tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-379405602024-03-28T06:00:32.116-03:00Siskoid's Blog of GeekeryIs there any geek trash I won't touch? Not sure. Comics, cult movies, toys, RPGS, CCGs, gaming, SF, blogs and other obscura? Yeah, I'm in deep.Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comBlogger649125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-75107020916436074882024-03-27T08:52:00.006-03:002024-03-27T08:52:44.507-03:00Torg Eternity: Infection Card Pack<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU778sO781EjCXJT8K2m6ffdv4w6TqQth8Xm7HkXmAWrKcj0Aw2mWUYy4l5DS20FNwHj3qOsYyerZ-QdrOzdU9k65GdPIWqnkFiGqvvhHC9ojKMzRv53-fuHeI9oFBqGWYqxvmB2_irPBNgR-ebxZaqVT6IAbDds59Of3-OfrYEeSfPaOkKLVf/s646/Infection%20Card%20Pack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="646" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU778sO781EjCXJT8K2m6ffdv4w6TqQth8Xm7HkXmAWrKcj0Aw2mWUYy4l5DS20FNwHj3qOsYyerZ-QdrOzdU9k65GdPIWqnkFiGqvvhHC9ojKMzRv53-fuHeI9oFBqGWYqxvmB2_irPBNgR-ebxZaqVT6IAbDds59Of3-OfrYEeSfPaOkKLVf/s16000/Infection%20Card%20Pack.jpg" title="Welcome to the zombie apocalypse" /></a></div>Hey, I just published a Torg Eternity product on the Infiniverse Exchange, available <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/475461/Torg-Eternity-Infection-Card-Pack" target="_blank"><b>HERE</b> <b>on DriveThruRPG!</b></a><br /><br /><b>NOT FEELING TOO WELL?</b><br /><br />The Infection Card Pack offers 8 new cards to simulate the symptoms of Pan-Pacifica's Contagion, as well as rule variants to make make the virus harder on Storm Knights, easier on Game Masters, or both! Also includes a card back for your Infection deck!<br /><br />Designed for use with or without the Infection cards found in Pan-Pacifica's <i>Day One</i> adventure.<br /><br />Enjoy!Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-25511527961427187822024-03-25T06:00:00.025-03:002024-03-25T06:00:00.140-03:00RPG Tools: SoundPad<p>The follow-up promised last week, but first, the boilerplate... <i>The modern GameMaster is always looking for online tools to help make their campaign more immersive. After all, many of us have been relegated to playing online - the pandemic pushed it, but so did adulting, now parents can take a short break to put their kids to bed, etc. in the middle of a session, no problem - and GMs have to create the immediacy of the in-persion experience somehow. A lot of online tools are subscription-based, and that interests me less. Over the course of a few articles, I want to look at a few, neat, online tools that can make a difference in keeping the players engaged, the equivalent of the props and hand-outs you might have crafted and passed around in the old days.</i><br /><br /><b>This week:</b> <b><a href="https://tabletopaudio.com/soundpad.html" target="_blank">SoundPad</a></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIfy5G12XiFF56yYXA2fWkZawxaQX2iJyg8c7C6xMBl-ZJ95L0u28N0x8OUMDxdhj3QIeojXp-cn3Ebo__nKDwd5N7T9E95Za8P604J7kBL04bWhYImkYBfrEdk1hf74Nda1mcCceKbsdceV4rzq4Ee-BV0EgpikQspV6gdfmucgzJIFxNHgqL/s600/soundpad1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIfy5G12XiFF56yYXA2fWkZawxaQX2iJyg8c7C6xMBl-ZJ95L0u28N0x8OUMDxdhj3QIeojXp-cn3Ebo__nKDwd5N7T9E95Za8P604J7kBL04bWhYImkYBfrEdk1hf74Nda1mcCceKbsdceV4rzq4Ee-BV0EgpikQspV6gdfmucgzJIFxNHgqL/s16000/soundpad1.jpg" title="A shallow sample (it's an Atlantis joke)" /></a></div>SoundPad is a new feature on Tabletop Audio that allows you to create soundscapes and sound effects at the touch of a button. Whatever genre or environment you're playing in, SoundPad probably has you covered, with (to date) 32 packages of (usually) 40 sounds for Horror, Film Noir, Westerns, Cyberpunk, Spies, Sci-Fi (and are you on a planet, a starship, a futuristic city?) and of course, Fantasy, to name but a few, as well as action styles (Medieval combat, futuristic battle, wuxia...) and a more generic package that gives you sounds for Critical Hits, Levelling Up, etc. (at the risk of making it too much like a video game). Once you "launch soundpad", you'll be taken to the sound collection which includes background atmospheres, sound effects (period-correct phone rings, footsteps, vehicles, etc.), tones and music. Here's a sample of some sounds from the Cthulhu SoundPad:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLK2ZQa5MpTx8hkP4lgqLVNAVn155T0bH3z91_92GxsSO7ZNzSKm7r1Ne026A48zjVmsdfAk3jcQuJGcqLDze-LFI0taS7MMYFSMyxcXY-4-hR6WclBj3I-XgrjwhId3jXIFvnlWZKHyChRZ-ZY9ZEap35N12YVcjg76v8iUAZ5FYrJzHos4E/s600/soundpad2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLK2ZQa5MpTx8hkP4lgqLVNAVn155T0bH3z91_92GxsSO7ZNzSKm7r1Ne026A48zjVmsdfAk3jcQuJGcqLDze-LFI0taS7MMYFSMyxcXY-4-hR6WclBj3I-XgrjwhId3jXIFvnlWZKHyChRZ-ZY9ZEap35N12YVcjg76v8iUAZ5FYrJzHos4E/s16000/soundpad2.jpg" title="Oh I'm gonna use that quake!" /></a></div>Now, of course, the GM already has their hands full during a game, so clicking on "riffling through desk" or "pouring whisky" might be overdoing it, but GM chores are something that can be shared. A player who likes to "DJ" might enjoy using the platform to drop in appropriate sounds as they occur, and be directed by the GM to play certain atmospheres as they come up. What's to stop a table from having several devices at the table and clicking their own sword strikes and laser shots?<br /><br />But generally, a GM might use SoundPad to pre-record atmosphere - wind, music, waves lapping at the shore's edge - in a way that Tabletop Audio doesn't already provide. Each sound can be looped (as you can see, with a check box), and the full loop, with all its layers, can be saved and replayed from the Pad. You can also donate to their Patreon to download the sounds separately so you can edit them yourself in Audacity, Garage Band, what have you. Doing your own editing is still the only way to really control a pre-recorded ambience (say one that has footsteps, then a scream, all while mysterious music is playing, without having to push various buttons in sequence), and as someone who HAS done that, I'll tell you one of the toughest things to do is finding the right sound effects and recording them from YouTube to make it work. It's a lot of searching for that exact boxing bell or vuvuvuvuvuvu psionic thrumming. SoundPad has done the work for you: Clean SFX appropriate to your genre, all in one place, with controllable volume and the possibility of layering.<br /><br />That's all well and good, you say, if you're all sitting together at the same table. But what about online play? Obviously, if you have prefab sound files ready to go and you're already using the capabilities of Discord, Roll20 or Foundry to play them, that's fine. But can you pipe in sound effects straight off SoundPad? The answer is yes:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt9rDjuEDdAh_Ap7E-OXh5xdY-ESJX-uV9xoVmt_oNotFnZcAQ3gzrjLpC4Ss1GZ4B60dilXg5v80b_TPCcO1x8XgVoDNwovlNh6UM3Pat0PeMQUkiIozF84BNFVf95uRNPleq6ftYLQUJcmE_F0JhFaDzE1gcvcjr5EnZSKIA2gtiGhYRiUQl/s600/soundpad3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="226" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt9rDjuEDdAh_Ap7E-OXh5xdY-ESJX-uV9xoVmt_oNotFnZcAQ3gzrjLpC4Ss1GZ4B60dilXg5v80b_TPCcO1x8XgVoDNwovlNh6UM3Pat0PeMQUkiIozF84BNFVf95uRNPleq6ftYLQUJcmE_F0JhFaDzE1gcvcjr5EnZSKIA2gtiGhYRiUQl/s16000/soundpad3.jpg" title="Or just play sounds for your friends, like it's your own avant-garde radio station" /></a></div>As you can see here, there is a (*new*) Broadcast button that gives you a link to share with participants. The Players connected to that link will hear everything you play! Surprise them with a gunshot (trigger warning), or a TUN-DUN-DUNNNNN suspense sting, exactly when you want it. I think the link is Pad specific, so one thing I don't think you can do is switch Pads without some fussing. Still, it's pretty fun. And immersive. Especially if you're agile with the Pad. Obviously, you can't make Players wait around while you look for specific sounds; it needs to be seamlessly embedded into the session.<br /><br />So to your Launch Pads, 10, 9, 8, 7...<p></p>Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-65955661458285571082024-03-24T06:00:00.029-03:002024-03-24T06:00:00.129-03:00This Week in Geek (17-23/03/24)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWksZQmxFyR9aGecDqomVGBQafoGZgv8IoOYguiy4Aplw2te7vU69eufqvmRC04e0Qq4hIjqtU7-5uAKWda4nOK9njtY8pTiFAtytsm3LNF6n44VH30IF1VNn1oCA9iSdVJ4cJ5OnzP6cIxG4_tc-WvlYfSD0xXBta5rdWPihKlZ5dilaR3s4/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="352" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWksZQmxFyR9aGecDqomVGBQafoGZgv8IoOYguiy4Aplw2te7vU69eufqvmRC04e0Qq4hIjqtU7-5uAKWda4nOK9njtY8pTiFAtytsm3LNF6n44VH30IF1VNn1oCA9iSdVJ4cJ5OnzP6cIxG4_tc-WvlYfSD0xXBta5rdWPihKlZ5dilaR3s4/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Produced or distributed by A24 in the 2020s, rurality, modern period pieces, parent-child relationships" /></a></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbweE-QqnM25lpGduk69t8vdN6Khiz_IPqcwEQ8X7EkcamPSVh_oFVmieTlL2-m6kVwFS7L-732E0XuAWOLKNOxDCiGrZLQC7wsKGkqOX-ZostS6T_tmQ-U0RfAeFYTW7I3XAn_tJfvuWjFqngokhRfVGpGr081O8L9Eflx6_1uAxosqJp5YBg/s299/1-loveliesblrrding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbweE-QqnM25lpGduk69t8vdN6Khiz_IPqcwEQ8X7EkcamPSVh_oFVmieTlL2-m6kVwFS7L-732E0XuAWOLKNOxDCiGrZLQC7wsKGkqOX-ZostS6T_tmQ-U0RfAeFYTW7I3XAn_tJfvuWjFqngokhRfVGpGr081O8L9Eflx6_1uAxosqJp5YBg/w134-h200/1-loveliesblrrding.jpg" title="We had terrible hair in the 80s" width="134" /></a></div>In theaters: The second lesbian crime period piece of 2024, Love Lies Bleeding is Drive Away Dolls' dramatic counterpart. It features a solid performance by Kristen Stewart, but most notably, Katy O’Brian as the bodybuilder she falls in love with. O'Brian has played action characters in superhero and sci-fi fare, but it still feels like we never see people like her in movies except it's as some kind of Amazonian henchperson. Here, she's a fully-realized person, caught in a web of crime and violence when she steps into a micro-town run by a truly evil Ed Harris on her way to a bodybuilding competition. She finds love too, but as things start to go awry... Well, that would be telling, and I do find the movie has a lot of nice, organic twists that keep it surprising. Also, some hallucinatory material, which could be seen as tonal inconsistency at times (like when it feels like a She-Hulk prequel) - certainly, members of the audience seemed taken out of the story by them - but I rather like the flights of fantasy even if they break from the extreme grittiness of the flick overall. It's not like they come out of nowhere... There are POV cues all throughout!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9rpaazMubKLBkXuV3QCZTfmM4KjUx2f-Od5DiE6qK8FGnhrM0duyNenjQHd7XH2OFKhJJXpm1fbxOWw_i8Xk1T9-Q_FJI0YlsqrRVGhavjmda2lQHR8t5u7WJEdSbG1fdh04ZWR5iko6Te7rkdoT2B1zaEcU1TcduHwZtPyKm6LD7Dd1Q3_Dj/s297/2-youhurtmyfeelings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9rpaazMubKLBkXuV3QCZTfmM4KjUx2f-Od5DiE6qK8FGnhrM0duyNenjQHd7XH2OFKhJJXpm1fbxOWw_i8Xk1T9-Q_FJI0YlsqrRVGhavjmda2lQHR8t5u7WJEdSbG1fdh04ZWR5iko6Te7rkdoT2B1zaEcU1TcduHwZtPyKm6LD7Dd1Q3_Dj/w135-h200/2-youhurtmyfeelings.jpg" title="Fiction is hard" width="135" /></a></div>At home: Nicole Holofcener's exploration of the white lie in You Hurt My Feelings stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies as a surprisingly cute couple tested when she (a struggling novelist) discovers he (a struggling therapist) doesn't like her writing despite always fawning over it. This is the crisis point for them, but it's not the film's true focus and certain audiences may get impatient waiting for the trailer-promised moment. It's rather more about about what constitutes dishonesty, and how both ends of the honesty spectrum can be good or bad depending on intent and situation. We get this through an accumulation of moments between the protagonists and their family and professional interactions. My own conclusion isn't so much that it's okay to lie to spare someone's feelings (and it's not the film's either), but rather that people tell white lies because they are conflict-adverse. We lie to avoid awkward situations, mostly. But in this amusing, yet emotional (I think Louis-Dreyfus in particular is incredibly strong) dramady, Holofcener is keen to show that not all honesty is brutal, nor every white lie benign. There is a toll to pay either way.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6X48DTtJxSQFU9MJ-lj-YB6q-OLTJJgFcqD-f26pSWIgEET1Py2EE-UQ8evN7FywQWMqbkQXRTh__Ybk4UZ0MQANtHqYq5a7cg8HF0THwMohOYjn_XCvVt5gZ-87Ab39l2VUKBlMX2dnR-PcUgLz8fwCVpdr6T6uF8042RLi0Sx_PeDg0RowD/s300/3-funnypages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6X48DTtJxSQFU9MJ-lj-YB6q-OLTJJgFcqD-f26pSWIgEET1Py2EE-UQ8evN7FywQWMqbkQXRTh__Ybk4UZ0MQANtHqYq5a7cg8HF0THwMohOYjn_XCvVt5gZ-87Ab39l2VUKBlMX2dnR-PcUgLz8fwCVpdr6T6uF8042RLi0Sx_PeDg0RowD/w133-h200/3-funnypages.jpg" title="Image, amirite?" width="133" /></a></div>I'm not convinced Funny Pages really comes together all that well, but I do appreciate that it doesn't cheat in its portrayal of its specific subculture. A teenage cartoonist interested in underground and indie comics loses his mentor and desperately adopts another who turns out to be unhinged. The movie is filled with oddball characters and cringy moments, especially in the kid's terrible first apartment. The idea, I think, is to make his life feel like one of those biographical indies, and indeed, the incidents wouldn't feel out of place in the oeuvres of Harvey Pekar or Chester Brown. So can I resent a film that sets itself up as a coming of age story then subverts it, when it expressly states up front that it's going for a subversive vibe? I can't. But like the "subversion" actually referenced, the result is unconvincing and for its own sake. I recognize what it's trying to do, and can't figure out where it's going (a good thing), but for me, it's a case of the individual parts being stronger than the whole.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_InOkFTx3h_KznPR89cpRe04cMWxy8vQH8yxrb5de78k7T9QThAXZ9GhSOpBmMyYBHLdk7BC0V2vUOV6on87GP-uMq8hTlL7MbpQY2FVRhwAcw2MXtxLoH5dRkfwbTug7xreGa-kGf_zGBcupSTp9u8QWuBzjHimxv4MCb_or-vr1sGywnGS/s298/4-redrocket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_InOkFTx3h_KznPR89cpRe04cMWxy8vQH8yxrb5de78k7T9QThAXZ9GhSOpBmMyYBHLdk7BC0V2vUOV6on87GP-uMq8hTlL7MbpQY2FVRhwAcw2MXtxLoH5dRkfwbTug7xreGa-kGf_zGBcupSTp9u8QWuBzjHimxv4MCb_or-vr1sGywnGS/w134-h200/4-redrocket.jpg" title="Texas City Blues--I mean, Pinks" width="134" /></a></div>Sean Baker's interest in real people - using a lot of non-actors, fully-realized places because they ARE real places, etc. - takes an ironic turn in Red Rocket, in which a desperate porn star (Simon Rex) goes back home to rural Texas in the summer before the 2016 election. The politics are just background color, but echo the lead's attitudes. The un-self-aware "Mike Saber" is on the cusp of a comeback, or so he believes, hoping to make his life great again by using the 17-year-old he's fallen for and who he thinks would make a great porn star despite her often saying she wouldn't want to. he sees this as virtuous even as he lambastes his friendly neighbor for stolen valor shenanigans. Mike doesn't even know he's a hypocrite. This is the section of America Baker is showing us, one that's so far up its own righteousness, it's in deep denial about its own wrong-doing. Saber is real pill, but Rex's energetic performance makes it go down more smoothly. He's a scumbag, but he's bad at it, so you can enjoy rooting for him to fail. Suzanna Son as his prey/love interest Strawberry is very charming. The rest of the cast is naturalistic and real. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVB_8fyJwXHrkXNWfYrL5eHGTqET7Zq_C5k3Qs6nrhnSIb4aZkllw8yqVTSJTrw-3ZFwXUeDV2roZIThGgw37epQ3teWPfUvBvtBhY9B-gKHxHu-A6u7qkAoaxfyQKLz2Kdxzal11pZxdVzVWETxvBGCaKyyQqN93O7UGeMJrj-lIpFeNChYgz/s292/5-minari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVB_8fyJwXHrkXNWfYrL5eHGTqET7Zq_C5k3Qs6nrhnSIb4aZkllw8yqVTSJTrw-3ZFwXUeDV2roZIThGgw37epQ3teWPfUvBvtBhY9B-gKHxHu-A6u7qkAoaxfyQKLz2Kdxzal11pZxdVzVWETxvBGCaKyyQqN93O7UGeMJrj-lIpFeNChYgz/w137-h200/5-minari.jpg" title="Passion of the Random Dude" width="137" /></a></div>In 2020, the United States had just gone through a rough patch (ongoing), so stories about pursuing the American Dream made around this time are going to be bleak. Lee Isaac Chung's Minari takes place in the 80s, but same difference (mentioning Reagan is, I take it, not incidental). A Korean family moves to Arkansas looking for a fresh start and seem to always be heading for disaster. Steven Yeun (Beef, Nope) is the head of the family trying to keep everything together, but he's tilling land that's marked as cursed and the Biblical undertones layered into the film should make us wary even when disaster is averted. An immigrant story that isn't too concerned with systemic racism, Minari has a lot of great performances and strong representation for Asian-Americans, but I don't know if the story really gels for me. There are many elements at work - including an important thruline about the young, sickly boy bonding with his grandmother - and I'm left thinking I just watched an out-of-context chapter in the characters' lives, one that ends abruptly and cruelly. It's naturalism in the literary sense and that was never my favorite mode. Too depressing.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuiwx3NQfV899V2EXmNLmME-ewDOEvKPYEAnYlcEncaZG0CDL99gl-m8zRBlyt9AkpGA-5WkY8HMjYN_x7aBXHR9tDYpplAerSa_ntljEZ9HdIfPlwD1wvytDEa8y83nT112lproiumcG22AGc8S9CboSngdt5FVe69MHSVoO8fWgmiDjT2-S9/s286/6-extraordinaryattorneywoo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuiwx3NQfV899V2EXmNLmME-ewDOEvKPYEAnYlcEncaZG0CDL99gl-m8zRBlyt9AkpGA-5WkY8HMjYN_x7aBXHR9tDYpplAerSa_ntljEZ9HdIfPlwD1wvytDEa8y83nT112lproiumcG22AGc8S9CboSngdt5FVe69MHSVoO8fWgmiDjT2-S9/w140-h200/6-extraordinaryattorneywoo.jpg" title="A whale of a good time" width="140" /></a></div>Park Eun-bin is amazing in Extraordinary Attorney Woo, playing a rookie lawyer with autism spectrum disorder navigating a difficult professional world and a timid and wholesome potential romance for the first time in her life. I've seen trailers of other things she's been in and she's frankly unrecognizable here as the open-faced (and open-hearted) Woo Young-woo. Obviously, this is a fiction, and her awkwardness is counter-balanced by a photographic memory when it comes to the law. Still, the coping strategies are very real, and Park's performance remarkably consistent. The court cases are varied and very Korean, for lack of a better expression, but while they deal with South Korean realities, I don't think they're alienating (though I of course don't believe every plaintiff in Korea court blurts things out like they do on the show). And of course, it's K-TV, so it's very sentimental. Mostly through the music, but there's no denying that the characters and story are very cute. Even her foils at the office eventually tend towards their better selves, and the romantic subplots are so clean as to evoke the school yard. I mean none of this in a derogatory way. I often laughed and wept over the same same episodes. The only time I think it crossed the sappiness line for me is the "working holiday" two-parter, which is something that occasionally crops up on series where "production value" is added by going on location. These episodes often seem bought and paid for by local tourism and feel padded. But otherwise, I've got no complaints. While the 16 episodes work as a complete arc, without any real dangling plot threads, I've just read the show was renewed for a second season. Works for me, since I was going to say I was satisfied with what we have, but definitely love the characters enough to want more.