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timespace coordinates: 2010s Brooklyn
The Drop is a 2014 American crime film directed by Michaël R. Roskam, from a screenplay written by Dennis Lehane. The film is based on Lehane’s 2009 short story “Animal Rescue”. Lehane also adapted the script into a 2014 novel of The Drop. The film stars Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini (in his final film role), with Matthias Schoenaerts, John Ortiz and James Frecheville in supporting roles. (wiki)
timespace coordinates: 2011 Los Angeles
Under the Silver Lake is a 2018 American neo-noir mystery film written, produced and directed by David Robert Mitchell. Set in Los Angeles, it stars Andrew Garfield as a young man who sets out on a quest to investigate the sudden disappearance of his neighbour (Riley Keough), only to stumble upon an elusive and dangerous large-scale conspiracy.
Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out gave the film a perfect five rating, calling it “Hypnotic, spiraling and deliriously high” and stating “the ambition of Under the Silver Lake is worth cherishing. It will either evaporate into nothingness or cohere into something you’ll want to hug for being so wonderfully weird.” Eric Kohn of IndieWire gave a positive review, calling it “a bizarre and outrageous drama grounded in the consistency of Garfield’s astonishment at every turn. […] Aided by cinematographer Mike Gioloukas’ sunny visuals and a searching Disasterpiece score, the movie becomes a bittersweet ode to wanting answers from an indifferent world overwhelmed by superficial distractions. The homage can be irritating and some of the transitions work better than others across an unwieldy running time — but even the flaws speak to the movie’s beguiling raison d’être. It’s fascinating to watch Mitchell grasp for a bigger picture with the wild ambition of his scruffy protagonist.”
Owen Gleiberman of Variety gave a positive review, calling it “a down-the-rabbit-hole movie, at once gripping and baffling, fueled by erotic passion and dread but also by the code-fixated opacity of conspiracy theory. The movie is impeccably shot and staged, with an insanely lush soundtrack that’s like Bernard Herrmann-meets-Angelo-Badalamenti-on-opioids. When it’s over, though, you feel like you’ve seen a meta-mystery made by someone who spent too much time scrawling notes in the margins of his frayed copy of Infinite Jest. (wiki)
Venom is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, it is the first film in Sony’s Marvel Universe, adjunct to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Directed by Ruben Fleischer, it stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock / Venom, alongside Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, and Reid Scott. In Venom, journalist Brock gains superpowers after being bound to an alien symbiote whose species plans to invade Earth. The film released in the 30th Anniversary year of Venom’s debut in Marvel comics (May 1988).
The film was primarily inspired by the comic miniseries Venom: Lethal Protector (1993) and story arc “Planet of the Symbiotes” (1995). (wiki)
The filmmakers cite the films of horror directors John Carpenter and David Cronenberg as an influence on the film, as well as the horror comedy films An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Ghost Busters (1984).
At the end of the closing credits, a preview of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse(2018) appears.
Bodied is a 2017 American battle rap comedy-drama film directed by Joseph Kahn. It was written by Alex Larsen (aka Kid Twist.) and produced by Eminem, his manager Paul Rosenberg, and Adi Shankar. The film stars Calum Worthy as Adam, a graduate student who becomes a competitive battle rapper after becoming immersed in the scene while working on his graduate thesis on the subject. (wiki)
Shoniqua Shandai, Walter Perez, Rory Uphold also star in the film. Well known battle rappers Dizaster, Dumbfoundead, Hollow Da Don and media personality Charlamagne Tha God are among the supporting cast.
“Asher (Ron Perlman) is a former Mossad agent turned gun for hire, living an austere life in an ever-changing Brooklyn. Approaching the end of his career, he breaks the oath he took as a young man when he meets Sophie (Famke Janssen) on a hit gone wrong.” (rt)
The definitive three-and-a-half hour documentary about the troubled creation and enduring legacy of the science fiction classic Blade Runner (1982), culled from 80 interviews and hours of never-before-seen outtakes and lost footage.
imdb / 0072 – Blade Runner Ambience – Sounds Of The City 2019 / 0400 – Blade Runner / 0475
timespace coordinates: 1980’s Flint, Michigan
Roger & Me is a 1989 American film written, produced, directed by and starring Michael Moore. Moore portrays the regional economic impact of General Motors CEO Roger Smith‘s action of closing several auto plants in his hometown of Flint, Michigan, reducing GM’s employees in that area from 80,000 in 1978 to about 50,000 in 1992. As of August 2015, GM employs approximately 7,200 workers in the Flint area, according to The Detroit News, and 5,000 workers according to MSNBC. In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” (wiki)
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