movies

1353 – Cosmos (2019)

Cosmos is the debut feature film for directing brothers Elliot & Zander Weaver, who were inspired to make a movie about space scientists after several years of producing broadcast documentaries on the Apollo Program. Cosmos had no funding or budget – all equipment was either owned prior to filming or borrowed, all locations were lent and all cast and crew worked on the project without a fee.

With the exception of scoring the film, directing brothers Elliot & Zander Weaver, took on all major production roles including: screenwriting, prop making, lighting and camerawork, sound recording, editing, sound designing and sound mixing, VFX, poster art and trailers creation. (imdb) – rt

movies

1350 – The Art of Self-Defense (2019)

The Art of Self-Defense is a 2019 black comedy thriller film written and directed by Riley Stearns. It stars Jesse EisenbergAlessandro Nivola and Imogen Poots. (wiki)

After he’s attacked on the street at night by a roving motorcycle gang, timid bookkeeper Casey (Jesse Eisenberg) joins a neighborhood karate studio to learn how to protect himself. Under the watchful eye of a charismatic instructor, Sensei (Alessandro Nivola), and hardcore brown belt Anna (Imogen Poots), Casey gains a newfound sense of confidence for the first time in his life. But when he attends Sensei’s mysterious night classes, he discovers a sinister world of fraternity, brutality and hyper-masculinity, presenting a journey that places him squarely in the sights of his enigmatic new mentor. Audacious and offbeat, The Art of Self-Defense is an original dark comedy that takes toxic masculinity to absurd extremes. (rottentomatoes)

Uncategorized

1327 – In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

timespace coordinates: 1990’s New Hampshire

reality isn’t what it used to be…”

In the Mouth of Madness is a 1994 American horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter and written by Michael De Luca. It stars Sam NeillJulie CarmenJürgen ProchnowDavid Warner and Charlton Heston. Informally, the film is the third installment in Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy, preceded by The Thing and Prince of Darkness.

The film pays tribute to the work of seminal horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, with many references to his stories and themes. Its title is a play on Lovecraft’s novella, At the Mountains of Madness, and insanity plays as great a role in the film as it does in Lovecraft’s fiction. The opening scene depicts Trent’s confinement to an asylum, with the bulk of the story told in flashback, a common technique of Lovecraft. Reference is made to Lovecraftian settings and details (such as a character that shares the name of Lovecraft’s Pickman family). Sutter Cane’s novels have similar titles to H.P. Lovecraft stories : The Whisperer of the Dark (The Whisperer in Darkness), The Thing in the Basement (The Thing on the Doorstep), Haunter out of Time (The Haunter of the Dark/The Shadow Out of Time), and The Hobbs End Horror (The Dunwich Horror), the latter also referencing Hobbs End underground station from Nigel Kneale‘s Quatermass and the Pit.

The film can also be seen as a reference to Stephen King, who, like Lovecraft, writes horror fiction set in New England hamlets. (wiki)

imdb

movies

1318 – Holes (2003)

timespace coordinates: Mid-1800s Latvia > 1890s – 1900s – 1990s (juvenile detention) Camp Green Lake, Texas

holes_xlg

Holes is a 2003 American adventure comedy-drama film directed by Andrew Davis, and based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Louis Sachar. Sachar also penned the screenplay for the film. The film stars Sigourney WeaverJon VoightPatricia ArquetteTim Blake Nelson and Shia LaBeouf. (wiki)

imdb

movies, music, Uncategorized

1311 – Southland Tales (2006)

Southland Tales is a 2006 science fiction comedy-drama thriller film and the second film written and directed by Richard Kelly. The title refers to the Southland, a name used by locals to refer to Southern California and Greater Los Angeles. Set in the then-near future of 2008, as part of an alternate history, the film is a portrait of Los Angeles, and a satiric commentary on the military–industrial complex and the infotainment industry. The film features an ensemble cast including Dwayne JohnsonSeann William ScottSarah Michelle GellarMandy Moore, and Justin Timberlake. Original music was provided by Moby. The film is an international co-production of the United States, Germany and France.