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcwc9dj4UAipHBILPiG9sckjsv7Lu6hWsC1RMoYunQ-2TkD_Dqc_1Khqo9iKX-Wz995O3fYKUyUcfZrxEG5ItYl8Sk-gYSMyleOpZndtspFzzOpLCSumXmwM1SPQiAJz2kqXBAakkCIxQLVjCNUh1ZTpncs6h9UymezuhH12AFkOIdPpyxGu0s/s298/7-defendingyourlife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcwc9dj4UAipHBILPiG9sckjsv7Lu6hWsC1RMoYunQ-2TkD_Dqc_1Khqo9iKX-Wz995O3fYKUyUcfZrxEG5ItYl8Sk-gYSMyleOpZndtspFzzOpLCSumXmwM1SPQiAJz2kqXBAakkCIxQLVjCNUh1ZTpncs6h9UymezuhH12AFkOIdPpyxGu0s/w134-h200/7-defendingyourlife.jpg" title="Can't believe Shirley Maclane is in this!" width="134" /></a></div>What does Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life have in common with Dune? Fear is the mind killer. Or so his areligious imagining of the afterlife would have it. And playing to his anxious, insecure persona, Brooks is in a sort of hell as he enters Judgment City where his life will be examined to see if he can "move forward" or be sent back for another tour on Earth. People judging him is his personal nightmare, so great! There is such attention to detail in a Brooks movie - each line is given the proper attention, each character has something pleasurable about them, but in this case, the world-building is excellent too. Brooks has an answer for everything, if at the very least that an answer shouldn't be forthcoming. There's innate chemistry between him and his amusing defense attorney (Rip Torn) and between him and Meryl Streep, a veritable soul mate come too late. Funny AND thought-provoking, Defending Your Life becomes a conversation piece as soon as the closing credits hit, so do watch it with other people and listen in as they share just what moments of their lives would be examined, but also what theories they come up with about the more mysterious moments and elliptical lines. The more I think about it, the more I like it (especially the WHY characters do what they do), and the movie offers an afterlife that's actually hopeful as well as absurd. The universe could do worse.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhns-Lc4IOfqNUiJCv5H_7meZtL4hgjwFsd7ijdKT1el59UUzSQ5vM72VuAIDBgaYZmesXkfcDpXtJvwNLHb83H3okwTIViuv7y25ysiohe__TxBUO-QBIXL0xgoKWBJYVbOpWAcmKWdOTqhLhM9yCq00Vvgkk49kcO62y2ytju1GLNylsw_tv2/s286/8-childsplay54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhns-Lc4IOfqNUiJCv5H_7meZtL4hgjwFsd7ijdKT1el59UUzSQ5vM72VuAIDBgaYZmesXkfcDpXtJvwNLHb83H3okwTIViuv7y25ysiohe__TxBUO-QBIXL0xgoKWBJYVbOpWAcmKWdOTqhLhM9yCq00Vvgkk49kcO62y2ytju1GLNylsw_tv2/w140-h200/8-childsplay54.jpg" title="More carnage than Chucky" width="140" /></a></div>My Companion Film of the week stars Anneke Wills (Polly)... Presented as a tall tale where anything could happen, Child's Play (no, not that Child's Play, 1954's Child's Play) seems an attempt to create a rural British version of the Little Rascals in the "Holy Terrors", but there's no indication that any further stories were ever attempted (the movie even came out two years after it was made) and it's... kind of fun and silly, actually. Not exactly a primer on atomic energy, the kid gang means to create an atomic bomb to blow up their nemesis, a self-serious constable, but eventually use the power of the atom for more productive uses. In the real world, everyone in the village would have died several times over. Personally, I think watching kids handling uranium with protective asbestos gloves is a hoot and a half from the era where people were told to put sticky tape on their window panes to protect them from the effects of atomic bomb explosions. Bubbly kiddie fare, sure, but there are a lot of jokes for adults too, and several "I can't believe they got away with that" type lines. Kind of too bad there isn't a whole series of these.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYvWdhmqbSwcpmUqpyIUf5gP13_7EYFTG6O53g7-wR50ESQknp1_9a7toRLRU2Ktu4yRD6423txbB_KCK6sr8Qsgg5vW0mjNija_R0IalsKpUWk-40o4mz9RNx_Yt9h0wFuFkUdQUqMHJRVae1ccB69StnW5hdjT-pfJOksC1CdwLPvWyh1p7A/s308/9-byrneff3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYvWdhmqbSwcpmUqpyIUf5gP13_7EYFTG6O53g7-wR50ESQknp1_9a7toRLRU2Ktu4yRD6423txbB_KCK6sr8Qsgg5vW0mjNija_R0IalsKpUWk-40o4mz9RNx_Yt9h0wFuFkUdQUqMHJRVae1ccB69StnW5hdjT-pfJOksC1CdwLPvWyh1p7A/w130-h200/9-byrneff3.jpg" title="Heroes in search of a background" width="130" /></a></div>Books: Collecting issues #251-257 and Annual #17, Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 3 also includes Avengers #233 and Thing #2, which cross over into an FF storyline and had Byrne contributions on story and art. The longer arc has the FF go to the Negative Zone while Annihilus crosses over to our world, but it's really a way to tell some "Star Trek" stories with the group (nothing wrong with that). It doesn't end satisfactorily though, and in the middle of it, the art becomes a lot sketchier as Byrne stretches himself too thin. It looks like the pages are smaller and therefore look a little blown up. The proof is in the pudding with writing and partial art credits on those issues of Avengers and the Thing (plus doing an Annual in that time period), which are placed so as to repeat beats from the core Fantastic Four book BEFORE they happen, which is just annoying on multiple levels. It also makes the collection drag on with fewer issues of FF per volume. Nevertheless, it seems like Byrne is finally ready to effect some changes by the end of this chapter, with Galactus eating the Skrull homeworld, Sue getting pregnant again, and the various members moving out of the Baxter Building. Changes for the team AND for the larger Marvel Universe. Should start getting more exciting.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5bgzoABV4_9JzfFHwoE8-YQAmxSndl8oKkYjPwTxPJq27JMYCrJRRiQ1naMjiOMAW7MnONCy4Gvgc36aqAb9HOqQJZzby4ZxubsJR5KsMUM5V9RLCnaogoBnkXuSwDav_1rYl12h4VRnfnxk_77sC3kq7-OKLxNf1ZykWbX1v6CxKGpxqPh2N/s260/10-torg-dry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5bgzoABV4_9JzfFHwoE8-YQAmxSndl8oKkYjPwTxPJq27JMYCrJRRiQ1naMjiOMAW7MnONCy4Gvgc36aqAb9HOqQJZzby4ZxubsJR5KsMUM5V9RLCnaogoBnkXuSwDav_1rYl12h4VRnfnxk_77sC3kq7-OKLxNf1ZykWbX1v6CxKGpxqPh2N/w154-h200/10-torg-dry.jpg" title="Y did Kanawa do this?" width="154" /></a></div>RPGs: When we played the preliminary Day One adventures for Torg Eternity, the Pan-Pacifica one-off was possibly the favorite. While COVID naturally made the company bend away from the zombie pandemic element introduced there in later products, I didn't want to do with it too quickly. So while the characters are in Pan-Pacifica, is was time to do a Contagion story (using elements from the Dr. Y & the Jiangshi scenario). The Day One ended with an almost-Total Party Kill, which made it thrilling. But in a continuing campaign, when all the characters get infected and start showing symptoms, the thrills come with chills (both literally and figuratively). I still used the Infected cards from the Day One book, but felt like we cycled too quickly through them (especially since the virus mutates every Scene), so I'm thinking of maybe creating additional ones in time for the second Act. Hmmm... The mission? Simple enough. A researcher (in my version, the female Dr. Yi) has been kidnapped by Kanawa after possibly making a breakthrough. Our heroes find out where she's being detained and mount her rescue from an underwater lab where the Infected soon start running rampant. Lots of action, but the Players avoided it when they could, so we managed the full Act before our time was up. Might have helped that I only had 3 players on hand - one had to bow out at the last minute, along with the key skills of Lockpicking, Persuasion and Water Vehicles, oops!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb4aGHYXT3y6pLj6Aj918dSxPIjiQebJ6K8P3IAngb3GKA4jEk2lkoBfRsBvzEjHhBpPBPbfegBqJa-RZ4Rm_adMXFflVb_mYmg444WqoNYAO4NsrGlFim0Kwz14lKa-cRqGy9BEG8clOSoDXG_V61BLqMFZOEogWs6P4zpn3gqYImJ1I7L4yW/s600/11-breaking-news27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb4aGHYXT3y6pLj6Aj918dSxPIjiQebJ6K8P3IAngb3GKA4jEk2lkoBfRsBvzEjHhBpPBPbfegBqJa-RZ4Rm_adMXFflVb_mYmg444WqoNYAO4NsrGlFim0Kwz14lKa-cRqGy9BEG8clOSoDXG_V61BLqMFZOEogWs6P4zpn3gqYImJ1I7L4yW/s16000/11-breaking-news27.jpg" title="I just looked at my Zuzu" /></a></div>Best bits: Weird coincidence - The first fight is against a guard shark (I made a joke about the smartsharks in Deep Blue Sea) in and the first Drama card was Comeback (I started singing "Don't call it a comeback") and was asked if I had placed the Drama card on top on purpose to do an LL Cool J joke (his song AND he was in the movie). Didn't occur to me, no. A lot of nice Infection role-play. My players complained of body pain, temperature swings, hunger pangs, according to their assigned symptoms (with the Realm Runner's heart stopping and requiring immediate First Aid lest he rise as a monster). The rage symptom made them start brawling for no reason, and the Monster Hunter willingly turned into his Werebat form (which he almost NEVER does) to snack on some Kanawa troops. He also played a key Connection card to surprise everyone with how quickly (and secretly) struck up a friendship with the boat captain who brought them to the location, insuring he would stay beyond the allowed time to pick them up. Desperate times, but also some yucks - the term Zuzu in French is pretty silly and characters sharing information by touching Zuzus always sounded like it was naughty.Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-80377975729073600292024-03-18T06:00:00.013-03:002024-03-18T06:00:00.355-03:00RPG Tools: Tabletop Audio<p>Let's try this again... <i>The modern GameMaster is always looking for online tools to help make their campaign more immersive. After all, many of us have been relegated to playing online - the pandemic pushed it, but so did adulting, now parents can take a short break to put their kids to bed, etc. in the middle of a session, no problem - and GMs have to create the immediacy of the in-person experience somehow. A lot of online tools are subscription-based, and that interests me less. Over the course of a few articles, I want to look at a few, neat, online tools that can make a difference in keeping the players engaged, the equivalent of the props and hand-outs you might have crafted and passed around in the old days.</i><br /><br />This week: <b><a href="https://tabletopaudio.com/" target="_blank">Tabletop Audio</a></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrHE4svTv6V6kImpQu5EMYJIUTRPzGIsNL2sn9Jq3otFE6hZBaPPjqNgJmwQYTzx6tsCMP9cFKCQDNQHpHI4PuIzudKAKwxwqHfYkDS_6gmkT2jd93yKWIoKD8f3BFKokWAjAqTHG2-Q4qWzNeTA0X5M-yoc0EsNNHfuIQ33vCeFpjzqcMnNUm/s600/tabletopaudio1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrHE4svTv6V6kImpQu5EMYJIUTRPzGIsNL2sn9Jq3otFE6hZBaPPjqNgJmwQYTzx6tsCMP9cFKCQDNQHpHI4PuIzudKAKwxwqHfYkDS_6gmkT2jd93yKWIoKD8f3BFKokWAjAqTHG2-Q4qWzNeTA0X5M-yoc0EsNNHfuIQ33vCeFpjzqcMnNUm/s16000/tabletopaudio1.jpg" title="I'm listening" /></a></div>Do you use music at the table? I do. I like to build soundtracks, with theme songs and everything. But music and sound effects can also be used to create an atmosphere. Is the scene creepy, pastoral, or exciting? A thrumming soundscape can add intention to a scene and give the players a vibe that's otherwise difficult to replicate with simple description, especially when the outside world intrudes with its usual distractions. A sudden switch between jungle sounds and weird airy crystals as one enters a strange ruin can make players stand at attention, while the big bombastic booms of action music, when they somehow land exactly on a great dice roll makes the scene more memorable and fun.<br /><br />But where are you going to get those atmospheres? Tabletop Audio has you covered. Over 400 10-minute, loopable, searchable beds that you can listen to on the site with a handy built-in player and then download for free, without limits. Each track is clearly marked as to whether it contains ambience (sound effects, like a rowdy tavern), music (with a difference made for minimal music), or both. The tracks skew toward Fantasy, naturally, but Sci-fi, Historical, Modern and Horror are all covered. Nature and Music are other labels you can search through, but write anything in the search bar and see if it comes up with some hits.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9lAva7xis6bobeCKiyAz76hPIUzmUNdPb4Rk6alXYfsza8Q3WzawzHRJEOooqCiPBQOpxKSYUyYpOTk_e3Mpw4Qu9LWVoWU69k9tmPTMeCoaSIblynooe4OWgqfH0yU9PzQM3_u8SkfcmoQwpAwKLOuB26EuOaJGhAt0yN2BY-HM3ohGj0jp/s600/tabletopaudio2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9lAva7xis6bobeCKiyAz76hPIUzmUNdPb4Rk6alXYfsza8Q3WzawzHRJEOooqCiPBQOpxKSYUyYpOTk_e3Mpw4Qu9LWVoWU69k9tmPTMeCoaSIblynooe4OWgqfH0yU9PzQM3_u8SkfcmoQwpAwKLOuB26EuOaJGhAt0yN2BY-HM3ohGj0jp/s16000/tabletopaudio2.jpg" title="We're not ALL D&D nerds" /></a></div>Just looking through the tracks (each accompanied by a pleasing image) might give you an idea for a scene - The Drowned Tower, Whispering Caverns, Rise of the Golem... very evocative - and guess what, the scene comes with ready-made music. No one says you can't start with the soundtrack. If it's good enough for Quentin Tarantino...<br /><br />You might already be doing this kind of thing with YouTube or Spotify, possibly recording the music/sounds using software so that your session doesn't get interrupted by ads. Getting a long enough loop is tedious, believe me. There are still environments I can't find music for since I play a multi-genre game that can't be entirely covered by clicking spider dens and cyberpunk speakeasies. But your first stop really should be Tabletop Audio. Big loops, ready made for adventure, at the click of a button.<br /><br />The site has a new feature called SoundPad that allows you to customize your soundscapes, but I've yet to fiddle with it much. So we'll talk about it next week!<p></p>Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-12317946545931960292024-03-17T06:00:00.031-03:002024-03-17T06:00:00.244-03:00This Week in Geek (10-16/03/24)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUeurKGViCJZUO6E6uFIADoRO9NcVduzA3sWBF3fTli2lUGpMbIRik8COZf4QH2nm_hiY4n6gmpf3eIuvUQu9GE3YddfisbbVKn8Rz1OUxixtf2YJgWBJhkCOgm-jFqZ75lt-b8crMkZuWS1RLI9nCRJ23IFkloSZDej3Og3OfyMH5FnekPrhD/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUeurKGViCJZUO6E6uFIADoRO9NcVduzA3sWBF3fTli2lUGpMbIRik8COZf4QH2nm_hiY4n6gmpf3eIuvUQu9GE3YddfisbbVKn8Rz1OUxixtf2YJgWBJhkCOgm-jFqZ75lt-b8crMkZuWS1RLI9nCRJ23IFkloSZDej3Og3OfyMH5FnekPrhD/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Hemingway's "The Killers", party people, I like your voice, cats" /></a></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7GMK0MRwawr_MSWzfGGsUSJtwCvym24lI-3fhS0akYexDwXyTmaMqzkjeVhCJZ_pqPJu1tCWnGs-KxB8bN_OniZ_rTX3Ae2J302oDF2eUIX6ADNHzyc1PLqWs5JRd7J2gWk1ZkorGhwt3Cs2lj-g3uUksJiqH6pgbvsxIT2hOI3Kz48xXgoVa/s249/1-extraordinary2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="249" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7GMK0MRwawr_MSWzfGGsUSJtwCvym24lI-3fhS0akYexDwXyTmaMqzkjeVhCJZ_pqPJu1tCWnGs-KxB8bN_OniZ_rTX3Ae2J302oDF2eUIX6ADNHzyc1PLqWs5JRd7J2gWk1ZkorGhwt3Cs2lj-g3uUksJiqH6pgbvsxIT2hOI3Kz48xXgoVa/w161-h200/1-extraordinary2.jpg" title="Extra! Extra!" width="161" /></a></div>At home: I loved the first season of Extraordinary and wondered where the characters would go after their main subplots had been played in Season 1. Who are Kash and Carrie (oh my God, I just got that!) when they're not a couple about to break up? What's next for Jizzlord when his old family tracks him down? I wasn't too sure about the former, but like where it ended. The latter provides a major villain for the season, taking fun shots at influencer culture in the process. But of course, this was always principally Jen's story, the manic pixie nightmare girl who is one of the few people on Earth not to have developed a super-power yet. I quite like her journey, which involves a very funny mind palace and brings is several times into very touching territory. A series so absurd and blue shouldn't make me feel so many feels! It's not right! Or so right. And the soundtrack continues to be a solid highlight, so excuse me while I check my usual places for a listing of the music and get down to listening to (mostly) trash chick rock again.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG3Jjl2LRtC-pBWp9sinGt2Ss6Qw91ZvhwV-ui8vW6tbzZj39U0VxGCUElJGKnR2R0bfuqMzhBbCJDt5jmwr4t3ac4-dMQDjgE-_EyLRp_i37m994CS6_SMBKd_BHrHBMBGqSipG8Jv2zTUZNsCrNwu2xPMJQ6OBPhECYwTd_esiSyuMELEMzT/s308/2-killers46.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG3Jjl2LRtC-pBWp9sinGt2Ss6Qw91ZvhwV-ui8vW6tbzZj39U0VxGCUElJGKnR2R0bfuqMzhBbCJDt5jmwr4t3ac4-dMQDjgE-_EyLRp_i37m994CS6_SMBKd_BHrHBMBGqSipG8Jv2zTUZNsCrNwu2xPMJQ6OBPhECYwTd_esiSyuMELEMzT/w130-h200/2-killers46.jpg" title="Take 1" width="130" /></a></div>If you've read Ernest Hemingway's "The Killers", it may be hard to fathom how this short story could be turned into a feature film. It's just not long enough. 1946's Clifford Siodmak adaptation therefore chooses to EXPLAIN how the "Swede" got himself into the kind of trouble that would bring a couple of hit men to the tiny town where he's been living the simple life of a gas station attendant for years. And while it's strong Noir (well scripted, well shot, with a strong debut performance by Burt Lancaster as the doomed man), it's also chock full of Noir CLICHÉS. You have the boxer turned criminal, the femme fatale, the insurance investigator, the convoluted scheme... Something of a greatest hits album, which I didn't feel respected Hemingway's written dissection of masculinity - that a man might just face the music because it's the "manly" thing to do. I'm not making a judgment on Hemingway's masculine ideal, only that it doesn't really figure in The Killers' "solution". But those first couple scenes, straight outta the story, are really good, with real menace coming off the title characters... who sadly then disappear from the narrative for most of its length. Proposes a good mystery, but leaves me a little ambivalent about its conclusions.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoDjOoOjjNG9reaYsCIclDgCsePCONquRaZgw-1EOM6Eg8EGRegCZ1DWYs2-5_URsqZKer5m2Iq189N88HqNMb-Wdubkb5Iw-xUaTF38VYbz4_imKD8IDtS55Xi-4JcpNHBIGG2rcf0cRsBo2YDMs5xQc2Ql8pYOI_-ehQmhBfuSJyhRCHxrEE/s294/3-killers56.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoDjOoOjjNG9reaYsCIclDgCsePCONquRaZgw-1EOM6Eg8EGRegCZ1DWYs2-5_URsqZKer5m2Iq189N88HqNMb-Wdubkb5Iw-xUaTF38VYbz4_imKD8IDtS55Xi-4JcpNHBIGG2rcf0cRsBo2YDMs5xQc2Ql8pYOI_-ehQmhBfuSJyhRCHxrEE/w136-h200/3-killers56.jpg" title="Take 2" width="136" /></a></div>I'm not sure really use 1956's The Killers to study Andrei Tarkovsky's emerging style since 1) it's a student film and 2) two other students are credited as director (how communist!), but as a lean, strict adaptation of Hemingway's story, it strikes me as a valuable comparison to the longer American versions. What we get here is the short story, nothing more, nothing less, and therefore a more elliptical work that leaves you wondering/imagining what happened and what WILL happen. It's well done, especially the pacing and suspense, even if it is a little strange to watch Soviets do a seminal American tale. Were there rules about what American material could be cleared for such adaptations? Is it because it's a gangland story that makes the U.S. seem unsafe and depraved that The Killers was fine for a university-financed short film? Probably. The lack of resources, yet fidelity to the source material, does provoke a bit of black face, so audience be warned.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqleoLpv-AXCE75Qg-RU1shfU1v9OEDn0eHPTmk_dL1BqJTugMX3jX7XqUVh8hypVp42vnYYPTNwviVEOIU_JLwRmojQzu01fc_NVvXSu1qhxP044He0uPV5-TMdImph0YTHFOMTlXIzazpiABsmj9zq_KGVZ7a5yC41DFuRh1SxH6UA7yTepG/s301/4-killers64.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqleoLpv-AXCE75Qg-RU1shfU1v9OEDn0eHPTmk_dL1BqJTugMX3jX7XqUVh8hypVp42vnYYPTNwviVEOIU_JLwRmojQzu01fc_NVvXSu1qhxP044He0uPV5-TMdImph0YTHFOMTlXIzazpiABsmj9zq_KGVZ7a5yC41DFuRh1SxH6UA7yTepG/w133-h200/4-killers64.jpg" title="Take 3" width="133" /></a></div>Don Siegel's 1964 version of The Killers really leaves Hemingway behind to craft a remix of the 1946 film (script courtesy of Star Trek's Gene Coon). The scene in the diner is completely gone, and so the killers (Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager, who make great bullies) walk into their victim's place of employment and shoot him. Done. The man (John Cassavetes) stands there and takes it, though if the other characters didn't mention it constantly, I don't know that it would necessarily read that way. The twist on the original film's inventions is the removal, distortion or streamlining of 1946's Noir clichés, doing away with the insurance investigator, for example, and instead making the title characters do the work. Marvin's becomes obsessed with the moment and as things come to light, wouldn't mind retiring on the missing heist money. All the names are changed and though it's got a similar structure as the 1946 Killers, the plot points are different, and Siegel pushes it more into the action category, the Noir towards the lurid. Not sure I buy Angie Dickinson as a Femme Fatale - she seems genuinely loving - but the ambiguity is what makes it interesting. The heavies: Ronald Reagan (his last film) and Mr. Roper, a weird combo that took me out of the movie whenever they were on screen. Both Henry Mancini and John Williams supplied music, but he look is 60s TV, with the old desert back roads and studio lots (I guess we moved off of Florida faster than it seemed). I was entertained, and they certainly didn't make the same movie Siodmak had, but they also didn't make Hemingway's story either! Given the film's DNA, I was expecting better.