised greater rewards as he tries his luck with each of the Cissies in turn. The link to folklore is further established by Madgett’s son Smut, who recites the rules of various unusual games played by the characters as if they were ancient traditions. Many of these games are invented for the film, including:

• Bees in the Trees
• Dawn Card Castles
• Deadman’s Catch
• Flights of Fancy (or Reverse Strip Jump)
• The Great Death Game
• Hangman’s Cricket
• The Hare and Hounds
• Sheep and Tides

In Drowning by Numbers, number-counting, the rules of games and the repetitions of the plot are all devices which emphasise structure and symmetry. Through the course of the film each of the numbers 1 to 100 appear, the large majority in sequence, often seen in the background, sometimes spoken by the characters. 

The film is set and was shot in and around Southwold, Suffolk, England, with key landmarks such as the Victorian water tower, Southwold Lighthouse, and the estuary of the River Blyth clearly identifiable.

Music

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092929/

0396 – Big Eyes (2014)

spacetime coordinates: 1958 > 1970 North Beach, San Francisco // Honolulu, Hawaii

Big Eyes is a 2014 American biographical film directed by Tim Burton, written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski and starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. The film is about the life of American artist Margaret Keane—famous for drawing portraits and paintings with big eyes. It follows the story of Margaret and her husband, Walter Keane, who took credit for Margaret’s phenomenally successful and popular paintings in the 1950s and 1960s. It follows the lawsuit (and trial) between Margaret and Walter, after Margaret reveals she is the real artist behind the big eyes paintings.

imdb   wiki

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“I think what Keane has done is just terrific. It has to be good. If it were bad, so many people wouldn’t like it.”   Andy Warhol