598 – Gatta Cenerentola / Cinderella the Cat (2017)

spacetime coordinates: future Naples

Cinderella the Cat (Italian: Gatta Cenerentola) is a 2017 Italian animated film directed by Alessandro Rak (who previously directed The Art of Happiness), Ivan Cappiello, Marino Guarnieri and Dario Sansone, loosely based on the Giambattista Basile‘s fable of the same name and Roberto De Simone’s musical La Gatta Cenerentola. The plot is set in a decaying future Naples and concerns a mysterious mute teenager called Mia, who struggles to escape from the Camorra boss Salvatore Lo Giusto and her vicious stepmother Angelica.

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0596 – Jupiter’s Moon / Jupiter holdja (2017)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s Hungary / Budapest

The juxtaposition of supernatural thriller tropes and urgent socio-political issues in Kornél Mundruczó’s latest movie — an original take on the superhero origin story set to the backdrop of the refugee crisis — might prove a delicate one for some viewers to take. Those unperturbed, however, should find much to relish in Jupiter’s Moon, a film that somewhat lightly plays with themes of religion and immigration as it rumbles, crashes, and ultimately soars through the streets of the Hungarian capitol. It’s a tricky balance and Mundruczó (who had a break-out with his canine revolt film White God in 2014) strikes it with style and confidence (even going so far as to signpost it in an opening prologue that reminds the audience that the titular gas giant’s largest orbiting body is called Europa, and that many believe that large oceans rest beneath its icy surface where a “cradle of life” might exist). The hero of Jupiter’s Moon, a young Syrian refugee with the connotation heavy name of Aryan (played by Majd Asmi), does not find a cradle of life in his Europa. To the contrary, in fact, he’s gunned down in the opening minutes… (read more)

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0594 – The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)

The Lego Batman Movie is a 2017 3D computer-animated superhero comedy film, produced by Warner Animation Group. It was directed by Chris McKay,  Based on the Lego Batman toy line, the film is an international co-production of the United States, Australia, and Denmark, and the first spin-off installment of The Lego Movie franchise. The story focuses on the DC Comics character Batman as he attempts to overcome his greatest fear & stop the Joker‘s latest plan, with Will Arnett reprising his role as Batman for the film, along with Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, and Ralph Fiennes.

Batman and pop culture references   trivia

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0592 – Training Day (2001)

spacetime coordinates: 2000’s South Central Los Angeles.

Training Day is a 2001 American crime thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua, and written by David Ayer. Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke star as two LAPD narcotics officers over a 24-hour period in the gang-ridden neighborhoods of the LAPD Rampart Division and South Central Los Angeles.

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0591 – Space Station 76 (2014)

Space Station 76 is a 2014 American science fiction film directed by Jack Plotnick, and co-written by Plotnick, Jennifer Elise Cox, Sam Pancake, Kali Rocha, and Michael Stoyanov.

A dark comedy film that deconstructs seemingly idyllic relationships, set against the backdrop of Omega 76, a 1970s retro futuristic space station.

imdb   wiki

0590 – Galaxy Quest (1999)

Galaxy Quest is a 1999 American comic science fiction film directed by Dean Parisot and written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. A parody of science fiction films and series, particularly Star Trek and its fandom, the film stars Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, and Daryl Mitchell as the cast of a defunct cult television series called Galaxy Quest, in which the crew of a spaceship embarked on intergalactic adventures, who are suddenly visited by actual aliens who believe the series to be an accurate documentary, and become involved in a very real intergalactic conflict. Star Trek fans voted it the seventh best Star Trek film of all time in 2013.

Impact_and_legacy   //  sequel   //   imdb

0588 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 British-American science fiction comedy film directed by Garth Jennings, based upon previous works in the media franchise of the same name, created by Douglas Adams. It stars Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel and the voices of Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman. This is the ninth version of the “Hitchhiker’s Guide”. It has previously appeared as a radio series, two record albums, novels, a television series (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1981)), a computer game, a stage show, a comic book, a video game (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1984)) and a towel. (The game version is not, in fact, a video game, but was an Infocom “interactive fiction” {text only} game, plotted/scripted by Douglas Adams, programmed by Steve Meretzky, which has been available to play free on the BBC Radio 4 website since 2005.)

Flyer for the 1979 stage production at the ICA of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

The producers have stated that this film is not a literal translation of the books (just as the books were not a literal translation of the original radio show), but all of the new ideas and characters came from Douglas Adams himself. The hired writer simply came aboard to improve structure and make the screenplay more coherent.

Easter Egg: The DVD includes an “Improbability Drive” item on every menu. Clicking this leads to a random point in one of the bonus features. Used several times leads to a strange cartoon, which is the same one Deep Thought watches.

The Hitchiker’s Guide is a parody of “The Encyclopedia Galactica” from Isaac Asimov‘s Foundation novels.

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