Poolman is a 2023 American stoner noir oddball comedy directed, produced, co-written by and starring Chris Pine in his directorial debut. It also stars Annette Bening, DeWanda Wise, Stephen Tobolowsky, Clancy Brown, John Ortiz, Ray Wise, Juliet Mills, Ariana DeBose, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Danny DeVito. (wiki)
timespace coordinates: 1939 traveling carnival / 1941 Buffalo, New York
Nightmare Alley is a 2021 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Guillermo del Toro from a screenplay by del Toro and Kim Morgan, based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, being the second feature film adaptation of Gresham’s novel, following the 1947 version.
The film stars Bradley Cooper as a charming and ambitious carnival worker with a mysterious past who takes big risks to boost his career. Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn also star. A black-and-white version, subtitled Vision in Darkness and Light, was released in select cities starting on January 14, 2022. (wiki)
Red Notice is a 2021 American action comedy film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber. It stars Dwayne Johnson Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. With a $200 million production budget the film became the most-viewed film on Netflix during release day.
timespace coordinates: near-future Moscow
Hardcore Henry (Russian: Хардкор; also known simply as Hardcore in some countries) is a 2015 Russian-American science fiction action film written and directed by Ilya Naishuller (in his feature directorial debut).
It stars Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky, Haley Bennett, and Tim Roth. Henry was played by 10 different stuntmen and cameramen including the director Ilya Naishuller, Darya Charusha, who plays a dominatrix biker, is also the film’s composer.
Max Nicholson of IGN rated the film 8.6/10 stating “Two parts FPS, one part platformer and a pinch of HowToBasic, director Ilya Naishuller’s Hardcore Henry is a recipe for non-stop, ludicrous fun. While the film’s actual story is nigh existent [sic], it’s sure to please gamers and action junkies alike with its inventive set pieces and mind-boggling action” and “Hardcore Henry lives up to the title with non-stop, off-the-wall action and a love for all things video games”. (wiki)
The video game “Payday 2“ had a cross-promotion before the movie’s release. It came with heists relating to the film’s plot, along with a new playable character (Jimmy) and new weapons. A poster for the game can be seen on wall of the one of the apartments where Slick Dimitri is found and Jimmy’s mask from the game can be seen in the drawer with the weapons in the strip club.
Before this film, writer and director Ilya Naishuller made several music videos for his Russian punk rock band “Biting Elbows”. The videos were shot in the same style: Fast paced, first person perspective action videos.
TimeSpace Warps 