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX9oKVDFG9IVFan_V2xF7SyFHuSYeyFEVCk4L5qcdE1kv2jmY00OffxcGJHOSwEGAD1GNcsQLs24kO3kM3fsJccGa56dPgy8XbpysXngDK5cjWBGBjbRm95_qDOgaFflTOMeFy3qq972JH5stg_gSlAD_g0bj6D3SUTn7Q7IGCMy3DDhgWz12M/s284/5-2ldk.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX9oKVDFG9IVFan_V2xF7SyFHuSYeyFEVCk4L5qcdE1kv2jmY00OffxcGJHOSwEGAD1GNcsQLs24kO3kM3fsJccGa56dPgy8XbpysXngDK5cjWBGBjbRm95_qDOgaFflTOMeFy3qq972JH5stg_gSlAD_g0bj6D3SUTn7Q7IGCMy3DDhgWz12M/w141-h200/5-2ldk.jpg" title="The Odd Couple was never like this" width="141" /></a></div>A contest between two directors, 2LDK (it's Japanese apartment nomenclature, 2 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, see?) had to be shot in 8 days with only two actors. These are two roommates with very different attitudes, both actresses up for the same part. At first, you can hear all their thoughts, bouncing between lines that are exposed as passive-aggressive, but the tension between them soon moves across a line that marks a point of no return (is that a mixed metaphor? regardless). Violence in the Japanese splatter style ensues, and you're never quite sure if you're in a metaphorical battle, a metatextual audition for "Yakuza Wives", or some form of reality. It's probably all three, but the ending does make a choice for you, and makes me pine for a couple of alternate, more clever endings that crossed my mind. Nevertheless, for a quicky made with little means, Yukihiko Tsutsumi's entry for this "film duel" is fun and has a lot of grit.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbPoW8TkVkANM4ZRnqY8plSKxmNzmeL_sh0Q5yhd9hc_xYe84QIiZH8nnSjoBdxuyvC8GJlwiyPew52_gvNAJVFw8kyVI0W4eq7KVPsc6lY0x_w5VvXy7Xs8cJNgJLGGX074eN9O0r_OWEC_cbtA62ifO5VWhoP-w3pQeh9O8ZDoausFkfWUG/s297/6-special.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbPoW8TkVkANM4ZRnqY8plSKxmNzmeL_sh0Q5yhd9hc_xYe84QIiZH8nnSjoBdxuyvC8GJlwiyPew52_gvNAJVFw8kyVI0W4eq7KVPsc6lY0x_w5VvXy7Xs8cJNgJLGGX074eN9O0r_OWEC_cbtA62ifO5VWhoP-w3pQeh9O8ZDoausFkfWUG/w135-h200/6-special.jpg" title="Comic book store action" width="135" /></a></div>I would call Special a blackety-black comedy, but it's really a drama, albeit an absurd one. And absurdity can often fuel the perception of something as a comedy. Michael Rapaport is a meter maid with crushing self-doubt who, on a whim, joins a pharmacological study, then starts exhibiting super powers and becomes a vigilante. The movie wastes no time showing us that this is a grand delusion based on the comic books he likes to read, but still treats the superheroics as "real", with Big Pharma villains coming after him convincingly and real-world consequences to the violence. I'm not sure there's actual commentary on anti-depressants, though some might think so. It almost seems more like Mazes & Monsters with comics instead of D&D, though I'm pretty sure the production isn't trying to create a comic panic. Rather, Special is an exploration of what kind of psychosis might provoke superheroics in the real world, and has its protagonist (Les, ironically enough) work through his mental health issues and achieve catharsis and change. Do we need to be "special" to feel valuable? Rapaport gives a poignant performance in service of the answer.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCD6QSFGNS2MemRXerIocuCkwAu9quEBkSrnMV0A6JbMgOhc_iaB7hKyBf700wSC9wL1Wali5T_EoWO0jlg3G0-kTURIUyeWXQOd_iZ-X77Qzvsm2FW1gZAOfv9Kg6lW0ZLh-zq8IsY1UhQT2rXiqjCDxkvwUNCOGNsUEd77Sw8ZsTTPVI1spU/s285/7-wheeloffortuneandfantasy.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCD6QSFGNS2MemRXerIocuCkwAu9quEBkSrnMV0A6JbMgOhc_iaB7hKyBf700wSC9wL1Wali5T_EoWO0jlg3G0-kTURIUyeWXQOd_iZ-X77Qzvsm2FW1gZAOfv9Kg6lW0ZLh-zq8IsY1UhQT2rXiqjCDxkvwUNCOGNsUEd77Sw8ZsTTPVI1spU/w140-h200/7-wheeloffortuneandfantasy.jpg" title="Spin the wheel, if you dare" width="140" /></a></div>Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy presents three thematically-linked stories, and it's those links, along with the title, that give his mundane slice-of-life tales a sense that great forces - psychological and cosmic - are at work in our lives, forces that take us into the territory of poetics. In each story, two things: A web of coincidence creates a chance encounter that one character describes as Dramatic Meeting. And characters will go in with one intention and end up doing something else with greater conviction. If the film is about regret, it's largely about overcoming that regret and moving on. Where there is ambiguity, it's the sort of every-day ambiguity that comes from not knowing another person (or even oneself) fully, and ultimately it's in the service of finding some grace in the world, and therefore, some poignancy for the audience. Each story is better than the last, and though each is small, private, and essentially just a conversation or series of conversations, each feels momentous in its own way. Unadorned cinema at its best.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy2o6nfLIDxgWhbZfMjMbb2ig3y_5OMyk6zxRqpLw-0yz5uXNFy1AtrWkuGttpSAHdES62TYsOiN0J_nTOUuP69qowwoblgDxj4GuHwsu0SfuNcW3swUWbUeYvbjqi6oQlObwt7u1A6uXAPinKHlZootIDB3iQeIm4cD4eIkUJSsfukuPAF7GU/s286/8-microhabitat.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy2o6nfLIDxgWhbZfMjMbb2ig3y_5OMyk6zxRqpLw-0yz5uXNFy1AtrWkuGttpSAHdES62TYsOiN0J_nTOUuP69qowwoblgDxj4GuHwsu0SfuNcW3swUWbUeYvbjqi6oQlObwt7u1A6uXAPinKHlZootIDB3iQeIm4cD4eIkUJSsfukuPAF7GU/w140-h200/8-microhabitat.jpg" title="Couch surfing: The Motion Picture" width="140" /></a></div>Mi-so is a young woman living in poverty in Microhabitat, so decides to cut a big ticket item out of her budget. Not the whiskey and cigarettes that are her only pleasures. No, instead she foregoes paying rent. And thus begins a controversial picaresque, as she visits various old friends and asks to crash there for a night or more. And while the circumstances of each address, whether tragic or comic, aren't ideal and force her to move on, she does tend to bring a sort of healing to each friend. Whether they appreciate it enough or not really depends. Personally, I'm a little like Mi-so. I've depended on the generosity of friends, but in turn, often offered sanctuary to friends even if they couldn't pay their proper share of the rent. So if she wants a place to crash, I don't see a problem. I live a little far from Seoul though. Microhabitat is poignant study of a true free spirit, limited neither by judgmentalism nor ambition, and how people tend to see others as a burden rather than look at them for what they can contribute. Very affecting.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtbVoO-pd5bPE9I3Ea0XHf-8FgZiOgpxSZAgowHDblTfiNj3KlxC4Xltyiqa3JnEUZ5LI7IVpWqfeM4LbdoKPtXmFYug_N5ufOm92QQ3a37mKCPkPLEgtJPdhh5p725SzI89Uo5GUnBnr4_3fX5uxreHLwCNXTcApE-7TiZ_a66_aj-IDzcCe/s294/9-24hourpartypeople.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtbVoO-pd5bPE9I3Ea0XHf-8FgZiOgpxSZAgowHDblTfiNj3KlxC4Xltyiqa3JnEUZ5LI7IVpWqfeM4LbdoKPtXmFYug_N5ufOm92QQ3a37mKCPkPLEgtJPdhh5p725SzI89Uo5GUnBnr4_3fX5uxreHLwCNXTcApE-7TiZ_a66_aj-IDzcCe/w136-h200/9-24hourpartypeople.jpg" title="Factory specs" width="136" /></a></div>Michael Winterbottom's first film collaboration with Steve Coogan was 24 Hour Party People, a rambunctious portrait of Manchester's music scene from the mid-70s to the early 90s, told through the perspective of Factor Records founder Tony Wilson. He (like many of the musicians who lived it) has a bit part in the movie, which combines fact and folklore to tell its story, and is upfront about "printing the myth" rather than the verifiable truth. If he actually made postmodern comments in life like he does in the film, then its postmodern vibe is well warranted. And because Wilson was a television presenter, Coogan keeps breaking the fourth wall to frame the story AS a television presentation, so I'm inclined to think the postmodernism was factual. Coogan also mixes in his trademark ad libs, but they don't take over the movie like they do in The Trip series (also with Winterbottom). The style definitely enlivens what could have been a montage of moments. Lots of young-looking faces that were about to become big deals in the flick too - Sean Harris, John Simm, Christopher Eccleston, an unrecognizable Andy Sirkis, and blinbk-and-you'll-miss-him Simon Pegg... Fun stuff.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaIgfC3T1vo0tqizWM6m35S_dpx1y_laYMIebudnBfmagCpQHc_kEf9hjY2xFNGAsREHjBeh5MocOK5CVB8jGbSV23-O46NE9hrKOZhLtJ677cYX7BOH5OoE4IoR2SSMBr_ElzXhc1CwPKFfa39M9Jyc_5wLEJNU5Nw4jt8YGd9uvow6fpokWf/s305/10-changeling.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaIgfC3T1vo0tqizWM6m35S_dpx1y_laYMIebudnBfmagCpQHc_kEf9hjY2xFNGAsREHjBeh5MocOK5CVB8jGbSV23-O46NE9hrKOZhLtJ677cYX7BOH5OoE4IoR2SSMBr_ElzXhc1CwPKFfa39M9Jyc_5wLEJNU5Nw4jt8YGd9uvow6fpokWf/w131-h200/10-changeling.jpg" title="Just move out!" width="131" /></a></div>And now, this week's Companion Film. Jackie Lane (Dodo) never stared in any films during her short acting career, so I'm going to replace her with Jean Marsh (Sara Kingdom), one of Hartnell's pseudo-companions... The Changeling starts with George C. Scott on a snowy road with his wife (yay, Jean Marsh!) and daughter, and then a terrible road accident and he loses both (nooo, Jean Marsh!). He moves West into a haunted house and things proceed from there, with the young ghost reminding him of his daughter and forcing his investigation into a very cold case that has ramifications at the highest levels. Well-made and well-paced, The Changeling has some interesting "haunted" bits and seance tricks I'd never seen before, but is it frightening? Not particularly as it feels more like a supernatural detective story, though full points to Trish Van Devere for selling how terrified SHE is. Ultimately likeable, but it doesn't exactly fulfill the title's promise. The title has nothing to do with the changeling folklore (which makes you expect the little girl to make a comeback), except metaphorically. The other promise it fails to make good on is the "and Jean Marsh" credit. It's the smallest role on the film! Still, if you want your sci-fi alumni, you do get a little more of John Colicos (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica) and Barry Morse (Space 1999)!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAQjE9k1i2FiPw7iULpyZFbBCYUD8qzJbniDx8BozlKiNxVsDlttPkyuRuP7Ip9LaAsB1IiWGiqnZ_SKmUE8yMwKN7HSNyj_q__K7PuzOLDKOTxhtcXV3Wzcua4vlB0WYZE4pBTzRd64_f1kU13mPQmERvsZL8B82MXaG1dPg2P2-5j7B0-0eJ/s256/11-CoC7th.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAQjE9k1i2FiPw7iULpyZFbBCYUD8qzJbniDx8BozlKiNxVsDlttPkyuRuP7Ip9LaAsB1IiWGiqnZ_SKmUE8yMwKN7HSNyj_q__K7PuzOLDKOTxhtcXV3Wzcua4vlB0WYZE4pBTzRd64_f1kU13mPQmERvsZL8B82MXaG1dPg2P2-5j7B0-0eJ/w156-h200/11-CoC7th.jpg" title="Coming home warms the CoCkles" width="156" /></a></div>RPGs: The monthly Call of Cthulhu game started a new plot, but not before our kindly Keeper allowed month to go by so our characters could do their own thing. Mine wrote a bestseller about the previous case, and yeah, this is going to be the story of some amazing dice rolls. Phelps' colleagues didn't fare so well - one of them fell even more into the booze, the other now has the inexplicable aspect of a 13-year-old girl, down from 16, down from 60 - but this was going to be Phelps' story to shine in. Now, my character doesn't believe in the supernatural and is in deep denial about the events of the previous scenario (when he falls, it'll be from a great, self-constructed height). And the denial continued after he received a letter that his cousin had been found dead in Arkham, Massachusetts, weeks after passing in her old mansion. Phelps had received a letter from her just two days before, however, so while he couldn't lend credence to the tales of body swaps and witchcraft Odessa had written to him about, the idea that she was dead seemed suspect indeed. So off he goes to attend a funeral and see to her affairs (crushing debt and the estate willed to some cult). Rain. The Hound of the Baskervilles. A drunk stranger in the house (who we should trust because he's a replacement PC in case someone loses theirs... man, good thing I'm not GMing because that would be my way to hide a major betrayal). An emotional roller coaster as Phelps decides his cousin isn't dead, and then that she must. Phelps is such a boisterous man that here I got to play him on the down turn, dour and sarcastic. Let's just say lawyers should proofread their letters before sending them. It was also a way to distract focus from him and let the other players have a go (it was clearly HIS story, but he didn't want to engage with it). As we prepare to turn in, strange clues are found, which will be the focus of Session 2's recap. And those kingly rolls? Phelps got his friends away safe from that giant, rabid dog (with the help of his cat Lucifer, naturally, ever the lucky charm). Intimidating the stranger was where I rolled a 1 (on 100), and in my head canon, he was so scared he became a would-be PC. Phelps dodged other bullets, generally rolling crits. Oh he's going to fall from a great height indeed.Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-42369022277139717932024-03-11T06:00:00.016-03:002024-03-11T06:00:00.135-03:00RPG Tools: Break Your Own News<p>Continued from last week, so let's repeat the intro: <i>The modern GameMaster is always looking for online tools to help make their campaign more immersive. After all, many of us have been relegated to playing online - the pandemic pushed it, but so did adulting, now parents can take a short break to put their kids to bed, etc. in the middle of a session, no problem - and GMs have to create the immediacy of the in-person experience somehow. A lot of online tools are subscription-based, and that interests me less. Over the course of a few articles, I want to look at a few, neat, online tools that can make a difference in keeping the players engaged, the equivalent of the props and hand-outs you might have crafted and passed around in the old days.</i><br /><br />This week: <b><a href="https://breakyourownnews.com/" target="_blank">Break Your Own News!</a></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghIleAB7crdNHYTw-lZb4Nlcbj4WRaF2t57DdjVfdl_tvEniLnbWkyDI9Cc9Y25kGK8acdMPQ6LcNnUTZZHNu_fNQ0lXOEopdxwM-ibNjrtA1x4RHmugcp99fYih2mfLT5HDd0exp68Crlh-cC_2yns4dvN9gGjXFBXUHiG5UIFmI34HLTVjIB/s600/breaknews1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghIleAB7crdNHYTw-lZb4Nlcbj4WRaF2t57DdjVfdl_tvEniLnbWkyDI9Cc9Y25kGK8acdMPQ6LcNnUTZZHNu_fNQ0lXOEopdxwM-ibNjrtA1x4RHmugcp99fYih2mfLT5HDd0exp68Crlh-cC_2yns4dvN9gGjXFBXUHiG5UIFmI34HLTVjIB/s16000/breaknews1.jpg" title="Now THIS is news you can trust" /></a></div>There are several tools like this, including ones that look like newspaper articles - feel free to search the internet - but the principle is the same. When Player Characters have an impact on their world, and their accomplishments could be reported by the media, tools like this which were designed to help in meme design can provide a visual that is then sent to the players, archived on their Discord channel, etc. Breakyourownnews can also be shaped for mobile phones/Instagram, so think of the fun your players will have when they suddenly receive one of your news alerts.<br /><br />The purpose here, as always, is to create a memento for the players that cements their adventures in between sessions. The visual, which you can upload to the site after writing the headline and ticker tape, reminds the players of the moment. If their missions are secret, that's not necessarily an impediment. The media may not know what happened and therefore only cover it from one angle, but the players can elbow each other and say, hey, that was me.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfRXr7TL67wDEMNlp5JLHcn6JLAS_v2LhVl5bLg7gwe38x5BtIk0KS1_mmDZNymh4yiphKfBiCAbce2_FIDKfcrLnq_E0WHjfBWqkDejKtmZrjXNV0WInA1q2criOlqQlHCYETHInUFiCQOEIsCnnfNn4AbgAqGgdxgw7UFw_u5Pz28fPIQ4Kr/s600/breaknews2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfRXr7TL67wDEMNlp5JLHcn6JLAS_v2LhVl5bLg7gwe38x5BtIk0KS1_mmDZNymh4yiphKfBiCAbce2_FIDKfcrLnq_E0WHjfBWqkDejKtmZrjXNV0WInA1q2criOlqQlHCYETHInUFiCQOEIsCnnfNn4AbgAqGgdxgw7UFw_u5Pz28fPIQ4Kr/s16000/breaknews2.jpg" title="The aftershock" /></a></div>As you can see here, the media has no idea what just happened, except the CONSEQUENCES of what happened. Ticker tapes can not only provide more detail, but could also be used to seed rumors or information that didn't make it into the game session. If, for example, I wanted to point to the NEXT adventure in the above news, I could have focused the ticker tape on Dr. Grimm's escape, and told the players WHERE he fled to.<br /><br />Now, of course, this would be a weird device to use in a campaign where there is no traditional media. This tool in particular is for present-day adventures, or those occurring in the Near Now. You might find others that are more futuristic, but regardless, your D&D campaign won't support television. You could STILL do it, though. It then becomes less about creative an immersive artifact from the game world, and more about crafting a souvenir to share with the group. The defeat of a dragon, impossibly caught on CNN, is a lark and everyone knows it. But damn, it's cool to have that on my phone!<p></p>Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-18385286056244199152024-03-10T06:00:00.041-03:002024-03-10T06:00:00.134-03:00This Week in Geek (3-09/03/24)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigTUkCTuF42CQBOrQmq3W6KdanmXUZYNU2ktG3HFtdXxvXVshRxGvHeLEK3jXMqIDeWhQG4nRSCqGyQW-2FF7vd_BSmu8ITW20C9N45fD-2f0MhMoyE3ZOuNHrMd0AZg_g19CUtnhl7hgHpcth0f3NDW5cJ9s8OFCUI0fofj6tk81ng0j6B6Ri/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigTUkCTuF42CQBOrQmq3W6KdanmXUZYNU2ktG3HFtdXxvXVshRxGvHeLEK3jXMqIDeWhQG4nRSCqGyQW-2FF7vd_BSmu8ITW20C9N45fD-2f0MhMoyE3ZOuNHrMd0AZg_g19CUtnhl7hgHpcth0f3NDW5cJ9s8OFCUI0fofj6tk81ng0j6B6Ri/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Asia, fairgrounds, sand/water, Aquaman/Atlantis, emerging powers" /></a></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYQksNefxgzawLCbU7urWOtz6T3TzLXkgh2pZaXHOOaYbzGuSJK7cDE8UpxD35dyoI1B_To2IpIiFNb79gNs9BphV1pKExX_tZ-kGuUOaiXqI-kyg7z1akSevsl7pZpzHtzVOUJAsvSa4LNqmyzPWeMyzWnUYeFH5qtT07-me3C7B-pl3pBLXW/s295/1-dunepart2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYQksNefxgzawLCbU7urWOtz6T3TzLXkgh2pZaXHOOaYbzGuSJK7cDE8UpxD35dyoI1B_To2IpIiFNb79gNs9BphV1pKExX_tZ-kGuUOaiXqI-kyg7z1akSevsl7pZpzHtzVOUJAsvSa4LNqmyzPWeMyzWnUYeFH5qtT07-me3C7B-pl3pBLXW/w136-h200/1-dunepart2.jpg" title="That's wormwood. Wormwood." width="136" /></a></div>In theaters: With the conflict in Gaza boiling over in the news, Dune Part Two of course takes on a certain "current affairs" resonance, but obviously, this was going on even when the original book came out in 1965. Denis Villeneuve didn't set forth to discuss that particular piece of the Middle East's history (not at the pace such movies are made), but he DID set out to make a Dune adaptation for our time, and one grounded in Frank Herbert's actual themes. The old joke, of course, is less aware audiences thinking Dune is a Star Wars riff, but I think Villeneuve amplifies just how Herbert was making an anti-Star Wars, or rather, an anti-Hero's Journey. He was on record saying he hated Campbell's reductive opinion of story-telling, and when you compare Dune to its closest surface analog, Star Wars, which is BLATANTLY working from Campbell's formula, you'll see what I mean. It's not that Paul doesn't want to answer the hero's call - this he fulfills willingly - it's that he refuses the call to become a TYRANT. The character changes made to Chani are the overt voice of this idea, convinced that all this Messiah business is propaganda and that the concept of a Messiah is dangerous and radicalizing (providing the most humor this time around is Javier Bardem's Stilgar, but he's the zealot who brings this idea out the best). Indeed, the "Chosen One" narrative is explicitly propaganda in the book and film, an artificial construct designed to rule through religious fervor. Ultimately, Paul does have to answer the call and we're supposed to take a step back. He's no longer the hero our Campbell/Hollywood-trained minds made him out to be. The novel's purists will hate the changes made (although I think what they did with Alia was clever and made the story more immediate than spreading events over years, but am still not sure why changes were made to the final fight), but I think they're made to speak to the moment (good), or to set up a third chapter (not so good, but let's unpack that). If there is to be a Part Three, which is certain given this one's reception, it will likely have elements of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune (why else secretly cast an adult Alia?), and Part Two's changes do seem to prepare the way for elements in those books in a way the original novel didn't. It does also mean that the film ends with a lack of closure, just like Part One did. Still, these are immaculately constructed films, making some dense material understandable and even, judging from the current meme-frenzy, iconic.