movies, Uncategorized

0324 – Gummo (1997)

spacetime coordinates:   summer of 1996  Xenia, Ohio

Harmony Korine's Gummo posterGummo is a 1997 American dystopian art film written and directed by Harmony Korine, starring Jacob Reynolds, Nick Sutton, Jacob Sewell, and Chloë Sevigny. The film is set in Xenia, Ohio, a small, poor Midwestern American town that had been previously struck by a devastating tornado. The loose narrative follows several main characters who find odd and destructive ways to pass time, interrupted by vignettes depicting other inhabitants of the town. Instead of using standard movie lights, the production was lit with fluorescent lights to give the movie a haunting, yellowish look. “Gummo” is considered to be a cult film.

Trailer

Themes

The Diary of Anne Frank II

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119237/

movies

0317 – Sunshine (1999)

spacetime coordinates:  late 19th century > mid-20th century Hungary

Sunshine is a 1999 historical drama film directed by István Szabó and written by Israel Horovitz and Szabó. It follows five generations of a Hungarian Jewish family, originally named Sonnenschein (German: “sunshine”), later changed to Sors (Hungarian: “fate”), during changes in Hungary, focusing mostly on the three generations from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. The family story traverses the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire through to the period after the 1956 Revolution, while the characters are forced to surrender much of their identity and endure family conflict. The central male protagonist of all three generations is portrayed by Ralph Fiennes. The film’s stars include Rachel Weisz and John Neville, with the real-life daughter and mother team of Jennifer Ehle and Rosemary Harris playing the same character across a six-decade storyline.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145503/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_(1999_film)

games

0314 – BioShock (2007 video game)

spacetime coordinates: 1960, the underwater city of Rapture

BioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston (later Irrational Games) and 2K Australia, and published by 2K Games.

The game’s concept was developed by Irrational’s creative lead, Ken Levine, and incorporates ideas by 20th century dystopian and utopian thinkers such as Ayn RandGeorge Orwell, and Aldous Huxley, as well as historical figures such as John D. Rockefeller. The game is considered a spiritual successor to the System Shock series, on which many of Irrational’s team including Levine had worked previously.

BioShock is set in 1960. The player guides the protagonist, Jack, after his airplane crashes in the ocean near the bathysphere terminus that leads to the underwater city of Rapture. Built by the business magnate Andrew Ryan, the city was intended to be an isolated utopia, but the discovery of ADAM, a genetic material which can be used to grant superhuman powers, initiated the city’s turbulent decline. Jack tries to find a way to escape, fighting through hordes of ADAM-obsessed enemies, and the iconic, deadly Big Daddies, while engaging with the few sane humans that remain and eventually learning of Rapture’s past. The player, as Jack, is able to defeat foes in a number of ways by using weapons, utilizing plasmids that give unique powers, and by turning Rapture’s own defenses against them. BioShockincludes elements of role-playing games, giving the player different approaches in engaging enemies such as by stealth, as well as moral choices of saving or killing characters; additionally, the game and biopunk theme borrow concepts from the survival horror genre.

Bioshock Trailer

BioShock received critical acclaim and was particularly praised by critics for its morality-based storyline, immersive environments, and its unique setting, and is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time and a demonstration of video game as an art form.

pc requirements (MINIMUM): Operating System: Windows XP (with Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista. CPU: Intel single-core Pentium 4 processor at 2.4GHz. RAM: 1 GB, Video Card:Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 128MB RAM and Pixel Shader 3.0 (NVIDIA 6600 or better/ATI X1300 or better, excluding ATI X1550)


steam

movies

0301 – Hell or High Water (2016)

spacetime coordinates: 2010s West Texas

hell-or-high-water-poster-gallery

Hell or High Water is a 2016 American neo-Western crime thriller film directed by David Mackenzie and written by Taylor Sheridan, whose script was on the 2012 Black List. The film follows two brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) who carry out a series of bank robberies to save their family ranch, while being pursued by two Texas Rangers (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582782/

movies

297 – Good Time (2017)

spacetime coordinates: 2016 New York Citygood_time_ver2

Good Time is a 2017 American crime-drama film directed by Ben and Josh Safdie and written by Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein. The film stars Robert PattinsonBarkhad Abdi and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Its original soundtrack was composed by electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never.

4f2592422f1503ec996a91ddf70fb429

good_time_ver3

Pattinson described the film as a “really hardcore kind of Queens, New York, mentally damaged psychopath, bank robbery movie.”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846232/

movies

294 – Maximum Overdrive (1986)

spacetime coordinates: June 1987. at the Dixie Boy Truck Stop just outside Wilmington, North Carolina. as the Earth crosses the tail of a comet, previously inanimate machines suddenly spring to life.

Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 American comedy horror film written and directed by Stephen King. The film stars Emilio EstevezPat HingleLaura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King’s short story “Trucks“, which was included in the author’s first collection of short stories, Night Shift.

Maximum Overdrive is King’s only directorial effort, though dozens of films have been based on his novels or short stories. The film contained black humor elements and a generally campy tone, which contrasts with King’s sombre subject matter in books. The film has a mid-1980s hard rock soundtrack composed entirely by the group AC/DC, King’s favorite band. AC/DC’s album Who Made Who was released as the Maximum Overdrive soundtrack. (wiki)

imdb


1922 (2017)

spacetime coordinates:  1922  Hemingford Home, Nebraska

1922 is a 2017 American horror-drama film written and directed by Zak Hilditch and based on Stephen King‘s novella of the same name.

imdb


Cell (2016)

spacetime coordinates: 2010s New England 

Cell is a 2016 American science fiction horror film based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Stephen King. The film is directed by Tod Williams, produced by John Cusack, with a screenplay by King and Adam Alleca. The film stars Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, and Isabelle Fuhrman.

imdb


*ALL SK’s BOOKS TIE TOGETHER AND JOIN ANOTHER UNIVERSE, RUN BY AN ARCH ENEMY, NAMED Randall Flagg. Or other names