I’m nearly 50 years old. I can’t remember America looking as weak as it does today.
Author Archives: Phil
Balls
The presentation of “overs remaining” on cricket coverage still bothers me as a mathematician. “7.2 overs remaining” means 7 overs and 2 balls… but there are not 10 balls in an over! Outrageous.
In 1979 Ohio, several youngsters are making a zombie movie with a Super-8 camera. In the midst of filming, the friends witness a horrifying train derailment and are lucky to escape with their lives. They soon discover that the catastrophe was no accident, as a series of unexplained events and disappearances soon follows. Deputy Jackson Lamb, the father of one of the kids, searches for the terrifying truth behind the crash.
First saw this with my wife in the cinema when it came out and we loved it. I think this might be partly because we were 3 months pregnant at the time and everything was tinged with equal parts optimism and terror…
Watched it today with our (now) 13 and 10 y/os. Our oldest enjoyed the swearing, which was “just like at school” and our youngest loved it even if they were scared multiple times. I think that’s pretty high praise!
★★★★
The first manned spacecraft, fired from an English launchpad, is first lost from radar, then roars back to Earth and crashes in a farmer's field, and is found to contain only one of the three men who took off in it; and he is unable to talk but appears to be undergoing a torturous physical and mental metamorphosis.
The girl having the tea party is terrifying. The Grady twins have got nothing on her.
★★★★
Reclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.
If the intended tone was “queers do crazy shit for love” and “drugs are bad”, it was OK, maybe pretty good. Otherwise, I dunno what to make of this.
It careens wildly around: is it a domestic abuse drama, is it a serious thriller, is it an unrequited love story, is it a daddy-issues exploration, is it a black comedy, is it an organised crime “caper”, is it some some crazy Lynchian wank fantasy? Sadly it isn’t really any of those things.
Finally, the whole “let’s make it a period piece because you’d never get away with anything like that with modern forensics,” is just lazy writing.
★★★
An FBI agent teams with the town's veteran game tracker to investigate a murder that occurred on a Native American reservation.
There’s a pretty decent consensus that this is an extremely solid 4-star movie, and I agree. But, I can’t really say why it’s not a 5-star movie. Can you?
★★★★
Pickleback
Wounded and on the run, Charlie is forced to make a pit stop in desolate New Mexico where she tries to clear the name of a trucker framed for the murder of a local.
Overall, this show ain’t blowing my hair back, but the part when that trucker started singing… that really got me.
Lorde · Pure Heroine · Song · 2013
Royals by Lorde
After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, seven disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.
Overall, I liked it but I did feel pretty robbed by the marketing, if you know what I mean…
★★★½
The story of August Pullman – a boy with facial differences – who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.
I’ve avoided this film like the plague because it felt a lot like disability-tourism: “Wouldn’t it be AWFUL if you had these challenges in YOUR life!?”
But it doesn’t play like that at all. I think it might (not so) secretly be a Christian metaphor about love. The love that exists when you set aside differences and accept other’s short-comings alongside your own. You know?
I’m an atheist but even I know we need more of that in our world.
★★★★