1053 – True Detective (season 3 – 2019)

timespace coordinates: 1980 – 1990 – 2015, the Ozarks –  Arkansas

The third season of True Detective, an American anthology crime drama television series created by Nic Pizzolatto, was confirmed by HBO on August 31, 2017, and premiered on January 13, 2019. The story takes place in the Ozarks over three separate time periods, as partner detectives investigate a macabre crime involving two missing children. 

Mahershala Ali plays the lead role of detective Wayne Hays, while Stephen Dorff plays his partner detective Roland West. The season marks Pizzolatto’s directorial debut, with the series creator dividing up directing assignments with Jeremy Saulnier and Daniel Sackheim. Pizzolatto also serves as the showrunner and sole writer of the season, with the exception of the fourth and sixth episode, which he co-wrote with David Milch and Graham Gordy respectively. (wiki)

imdb

1050 – 1408 (2007)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s Hermosa Beach, California /  The Dolphin, a hotel on Lexington Avenue in New York City

1408 is a 2007 American psychological horror film based on Stephen King‘s 1999 short story of the same name. It is directed by Mikael Håfström and stars John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, Tony Shalhoub, Len Cariou, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., and Jasmine Jessica Anthony.

imdb   /   endings

1049 – The Double (2013)

The Double is a 2013 British black comedy thriller film written and directed by Richard Ayoade and starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska. The film is based on the novella The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It is about a man driven to breakdown when he is usurped by a doppelgänger. (wiki)

imdb   /   rt   /   analysis

1046 – About Elly (2009)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s. north of Iran, Caspian Sea

About Elly (Persian: درباره الی‎, translit. Dar bāre-ye Elly) is a 2009 Iranian drama film directed by Asghar Farhadi. It is the fourth film by Farhadi. The film is about middle class relationships in Iran.  One year after its release, it was voted the 4th greatest Iranian movie of all time by the national society of Iranian critics. (wiki)

imdb

1045 – The Mist (2007)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s small town of Bridgton, Maine

The Mist (also known as Stephen King’s The Mist) is a 2007 American science-fiction horror film based on the 1980 book The Mist by Stephen King. The film was written and directed by Frank Darabont. Darabont had been interested in adapting The Mist for the big screen since the 1980s. The film features an ensemble cast including Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Samuel Witwer, Toby Jones, and future The Walking Dead actors Jeffrey DeMunn, Laurie Holden, Melissa McBride, and Juan Gabriel Pareja. Darabont has since revealed that he had “always had it in mind to shoot The Mist in black and white”, a decision inspired by such iconic films as Night of the Living Dead (1968) and the “pre-color” work of Ray Harryhausen. While the film’s cinematic release was in color, the director has described the black and white print (released on Blu-ray in 2008) as his “preferred version.”

The director revised the ending of the film to be darker than the novella’s ending, a change to which King was amenable. Darabont also sought unique creature designs to differentiate them from his creatures in past films.

Although a monster movie, the central theme explores what ordinary people will be driven to do under extraordinary circumstances. The plot revolves around members of the small town of Bridgton, Maine who, after a severe thunderstorm causes the power to go out the night before, meet in a supermarket to pick up supplies. While they struggle to survive, an unnatural mist envelops the town and conceals vicious, Lovecraftian monsters as extreme tensions rise among the survivors.

A meta-reference to this film appears in one of Stephen King’s later novels, Under the Dome. (wiki)   /   [The Mist (TV series) imdb]

imdb

1041 – Atonement (2007)

timespace coordinates: 1935 England /  1940  Battle of France –  Dunkirk

Atonement is a 2007 romantic war drama film directed by Joe Wright and based on Ian McEwan‘s 2001 novel of the same name. The film stars James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Vanessa Redgrave, and chronicles a crime and its consequences over the course of six decades, beginning in the 1930s. (wiki)

imdb

1033 – Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

timespace coordinates: 1300 BC – ancient Egypt

Exodus: Gods and Kings is a 2014 epic biblical film directed and produced by Ridley Scott. An international co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain.

It is inspired by the biblical episode of the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt led by Moses and related in the Book of Exodus.

The film stars Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, María Valverde, Sigourney Weaver, Ghassan Massoud, Indira Varma, Golshifteh Farahani, and Ben Kingsley.

In an interview for Access Hollywood, Scott claimed there was a “final” cut of the film that was 4 hours, implying that the version released in theaters was reduced by 90 minutes. (wiki)

---

imdb