Slovenly semi-literate geek with far too much time on his hands
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Asteroid City 2023
While it’s about the theatre, it makes me think a little of television - the Bryan Cranston framing device seems consciously 50s TV; a playwright who uses science fiction as metaphor may in personality be a little Tennessee Williams but his subject matter is more Rod Serling; a film of model parts that likes showing you it is a model and maybe provides a light lie as to the nature of Jeff Goldblum’s role (a good lie though.) Definitely immediately one of Anderson’s most charming films, though Grand Budapest remains my favourite.
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Bottle Rocket 1996
It’s funny to see the flashes of elements that become so definitive in Wes Anderson’s later style - a dry narration around a series of events, the deliberately colourful clothing - though also full of the kind of rueful empathy for peculiar and earnest oddities that colours so much of his later work. Luke Wilson may be the lead but Owen’s pigheaded monomaniacal self-actualisation and optimism - all sunshine Horace Greeleyism about a life of crime - is, even here,…
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Dune 2021
When I was fifteen - over half a life ago, now - I read a novel. I have never revisited it and yet it endures in my memory like few works of fiction ever have. Herbert’s Dune is vivid, engrossing in a world of implied depth that feels so much more dense than considerably longer tomes that spend a much greater amount of time explaining their intricacies - a throwaway term like ‘Zensunni’ (or, so baffling to my Irish teen…
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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker 2019
J. J. Abrams does not do endings, period. He has been involved in co-creating multiple TV series (Felicity, Alias, Lost, Fringe, among many, many others) and directing films in three major franchises (Mission Impossible, Star Trek, and this.) In the case of the former he was actively involved in series during the pilot, but eventually checked out of the process, sometimes staying on a couple of seasons but never being involved in the writing, directing or any decisionmaking regarding the…
