Kathryn Bigelow has been a fave director of mine since Near Dark. And with A House of Dynamite, she continues to prove that not only is she a fantastic director, she should be a bigger deal than she is. Taking a political/techno-thriller concept and putting a human face on it, as this film does, makes…
Tag: united states
The Trees (2021) – Percival Everett
With two books, Percival Everett has become one of my favorite authors. I loved his take on Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in James. And when I read the blurb on The Trees I knew I had to take a look. I didn’t know that I would be blown away by it. Everett…
TIFF 25: Orwell – 2+2=5 dir. Raoul Peck
Damian Lewis narrates text by George Orwell, as director Raoul Peck profoundly demonstrates that we as a society, and a planet, are living smack dab in the middle of Orwell’s 1984. Intercutting with the various adaptations of 1984 and Animal Farm, Peck includes documentary and news footage charting the new rise of fascism, authoritarianism, and…
The Hobby: Tales from the Tabletop (2024) – Simon Ennis
The Hobby rolls a D20 for charm! Filmmaker Simon Ennis shows us the connections, the obsessions, and the passions that have sprung up around modern board games, and the people who play them. Traveling across Canada and the United States The Hobby introduces a cross-section of society and the way they can be their best…
Live at Five (1999) – Raymond Benson
007 is back. Raymond Benson wrote a short story, just in time for the premiere of The World is Not Enough. It was published in TV Guide and gives a brief glimpse of a Cold War defection that James Bond was involved in. Set in the United States following a botched attempt in London, Bond…
Shin Godzilla (2016) – Hideaki Anno, and Shinji Higuchi
Crunchyroll, the streaming service, doesn’t just have anime series for every taste and genre, it also contains a number of films, among them is Shin Godzilla. I love a good Godzilla film so I was very eager to dive into this one, and was very happy to see that it had more in common with…
Mission: Impossible (1969) – Illusion, and The Interrogator
Phelps (Peter Graves) and his IMF team go undercover in an Eastern European country, that looks like it gets its uniforms from the Nazis, in Illusion. Written by Laurence Heath, this episode first aired on 13 April, 1969. The team are seeking to remove two political officers, who are scheming against each other for control…
Lovecraft Country (2016) -Matt Ruff
This week I dove into Matt Ruff’s brilliantly entertaining Lovecraft Country, which takes all the things you love about a good Lovecraft story; otherworldly horror, science fiction mixed with horror, and some other familiar horror tropes, the creepy doll, the haunted house, and deliver it without Lovecraft’s far too prominent racism. As much as I…
Natural Born Killers (1994) – Oliver Stone
When you combine a story by Quentin Tarantino and the directorial style of Oliver Stone, you know you are going to get something unique to filmmaking, and Natural Born Killers is very much that. It is also the title on the What Else to Watch list from DK Books’ The Movie Book following their recommendation…
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1995) -Past Tense: Part I, and Part II
Station log: stardate 48481.2 Robert Hewitt Wolfe pens this stellar episode from a story he developed with Ira Steven Behr. First broadcast on 2 January, 1995, the story follows Sisko (Avery Brooks), Bashir (Alexander Siddig) and Dax (Terry Farrell) as, thanks to a transporter accident while the Defiant is in orbit around Earth, end up…
The Mind Reels 