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN-kzmwuJahrYTQmVtKQT1YxWhoydMOKmNHWgo_Hp3broVTgRepiN9WCEibFCstt9dCpGfo7KAJW2SPmrabFesyP9lshSythqUn8YYz7YXEWEqBmWXjqvaaCkSpK3_s9QX6FLrJspE6LC1q1jmw4Wd2vbk_XxvjPY3Qbm0IYTCpAQd-XHetJ2n/s298/2-aquamankingdom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN-kzmwuJahrYTQmVtKQT1YxWhoydMOKmNHWgo_Hp3broVTgRepiN9WCEibFCstt9dCpGfo7KAJW2SPmrabFesyP9lshSythqUn8YYz7YXEWEqBmWXjqvaaCkSpK3_s9QX6FLrJspE6LC1q1jmw4Wd2vbk_XxvjPY3Qbm0IYTCpAQd-XHetJ2n/w134-h200/2-aquamankingdom.jpg" title="He got Lokied" width="134" /></a></div>At home: The DCEU's Aquaman was already a lot like the MCU's Thor, so it makes it even more obvious than otherwise that they're doing The Dark World with The Lost Kingdom. Like that turned out so well. An evil ice kingdom, Arthur having to break his evil brother out of jail and team up with him, we've been here before. At times, the Aquaman sequel feels like a parody - the opening Aquadad montage, the cartoony non-human undersea characters, that super-cringy last shot before the credits - but it does have some fun with Topo and Orm not being used to operating on land (and there's a LOT of land in this, did anyone check if Arthur was out of the water for more than an hour?). Ocean Master, in fact, comes off better than Aquaman himself, and not just because Patrick Wilson is the better actor. He's just getting better action beats too. Dolph Lundgren is the opposite, a real drain whenever he's on screen. But the weak script asks the audience to take a lot of things as given, with logic and physics at times swimming right out the window. The dialog is extremely poor, veering into nonsense (if you have a crustacean using "spineless" as an insult, you're just not thinking things through). Tons of lazy exposition at various points, cheesy sentiment, and a real lack of wit. The comedy falls flat 90% of the time (Aquaman drinking piss? ha). There are some pretty pictures, sure, but when so much of a movie is CG, there's gonna be rough spots too, and the CG puppets that replace actors in action scenes really call attention to themselves. And so, with this, the DCEU finally dies, drowned in a bathtub. Been a long time coming.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpSpqUlcZDf7EKX3Qw7JW2Uetyh8sfWPCg_xyDbtE_-ouFVHbVi2mzzRjMF_dzu1Wc7lvPhxs3TPK1UAomYMl-Okkhl8-vqLS-JptgVR2eHqXkV4CXAJx1Ra0Ze05o3g85-5PW0pY5St2yg4pPVqv6t88e4Yc2tZTg8zFMymeJ6WtWklyYbfBn/s282/3-aquamanmercyreef.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpSpqUlcZDf7EKX3Qw7JW2Uetyh8sfWPCg_xyDbtE_-ouFVHbVi2mzzRjMF_dzu1Wc7lvPhxs3TPK1UAomYMl-Okkhl8-vqLS-JptgVR2eHqXkV4CXAJx1Ra0Ze05o3g85-5PW0pY5St2yg4pPVqv6t88e4Yc2tZTg8zFMymeJ6WtWklyYbfBn/w142-h200/3-aquamanmercyreef.jpg" title="Not a softcore romance novel cover" width="142" /></a></div>The 2006 Aquaman TV pilot, often referred to as "Mercy Reef", features the FIRST surfer dude Aquaman in what can only be called a combination of Smallville and Baywatch. It's got its charms. They convincingly have a man swimming with sharks, and the superhero action (fast swimming mostly) isn't any better or worse than shows of its day. Had it gone to series, it would have had a couple of capable stars on board - Diamond Lou Phillips as Arthur's--pardon, "A.C.'s"-- human dad and Ving Rhames as his Atlantean mentor. Adrianne Palicki can count another notch on her geek cred punch card playing an evil mermaid assassin. There's an intriguing mystery concerning the Bermuda Triangle, even if the "Man in Black" in charge is a walking, talking trope. The weak spot is, well, Aquaman himself. Justin Hartley isn't a strong actor, even if you accept his rebel without a cause version of the Sea King. Like Smallville before it and Arrow after it, this would have been a series about BECOMING the hero of comics lore, so allowances have to be made for that. But questions remain as to whether Hartley could have carried the show on his swimmer's shoulders.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipW2fc21PttnFHtZYQb25bsTkLvAvqwUhZTX6RJt_X4WQBhYWsDSTF7cDxit-q1gYOCT32YG9V1JRysL-vzJiyH6TaVy2Rc2nBgFORs1mua2ugyi3_Diq7edtHh8fKzkG3apqfILuRO0n9LI6EnB7t3kKVm_yP1GEsqwd43N6Oy4qoS2Ks6a-E/s297/4-atlantislostempire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipW2fc21PttnFHtZYQb25bsTkLvAvqwUhZTX6RJt_X4WQBhYWsDSTF7cDxit-q1gYOCT32YG9V1JRysL-vzJiyH6TaVy2Rc2nBgFORs1mua2ugyi3_Diq7edtHh8fKzkG3apqfILuRO0n9LI6EnB7t3kKVm_yP1GEsqwd43N6Oy4qoS2Ks6a-E/w135-h200/4-atlantislostempire.jpg" title="Feat. Marvel's Mole Man" width="135" /></a></div>Part of Disney's unsuccessful early 2000s 2D animated output, Atlantis: The Lost Empire thus stands as an underrated adventure that blends Mike Mignola designs with a Moebius and Miyazaki aesthetics (the plot makes me think the makers definitely saw the latter's Castle in the Sky) in a steampunk-adjacent story that takes no prisoner, and indeed, may have the highest death toll of any Disney animated feature. It's a lot more adult than most (smokers, violence, a freaking femme fatale, and the looming shadow of the first World War. And while the adventure elements are strong, as a rag-tag group of explorers go down into hidden caverns under the Earth's surface to find the elusive lost world, it's really very funny too. Florence Stanley's iconic as the old bat who runs coms, Don Novello brings his "Father Guido Sarducci" voice to the explosives expert, and Phil Morris is surprisingly amusing as the Adonis-like doctor. James Garner, Leonard Nimoy, Jim Varney, John Mahoney, Claudia Christian... It's a great cast at the center of which is a great voice performance by Michael J. Fox. Some of the sharp turns at the end could have been foregrounded more, but most of the twists are shocking and well-earned, so it's a damn shame this didn't find its audience at the time. But that just means it's meant to be rediscovered.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYQwepaIrXaR_Kugkf_20oZerMbC0IN1iuhzaGtTYVNWiFI5nsxzeOJpwsoNA5_8ZgHeQ_cWtmMw8Q44rt2CepAea_mPVotSYXPdTjlNMw4G7vvZyQZr3kKRXHpJnEcMZNXpzPY6pHd9uwvVoZiWNNBrCwtk1fwmDKNkbF_pXwmKht2rWMHXJE/s280/5-raidersofatlantis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYQwepaIrXaR_Kugkf_20oZerMbC0IN1iuhzaGtTYVNWiFI5nsxzeOJpwsoNA5_8ZgHeQ_cWtmMw8Q44rt2CepAea_mPVotSYXPdTjlNMw4G7vvZyQZr3kKRXHpJnEcMZNXpzPY6pHd9uwvVoZiWNNBrCwtk1fwmDKNkbF_pXwmKht2rWMHXJE/w143-h200/5-raidersofatlantis.jpg" title="They keep shouting "Mike! Mike" and if I never hear that name again... which is sad because a lot of people call me that" width="143" /></a></div>Remedial in every way, Raiders of Atlantis isn't even streaming correctly - wrong aspect ratio and dumb AI-assisted subtitles - but I do have to give it points for having the temerity of producing this bonkers a plot. 11 years in 1983's future - for no real reason - Atlantis resurfaces and attacks rural Florida (actually, the Philippines), but how this premise quickly turns into a Mad Max rip-off, I'm not sure I'll ever truly fathom. From there, it's just wall-to-wall mayhem, guns and explosions with the occasional gory kill shot, sometimes using rubber heads that are too fake to be on screen that long. Lots and lots and lots of action to the point where you become deadened to it, so good thing Christopher Connelly and his partner are, I'm not sure what, some kind of mercenaries or something. The acting is poor, with bad dubs replacing certain voices, but I'm not sure the dialog can be said convincingly even by an Oscar winner - it's complete nonsense. Perhaps lines like "We're going around in circles." "What's wrong with circles?" could have pushed Raiders to cult status, but it's so badly MADE that I can't quite give it the "so bad it's good" label, especially since there's so little respite from gunfire. Just too dumb and loud.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX2qQYUDPQmCGt0pE41x_DPYBAhMLJTJthExNt57JpldBs2x2n9u9fBEZk37d25s-73DSUfecBLPjft_w8UxkcjhyphenhyphenDDWsX_dYITF3JFTE58nsSB9op0MLGgoDfIcaLaSjVXXYvJriarxFJnwbkG_3WtBUbOnFePN92k85iZdId_LHzwE8jJW1j/s309/6-myluckystars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX2qQYUDPQmCGt0pE41x_DPYBAhMLJTJthExNt57JpldBs2x2n9u9fBEZk37d25s-73DSUfecBLPjft_w8UxkcjhyphenhyphenDDWsX_dYITF3JFTE58nsSB9op0MLGgoDfIcaLaSjVXXYvJriarxFJnwbkG_3WtBUbOnFePN92k85iZdId_LHzwE8jJW1j/w129-h200/6-myluckystars.jpg" title="How did they make the bed so smooth?" width="129" /></a></div>Because My Lucky Stars is one of four Jackie Chan movies to come out in 1985 (including Police Story), you can well understand why he only shows up for the action scenes and is otherwise missing from the picture. But if he's in a scene, then you know it will be good. If he's not... ehh. Technically the second "Lucky Stars" film (a series of seven movies only connected by their cast, not their characters or plots), this one has director-actor Sammo Hung assemble his old gang from the orphanage to help Jackie save his partner who's a prisoner of a Tokyo crime gang. The comedy is broad, as you can expect from Chinese films of the era, but there are a lot of performers I like in there including Richard Ng, Eric Tsang, Yuen Biao and Bolo Yeung in a cameo role. However, the humor is also cringy as hell, with extended sexual harassment scenes after the boys meet Sibelle Hu's lady cop. The middle of the film sags as a result. But in terms of action, the so-called "Little Fortunes" really deliver. There's a Five Venoms joke I dearly love and the action beats, especially in the final confrontation, have a lot of ingenuity. This was a massive success in 80s Hong Kong, but in my 2020s living room, it hasn't aged so well.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwE9caFRyZ4jxGUDstWTtph4ke5iSYlKHCUdg9ckbX-V_dhXTM_d0qfbYgmHpgaTCPKu1jKPhLEPIlgpL5KhY_Y_qyFFxzkQnIUN8Y6G9cMqaUy0xmeVwO8EHuSsA9QFkjjcpXRjtkPuf6y0N9RE6_2nbXfFjVnJCRd_SPAyGG2aC-Z86RHuCZ/s303/7-lobstercop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwE9caFRyZ4jxGUDstWTtph4ke5iSYlKHCUdg9ckbX-V_dhXTM_d0qfbYgmHpgaTCPKu1jKPhLEPIlgpL5KhY_Y_qyFFxzkQnIUN8Y6G9cMqaUy0xmeVwO8EHuSsA9QFkjjcpXRjtkPuf6y0N9RE6_2nbXfFjVnJCRd_SPAyGG2aC-Z86RHuCZ/w132-h200/7-lobstercop.jpg" title="I'm gonna pass on the shrimp, thanks" width="132" /></a></div>In 2018, the Korean-Chinese story co-development project produced two films with the same premise - screw-up narcotics officers buy a restaurant as a cover to crack a case and have more success in the food biz than police work - which in Korea gave us the box office smash Extreme Job, and in China gave us Lobster Cop, which is weaker in every way. It feels like the Korean production saw this as a prestige film and filled it with name actors, gave them fully developed characters, and strong action beats. In comparison, Lobster Cop is like the abridged exploitation version. Its characters are shallower, its villains (almost all gay-coded for some probably ugly reason) don't have the clever plan despite it being suggested in the animated opening credits, and its comedy is broader and duller. Never mind the obnoxious soundtrack. It can't stand the comparison, but even if I hadn't seen Extreme Job, I would still object to a lot of this. I mean, they don't even make lobster, those are prawns. Pretty forgettable.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtz_AaMUMNvtTsnuwbGgjrixwPI72l-PtftBy9MQRXyTNDZ_4f1gZy9mAV6BtYD6oU7XNojDexEYE9eqEcgGCzGL3hx086QMDjgGokxND22QIRbCrgIfsQfgjzO-8wtSgiGWARfg05LgU_H3XmPV41tqGGG8IP_vGUbuk1aiZHd5K3RBo0pIG5/s280/8-mummythemepark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtz_AaMUMNvtTsnuwbGgjrixwPI72l-PtftBy9MQRXyTNDZ_4f1gZy9mAV6BtYD6oU7XNojDexEYE9eqEcgGCzGL3hx086QMDjgGokxND22QIRbCrgIfsQfgjzO-8wtSgiGWARfg05LgU_H3XmPV41tqGGG8IP_vGUbuk1aiZHd5K3RBo0pIG5/w143-h200/8-mummythemepark.jpg" title="That's one clean mummy" width="143" /></a></div>Cross The Mummy with Jurassic Park and West World and you get The Mummy Theme Park, which looks so homemade, it's a good thing it doesn't take itself seriously. As a spoof, it almost works, but eventually, its low resources bring it down. Despite starring American actors, they're all covered by bad dubs (cheap Italian cinema, amirite?). The protagonists are unlikable. The adolescent script gives us a lot of gratuitous nudity and the mummy is horny AF. The action is incredibly weak and the film is laden with bad models and even worse green screen. The editing is abrupt and amateurish. The music, annoying. If the movie has some redeeming value it's in its gonzo premise. A venal sheik unearths an Egyptian tomb and turns it into a theme park, complete with the actual mummies given life with science! (The movie doesn't seem to know mummies no longer have brains, that's the level this is playing at.) Of course, things go wrong, and the climax has some weird effects, but while I do like how slimy the gore is, a lot of those gore effects don't actually pay off. I've loved impossibly cheap horror comedies before, but it's a tightrope act to keep the audience invested. The Mummy Theme Park falls off the wire, unfortunately, but watch it with friends and it'll at least break its fall in a net. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfNjmHS7V354QPa_mhbu-Krl__IvBj6CyS6e3tKeptmi1wA-7bLS9ByQtOr6rvywFwFUAGSMmDhY2S15Sd8nJ4ytabbj-4g2Pq3cV_1hXW84YaHdR_Lx6uBXCOzmGq_xgtjnBpF2zevixUe15sK8qMK2QnxDzXCI-IxvjVWp50mPX4OdMiVyqP/s290/9-fatamorgana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfNjmHS7V354QPa_mhbu-Krl__IvBj6CyS6e3tKeptmi1wA-7bLS9ByQtOr6rvywFwFUAGSMmDhY2S15Sd8nJ4ytabbj-4g2Pq3cV_1hXW84YaHdR_Lx6uBXCOzmGq_xgtjnBpF2zevixUe15sK8qMK2QnxDzXCI-IxvjVWp50mPX4OdMiVyqP/w138-h200/9-fatamorgana.jpg" title="I don't know who was tripping balls designing that poster, but..." width="138" /></a></div>Fata Morgana is the term for those heat mirages that make the landscape go blurry. It's also a Werner Herzog documentary (although, I often feel "non-fiction" would be a better label for his docs) that retells a Mayan creation myth, in German, using Saharan landscapes. The odd juxtapositions, an attempt to shoot a mirage of sorts, that of human history according to myth (Creation - Paradise - The Golden Age), Edens lost to eternity. The result is nature/archaeological photography, but including modern effluvia, objects despoiling the desert playing the roles of relics. It's the ancient world, but we're from the 100th Century. Herzog progressively includes more human beings - absent in Creation, then able to speak, and finally, performing - but it's in the absence of things that the film is most interesting. Not even so much the lack of people as the lack of CONTEXT. You're often asking, what happened here? And he gives you the time to reflect on the images and what they mean. Herzog sometimes takes breaks from the narrated tableaux for interviews with zoologists, and these moments are at odds with the rest (no matter how much I like watching a monitor lizard do its thing). Just Herzog being Herzog and getting distracted by stuff that suddenly interests him, I suppose. Bonus points for the Leonard Cohen tracks.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxsdWCJLDoZD0BaFLFTgZqYVY4bq4Sv7jSaS3PdOhVru8GKBnxWxUpgn_g8DYxJIkJQqQjWccKB4s2c6mXQM6FZxUg0d_c_Dn0dn8kam-OCZtMpzIuagMDiq9nX-ScW_krzkCGzr0nyEEG1TJZR0Z7TlRs5p5tbjhh8fwMT_y8SzJCFequdxIC/s300/10-robbie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxsdWCJLDoZD0BaFLFTgZqYVY4bq4Sv7jSaS3PdOhVru8GKBnxWxUpgn_g8DYxJIkJQqQjWccKB4s2c6mXQM6FZxUg0d_c_Dn0dn8kam-OCZtMpzIuagMDiq9nX-ScW_krzkCGzr0nyEEG1TJZR0Z7TlRs5p5tbjhh8fwMT_y8SzJCFequdxIC/w133-h200/10-robbie.jpg" title="Don't play on the tracks, kids... OR ELSE" width="133" /></a></div>And now, this week's Companion Film. It had to be a short, I'm afraid, due to slim pickings... Robbie, British Transport Films' 13-minute second attempt at a PSA about not playing on the train tracks is apparently less gruesome than the original (I guess I gotta track down The Finishing Line now, or maybe not), but even when it cuts away at crucial moments, it's to let your imagination do the work instead, which might be as bad. Doctor Who's Peter Purves acts as presenter (so he's more appropriately called Blue Peter's Peter Purves) about a boy who loves trains, but gets hit by one after his friends call him a sissy or something. It's maudlin as all get out, and I hate that they covered the kids' dialog with Purves' storybook narration, and yet didn't do it to the mom and the "coppers. I mean, here in Canada, we had our own train crossing PSAs, but there wasn't THIS MUCH fearmongering. Then again, I did play on the tracks a lot, so British Transport may have a point. Might be worth it for the "I can't believe they just did/said that!" moments.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7beG0VkBU30LjmbVriUHDdbSe7zTdIQGiJqRf_cusdM5-VbprSirp1pXh6D8OtrCXKtmGmF81S9uLOrzcIjx-xxcx0V1KmhGiJWCpRJwwiGMnmw9PXlsYvF54AuV3nppPGaurAgyiLJfPk9aVpFwyv74YCfihuaX6CLJymfi3K9V1HJrEsG4k/s296/11-interiorchinatown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7beG0VkBU30LjmbVriUHDdbSe7zTdIQGiJqRf_cusdM5-VbprSirp1pXh6D8OtrCXKtmGmF81S9uLOrzcIjx-xxcx0V1KmhGiJWCpRJwwiGMnmw9PXlsYvF54AuV3nppPGaurAgyiLJfPk9aVpFwyv74YCfihuaX6CLJymfi3K9V1HJrEsG4k/w135-h200/11-interiorchinatown.jpg" title="With a cast of millions" width="135" /></a></div>Books: Charles Yu explores Asian-American identity in Interior Chinatown, a novel that uses the script-writing format to cleverly confuse the roles given to Asian actors in American film and TV with racial dynamics in the real world, and the possible impact those dynamics can have on one's identity. Tending to the more universal then, do you consider yourself the protagonist of your own story? Or are you just a special guest star in someone else's? Or even... an extra? And does your personal privilege (if you're white, male, straight, etc.), or lack thereof, dictate how you perceive your role? It's absurdist comedy and a fun satirical take on mainstream TV (using a reductive cop show called Black and White to frame the main character's story, ambition and disappointments), but it's also a personal story for Yu (is this why it's written in the 2nd person, a pun on "you"?) who brings his family issues into the narrative as he did in the previous How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. Yu takes no prisoners and even attacks his own point of view in open court by the end. A very clever postmodern piece.