1385 – Ad Astra (2019)

timespace coordinates: “near future” (2050’s ?) commercial flight to the Moon > the ship Cepheus, bound for Mars > Norwegian biomedical research space station >  underground SpaceCom base on Mars > the Lima Project (Neptune’s rings)

Ad Astra is a 2019 American science fiction adventure film produced, co-written, and directed by James Gray. Starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland, it follows an astronaut who goes into space in search of his lost father, whose experiment threatens the Solar System. + scored by Max Richter. +

Reviews out of the Venice Film Festival compared it to well-worn sci-fi touchstones “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Solaris,” and “Apocalypse Now,” in part due to its probing adventure narrative. Gray says he went straight to the urtext that inspired them, Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey.” (cnn)

The title means “to the stars” in Latin. It is often used as a shorthand for “Per Aspera Ad Astra” (Through the hardships to the Stars).

wiki   /   imdb   /   rt

1384 – Freaks (2018)

Freaks is a 2018 American-Canadian science fiction thriller film directed, written and produced by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein. It stars Emile Hirsch, Bruce Dern, Grace Park, Amanda Crew, and Lexy Kolker, who was seven years old at the time of filming.

The film tells the story of a 7-year-old girl named Chloe (Kolker) who is locked in an abandoned house by her disturbed father (Hirsch). The mysterious Mr. Snowcone (Dern) convinces her to escape for his own suspicious reasons. (wiki)

A promotional poster for the film features a street sign with a one eye logo and a phone number to call to report “abnormal activity”. The number is 1-800-517-5890 and when called, a recorded message with a woman’s voice would say, “Thank you for calling the abnormal defense hotline, provided by the Department of Homeland Security.” The recorded message at first urged others to be on the lookout for “freaks” and it said that you can leave a message to report any abnormal activity from freaks. A few days later, the recorded message was changed to warn others to stay away from an upcoming San Diego Comic Con “free underground prescreening of Freaks” on July 18, 2019.

---

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

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)

imdb

1361 – Oak Tree: Nature’s Greatest Survivor (2015 documentary)

“Oak Tree: Nature’s Greatest Survivor (BBC Four) was a 90-minute documentary detailing a year-long study of a single 400-year-old oak in Oxfordshire. It might sound about as interesting as watching grass grow but this was classy, engrossing television. “I can promise you one thing,” said entomologist George McGavin. “You’ll never look at an oak tree the same way again.” He was true to his word.” (read more)

1/2 The Oak Tree, Natures Greatest Survivor – August to February

2/2 The Oak Tree, Natures Greatest Survivor – March to August

---

imdb

1356 -Batman & Bill (2017 documentary)

Batman & Bill is an American documentary film that premiered on Hulu on May 6, 2017. Directed, written and produced by Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce, explores the creation of the Batman, how Bob Kane was accepted as the sole creator, and how Bill Finger was never credited for his work despite creating the Batman mythos. (wiki)

---

imdb

1333 -Nyócker! (2004)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s Józsefváros – Budapest, Hungary

The District! (Hungarian: Nyócker!) is a 2004 Hungarian caricaturistic animated film directed by Áron Gauder. Its original title is a shortened colloquial form of nyolcadik kerület, the eighth district of Budapest, also known as Józsefváros, including an infamous neighbourhood where the film takes place. It is sometimes labelled as the Hungarian South Park.

The animated technique for this movie was rather innovative. The artists took 350 headshot pictures of each actor and used these photos for the expressing emotions and the animation of the heads. The bodies were hand drawn.

The film displays the Hungarian, Roma, Chinese and Arab dwellers and their alliances and conflicts in a humorous way, embedded into a fictive story of a few schoolchildren’s oil-making time-travel and a Romeo and Juliet-type love of a Roma guy towards a white girl. (wiki)

imdb

---

Animal Cannibals – Yozsefváros

---

1328 – The Exception (2016)

timespace coordinates: Occupied Holland during World War II

The Exception is a 2016 romantic war drama directed by David Leveaux, in his directorial debut, and written by Simon Burke, based on Alan Judd‘s 2003 novel The Kaiser’s Last Kiss. The film stars Jai Courtney, Lily James, Janet McTeer, and Christopher Plummer.

The plot is a fictionalized account of the life of exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II (Plummer). When a Wehrmacht officer (Courtney) is ordered to determine whether or not a British spy has infiltrated the Kaiser’s residence with a view to assassinating the deposed monarch. (wiki)

imdb