Southland Tales postertimespace coordinates: On July 4th, 2005, in a fictionalized United States alternate history reality, two towns in Texas (El Paso and Abilene) were destroyed by twin nuclear attacks, killing thousands and triggering a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, sending America into a state of anarchy and hysteria, as well as a Third World War (a fictionalized version of what the nation may have become under the War on Terror), with the US government re-introducing the draft. The PATRIOT Act has extended authority to a new agency known as US-IDent, which keeps constant surveillance on citizens—even to the extent of censoring the Internet and requiring fingerprints to access computers and bank accounts. In response to the recent fuel shortage in the wake of global warfare, the German company Treer designs a generator of inexhaustible energy, which is propelled by the perpetual motion of ocean currents, called “Fluid Karma”. However, its inventor Baron von Westphalen and his associates are hiding the fact that the generators alter the ocean’s currents and cause the Earth to slow its rotation, and that the transmission of Fluid Karma to portable receivers (via quantum entanglement) is ripping holes in the fabric of space and time.

In near-future 2008, Los Angeles (referred to as “The Southland” by locals) is a city on the brink of chaos overshadowed by the growth of an underground neo-Marxist organization. The film follows the criss-crossed destinies of Boxer Santaros, an action film actor stricken with amnesia; Krysta Now, a psychic ex-porn star in the midst of creating a reality TV show; and twin brothers Roland and Ronald Taverner, whose destinies become intertwined with that of all mankind.

Southland Tales was initially planned to be a nine-part “interactive experience”, with the first six parts published in six 100-page graphic novels that would be released in a six-month period up to the film’s release. The feature film comprises the final three parts of the experience. A website was also developed to intertwine with the graphic novels and the film itself.  The idea of six graphic novels was later narrowed down to three. The novels were written by Kelly and illustrated by Brett Weldele. Kelly wrote them while making the film and found it very difficult as it pushed him “to the edge of my own sanity”, as he remarked in an interview. 

They have been collected together into one single volume:

The titles of the parts in the film are:

  • Part Four: Temptation Waits
  • Part Five: Memory Gospel
  • Part Six: Wave of Mutilation

The film remains enigmatic to many viewers and even some of its makers. In a 2011 interview, Justin Timberlake himself said, “To me, Southland Tales is performance art. I still don’t know what that movie is about [laughs].”

In a 2013 interview, Kelly said he considered this work as “the thing that I’m most proud of, and I feel like it’s sort of the misunderstood child or the banished child.” (wiki)

imdb


[Southland Tales Soundtrack] tracks Aerial/Snowball -Moby / Southland Tales – Full Soundtrack (Score & Songs)   /   Sarah Michelle Gellar – Teen Horniness is Not a Crime

documentary, movies, Uncategorized

1307 – The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2013)

timespace coordinates: the Galapagos island of Floreana 1929 – 1935

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden is a 2013 feature-length documentary directed by  Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine. It is about a series of unsolved disappearances on the Galapagos island of Floreana in the 1930s among the largely European expatriate residents at the time. The voice cast includes Cate BlanchettSebastian KochThomas KretschmannDiane KrugerConnie NielsenJosh Radnor and Gustaf Skarsgård.

It features the 1934 silent film The Empress of Floreana in its entirety, but the four-minute short is split into halves. (wiki)

imdb

movies

1306 – Midsommar (2019)

timespace coordinates: 2018 midsummer celebration at  the Hårga commune, Hälsingland, Sweden

(DISTURBING CONTENT)

MV5BMzQxNzQzOTQwM15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDQ2NTcwODM@._V1_Midsommar is a 2019 folk horror film written and directed by Ari Aster and starring Florence PughJack ReynorWilliam Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, and Will Poulter. It follows a group of friends who travel to Sweden for a festival that occurs once every ninety years and find themselves in the clutches of a pagan cult. A co-production between the United States, Sweden and Hungary, Midsommar is scheduled to be released on Digital HD (on Apple TV) on September 24, 2019 and on DVD and Blu-ray on October 8, 2019. (wiki)

According to Ari Aster, this was meant to be his first horror movie since Hereditary (2018) was intended to just be a family drama.

71v7Zsjp2FL._SL1500_

imdb   /   The Wicker Man (1973)