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA67rq1Zu4JoYrPr9WM5g-4Ho7pYN3ml1Eg51ACCgkjUoti4my6BFJgG_wgDWSiSmYzZgQ67gw7bZjdQGayapBQTI-u0IeRsjzVOWY3poh6aNFfon4lGNNGK-8FZyksdVtgJtTTdljkH7f_etLQC7jVdzAY53iFGaWetNsDRc0R_tvtMtBE9IM/s319/12-defekt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA67rq1Zu4JoYrPr9WM5g-4Ho7pYN3ml1Eg51ACCgkjUoti4my6BFJgG_wgDWSiSmYzZgQ67gw7bZjdQGayapBQTI-u0IeRsjzVOWY3poh6aNFfon4lGNNGK-8FZyksdVtgJtTTdljkH7f_etLQC7jVdzAY53iFGaWetNsDRc0R_tvtMtBE9IM/w125-h200/12-defekt.jpg" title="I've been swallowed up by a couch before" width="125" /></a></div>In Nino Cipri's first novella about an IKEA-type story that is the locus on all dimensions, Finna, we heard about Derek, an employee who SHOULD have been on the adventure, but failed to show up for his shift. Defekt is his story. You might assume that the disliked Derek would be the bad employee, contrasting with Finna's heroes, but no, come to think of it, they were very bad employees. So Derek is the model employee, the one who shows deep set company loyalty. His point of view reminded me of Convenience Store Woman's, but this is the "LitenVerse", so the reasons for it are naturally weirder. After Derek misses his first day of work, and all the interdimensional chaos, he's assigned to a team of specialists who track down furniture that's become alive in the wake of such events. Like I said. Oh and the entire team is made up of variant Dereks. In the underlayer, Cipri is also telling a strong story about identity, the dangers of tying it to your job, and how one person's defective is another's uniqueness to be embraced.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY1RhQhBoGTkDWBerwg41Z5MPyasC_ainbXmqY0txFyIaUeszEtlS_IIk7y2yq_rlKV93xn3i2xNPjmd4GI5JKddgt6Fs-iDbMS22Dph4UWs75ywgA8V1IPg45-27ATdBTS8MzAlIKPtWiWCIKRFHSu8EX4MCCGuyfY3Y5h2bSPAwERGezeBuB/s308/13-byrneff2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY1RhQhBoGTkDWBerwg41Z5MPyasC_ainbXmqY0txFyIaUeszEtlS_IIk7y2yq_rlKV93xn3i2xNPjmd4GI5JKddgt6Fs-iDbMS22Dph4UWs75ywgA8V1IPg45-27ATdBTS8MzAlIKPtWiWCIKRFHSu8EX4MCCGuyfY3Y5h2bSPAwERGezeBuB/w130-h200/13-byrneff2.jpg" title="Superman audtion tape" width="130" /></a></div>Collecting issues #241-250, Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 2 sees the writer-artist find his groove around issue 246, with a Doctor Doom two-parter that restores him to Latveria's throne and introduces Kristoff, his to-be-adopted son. After this (inclusively), the action is ramped up significantly, and Byrne seems to have more fun with the big, giant concepts. My impression is that he tried and failed to play with the toys as they were before this point (despite some strong adventures collected in the previous volume). A deposed Dr. Doom needed to be fixed, but what really drains the early issues in Vol.2 is the inherited character of Frankie Raye, a possible member after he gives her powers, but as part of a longer game to create his own Silver Surfer. She is irritating as all get out. The Thing reverting to a mud monster goes nowhere, as if he had to walk back this change when readers responded badly to it (he just never found a way to draw this version of Ben in an engaging way - just looks like an old man who lost his dentures. The "Outer Limits" style one-and-dones are middling. Where Byrne is more confidant is when involving powerful antagonists like Doom, Galactus and Gladiator. I started collecting the FF in the middle of his run, and the Visionaries collection is only now starting to show the promise of the issues that made me a fan.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxHHxgKvtNeC4NBXEuksIiMOX-wKRyu0ONPdG0NGgGHzC_vrqSz1bmkGKGnmGsAheA4-D2lGuyltO7xhnic1Easd9P_0feKfxtGQi6Voqs3SWH5e8ywOgEaIn_IFxyB-Xm9l7jVHhizhiGbXx5kcoa-e8zJwddqc6DztH9WMoF7nI6DNMdokZF/s258/14-torg-pp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxHHxgKvtNeC4NBXEuksIiMOX-wKRyu0ONPdG0NGgGHzC_vrqSz1bmkGKGnmGsAheA4-D2lGuyltO7xhnic1Easd9P_0feKfxtGQi6Voqs3SWH5e8ywOgEaIn_IFxyB-Xm9l7jVHhizhiGbXx5kcoa-e8zJwddqc6DztH9WMoF7nI6DNMdokZF/w155-h200/14-torg-pp.jpg" title="You'll love how we do business" width="155" /></a></div>RPGs: We've had a couple of action-plotty sessions of Torg Eternity lately, so it was time to give the players a bit of social. Last time, they discovered their official videographer was a Pan-Pacifican villain and now they're being chewed out by their boss because deepfakes have surfaced showing them involved in war crimes. So they're sent to a millionaire resort on China's Hainan Island, near the commercial campus where the fakes seem to have originated to clean up their mess (find proof that the images were manipulated and hopefully do so without drawing attention to themselves). This was inspired by an adventure called Deepfake in the Pan-Pacifica Delphi Missions book, but that scenario doesn't make the hotel resort setting and suggested NPCs to the investigation, so I had to build much of that from scratch, giving these a story reason to exist, either as complications or as helpful informants (but who was which?). The players had a great time play-acting as a douchebag tech bro and his entourage, I think, and solved the case without drawing a gun, even with Kanawa forces bearing down on them at the end. It's all because of a Betrayal cosm card, actually. These HAVE to be played when drawn, and so I kept an eye on who that player interacted with - who were HIS allies that could prove duplicitous. While I desperately wanted to make the old widow who took a shine to him some kind of deadly assassin, it couldn't work with the timeline, so it had to be the SHIFT agent assigned as their majordomo. And because they spot him colluding with the bad guys just before their exfil, they know not to run to the jetty where he was supposed to have left a boat, instead run back to the resort through the jungle and steal one for themselves... avoiding the police chase, the scripted Kanawa ambush and the big fire fight at the end! (It was time for bed anyway, so that worked out well for all concerned.)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv9P0YDbcJhvJvodWU6O1S9Yz1k63xeNiEE0MD1togDKJvKPpUiJ4nF3BJYNTjg_v_eJyRs4Pfy0_aPPP-zRehefXqqBkTTgbIPk2jkTGQW9erapHeUYPAJyKC9NioUjaLGqjohGa305x4hM5PLC5PEFbE7bhweDs5n42FCpA9PKeY3UZheG89/s600/15-breaking-news26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv9P0YDbcJhvJvodWU6O1S9Yz1k63xeNiEE0MD1togDKJvKPpUiJ4nF3BJYNTjg_v_eJyRs4Pfy0_aPPP-zRehefXqqBkTTgbIPk2jkTGQW9erapHeUYPAJyKC9NioUjaLGqjohGa305x4hM5PLC5PEFbE7bhweDs5n42FCpA9PKeY3UZheG89/s16000/15-breaking-news26.jpg" title="Say it ain't so! It ain't so." /></a></div>Best bits: The Super-Wrestler saves a drowning dog by jumping into a pool from an upper level (while the douchebro - I mean, the Realm Runner - films it on his phone (keeping his cover). The Realm Runner zealot had not taken well to the chewing out and gave the bawss (Sebastian is in fact his uncle) a rant about how the missions seemed to have nothing to do with ousting invaders, so he had to be put in his place about not seeing the big picture. On the mission, it's the Monster Hunter who was most disgruntled. The others were partying and maintaining their cover while he was doing all the grunt work. The dudebro might have gotten useful information, but he was stuck with a gold digger while the Wrestler was keeping the other tech bro busy, never getting the signals that dudebro wanted their positions reversed. Hey, Wrestler just thought Runner needed a bit of female attention, having been raised in a bunker and all. It mostly played as a comedy, honestly, my favorite bits to play being the gold digger's frustration every time she sidled up to someone to find out they either weren't rich or not interested, and the token on the board simply called "Korean Guy" who was based on the K-pop singer Rain (called Storm, it's Torg, after all) frustrated that no one ever recognized him. The Monster Hunter managed to get a key card over a bunch of drinks, making infiltration much easier, and then once inside, the Realm Runner rolled high enough to also place a virus in the enemy's systems that corrupted their whole system.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdXqhHr9GJt1uZDY-BHVer7L9LPkOl7Tg6nUhCAZAfzXbVoPdeZJ_kaI1UcqwgdPq3DQinAixcRpMafSx8goc0pCCbjvKedgoTwdMu5_lc4v6zuQ8wrMn-YJEiq1Nei6tWYUsm4IcLn7rHpvq4K3dGoBzVN_h3G5ZZdVEHMkgTE0sNatZJ6kl/s200/16-legomarvel1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdXqhHr9GJt1uZDY-BHVer7L9LPkOl7Tg6nUhCAZAfzXbVoPdeZJ_kaI1UcqwgdPq3DQinAixcRpMafSx8goc0pCCbjvKedgoTwdMu5_lc4v6zuQ8wrMn-YJEiq1Nei6tWYUsm4IcLn7rHpvq4K3dGoBzVN_h3G5ZZdVEHMkgTE0sNatZJ6kl/w200-h200/16-legomarvel1.jpg" title="Why does Rocket Raccoon have an Australian accent?" width="200" /></a></div>Gaming: According to my notes, it was 10 years ago that I almost finished Lego Marvel Super Heroes, but had to quit due to bugs that prevented some tasks from being completed. This time, I'm tapping out at 99.3% and 8 gold bricks to go because they're all races, and I freaking hate Lego races. The controls are way too twitchy for them to be anything but frustrating, and I don't play games to RAISE my stress level. Air races races, and to a certain point, acrobatic ones feel absolutely impossible, though I'm sure with trial and error, I could eventually win them with the Silver Surfer (for road races, Ghost Rider's bike is easily the best). There's also a remote control car race that uses the OPPOSITE controls from every other race, baffling. But to give this old game a bit of a review: Like other Lego games, it's usually fun and amusing, with plenty of inside jokes for both comic and movie fans. In addition to the storyline levels, collecting bricks unlocks mini-missions in places like Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum and Marvel's offices. There's fighting, but you immediately respawn anyway, so they're more about creating obstacles to your puzzle solving. Aside from those dang races, I enjoy the game play, and love unlocking new mini-figs (Squirrel Girl shooting little squirrels is very fun, but you also get purse-fighting Aunt May and a Stan Lee that can Hulk out). I do hate the background music that plays in the city - it haunts my nightmares and I've taken to putting the TV on mute during free roam. 99.3% isn't bad; let's try again in 2034.Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-67197744602598390702024-03-04T06:00:00.019-04:002024-03-09T10:42:53.636-04:00RPG Tools: MyMaps<p>The modern GameMaster is always looking for online tools to help make their campaign more immersive. After all, many of us have been relegated to playing online - the pandemic pushed it, but so did adulting, now parents can take a short break to put their kids to bed, etc. in the middle of a session, no problem - and GMs have to create the immediacy of the in-person experience somehow. A lot of online tools are subscription-based, and that interests me less. Over the course of a few articles, I want to look at a few, neat, online tools that can make a difference in keeping the players engaged, the equivalent of the props and hand-outs you might have crafted and passed around in the old days.<br /><br />Up first, <b><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/" target="_blank">Google's MyMaps</a></b>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnPHWcJ0-TXGlDMFBd4NB0UhV1gE41udJD6lKZiL_47HFb6ygjj12pWCbCnakm_3Yxqvr3hjgzzbvtJIL1TedqaqZtGyJZlmojgdxlA_61lRBLgyih6_BeZyODMuTeXofLqgq2X7PVFj1KJh1CZSYmEZd0vlETShAZcLFL6mZxot2lXZucmG_8/s600/mymaps1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnPHWcJ0-TXGlDMFBd4NB0UhV1gE41udJD6lKZiL_47HFb6ygjj12pWCbCnakm_3Yxqvr3hjgzzbvtJIL1TedqaqZtGyJZlmojgdxlA_61lRBLgyih6_BeZyODMuTeXofLqgq2X7PVFj1KJh1CZSYmEZd0vlETShAZcLFL6mZxot2lXZucmG_8/s16000/mymaps1.jpg" title="Day... after dayyy" /></a></div>Now, this isn't the map builder you're looking for if you're creating a fantasy world or alien planet. I've yet to find one of those that's free to use (help me out if you have and we'll talk about it here). Rather, it's your own copy of GoogleMaps to use for contemporary Earth campaigns. as you'll see here, I use it for my Torg Eternity campaign, which is why there are "zones" that show where each invading Cosm has put up boundaries.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaLhOwHyAXWLLiO7OOmbQ-6w9TvVtPHHtzOvrImxgoejMi9Zq7uCirjIKBqt8cVidXMP5CHTC94cGlvZPeaAjDHpMJ-QSKjAWzMKQ7MyIxWMUNgmBCTwrTuIsiRKsoTjNd0vs8Xjlcl6yNhFpE1SCDQpv3OEKUWrDnQwHiM1peXCbYP5NaFoe6/s600/mymaps2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaLhOwHyAXWLLiO7OOmbQ-6w9TvVtPHHtzOvrImxgoejMi9Zq7uCirjIKBqt8cVidXMP5CHTC94cGlvZPeaAjDHpMJ-QSKjAWzMKQ7MyIxWMUNgmBCTwrTuIsiRKsoTjNd0vs8Xjlcl6yNhFpE1SCDQpv3OEKUWrDnQwHiM1peXCbYP5NaFoe6/s16000/mymaps2.jpg" title="Blast!" /></a></div>As you can see when we zoom in on Europe, drawing straight lines (which will curve with the planet) is easy. Amorphous shapes are more difficult (each curve is a point you need to add), but still possible. You can also create a path (there's one from St-Petersburg to Tver, then to Minsk) to show an adventure that was mostly travel, and give your "zones" names, colors, opacity... For Torg, it means that realities can be pure, dominant or mixed, and the tool allows for all this. By creating amorphous zones, you can even create elements that don't exist on the map, say if you wanted to plonk Atlantis somewhere, or in my case, Al Amarja from Over the Edge:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEx-qitUnDyEoziIWvFSjAkzNEdhXU93e382ec-amFBDjN423f-kqVPEyjE0UUDSyILk0EjewbIEAliwl2SQwFLuM14UltODJLxCXB__aWSJDLLpHiSO1nxIf4udeQT6MNrm6EviRn978Q4-ckDxNWFocnjLo4MByNB3JF-nnrDE7dRnACp-3J/s773/mymaps3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEx-qitUnDyEoziIWvFSjAkzNEdhXU93e382ec-amFBDjN423f-kqVPEyjE0UUDSyILk0EjewbIEAliwl2SQwFLuM14UltODJLxCXB__aWSJDLLpHiSO1nxIf4udeQT6MNrm6EviRn978Q4-ckDxNWFocnjLo4MByNB3JF-nnrDE7dRnACp-3J/s16000/mymaps3.jpg" title="The crossover nobody asked for" /></a></div>As you can see, it's still a far cry from creating new "geography". But when I click on the object (indeed any created zone or point), I can add one or several images, and so I've included the actual map from the game. And that sort of brings us to what use a non-Torg GM might have for MyMaps: Tracking the party's adventures. Points on a map can easily be added (and even found just like on GoogleMaps, by search addresses) and then given an icon. I you look up at the map of Europe, you'll see I have little Towers of Babel (Maelstrom Bridges through which the invading forces entered our world), Stars (hard points where Earth reality remains), Temples (friendly bases for the PCs' organization), but also, Snowflakes (these look like the game's Delphi Council logo) which represent ADVENTURES. Here's what happens when you click on an adventure:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE5xGOg9CVG8yEq2iKYw-9n5qhqiuabpWhscnF9uxCoEP9K7W_80eeXiRPb86rxApNsXz1mmmdm8Vzw7PHNnwNEp09bIxEXsZwapuzUwtyxfllC3uAuhh10odcHA_tYBtMf4lfQvjhnbXVYjxHZeRkQufQrLTVYNUTv0XTI5GvezUsdYS-wmC-/s606/mymaps4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE5xGOg9CVG8yEq2iKYw-9n5qhqiuabpWhscnF9uxCoEP9K7W_80eeXiRPb86rxApNsXz1mmmdm8Vzw7PHNnwNEp09bIxEXsZwapuzUwtyxfllC3uAuhh10odcHA_tYBtMf4lfQvjhnbXVYjxHZeRkQufQrLTVYNUTv0XTI5GvezUsdYS-wmC-/s16000/mymaps4.jpg" title="Hint of what the next article will be about" /></a></div>Players who have access to the map can go down memory lane and see one of more pictures relevant to the adventure and there's room for text. In French here, but it's basically Episode X: What happened and on what day of the campaign. Important events that happen outside the PCs' purview are also marked with a point, and you could also create points for rumors or adventure hooks, letting the players in an X-Files game, for example, choose what to go investigate based on that. "Oh, there's been a cryptid sighting in Lakewood, New Jersey! Let's check it out!" Your rumor icon becomes an adventure icon on the next pass.<br /><br />As you saw up top, I've got a bunch of maps and they're just the same game world on different days. It's a way to track what the invasion looked like on Day 90 compared to today (currently Day 173) - there's a certain frisson when players notice one Cosm or other has made great strides. You can totally just evolve the same map over and over, especially if you don't draw territory. However, it may be useful to have YOUR map, with extra layers of stuff THEY don't need to know about. After you update, you copy the map, which will create a clone of it under the name you choose, go in an delete the secret layers, then share THAT with the players.<br /><br />Oh and by the way, you don't need to use the style I have. You'd like it sepia toned for your Victorian explorers game? You want to see more of a satellite, real-color view? Something dark and techy? MyMaps has options:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFUz-Fii8RPdiJjSGnUP4I60kgkIAEH_ulR4HUnbul16JKKOHe8xYMdkGhK3H79EKAj8dApB0tprO_uznTnRxBzs0Movu0HXyKqmbulEgsvo8UHpj23ZaY5qkByoN6A-xJrN2NUcOWI3C1hJYOvbayIWIoJk3WuQUvQEQWE3b6m8HVtwtH1yMT/s568/mymaps5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFUz-Fii8RPdiJjSGnUP4I60kgkIAEH_ulR4HUnbul16JKKOHe8xYMdkGhK3H79EKAj8dApB0tprO_uznTnRxBzs0Movu0HXyKqmbulEgsvo8UHpj23ZaY5qkByoN6A-xJrN2NUcOWI3C1hJYOvbayIWIoJk3WuQUvQEQWE3b6m8HVtwtH1yMT/s16000/mymaps5.jpg" title="There is a limit to how many object types per layer, so it's all been divided" /></a></div>It's at the bottom of the layers sidebar. For me, this is almost necessary to keep track of the invasions, but I think I'd use it for any campaign that takes place in the modern world or the near-now. A place where players can check on their progress, remember the good times, and plan for the future.Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-45477300063948417922024-02-25T06:00:00.085-04:002024-02-25T08:31:11.638-04:00This Week in Geek (18-24/02/24)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ZuYirWTeqoYjjXSQwCTuECxBzqcRRBv_QVQPtjwSiwsUctPC0MpRNUcq3OiQN-SKlKu2zqWQlFjoZbk_-P9Li2-k6dmJqvRitJxmOHTlohIau43DYE50gw_WD02mfYae6SkaQEo5dCsHqs_cCUKxRa_UJzpUVOhhxfdkpZa-SNfLioHsjUEa/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ZuYirWTeqoYjjXSQwCTuECxBzqcRRBv_QVQPtjwSiwsUctPC0MpRNUcq3OiQN-SKlKu2zqWQlFjoZbk_-P9Li2-k6dmJqvRitJxmOHTlohIau43DYE50gw_WD02mfYae6SkaQEo5dCsHqs_cCUKxRa_UJzpUVOhhxfdkpZa-SNfLioHsjUEa/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Is that really what they call you!?, bullies, voyeurs, elections, impressive death tolls, yellow posters, Emmanuelle Béard being nude in 4-hour French epics" /></a></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCppYEeS5tnVuNaGF_kpozNTb4_5z8qEe48vEuhJ2iPrJJBnO_pdBgi-pz4XQgAY9EYeEZd9LlwPAhWM_ddkqG2fsSy0GVkZIbWJd0mJHox0At2vjTewn8z3swkFw9FLPJeUgFeynOzQvW1SZGFUm3bgqS1mAGs0VJVdPsT2MzJzaJLGxqe0li/s297/1-beekeeper.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCppYEeS5tnVuNaGF_kpozNTb4_5z8qEe48vEuhJ2iPrJJBnO_pdBgi-pz4XQgAY9EYeEZd9LlwPAhWM_ddkqG2fsSy0GVkZIbWJd0mJHox0At2vjTewn8z3swkFw9FLPJeUgFeynOzQvW1SZGFUm3bgqS1mAGs0VJVdPsT2MzJzaJLGxqe0li/w135-h200/1-beekeeper.jpg" title="This is going to sting" width="135" /></a></div>In theaters: It's quite correct to compare The Beekeeper to John Wick - a revenge story with a stoic hero who goes through bad guys like a hot knife through butter - but I was rather more reminded of Thomas Jane's Punisher. The Punisher had a more outrageous villain - here, that role is played by Josh Hutcherson's slightly ridiculous tech bro - and was, well, a superhero story. Jason Statham doesn't speak much in this flick, but when he does, it's usually a bee-related pun or metaphor. He's as on-brand as Batman. If a bee had flown into the window the night he was thinking of a shtick. Some good action beats, though what makes Statham Statham is that he's cool as steel and confuses his enemies with calm serenity. Great to see spam callers get their asses kicked, of course. It's clearly the UK playing the States, so uneven accents, a "beach house" that looks like an Earl's estate, etc. You can't fool us, but the trade-off is that there's lots of UK-based talent in this - Jemma Redgrave, Minnie Driver, Jeremy Irons - so who's complaining? It all makes for a fun enough, if undemanding, revenge actioner.