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

1374 – The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s North Carolina > Florida

The Peanut Butter Falcon is a 2019 American comedy-drama film directed and written by Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz, and starring Shia LaBeouf, Zack Gottsagen, Dakota Johnson, John Hawkes, Bruce Dern, Jon Bernthal and Thomas Haden Church with professional wrestlers Mick Foley and Jake Roberts and rapper Yelawolf making appearances in the film.

The film is a modern retelling of the Huckleberry Finn story, which takes Gottsagen’s own desire to be an actor and changes it into a quest to become a wrestler.

Its plot follows a young man with Down syndrome (Gottsagen) who escapes from an assisted living facility and befriends a wayward fisherman on the run (LaBeouf); as the two men form a rapid bond, a social worker (Johnson) attempts to track them. The film was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 9, 2019, by Roadside Attractions. The film went on to become a sleeper hit, earning a gross of over $20 million. (wiki)

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1364 – TempleOS | Down the Rabbit Hole (2018 documentary)

1358 – The Fighting Preacher (2019)

timespace coordinates: Palmyra, New York 1915 – 1939

The Fighting Preacher is a 2019 drama film written and directed by T. C. Christensen. The film focuses on Willard Bean (David McConnell) and his wife, Rebecca (Cassidy Hubert), who are in involved in a 25-year missionary service in Palmyra, New York. The story of a boxer who became a Mormon preacher. He is posted to a town in New York, which had previously driven out the last Mormon preacher 80 years ago. (wiki)

imdb

1352 -The King (2019)

timespace coordinates: early 15th century England > France / Hundred Years’ War– 1415, Battle of Agincourt

The King is a 2019 historical drama film based on several plays from William Shakespeare‘s “Henriad“. It is directed by David Michôd and written by Michôd and Joel Edgerton. The film stars Timothée Chalamet as King Henry V, with Edgerton, Sean Harris, Lily-Rose Depp, Robert Pattinson, and Ben Mendelsohn. (wiki)

imdb

1351 – In Fabric (2018)

… coordinates: “kaleidoscopic montage of ‘70s department store imagery, set to synths in the warm, ethereal vein of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop” b

In Fabric is a 2018 British horror comedy film, written and directed by Peter Strickland. It stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hayley Squires, Leo Bill, and Gwendoline Christie. (wiki)

In Fabric‘s gauzy giallo allure weaves a surreal spell, blending stylish horror and dark comedy to offer audiences a captivating treat. (rottentomatoes)

“In this oneiric oddity, consumerism is everything, ultimately devouring even the consumer – while the real horror is the exploitative means of production, carefully kept underground beyond the sight of bourgeois shoppers above.” Anton Bitel

“In Fabric is a haunting ghost story set against the backdrop of a busy winter sales period in a department store and follows the life of a cursed dress as it passes from person to person, with devastating consequences..” (imdb)

1349 – Aniara (2018)

timespace coordinates: 2038 (+) Aniara, a luxurious spaceship carrying settlers from Earth to Mars

Aniara is a 2018 Swedish-Danish co-production co-directed by Pella Kagerman and Hugo Lilja. The film is an adaptation of the 1956 Swedish epic poem of the same name by Harry Martinson.

The film is set in a dystopian future where climate change has left Earth ravaged, forcing people to resettle from Earth to Mars. When such a routine trip veers off course the passengers struggle to cope with their new lives. (wiki)

imdb

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Director Pella Kagerman & Hugo Lilja on the end of the world in Aniara

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