1724 – Anything for Jackson (2020)

Anything for Jackson is a 2020 horror film written by Keith Cooper and directed by Justin G. Dyck. The film stars Sheila McCarthy, Julian Richings, Konstantina Mantelos and Josh Cruddas. The entire movie was made for $250,000. 

“There’s something deliciously subversive about the backstory to this offbeat horror film, which was made in Canada. Director Justin G Dyck and screenwriter Keith Cooper have collaborated on a long list of treacly, holiday-themed, made-for-TV movies with titles such as A Very Country Christmas, Christmas With a View and A Christmas Village. Anything for Jackson, however, is a riotously gory, impish inversion of all things yuletide, in that it stars sweet-featured elderly character actors Sheila McCarthy and Julian Richings as grieving grandparents Audrey and Henry Walsh, who kidnap pregnant Shannon Becker (Konstantina Mantelos) in order to perform a satanic ritual on her. It’s as if Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer, the little old couple who lived next door in Rosemary’s Baby, got to be the stars of their own movie.” (Leslie Felperin review / theguardian)

With blood-soaked gore leaking onto the pristine snow and a unique spin on satanic rituals, Anything For Jackson will appease anti-Yuletide viewers looking to immerse themselves in icy depths of unsettling horror. (Rachel West)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

1706 – Erased (TV Mini-Series 2016)

timespace coordinates: 2006 Chiba, Japan >> 1988 Hokkaido

Erased, known in Japan as Boku dake ga Inai Machi (僕だけがいない街, lit. “The Town Where Only I Am Missing”) is a 2016 anime mini-series by A-1 Pictures based on Kei Sanbe‘s manga series of the same title. The anime adapts the full story of the manga, though it condenses and alters the events that take place in volumes 6 to 8.

A live-action movie adaptation was released in Japan on March 19, 2016 which also featured an alternate ending. A live-action Netflix TV series was released on December 15, 2017. (myanimelist)

imdb

1699 – Groundhog Day (1993)

timespace coordinates: February 2, 1992  Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania

Groundhog Day is a 1993 American fantasy comedy film directed by Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, and Chris Elliott. Murray portrays Phil Connors, a cynical TV weatherman covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, who becomes trapped in a time loop forcing him to relive February 2 repeatedly.

In the years since its release, the film has grown in esteem and is often considered to be among the greatest films of the 1990s and one of the greatest comedy films of all time. The film has been analyzed as a religious allegory by Buddhists, Christians, and Jews, who each see a deeper philosophical meaning in the film’s story. (wiki)

An exquisite bas-relief of Bodhisattva (probably Padmapani or Avalokiteshvara) adorning the outer wall of Candi Plaosan Lor southern main temple. A fine example of the 9th century classical Javanese Buddhist Sailendran art, Plaosan, Klaten Regency, Central Java.

imdb   /   rt   /   time loop duration

1684 – Spacewalk (2017)

timespace coordinates: March 1965 space mission Voskhod 2 – first spacewalk / landing  in the inhospitable forests of Upper Kama Upland, somewhere west of Solikamsk / 1960s, during the Cold War and the Space Race between USSR and the United States.

The Age of Pioneers (Russian: Время первых, romanized: Vremya Pervykh, lit. “Time of the first ones”), also known as Spacewalk or The Spacewalker, is a Russian historical drama film about cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first human to perform a spacewalk (and pilot Pavel Belyayev). Leonov himself served as a consultant for the film. The Age of Pioneers was directed by Dmitriy Kiselev and co-produced by Timur Bekmambetov and Yevgeny Mironov, the latter also starred in the leading role. (wiki)

“This is a real-life story of extreme bravery against all odds, with wonderful cinematography and special effects that take us back to the Cold War battle for supremacy in space.” (Nigel Watson Starburst)

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Sovfoto/Universal Images Group/Shutterstock (3828858a) Voskhod 2 mission, soviet cosmonaut alexei leonov during world’s first space walk (eva) in 1965. VARIOUS

imdb

1683 – Mr. Jones (2019)

timespace coordinates: The film loosely tells the story of Gareth Jones, a journalist from Wales, who in 1933 travels to the Soviet Union and uncovers the truth about the Holodomor, the man-made famine in Ukraine in which millions died.

Mr Jones (Polish: Obywatel Jones; Ukrainian: Ціна правди) is a 2019 biographical thriller film directed by Agnieszka Holland. (wiki)

Gareth Jones’ great-nephew Colley told the Sunday Times: “In the film, they have got him up a tree eating bark, eating human flesh, tripping over dead bodies. He didn’t witness any dead bodies or any cannibalism, let alone take part in any. They’ve made Gareth a victim of the famine, rather than a witness.” (read more: walesonline)

imdb   /   rt

1677 – The Reader (2008)

timespace coordinates: Berlin, 1995 >> Neustadt West Germany, 1958

The Reader is a 2008 romantic drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by David Hare, based on the 1995 German (partly autobiographical) novel of the same name by Bernhard Schlink. It stars Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, and David Kross. It was the last film for producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, both of whom died prior to its release.

The film tells the story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a 15-year-old in 1958, has an affair with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz. She disappears only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp.  (wiki)

imdb

1670 – The Last of Us Part II (2020 video game)

timespace coordinates: 2030’s  Jackson, Wyoming, Seattle, Washington, Santa Barbara, California

The Last of Us Part II is a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. Set five years after The Last of Us (2013), the player controls two characters in a post-apocalyptic United States whose lives intertwine: Ellie, who sets out for revenge after suffering a tragedy, and Abby, a soldier who becomes involved in a conflict with a cult. The game is played from the third-person perspective. The player can use firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth to fight human enemies and cannibalistic creatures.

Neil Druckmann returned as creative director, co-writing the story with Halley Gross. The game’s themes of revenge and retribution were inspired by Druckmann’s experiences growing up in Israel. Ashley Johnson reprises her role as Ellie, while Laura Bailey was cast as Abby. Their performances included the simultaneous recording of motion and voice. (wiki)

THE LAST OF US 2 Walkthrough

THE LAST OF US 2 No Commentary 

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Wyoming Museum of Science and History

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Seattle Aquarium

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