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLvHCdoDomocZyI7pZ1ZSKE9-MODF-T2XaBgCXpT2cSjbHgYyj4CE9kKbEkysRpdc0sSC07GVuSuxDty1m8CYbsTrWMXv_hKiuW26kH3Xmvwp3ZuQXHmiVljCDMDglA_KspvkmUgESkCdlnW03JKV_iiVkJnRiOfbslEzvTD4IzFA8QVoIdfOu/s267/2-quantumleap2s2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLvHCdoDomocZyI7pZ1ZSKE9-MODF-T2XaBgCXpT2cSjbHgYyj4CE9kKbEkysRpdc0sSC07GVuSuxDty1m8CYbsTrWMXv_hKiuW26kH3Xmvwp3ZuQXHmiVljCDMDglA_KspvkmUgESkCdlnW03JKV_iiVkJnRiOfbslEzvTD4IzFA8QVoIdfOu/w150-h200/2-quantumleap2s2.jpg" title="Love is timeless" width="150" /></a></div>At home: The second season of the new Quantum Leap creates a new status quo at the Project that allows for two key things. One of these is that Ben is free to fall for a woman back in time, and they keep this up as a pleasant arc where he crosses paths with her several times. The other is that there's a villainous tech billionaire who aims to take over the project, and his origins can also be found in the past. While I like where this takes us in the season finale, the level of villainy is a little ridiculous for my tastes AND I'm not sure if follows the rules of Quantum Leap's temporal adjustments exactly. But the show is using modern television's love of story arcs to its advantage, even as it tells done-in-one "right what went wrong" episodic tales (one or two of them fairly poignant). Raymond Lee has found his groove with Ben Song and he's a good replacement for Bakula. I still like Ian, but Jen is strong this season. The new cast member is a bit whatever and Addison gets outshined by Eliza Taylor's space-time romance Hannah. Overall a stronger season than the first, with a more focused meta-plot (not sure I can explain Season 1's), and it ends on a new status quo that begs to be explored in a third.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4dAChmYhGmNyhpA9yGUJLT62q2dBMhY7uRWiGPWWUx1PsIbdQc9W5bE5e4SyXea3esWEj9tzvvB1PTU8dfED5cJJh_JFRxMC1WZz4C2762CYYYAkZKgB_heTyrIls68k9ehj39Ia8pP69ABS_TLuFpLioO2Ahq_uYOS04hvfEhKZ3myk2SzWK/s313/3-jeandefleurette.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4dAChmYhGmNyhpA9yGUJLT62q2dBMhY7uRWiGPWWUx1PsIbdQc9W5bE5e4SyXea3esWEj9tzvvB1PTU8dfED5cJJh_JFRxMC1WZz4C2762CYYYAkZKgB_heTyrIls68k9ehj39Ia8pP69ABS_TLuFpLioO2Ahq_uYOS04hvfEhKZ3myk2SzWK/w128-h200/3-jeandefleurette.jpg" title="You can have Depardieu..." width="128" /></a></div>Native French speaker or not, I was happy to have subtitles for Claude Berri's Jean de Florette, as the accents and patois of rural Southern France felt almost completely opaque to me. But the story is entirely absorbing. Farmers, a ruthless father and hapless son (Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil), have their eye on their neighbor's land and therefore sabotage his heir's chances of making a go of the property, in particular on the question of water and irrigation. That heir, a hunchbacked family man from the city, is played by Gérard Depardieu with enthusiasm to succeed despite the harsh, arid conditions of the region, and there's also a sense that the film is pitting science and modernity against folk knowledge as an additional stake. The former will win unless the latter cheats. We absolutely do not want the scoundrels to win, and prey for Auteuil to relent as he always seems on the cusp, and so if the film leaves one unsatisfied by the unfolding tragedy - a kind of redress of the Fall of Man, in a way - it's because this is a four-hour epic split in two. The next chapter, out the same year, would resolve things. But even without it, I liked Jean de Florette a lot. Berri takes Pagnol's novel (itself an expansion of one of his films) and creates a rich, detailed, lived-in world from it, where even the venal characters are interesting.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBx7GFEqchuXuvpFxC1ewLXg5OtLJ-JNSEGmQjTqEIFAe9JYADEKJjHAhv-bFw6gYXhPwzHSNMOrTP8pNRIjZ2Hfd6b0agb3nHhumNLIARgsqGnKmd1-Fs_b6k2zljuWlV4LBvD5LEDZ4O4898jX_bjTx5evhRu4V-GQRygK-I26ifwAKAugKk/s309/4-manondessources.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBx7GFEqchuXuvpFxC1ewLXg5OtLJ-JNSEGmQjTqEIFAe9JYADEKJjHAhv-bFw6gYXhPwzHSNMOrTP8pNRIjZ2Hfd6b0agb3nHhumNLIARgsqGnKmd1-Fs_b6k2zljuWlV4LBvD5LEDZ4O4898jX_bjTx5evhRu4V-GQRygK-I26ifwAKAugKk/w129-h200/4-manondessources.jpg" title="...or you can have Béart. You choose." width="129" /></a></div>Named after Pagnol's original film which spawned the "Water of the Hills" novel than then gave us Berri's two-part Provencal epic starting in Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring (Manon des Sources) jumps ahead about a decade to see the consequences of the previous chapter's land grab. It is the New Testament to part 1's Old, with the landscape that, while beautiful, felt hellish now a colorful pastoral setting. Manon, the wronged hunchback's daughter, is a shepherdess who punishes the sinful, but also seems to provide a miracle when the village is hit with drought. Daniel Auteuil's character has become obsessed with her, and is again on the verge of repenting his sins, but he may be in too deep. His father (Yves Montand) is in greater need of redemption, or if unavailable, punishment, and this comes about in a most melodramatic way. This, and the fact that Manon lacks the agency that summary blurbs would give her as an avenger, makes me affect this second part less than the first, but I'm only slightly disappointed by the film's novelistic epilogue.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWf5AFSBExlUEPlpB7dMG0Ht2KNIdPKPPQWHXuU2n-BGlmLi5DQF5r0ibmDbibj_c07sxkkXw_r1EDhuTAvD1UFUnPcaXcgHFyk3qS79SV_8AZAy7Hs94gzlLASe2dthMZomRIKI_Yj73szHqj6SEdRxx9Imcn2iVkT0B9B6NQ2b3KexJOqVQO/s274/5-bellenoiseuse.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWf5AFSBExlUEPlpB7dMG0Ht2KNIdPKPPQWHXuU2n-BGlmLi5DQF5r0ibmDbibj_c07sxkkXw_r1EDhuTAvD1UFUnPcaXcgHFyk3qS79SV_8AZAy7Hs94gzlLASe2dthMZomRIKI_Yj73szHqj6SEdRxx9Imcn2iVkT0B9B6NQ2b3KexJOqVQO/w146-h200/5-bellenoiseuse.jpg" title="It's NOT like watching paint dry cuz it's mostly ink and graphite" width="146" /></a></div>Emmanuelle Béart's Marianne agrees to play model to Michel Piccoli's artist in La belle noiseuse, a word I had to research since, no matter what Marianne says about her stay in Quebec, doesn't ring any bells for THIS French Canadian (but Béart imitating a Quebecker is going to be an earworm for a while). It's essentially someone who's looking for a fight; it seems to sometimes be translated as "The Beautiful Troublemaker". And though we don't really know what the artist is thinking, there IS a sense that, as a concept, he wants to create something that hinges on provoking and angering his model. He's titled the work before creating it, after all. He wants adversity, but he also wants absolute control, and it's only when SHE turns the tables on him that things start to loosen up, that the work starts to take shape. And very naturalistically, too. We're seeing drawings and paintings being made IN REAL TIME, with long sequences that amount to scrapes-on-paper ASMR. We're seeing things they never show, and there's a beauty to that. I navigated the world of fine arts for a while and also served as a model, and the relationship here is totally believable. The awkwardness giving way to a mechanical process, where the body is just an object, a shape to be manipulated and reproduced. The model can be part of the creative process too, and bring ideas to the table. It all felt very real. I also like Jane Birkin's portrayal of the artist's wife and former model, again a person I think I met in the real world. She gives Marianne a warning at some point that seems to mean one thing, but means something additional once we start seeing reactions to the work. Ultimately, it's about artistic process - intellectually, physically, spiritually - and the toll it takes - ALSO intellectually, physically, spiritually. A four-hour, somewhat improvised, French epic loosely based on a Balzac short story seems a big ask, but it was totally worth the investment.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgahRv1Yrmf3vLtA7m9-fh7cIm-99If0AUS7hkydQs7JEZzAIuxkyGo3M8WJZ6UeooryvN7sssX8vaVj4kNL4xRAnHJAjyIngQ44wy9SLV0Db65vwqh13Hc0vjRBgjvCriBQlmSm8aoO_eNOjaX6DYiaT-JVlv4dm0ht2rTVFiFQUSt9CAXh8E8/s292/6-henryfool.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgahRv1Yrmf3vLtA7m9-fh7cIm-99If0AUS7hkydQs7JEZzAIuxkyGo3M8WJZ6UeooryvN7sssX8vaVj4kNL4xRAnHJAjyIngQ44wy9SLV0Db65vwqh13Hc0vjRBgjvCriBQlmSm8aoO_eNOjaX6DYiaT-JVlv4dm0ht2rTVFiFQUSt9CAXh8E8/w137-h200/6-henryfool.jpg" title="Man, Simon was such a loser!" width="137" /></a></div>There's a conversation in Hal Hartley's Henry Fool that presages the ways the internet would one day be used, so it's absolutely proper for it to present personality types we might recognize from social media, but there was such a thing. Henry is a big-talking conspiracy theorist with a sex offender's past. Simon Grimm is anti-social and becomes a pornographic, and grammar-lacking poet under Henry's QAnon tutelage. His bullies are neo-fascists who follow a dumbed-down moral minority candidate and commit/excuse domestic abuse. Fay is comparatively normal, even though she (Parker Posey) is just there to shout at the world. I spoiled myself with this one by seeing the two later parts of the trilogy, so I knew where the characters were going to end up. Which is surprising if you don't have foreknowledge. But how they get there is still an intriguing journey. It does make me appreciate more how Fay Grimm recontextualized this film to spin out into a spy story. I can't quite decide what I would have said had I seen Henry Fool first as nature intended.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-Wdh90mpTq-lMVuqhiif2FqgM9np2PbA1o2KWPWvvdNb09jy4bmaGtYoj3Zm9amxONT2ewJf78ysqBCenM6UQasyoMTqMUXRKHpDfvQ43V0jH9YfHEZ5LmHgLKokvlMuuW_YbtUR_Qm_4BXLlAxIXTc5tnNe0Kt_TnjxhIF5bBlDjNAj9G-x/s281/7-freakyfarley.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-Wdh90mpTq-lMVuqhiif2FqgM9np2PbA1o2KWPWvvdNb09jy4bmaGtYoj3Zm9amxONT2ewJf78ysqBCenM6UQasyoMTqMUXRKHpDfvQ43V0jH9YfHEZ5LmHgLKokvlMuuW_YbtUR_Qm_4BXLlAxIXTc5tnNe0Kt_TnjxhIF5bBlDjNAj9G-x/w142-h200/7-freakyfarley.jpg" title="Was is Friday?" width="142" /></a></div>The earliest cryptid-inspired horror comedy I've seen from Motern Media, Freaky Farley definitely feels like an early effort from the gang, with Matt Farley lending his last name to his character, the negative to many of his future roles, in particular the stunted Marshall from Manchvegas. That also holds true for the local cryptids, which are much the same, except morally reversed. Here, Farley is a peeping Tom whose mother died under mysterious circumstances, leading his father to abuse him in very strange (and non-triggering) ways. It's all played even more archly than later offerings, and the usual community theater earnestness is at odds with the lead's meanness, and can't quite pull off its action finale. That said, there are still things to like, including the deadpan inclusion of a certain townsperson who shall not be named because it's better if it comes out of left field for you as it did for me.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0D5OU_mknNY_mMJbLd_17Vu6P0zGuWbnDuTqG6vQL32f6Qx-pg_ArL2eS2AKF9YMDedIWH7G0w0PRC1PL-4-20MiIglPKeazQyC1qW-sVDKnu6lgoae94QHkqGWKHjG2T3lnbQAT89LN4TUryf_UWzxtUY_tVWtuKRykzRAGaUjO3Q-0E0pz2/s299/8-thinman6.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0D5OU_mknNY_mMJbLd_17Vu6P0zGuWbnDuTqG6vQL32f6Qx-pg_ArL2eS2AKF9YMDedIWH7G0w0PRC1PL-4-20MiIglPKeazQyC1qW-sVDKnu6lgoae94QHkqGWKHjG2T3lnbQAT89LN4TUryf_UWzxtUY_tVWtuKRykzRAGaUjO3Q-0E0pz2/w134-h200/8-thinman6.jpg" title="No talking dog" width="134" /></a></div>By Song of the Thin Man, it's been 13 years since the series started, and it's eased itself into a vehicle for Myrna Loy and William Powell's banter as a "sexy married couple" (no, really, there's a fellatio joke in this one that's a real spit take), with fairly ordinary mysteries to hang things on. Ordinary, as in, Nick it kind if hinges on everyone confessing at the end. Unlike the previous film, Nora Charles is kept in the loop consistently, which is amusing given that it's about a murder in the all-night jazz scene and neither of them can ever go to bed. Of course, their being out of touch with the "hip" generation and their lingo stresses the fact that they're getting long in the tooth. That and their young boy at home - Dean Stockwell alert! - who's a handful and who Nick is loathe to punish (still a weird spanking scene from today's perspective, but toothless, no worries). I can't stand Asta Jr., the replacement for Sparky who played the original dog - such a jumpy thing, way too excited compared to the real thing. He's not overplayed here like he was in Goes Home, but he's still annoying. So nothing great, but there hasn't really been a GREAT one since the first.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNmeqQnBPOsqhL8bNZ2EV-hXqXhsSeLjtmPV4sLBsHAh17R5jOp9MmaEjtP0SE2XJzIMI7h9zNcg9OFT7T18zsd9FWMKb_wm2A5wJpm2DQj4RC1V9VSDsVhFAMgoidI4wRfyrBWBcwFmakSB3GcuQf_rJ-BgQ9tuKt5z5XeNEsebeWHrBOhBo/s297/9-littlemurders.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNmeqQnBPOsqhL8bNZ2EV-hXqXhsSeLjtmPV4sLBsHAh17R5jOp9MmaEjtP0SE2XJzIMI7h9zNcg9OFT7T18zsd9FWMKb_wm2A5wJpm2DQj4RC1V9VSDsVhFAMgoidI4wRfyrBWBcwFmakSB3GcuQf_rJ-BgQ9tuKt5z5XeNEsebeWHrBOhBo/w135-h200/9-littlemurders.jpg" title="You want to get married? I'm sure it's going to be OKAY." width="135" /></a></div>The play premiered in 1967, but the 1971 film version of Little Murders is even more "of its time", made in the shadow of the Kent State shootings, which in the story, becomes a kind of "new normal" in a New York where institutions, infrastructure and morality are disintegrating. Enter a hero for our time (because if the felt like the end of America, what do we make of the 2020s?), Elliott Gould as a photography who has made disassociative apathy his entire character. He doesn't feel it when he gets beat up in the street, and he doesn't feel it when he falls in love. He just goes through the motions, and finds he can't bring people into focus, only objects, and excrement at that. He's like many, insensible to the violence around him, and like some, only seeing what's terrible and not what's good. The film presents three viewpoints and asks to you to choose between them, really: Is it better to ignore the world collapsing around you, allow yourself to see it, or actively participate in it? It sounds heady, and it is in that "70s protest satire" kind of way, but it's also very funny. There are some absolutely GREAT monologues in this thing - including the judge's thoughts on God and Donald Sutherland's a-ceremonial marriage ceremony, to name just a couple. When the murders start happening, things get darker and the chuckles subside, but the wit is still there. Alan Arkin directs (it was almost Goddard, we dodged a bullet, I hate Goddard) and creates a New York City that's truly falling apart, with random power outages, background riots, and a heavy-breathing pervert on every phone line. A wild ride that unfortunately seems even more relevant today than it was then.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik9lEUx96ozmoNgnLpHcHVELiFhYq3euVVP_WpjIzaTJEo1ySndpEvUO25HKbOoirRI_2Mz7tLOrJ7hbNfT-Xs8M0rqYliATyXXZlpilLAIgpHVhdcwkNFZcrXfHGKVBzDJdjWDY6p03MVDX30MhrQj3yOYS1rYbReOhvam363uGqCxmqvFa7e/s308/10-dayofthetriffids.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik9lEUx96ozmoNgnLpHcHVELiFhYq3euVVP_WpjIzaTJEo1ySndpEvUO25HKbOoirRI_2Mz7tLOrJ7hbNfT-Xs8M0rqYliATyXXZlpilLAIgpHVhdcwkNFZcrXfHGKVBzDJdjWDY6p03MVDX30MhrQj3yOYS1rYbReOhvam363uGqCxmqvFa7e/w130-h200/10-dayofthetriffids.jpg" title="Susan Foreman's audition tape" width="130" /></a></div>And the week's Companion Film... It's pretty cool that the makers of The Day of the Triffids stayed true to John Wyndham's book when they crafted the plant monsters (they look just like the original hardcover's illustration) and only sometimes do they feel like men in rubber suits (arguably, the rest of the time, they're stiff puppets). The buck stops there. The book is about the colony that sprouts up around the survivors. It's not very cinematic. The movie is about surviving the first few days of the ecological invasion, made more difficult by 99% of the population going blind during seedfall. Howard Keel is the brawny hero who will get people out of Europe if he can, almost hard to recognize because he's not being a singing douche in a Taming of the Shrew riff. We also have an action scientist on a remote island who has a big red sign with the solution on it to help him (as happens in these movies), though that story never connects to the rest. For Doctor Who fans, we have Carol Ann Ford as a French girl abandoned to her fate too soon. Notably, the schoolgirl Keel hangs out with is called Susan! The First Doctor's Susan will be left in an invasion-torn London like the one here. The Fourth Doctor will of course fight Krynoids who are Triffids mixed with the Thing. And then skip to Ninth Doctor Chris Eccleston having a role in 28 Days Later, which was inspired by the empty streets in this movie. It's a classic of the genre and keeps one's attention. The effects are dated but not bad. I take off half a star for the clumsy structure.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ6zJk-utJeELsQEFV2p0Q22P1x_f7Qmxk2pL0ZW7HL-xkxC_k7iUj0u2HjAY-Gspdz6SZIzcxrzwmuEOliYl9GsdWF9glfEU5Sh7eSC4WCxhiaZHHk9yM6mbh4njXE_RbAhdSdgvG9RNpdx0GbT7A-IhYGtoAYYZrKltlqiIXO1OAuR4BoO76/s300/11-godland2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ6zJk-utJeELsQEFV2p0Q22P1x_f7Qmxk2pL0ZW7HL-xkxC_k7iUj0u2HjAY-Gspdz6SZIzcxrzwmuEOliYl9GsdWF9glfEU5Sh7eSC4WCxhiaZHHk9yM6mbh4njXE_RbAhdSdgvG9RNpdx0GbT7A-IhYGtoAYYZrKltlqiIXO1OAuR4BoO76/w133-h200/11-godland2.jpg" title="A chicken in every pot, a brain in every tentacle" width="133" /></a></div>Books: Collecting issues 13-24 of the Casey/Scioli series, Gødland Celestial Edition Book Two is very much the sagging middle of the saga. The villains' stories are idling in geosynchronous orbit, especially the Tormentor/Nicklehead stuff, but the Triad's too. Neela's journey through the cosmos gets teased a lot. Adam is on the outs with his government handlers, then back in. And there's a 60¢ issue that mostly just recaps the preceding issues, useful at the time, but redundant to the marathoning reader. The series plays for time. But the collection ends with a number of bangs! Several important deaths are in the offing. Neela returns to Earth for a very cool What If issue. And the cosmic-powered fights are percussive as all get out. A difficult start to the second "year" of the book, but it finds its groove again and gives Adam Archer juice to propel us through Book 3. It's also around this time that Scioli decides to evolve his style, using thinner lines and moving away from Kirby in terms of final rendering. There are a couple of issues of growing pains on that front, but I think the eventual result is one I like, even if I still (at this point) miss the outright Kirby pastiche.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmnCviSPpiXlOgBuAbKe69hx-_HADxPwZGd0zOyiEjo4HVS97FicO6QupkTBAWTaLrNUwVeGxsWi8WUhWw4l7tJeOOHtij6Xzcg_eH02JpEsJkRskNPHQDmb-aDvUW73a-wDl-rX74L5m5dkSZtMDuGICG6JgNce5O7wSjlvRT0hrZFdOUW06i/s307/12-godland3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmnCviSPpiXlOgBuAbKe69hx-_HADxPwZGd0zOyiEjo4HVS97FicO6QupkTBAWTaLrNUwVeGxsWi8WUhWw4l7tJeOOHtij6Xzcg_eH02JpEsJkRskNPHQDmb-aDvUW73a-wDl-rX74L5m5dkSZtMDuGICG6JgNce5O7wSjlvRT0hrZFdOUW06i/w130-h200/12-godland3.jpg" title="Big Crunch vs. Entropy" width="130" /></a></div>Gødland Celestial Edition Book Three (collecting issues 25-36 of the series plus the long-awaited triple-sized Finale - all in all, a big'un) brings everything to a close (two or three times!) and gives lots to do to the villains I felt weren't moving in the second act. Cranium's fate is one big dick head joke that I can't help but appreciate, and Nicklehead's journey is the most interesting. But there's also a giant cosmic threat, who is a little bit as if Jack Kirby had created the Punisher. The comic somehow manages to predict the events of January 6th (yes, that one), but in the larger scheme, taps into 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Hunger Dogs, and the works of Jodorowsky for its slam-bang finale. Which is issue 36. The "Finale" is more of an epilogue, set a century later, and yes, it's interesting, but I didn't really need it. If you're looking for the overall message of Gødland, then yes, it's in that final chapter, but the previous end point is the great action/plot climax and I love it more.Jack Kirby was never able to end Tales of Asgard nor the Fourth World the way he wanted. Casey and Scioli's "Jack Kirby as genre" series did it and you can't help but take your hat off to them, then place it over your heart to say a little prayer for the King of Comics that inspired them.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-SoH0nogC9YJwKvF00kB22sT2HrD7aRq2e1GoAHhOljxJWtgjnW5L-8Uk6VcQZu2gJuFsx9OCVjRqXaRB5ZwL_LORftQLLMNNccJ0g1xrKT2n2aBLxcdjg6d6Orx9eJmHu3amlDYUwANmWJ7L4XK3wOzsIMgZ3Xv6w7JXy5iYmsttGzCKQsaC/s400/13-Grimm-Armor.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-SoH0nogC9YJwKvF00kB22sT2HrD7aRq2e1GoAHhOljxJWtgjnW5L-8Uk6VcQZu2gJuFsx9OCVjRqXaRB5ZwL_LORftQLLMNNccJ0g1xrKT2n2aBLxcdjg6d6Orx9eJmHu3amlDYUwANmWJ7L4XK3wOzsIMgZ3Xv6w7JXy5iYmsttGzCKQsaC/w200-h200/13-Grimm-Armor.png" title="Steampunk Iron Man?!" width="200" /></a></div>RPGs: Played Torg Eternity this week... In Delphi Missions - Nile Empire, there's an interesting adventure concept that has a villain called Dr. Grimm kidnap the heroes and run their through their paces in his lair. Makes it sound like Grimm is a supervillain of some concern, but he appears nowhere else in the published canon. So I decided to play the long game with him. Sabella, the recurring NPC from a couple of NE adventures, is supposed to have lost her family to the Insidious Wu Han - I changed it to Dr. Grimm. Played a version of the "Grimm House" idea some months ago, where the PCs woke up in a mental institution called Grimm House. Now it was time to pull the same trick, but actually use the Grimm House maps from T:E for a return engagement against a super-powered Dr. Grimm who is playing with possibility energy. But we're at that point in my campaign where I go off-book a lot, paying off subplots and the Player Characters' larger arcs. Therefore... Grimm's lab is holding a (shocker) pregnant Sabella (she had been successfully romanced by a now-dead PC, whose body is ALSO in a glass tube here). Reminder that I have a player whose character leads a "fractured existence" - the PC exists as a "dimensional clone" in every Cosm. For the player, it's about switching gears with a new build every few sessions. SOMEone (a villain, a High Lord, someone) was going to take an interest, and it might as well be Dr. Grimm. Seeing their friend's corpse forced a Spirit roll (universally failed) which gave them a condition I invented: Shaken. Essentially, your resolve and confidence is so shaken by some disturbing personal event that you are Stymied and Vulnerable until one of your dice explodes (as they do on 10, 20 or with damage dice, 6) - this is how they entered the final battle. But wait, another shocker! Dr. Grimm, once defeated, turned out to be an empty suit remote controlled by Pan-Pacifican drone technology. Who else uses that? Quiang Shu, the P-P movie director who they freed from conditioning months ago and whose offer they accepted that he drone-film their adventures to give Core Earth hope. No wonder he knew where to dig for their fallen comrade, or where to send his drugged champagne. He's been manipulating them for a while... and now I'm all set to take the adventure to Pan-Pacifica, the Cosm we haven't really been to yet. That's the plot, but in terms of play, the dice/cards were really frustrating this week. The early encounters had me rolling too well, putting the PCs on the defensive when they should have been more proactive. And then in the final encounter, it's not so much that they were rolling well, but rather that I was now rolling very poorly. When your Big Bad disconnects in the second round and depends on a battlesuit to do, well, anything, and can't reconnect to save his life... Yeah, it leads to a lop-sided session.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsrBjAQAqHKN4beknTTii11yK-WcQ4xCL7kPXSO-pKT1ZT6Fu8KETWtdmHNU9g3XEG18tuQcKqzdsf8cJFedE8942ovPZj6sZYv6_ZcrUVP20Fg-rTiLuumjebO6ieUbU_itTT6C600Hn2HEZO5q-m0EoQrJ777FgXp-P93KjDIqfB6TaK4i5L/s600/14-breaking-news25.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsrBjAQAqHKN4beknTTii11yK-WcQ4xCL7kPXSO-pKT1ZT6Fu8KETWtdmHNU9g3XEG18tuQcKqzdsf8cJFedE8942ovPZj6sZYv6_ZcrUVP20Fg-rTiLuumjebO6ieUbU_itTT6C600Hn2HEZO5q-m0EoQrJ777FgXp-P93KjDIqfB6TaK4i5L/s16000/14-breaking-news25.jpg" title="I could feel it right up my bum" /></a></div>Best bits: Funny to think our Super Wrestler spent the whole adventure in nothing but a towel, but that's how he was kidnapped. The Akashan Zen Master used his faith in Zinnat (which is really a scholar test) to calm Grimm's "divine jackals", using the "divine" epithet against them. Seeing as the heroes were without equipment and losing badly, I allowed it; the Nile Empire is the right place for out of the box solutions. Trying to deactivate robots from a console, the badly-equipped Wrestler bangs on the computer console to turn a failure into a success (the villains had a Setback on the drama card), which makes them all glitch in idle mode for a turn. Sabella's back (which surprised the players) with a baby bump (ditto), and OF COURSE the Akashan (who used to play her lover) drops a Romance card on her. No intentions - he still remembers his dead wife from the old world - but she at least thinks it's the former identity and he feels beholden to her. In other words, the possibilities gained from the Romance card makes complete sense as he has to protect her through the rest of the story. The PCs drain the power out of Grimm's battlesuit as a team, the Wrestler pinning him against his machine and the Monster Hunter taking pot shots at it with electric bullets. The Realm Runner, desperate to get a Nemesis card from the deck (didn't happen) then opens up on the prone suit and empties a clip into it, only to find it empty (death in the Nile Empire is something musty). He vows revenge and blows the whole lair up, possibility machine, friend's earthly remains, and all. In a fun coincidence, this coincides with Pan-Pacifica getting rid of the Law of Revenge. It's almost like they knew he was coming for one of them.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8gg0tlo6P2er0tHI2iw8OqvTS6NQf7VoE6-5jl2-_SUbi8xx6pdJispY4BwfbQOTHoqwAChP_NKDbPHIyJ92cP9zbLH8fWcU2n7DSDm-K3Shw9wLumxXW6p9T8GglBAq5kf9WVMgfHyw9N6mT11HvsCqudqbiey5qRIQX1LWqo-_6w4dAl5N8/s200/15-sangtitre2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8gg0tlo6P2er0tHI2iw8OqvTS6NQf7VoE6-5jl2-_SUbi8xx6pdJispY4BwfbQOTHoqwAChP_NKDbPHIyJ92cP9zbLH8fWcU2n7DSDm-K3Shw9wLumxXW6p9T8GglBAq5kf9WVMgfHyw9N6mT11HvsCqudqbiey5qRIQX1LWqo-_6w4dAl5N8/w200-h200/15-sangtitre2.jpg" title="Blood on the snow" width="200" /></a></div>Improv: In the Fall of 2022, my improv group presented Sang Titre - an improvised slasher. (Decoder ring for non-French speakers: It's a pun. It sounds just like Sans Titre, which means Untitled, but "sang" is "blood".) A cabin in the woods, a sextet of old friends reuniting 10 years after graduation, one of them uses the event to kill the rest dressed as Death, the audience chose who would be the killer and who would be the last survivor of the massacre by secret ballot, gore packs made of felt, red lighting, kill music, and so it goes. Slashers tend to spawn sequels, and so this week, we presented Sang Titre 2: In Cold Blood. It's 15 years later, winter, the cabin has been renovated into an Airbnb and the killings mostly forgotten. The survivor from the last show is now its caretaker. Two groupings booked on the same weekend. A sister-and-two-brothers combo, one of them going through an anger management program, another none too supportive and focused on his ghost-hunting podcast. The other group is a flashy, snobby couple - the spoiled daughter of the new owner and her professional skier of a boyfriend. "Death" is back (that's me, I played Death in the original show too, so as to hide the body shape of the actual killer until the very end), but this time, it's a supernatural threat. The audience still voted on the "last girl", but it was a tie, so we made a conscious choice. As per the rules of the genre, one of the rich kids had to get it first, and the anger management brother survived instead - it was more his story, in a way. Rage murders happening around him as he desperately tried to keep his own under wraps. We evolved some of the killing from the original show which was just stabbing. The sequels always have more fanciful murders, and in this case, the podcaster was choked with his own scarf, the sister protecting her brother and taking the hit for him blocked the knife and had her innards ripped out by hand, and the skier was stabbed in the back with ski poles while going down the mountain (homage to the Black Racer). The caretaker was also found dead in a closet, pre-killed, with sticky movie blood all over him. The podcaster was always doing seances to get material, so we sent out the dead with basic eye make-up and their gore packages out to creepy effect. They made a few audience members jump when they used a secret door to go behind them and start whispering things in their ears. At the end, the ghosts come to the brother's rescue and smother the killer into the snow bank. But of course, there's a last scare, the killer's hand rises up to the killing music and TOTAL BLACKOUT. The original show felt goofier, so we really wanted to push people's buttons more with this one. It was creepier, had more jump scares, and the improvisers reacted more naturalistically to the deaths. A quick survey of people we knew who came reported actual jumps, chills, and hey, even a few tears rising given the family situations. In improv, it's easy to go for the joke (and there definitely were some) and the caricature. But this is what sincerity gets you and in long-form improv, it's what you should aim for.<br />Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-68924908090343537692024-02-18T06:00:00.038-04:002024-02-18T06:00:00.126-04:00This Week in Geek (11-17/02/24)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNQ3BFHIoiSmaOIFTvT3VW3-cPPTt-3cWscmu2FPwgRl0cE8_0rjLa8xOI-nJTBBqQZzJ3LikCeI8wn5_q2HLVVe9zXwRDtatD_ddUf9RgLnW9PYrp_y_vhmMo1WPl97h3UOXkKDP8qQ1GlYOTrNpBz6cSyafMalVz9QPSRhNa2zMMRLydyEiT/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNQ3BFHIoiSmaOIFTvT3VW3-cPPTt-3cWscmu2FPwgRl0cE8_0rjLa8xOI-nJTBBqQZzJ3LikCeI8wn5_q2HLVVe9zXwRDtatD_ddUf9RgLnW9PYrp_y_vhmMo1WPl97h3UOXkKDP8qQ1GlYOTrNpBz6cSyafMalVz9QPSRhNa2zMMRLydyEiT/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Tom Scioli/Jack Kirby, teens, mysteries, marriage" /></a></div><b>Buys<br /></b><br />Video game sales... picked up Immortals Fenyx Rising and Far Cry 3-5.<br /><br /><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1S8l3LdZYx38-gg_e8JVXoyZ3UjrTt0ifnL7sYBbGyxexA0lLeeIaSVfNBiRnM_AG2VLL2yEpgOO9gDjt1askCaCRl0n5EqZjOI2_lJI2Nt1vw7hA0-SMrhSQ0d7uETOFXD7LtICi_BnF5zLbDbFQjZPKQc_tnm7VPEh1is-f83gfOPUye9w4/s300/1-meangirls2024.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1S8l3LdZYx38-gg_e8JVXoyZ3UjrTt0ifnL7sYBbGyxexA0lLeeIaSVfNBiRnM_AG2VLL2yEpgOO9gDjt1askCaCRl0n5EqZjOI2_lJI2Nt1vw7hA0-SMrhSQ0d7uETOFXD7LtICi_BnF5zLbDbFQjZPKQc_tnm7VPEh1is-f83gfOPUye9w4/w133-h200/1-meangirls2024.jpg" title="That's a Rapp" width="133" /></a></div>In theaters: Is it wrong to have liked the Mean Girls musical more than the original of 20 years earlier? And it's not so much the songs as the jokes and casting. If this is to be accounted the fourth version of the story (first the book, then the movie, then the stage musical, and now this), Tina Fey has, across the three latter iterations, refined her comedy writing. There are more jokes and they're generally funnier - I get more of a 30 Rock feeling from it. The story structure is more efficient and tighter - to make room for musical numbers, I imagine - Cady is more believably innocent, Regina much fiercer, Janis actually gay (which makes Cady's turn more outrageous), Damian funnier... and the race-related comedy that was a hit in 2004 absent. Mad props for the casting of the parents with Jenna Fischer absolutely looking like she could be Angourie Rice's mom, and the same for Busy Phillips and Renée Rapp. Amusingly, the movie is a modern, social-media savvy retelling that also seems to acknowledge the original also happened, advancing the returning teachers' lives and winking at the past in clever ways. Having no experience with the Broadway show (or its soundtrack), I can't comment on the changes made there, but as a movie musical, it has some fun, but I can't say I got earwormed by the songs or anything. I might remember the words and images, but not the music. On that end of it, it was just okay.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoV71jlcO9f1cEbLKw1Bbo7OAuhr0fI2CQqeODYEzYGlotLz8ZUEy6b-n7qAlmJtAeRFrCMfQMEJ_CR0cwbWGvcOgVQhLvG14Y1q8Ww-UhaIQLHa7f8b0JaT5wu4f281gPAS8RW6DgsXnINVqErCWa4ID7ZvXnlRLU05zCXbt48O3FXueWlgHo/s286/2-meangirls2004.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoV71jlcO9f1cEbLKw1Bbo7OAuhr0fI2CQqeODYEzYGlotLz8ZUEy6b-n7qAlmJtAeRFrCMfQMEJ_CR0cwbWGvcOgVQhLvG14Y1q8Ww-UhaIQLHa7f8b0JaT5wu4f281gPAS8RW6DgsXnINVqErCWa4ID7ZvXnlRLU05zCXbt48O3FXueWlgHo/w140-h200/2-meangirls2004.jpg" title="Still fetch" width="140" /></a></div>At home: I saw the original Mean Girls with a room mate when she tried to institute a "chick flick Sunday" at the apartment, though it never really got off the ground. And for some reason didn't review it then. Rewatching it after I've seen the 20th Anniversary movie musical might poison the well. I suppose my evaluation is kind of the same. I like Tina Fey, but some of the comedy and plot points have aged badly (why isn't Janis actually gay, for example?). Shlocky teen film director Mark Waters lets in a lot of dead air. Lindsay Lohan plays it like a Disney Channel TV movie and Rachel McAdams is kind of miscast as Regina (my first encounter with her was as a "good girl" in Slings & Arrows, and though I like her portrayal here when she goes into full revenge mode, I don't always believe her as this evil queen bee (perhaps no one can outdo Renée Rapp in the role, in hindsight). The best feature is how Cady sometimes sees the "girl world" as a safari from her upbringing, coming back to this fantasy several times. You can definitely see how the story lends itself to the musical format, replacing the narration with songs and the slapstick and jungle sequences with dance numbers. Iconic, in its way, but the story benefited from modernization.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIGYC21fnfZu8qnB7uR2-0bYCc3IinuyucaFDUb6LwU9X5AgERF1QfMNj1bQtfyLxmRCUoCc2jVHe0tgX6drGvpObDKZsvB5PGWZ_RpMwDh3oIMIEXnQAK30BpjBO7TSJmolZTAT2-8L5hroxU1zv-CSK3sET2w6BeRgn_i14OTdv0gcOPaG6K/s314/3-slcpunk.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIGYC21fnfZu8qnB7uR2-0bYCc3IinuyucaFDUb6LwU9X5AgERF1QfMNj1bQtfyLxmRCUoCc2jVHe0tgX6drGvpObDKZsvB5PGWZ_RpMwDh3oIMIEXnQAK30BpjBO7TSJmolZTAT2-8L5hroxU1zv-CSK3sET2w6BeRgn_i14OTdv0gcOPaG6K/w127-h200/3-slcpunk.jpg" title="Punks watch Hard core Logo; posers watch SLC Punk" width="127" /></a></div>I think calling out SLC Punk for being an American version of Trainspotting is probably right, even if a character called Heroin Bob is dead against taking drugs. There's the same anarchic spirit, the same kind of soundtrack (except I don't like it), the same kind of narration, and plenty of drug-fuelled POVs. It's no Trainspotting, but it does feel personal to writer-director James Merendino seeing as he's a Salt Lake City native himself, and presents its punk scene under fire with some love. It's punk under American puritanical conditions, punk rebelling against itself as it tries to get out from under the shadow of OG Brit punk. The story keeps bouncing around as Matthew Lillard (who should have had a very different career based on this - he carries the film) tells anecdotes that send us careening into flashbacks willy-nilly. It's an anarchic structure that is probably meant to evoke "punk", even if the thesis of the film is that the punk ethos isn't viable and like other youth movements, is something you necessarily outgrow. Lillard's Stevo is thus living through the death of punk, not as a movement (others may take up the baton), but in his own group. It's the death of youthful idealism, ironically dressed up as fatalism. It's kind of depressing, actually.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-V4npYplOjemuNKtq2DPuWeBPmyR8YFUXohgWojbsrEi9QgcDEnDhuFRHyZ5Fm6wREdqGOfQw7gIugH2xyZRF_St8yMDZwqbbkVIRYEBEYlk5mziJbHyBlLfnwClZDjPKcIHDfk5pnORzEBiYzPgU00j6vPq3tZZpOhodagKGlqs4Cz0PL64/s301/4-monstersmarriage.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-V4npYplOjemuNKtq2DPuWeBPmyR8YFUXohgWojbsrEi9QgcDEnDhuFRHyZ5Fm6wREdqGOfQw7gIugH2xyZRF_St8yMDZwqbbkVIRYEBEYlk5mziJbHyBlLfnwClZDjPKcIHDfk5pnORzEBiYzPgU00j6vPq3tZZpOhodagKGlqs4Cz0PL64/w133-h200/4-monstersmarriage.jpg" title="A book a week for an extra dollar? Good deal!" width="133" /></a></div>A relatively early Motern Media production, Monsters, Marriage and Murder in Manchvegas feels to me like a spoof of one of those beach movies from the 60s. The characters are teens played by adults (or in this case, adults who act like teens), getting up to a little romance, some involved pranking, a number of novelty songs, a bit of detective work (as a plot decides to show its face), and perhaps meet... a cryptid? Hey, it's all par for the course in these kinds of mash-ups (I'm reminded of MST3K classic Catalina Caper which has a random mermaid), and Motern's crew is very interested in folk tales, cryptids and local legends - they would return to this kind of thing only a few years later with Riverbeast. They've already got the deadpan comedy, and the dad (as usual, Kevin McGee) is so dry, he had me laughing out loud several times. Obviously, it's make with little means, but as usual, that's its charm. I perhaps can't shake the sense that this is a first draft of the Riverbeast movie, but it goes different places (TOO MANY places?) and stands on its own.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCG5PT__3lmwiYC7qAb_Yn4qYDcY2ua0FZHw1H39vL5xp0VVFphslB_VHPyAHXPchbVmbPwV3VUy7UVlEYn7uwaEMR3_5BScjwdwvQdAMd0a7pMvHnaSIebfwLwacIN-UJDsYGV1yu1cRE0H0l9Hz-t_EXUGyRteZeZB4Iyx8-YJ3-jWrWQltK/s297/5-subway.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCG5PT__3lmwiYC7qAb_Yn4qYDcY2ua0FZHw1H39vL5xp0VVFphslB_VHPyAHXPchbVmbPwV3VUy7UVlEYn7uwaEMR3_5BScjwdwvQdAMd0a7pMvHnaSIebfwLwacIN-UJDsYGV1yu1cRE0H0l9Hz-t_EXUGyRteZeZB4Iyx8-YJ3-jWrWQltK/w135-h200/5-subway.jpg" title="Highlander but with a fluorescent light instead of a sword" width="135" /></a></div>Only Luc Besson's second feature, Subway starts with the energy of his action films to come, like he's a man trained on Hong Kong cinema, but loses the plot in the middle part and never really makes its various parts come together coherently. It is therefore a movie I want to like more, but can't. Christopher Lambert plays a safe-cracker and would-be blackmailer who runs from his victim's men and the police into the Paris subway system, which is many stories deep and filled with what Shakespearean scholars would call "zanies" and X-Men readers "Morlocks". He somehow starts a band down there (which includes proficient drummer Jean Reno). There's also the matter of Isabelle Adjani as the victim's long-suffering trophy wife who Lambert has fallen for on sight. Lots of quirky elements, from hairstyles to locations, an inept policeman called Batman, a thief on roller skates, an elliptical finish, and the music... A couple songs (including one to die to), some diegetic drumming in the score, and otherwise that mid-80s sax rock that proudly proclaims this as an action movie of its era. So many weird little touches, but the convoluted plot and the slow pace in the second act made my attention wander. But I feel like it's one that might grow on you after a rewatch or two.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUEo9ZqI_A2BHIXJd0KAnpQC93YvC8s7XUGCXdsrckbxbFxfG7VQ2fN8G4gaFKMRrTKeqtW9gzdEg_KNlStLbZQRoUCrLSLgA-B78Ak6Yzpy3CIMLx9vbXaB6vm9OHmmayNXSSXeV9HxBQl2uIZt_SI5SNG7hRaIIsRYwtdsBecuOAYpuq1C98/s300/6-taleofcinema.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUEo9ZqI_A2BHIXJd0KAnpQC93YvC8s7XUGCXdsrckbxbFxfG7VQ2fN8G4gaFKMRrTKeqtW9gzdEg_KNlStLbZQRoUCrLSLgA-B78Ak6Yzpy3CIMLx9vbXaB6vm9OHmmayNXSSXeV9HxBQl2uIZt_SI5SNG7hRaIIsRYwtdsBecuOAYpuq1C98/w133-h200/6-taleofcinema.jpg" title="I'm sure she does have scars" width="133" /></a></div>Hong Sang-soo's Tale of Cinema starts with the story of a suicidal young man who, on the eve of his dreadful act, accidentally(?) comes across an old crush and spends the night with her. A death pact is forged, but she decides to bail out of it and saves his life. Cut to a second story, in which a film director is ambivalent about an old class mate from film school dying in hospital. There's bad blood between them, and we'll discover his reasons over the course of the film. He comes across the actress who played the girl in the first part and through an almost visible cinematic transformation, the person who seemed the first character becomes the second. Hong Sang-soo doesn't go so far as to make himself the dying director, but it's definitely meta. Our protagonist is obsessed with the short film we just saw as "real" and its actress, for reasons that will become clear. The Tale has something intriguing to say about where ideas come from, and how we relate to stories when we see ourselves in them. We blur reality and fiction in this way, use characters' catharses as our own, adopt their thought processes, and in celebrity culture, confound actors for their characters. It could possibly have hit its points harder, but only at the risk of becoming a little gimmicky.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkKTtGvpYo26QrCJ9oRmpzoN2_XkK5fxWeA1aQxL5KO0BdKuWEC8qEnQ3ttML9PSGC6TZ5W_OFEI25REaiyjmWScs4cM6Tt8EgrO5pELk-R1lgxlynJPiqSokQteqe64PrTPw3fNb3CsbvF_ZIs1soU_-izAKiDv7ZwAR7nTnM67ugDtz46rAu/s310/7-thinman5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkKTtGvpYo26QrCJ9oRmpzoN2_XkK5fxWeA1aQxL5KO0BdKuWEC8qEnQ3ttML9PSGC6TZ5W_OFEI25REaiyjmWScs4cM6Tt8EgrO5pELk-R1lgxlynJPiqSokQteqe64PrTPw3fNb3CsbvF_ZIs1soU_-izAKiDv7ZwAR7nTnM67ugDtz46rAu/w129-h200/7-thinman5.jpg" title="Asta la Vista" width="129" /></a></div>By its fifth instalment, The Thin Man Goes Home, the series has abandoned adapting Dashiell Hammett mysteries in favor of an "original" story. Not to say the other sequels were dead-on Hammett; they were continuations of the MOVIE Nick and Nora, with the comedy banter amped up, their having a baby, etc., but this one leans so far into sitcom tropes that the as-usual okay mystery feels like an afterthought. The Charleses go to Nick's home town to visit his folks, where he might finally get some reconciliation with his father who was always disappointed with his decision to go into law enforcement. It's a tepid conflict at best. Even if we're in the boonies somewhere, Nick keeps meeting people he knows, including one of his criminal pals who's out there selling postcards. We're just following tropes no matter what at this point. There's entirely too much slapstick for my tastes, a lot of it using the dog. This is par for the course, but to make Asta perform, there are obvious animatronics, or the camera is undercranked or spooled in reverse. It looks so dumb. But what really disappoints me is that the movie keeps humiliating Nora. In an effort to bring back the weird comedy domestic violence of the first film, she even gets a spanking in front of the in-laws. She's sent on a fool's errand to get her out of the way, and even if she accidentally brings back some clues, she continues to foolishly accuse people event he audience know are guiltless. And that's just criminal.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WciBSIKGVuva5f8cwrUHzTKA7VQJ4vM7yhAVc9fnyNCwwjAmqxEvCash8avGFglljlpxnsDCF3vsmY1KeB7Vod48gg9OtuG6LKLjcpvnQTlgcJatQvZ4kVzV2_SRLhGTBE5WpAD0f0w4laNFkA-CofxJkG3dHTpunafyG45TUpJG37TWhTtd/s314/8-whenstrangersmarry.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WciBSIKGVuva5f8cwrUHzTKA7VQJ4vM7yhAVc9fnyNCwwjAmqxEvCash8avGFglljlpxnsDCF3vsmY1KeB7Vod48gg9OtuG6LKLjcpvnQTlgcJatQvZ4kVzV2_SRLhGTBE5WpAD0f0w4laNFkA-CofxJkG3dHTpunafyG45TUpJG37TWhTtd/w127-h200/8-whenstrangersmarry.jpg" title="Night of Kim Hunter" width="127" /></a></div>In terms of premise, When Strangers Marry (later retitled Betrayed) is B-movie director William Castle remaking Hitchcock's Suspicion. You can hardly get someone more innocent-looking than Kim Hunter as the new wife of a travelling salesman who seems responsible for a murder, as she comes to suspect. He certainly looks guilty, but you want to hang on the other man in her life because he's played by Robert Mitchum who's always had more edge. With only two choices, it's not much of a mystery, but you might go back and forth between them before the solution. It makes for a fair, if melodramatic, thriller, and though Castle isn't Hitchcock, he's still a director with flair and doesn't mind showing it. Amusing for us nerds is the head detective in the affair being played by Neil Hamilton, so you can totally head-canon this to be one of Commissioner Gordon's early cases. He didn't Batman on this one, but as a 65-minute matinée, it works on its own terms.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUQpTQP0wRKUxG0dI4ynE35W8b4d9GqAjR40t11AS0SQgtkP1_Jpd4yMXjehdyg4cGJLEqy_0ZR2m3Djnjoz6yu4gQ3h3HfpKtjEJ9fTJ9_ENJoMhU5dmgv92k-4t1aN9t3wuijX1LuY5lfS8gPFX0BwNH2I8c5uWjCjHWxWjEpcTnBX-vIQ_/s300/9-blue%20parrot.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUQpTQP0wRKUxG0dI4ynE35W8b4d9GqAjR40t11AS0SQgtkP1_Jpd4yMXjehdyg4cGJLEqy_0ZR2m3Djnjoz6yu4gQ3h3HfpKtjEJ9fTJ9_ENJoMhU5dmgv92k-4t1aN9t3wuijX1LuY5lfS8gPFX0BwNH2I8c5uWjCjHWxWjEpcTnBX-vIQ_/w133-h200/9-blue%20parrot.jpg" title="Part of the Maltese Falcon set" width="133" /></a></div>And now our Companion Film of the week... The Blue Parrot is an okay British noir mystery (I'm not sure we can call it a thriller though it does have its pulpy moments) with some interesting performers in the cast - especially in hindsight. Doctor Who's Jacqueline Hill is second billed and the most interesting person in here as an undercover cop. Fawlty Tower's Ballard Berkeley and Dad's Army's John Le Mesurier are here too, in good supporting roles, and you might recognize other faces as well. So it's a real shame that the film's actual lead, Dermot Walsh, is such a bore. He plays the American G-man on loan to Scotland Yard (are we really trying to appeal to the American market with this Soho-based murder mystery? if so, maybe don't mock his gun ownership, I hear they frown on that). He's got ridiculous hair and even more ridiculous jazz ambitions. No, if you're watching this, it's for a look at a young Barbara Wright, 10 years before she stepped into the TARDIS.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ezhd4ceoAZgk07-HGiFLSY14r_1xH7KDv6fpy8vlS8XzDq_uZdIfZL0pgFgYygrxL3R4yKa0kzz3-WJQ_SfyEduTsd5v6ahwP3ozWocUr4H4GPZwUcvjPiZAtFbwmHKQKFzrW4eZeWA48-xVp8CDKPy-BNDad9aXF60NxIiSZChKfJp7mOdP/s289/10-ff-granddesign.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ezhd4ceoAZgk07-HGiFLSY14r_1xH7KDv6fpy8vlS8XzDq_uZdIfZL0pgFgYygrxL3R4yKa0kzz3-WJQ_SfyEduTsd5v6ahwP3ozWocUr4H4GPZwUcvjPiZAtFbwmHKQKFzrW4eZeWA48-xVp8CDKPy-BNDad9aXF60NxIiSZChKfJp7mOdP/w138-h200/10-ff-granddesign.jpg" title="Poor Sue" width="138" /></a></div>Books: I'm not entirely sure what to think of Marvel's Grand Design line. I love the idea of handing name-brand characters over to indie cartoonists, and if anyone should tackle a Kirby-stamped book like the FF, it's Tom Scioli (Gødland is essentially a Kirby riff), but Fantastic Four: Grand Design didn't go as far as I wanted it to. I certainly respect the idea of crafting a pop art item that recaps the Lee-Kirby run in fast-paced 25-panel pages, with quirky dialog and a stream of consciousness approach to story-telling, as well as the occasional Kirby art steal. If you're a comics fan, you'll recognize so of the poses. But it's still a big recap despite the modern recontextualization and references to alternate media FF. Where it gets fun for me is when Scioli walks off the map towards the end - things get weirder and weirder as he allows himself these deviations - until we're basically in a parallel universe. Worth it for these reinventions, and you know, I didn't mind the bits that were "Marvel Saga on speed". This was two very dense issues, so to make it heftier, they threw in the classic FF story "This Man... This Monster!", a fine tale that is also retold in the body of the work. Plus art pieces and bibliographical notes.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ZDJ51-6c5JQhhCIXp5yF4LCwuzqH6ikLBpGW4SrSYloSdjVsL4hZVNTn2lNo36DOrzdFsjrnwl8fmo-oysF7CDU56TyADgaTY_PglAi-MOdwo96BXgGN6kvzICnm79ZR2qUKg-LtdpmBFDv7hAyEhCbcvFKH6L8c7HJxFmX1DPjRx6LYXGQf/s284/11-epiclifeofjackkirby.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ZDJ51-6c5JQhhCIXp5yF4LCwuzqH6ikLBpGW4SrSYloSdjVsL4hZVNTn2lNo36DOrzdFsjrnwl8fmo-oysF7CDU56TyADgaTY_PglAi-MOdwo96BXgGN6kvzICnm79ZR2qUKg-LtdpmBFDv7hAyEhCbcvFKH6L8c7HJxFmX1DPjRx6LYXGQf/w141-h200/11-epiclifeofjackkirby.jpg" title="Ben Grimm, the true story" width="141" /></a></div>Tom Scioli's "graphic biography" of Jack Kirby, The Epic Life of the King of Comics, was surprisingly hard to put down. Especially given that 1) I'm not a fan of biographies and 2) I was already pretty familiar with the life and times of the world's greatest comics artist. And I do mean "times", because telling the story of Jack Kirby is often like telling the story of the American comic book. He was there nearly from the beginning, put a big stamp on the Silver and Bronze Ages (I once argued that his Fourth World series marks the actual start of the Bronze Age), and his work is still inspiring artists, comics, movies, today. But it's also the story of a man disappointed by his chosen business, who rarely got the credit he deserved and though a scrapper in life, was never able to navigate the office politics that so often pulled the rug out from under him. Because Scioli uses a fictional first-person voice in the book, the danger, even if it's based on interviews, is to make it sound like he's whining about how unfair the world is. The book admits some of the facts are in dispute, but if this congregation of research is true, Kirby is responsible for A LOT MORE of what we take for granted in the Marvel and DC universes. Scioli is no doubt biased - a lot at his other work shows a deep love of the King - which makes his graphic biography of Stan Lee intriguing, but it still feels legit. How he has handled Kirby's illness and death is particularly poignant, and at that point, I'm ready to forgive any inaccuracies that might have slipped into the narrative.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgArvqIngNpW0Cnqr9smIBSCzCKxCGKmUfOi8zgRxAnbYXfcN1mvwdvNQuRDcSDRk8BIp_vxVwD5IvJjh84FgIGKOSimsXd-1qmkirTqvcsooCAjYm6wuoTEo8li2WgYZReWZl16PdvmB2ySpbFTFNmZD6bdYR72ES2OkLrqA4ouxqtBhaMBwbU/s296/12-godland1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgArvqIngNpW0Cnqr9smIBSCzCKxCGKmUfOi8zgRxAnbYXfcN1mvwdvNQuRDcSDRk8BIp_vxVwD5IvJjh84FgIGKOSimsXd-1qmkirTqvcsooCAjYm6wuoTEo8li2WgYZReWZl16PdvmB2ySpbFTFNmZD6bdYR72ES2OkLrqA4ouxqtBhaMBwbU/w135-h200/12-godland1.jpg" title="Things are going to get operatic!" width="135" /></a></div>Collecting the first 12 issues of the Fourth World pastiche series, Gødland Celestial Edition Book One has Joe Casey and Tom Scioli really do pastiche. Gødland is neither parody nor spoof, but tells its own story "in the style of", and even updates that style to its own era (the mid-2000s). Casey, for example, uses Kirbyesque bombast in the dialog (and most pleasurably, in the "next month!" pages), but it's today's bombast, today's pop culture references, today's lingo. Similarly, while Scioli is affecting a Kirbyesque style, none of the characters are OBVIOUSLY analogs of any of Kirby's cosmic superheroes (whether the DC, Marvel, Pacific or Topps ones). The universe is BIG, but the focus is fairly narrow. We follow Adam Archer, astronaut empowered by an enlightened alien race, and his three sisters who act as human helpers (and in one case, perhaps as foil). Plenty of strange villains with odd concepts pull him into action, even as he starts, in this first year of the book, to get a handle on just how powerful he really is. The action is wild, the visuals crackle, the dialog is often amusing, and the world-building always novel and interesting. It's funny in the way only pastiche is, so I'm not sure it will work as well for readers who aren't fans of Kirby, but I like comics made for comics fans since, well, I am one!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgepY3M9G5CSXdFU3mcDfSmtgzyd2ibO5nxOMwAaLwLGoHKb44Ud-_Iz0EncZMd3_BcadfhKKYZdIu5kuXyqqiGcYxBuoui9tP8sPdosIZXINoYbNBRneYa1dgXCRblBuxjGr__w-n387EF56qcBDfoPOMoKt015x5i0Iuc4oW9TEh4-I3T838g/s256/13-CoC7th.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgepY3M9G5CSXdFU3mcDfSmtgzyd2ibO5nxOMwAaLwLGoHKb44Ud-_Iz0EncZMd3_BcadfhKKYZdIu5kuXyqqiGcYxBuoui9tP8sPdosIZXINoYbNBRneYa1dgXCRblBuxjGr__w-n387EF56qcBDfoPOMoKt015x5i0Iuc4oW9TEh4-I3T838g/w156-h200/13-CoC7th.jpg" title="I still have enough marbles to play" width="156" /></a></div>RPGs: Finally wrapped the first "adventure" in our monthly game of Call of Cthulhu, as the murderous stage magician finally came out of the mirror dimension transmogrified into a monster there's no way our characters were prepared for. Of course, it started where the previous session ended - with the photo-journalist, the deceptively old 15-year-old heiress, and my cat Lucifer trapped on the wrong side of the dimensional veil. Phelps got the cat back easily (9 lives), but after acing his Sanity roll, dismissed the whole incident and inspired, started writing a novel based on what he THOUGHT he saw. At least until the "E" key broke (you can't do a whole of writing without the "E"). I was trying to imply that the answers might come to him magically through a Literature roll. Didn't work out, so his friends were left trying to find a way to signal him through the downstairs lounge mirrors. The photog made some miserable rolls and was further transported to the future, bringing back an old paperback of Phelps' unwritten book from upstairs (a nice, weird touch from our Keeper) and some quality babbling, but they did make it home. Next stop, the speakeasy to rummage through the magician's effects, but the Keeper had been eavesdropping on our plans because every notion of breaking mirrors to trap the killer were stymied (for example, by having the main one built from steel rather than glass). There's also a mobster one our collective ass, but he becomes cannon fodder when the monster jumps out of the mirror. None of us are physical types (though the heiress was rolling magnificently on every "muscle" task) and all we had was a Derringer (and its one pea-sized bullet). The creature ripped the photog's belly button right off (true detail), the mobster (who could have been allied muscle) was ripped in two, we were barrelling towards midnight and I had been up since 4 AM. Phelps would boast, so I will too: It's his idea that won the day. There were two mirrors in the room - the magic one and the dressing room vanity - so I repeated the incantation once again and we pushed the mirrors together to box the monster in and trap him in a dimensional loop. Finally, all those hours of Portal paid off. As a novelist, Phelps was well-suited to spinning a yarn to the police about what happened in that room - a fantastical tale of a Thuggee cultist with a giant saber, but more realistic than the shambling horror that happened to be the truth. Great skill-improvement rolls in the epilogue, too.Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-53200247260042353052024-02-18T05:55:00.032-04:002024-02-18T05:55:00.240-04:00Hero Points: Come on Down!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvNTVOmsIvv4efgsFlHFgbKHAiL02dgT78tTUoSwZGhfFGLousUv0N0mPcp8PGOo5lXTzO-wXlfQ164xuwa_ifkms4tYTY-aLXhwYYt2st9nq5Kgdvuay-9X-5uhG46NCsbZWGdFkrLU4hrlvgygQ8yMEczabmy_FSeSqGv-J8KiFv-YPeOSW8/s500/heropoints500x500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvNTVOmsIvv4efgsFlHFgbKHAiL02dgT78tTUoSwZGhfFGLousUv0N0mPcp8PGOo5lXTzO-wXlfQ164xuwa_ifkms4tYTY-aLXhwYYt2st9nq5Kgdvuay-9X-5uhG46NCsbZWGdFkrLU4hrlvgygQ8yMEczabmy_FSeSqGv-J8KiFv-YPeOSW8/s16000/heropoints500x500.jpg" title="We got your HP sauce right here" /></a></div>Hero Points is back! Siskoid and Shag present another Hero Points/JLI Bwah-Ha-Ha Podcast crossover by covering "Come on Down", an adventure module featuring Justice League Europe. To protect the League's secrets from reaching enemy hands, Justice League Europe must compete in an interstellar game show against the Forgotten Villains.<br /><br /><b>Listen to Hero Points: Come on Down <a href="http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/heropoints14/" target="_blank">HERE</a></b>!<br /><br />Or you can right-click “download”, choose <b><a href="http://fwpodcasts.com/ma/FWP/HeroPts-014.mp3" target="_blank">“Save Target/Link As”, and select a location on your computer to save the file (49 MB)</a></b>.<br /><br />Or subscribe to Hero Points/Let's Roll on <b><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-roll-fire-and-waters-role-playing-podcast/id1078162750" target="_blank">Apple</a></b> or <b><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0eCs23TGRRrHTzLbxvWwoR" target="_blank">Spotify</a></b>!<br /><br />Here are some images relevant to this episode of Hero Points:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheyb34p9EKyaAzB0pWTWh6etoi-DPI5byYAsikosdzvgc2IhX5vY06X5k3Hg79QSLT_e4NRyv9W_HQs9GNjCd539dmW-89Ab8EcAzyv05eqTCuXj2tqzBAhzEDXKp8IYcunBtstGUZszfD9RtAfgWCcmLRm5yDeePgM6ZjQvRAjc-9OOzQUpZJ/s658/comeonedown1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="658" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheyb34p9EKyaAzB0pWTWh6etoi-DPI5byYAsikosdzvgc2IhX5vY06X5k3Hg79QSLT_e4NRyv9W_HQs9GNjCd539dmW-89Ab8EcAzyv05eqTCuXj2tqzBAhzEDXKp8IYcunBtstGUZszfD9RtAfgWCcmLRm5yDeePgM6ZjQvRAjc-9OOzQUpZJ/s16000/comeonedown1.jpg" title="Who doesn't belong here?" /></a></div>Come on Down was written by Ray Winninger & Jack A Barker, with a cover by Paris Cullins, Romeo Tanghal, and Bob LeRose.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj43aSiOSktUNSVWAk2guULp03eYM_DwAN22cbJjWI9O2CY42pRD8f1vrvULpguwHTJky-8TZKj0m1ilYaskMaPvzE4TB2Dk4DfvdV28oFT7GtpSYNPGIXet7Zw1TtTZYI0lii_nexGWSd2WATt8iO-hk1WS2pSQ9TzpsLh_3HzNQWvR7FXGvke/s659/comeonedown2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="659" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj43aSiOSktUNSVWAk2guULp03eYM_DwAN22cbJjWI9O2CY42pRD8f1vrvULpguwHTJky-8TZKj0m1ilYaskMaPvzE4TB2Dk4DfvdV28oFT7GtpSYNPGIXet7Zw1TtTZYI0lii_nexGWSd2WATt8iO-hk1WS2pSQ9TzpsLh_3HzNQWvR7FXGvke/s16000/comeonedown2.jpg" title="French checks out" /></a></div>Are you ready to play WHEEL. OF. JEOPARDY!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXA8Zx5VI1pHjVAmmsunBENJoMoK1Gw0Knrt-2fRYDpzUQ5VIcT9AQqppYelKjE7NYMfGeZqYXoUGN3K1KkRZ3phg40dkeDvE8vPGfdPa34dPB9dmTIsKzea_MXL1FpZhBRR8_Z3qFcxT5rFOhfJOEl3wmXngh1w0a_sqgq_GlSxi3Qc4COAzM/s500/comeonedown3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXA8Zx5VI1pHjVAmmsunBENJoMoK1Gw0Knrt-2fRYDpzUQ5VIcT9AQqppYelKjE7NYMfGeZqYXoUGN3K1KkRZ3phg40dkeDvE8vPGfdPa34dPB9dmTIsKzea_MXL1FpZhBRR8_Z3qFcxT5rFOhfJOEl3wmXngh1w0a_sqgq_GlSxi3Qc4COAzM/s16000/comeonedown3.jpg" title="Destroy your module" /></a></div>Manga Khan, L-Ron peeking through the thin paper, and fonts from a bygone age.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsuOy1fhdsIVppEJGMGNBlIcPfC21ePuxao9Af4MV9lpqHAreugqW9Yp9Tk8JKs2dng-mpkQffg_9u2eZuLFFxqJE_y-lO7Y-OT_DySxJXc0tW3FAFJZ2YHFwzOk1NURKVny4az7G0WICMtzsRZ1vSbILx89Wxwk-TAC6sohDZ1GqGLyDhho1M/s655/comeonedown4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsuOy1fhdsIVppEJGMGNBlIcPfC21ePuxao9Af4MV9lpqHAreugqW9Yp9Tk8JKs2dng-mpkQffg_9u2eZuLFFxqJE_y-lO7Y-OT_DySxJXc0tW3FAFJZ2YHFwzOk1NURKVny4az7G0WICMtzsRZ1vSbILx89Wxwk-TAC6sohDZ1GqGLyDhho1M/s16000/comeonedown4.jpg" title="No need for shouting" /></a></div>The stats you've been waiting for: The Faceless Hunter from Saturn!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHZDWGtl80Qlbm-D5HzDjeMNZCnuTyChOE9nD2na21Ix6QVfBsR1H_wRs3ACBvBwDBignoMELuuGCTQM7y6Y9JqXtCKFewPf1JYSMZGQ3hvzQ6sPuFjSN_hgq3KSe8o9eeFI1eja07qQ01i92MXmkVkTEFQx6D6KjYQBSs8aDedmK2rnT2f5N6/s662/comeonedown5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHZDWGtl80Qlbm-D5HzDjeMNZCnuTyChOE9nD2na21Ix6QVfBsR1H_wRs3ACBvBwDBignoMELuuGCTQM7y6Y9JqXtCKFewPf1JYSMZGQ3hvzQ6sPuFjSN_hgq3KSe8o9eeFI1eja07qQ01i92MXmkVkTEFQx6D6KjYQBSs8aDedmK2rnT2f5N6/s16000/comeonedown5.jpg" title="Had you forgotten?" /></a></div>A lot of inside jokes embedded into the text...<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWe9HGFN7zgLWs2LfcoxkIxOO8_gvN53bVIdxrRuGn_Yqc74F0wN3E1KsFKS342Af1TwzcgWjxoUMw7SXqaT4hzwze03yDIStFE_eUbh02kNL-y3syVTkaZfH7MypechsTML2ZCo4qnzfUCoqx22b0fx1lDb7tQudcKk9FCKz4xmj4fS1cZVGB/s500/comeonedown6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWe9HGFN7zgLWs2LfcoxkIxOO8_gvN53bVIdxrRuGn_Yqc74F0wN3E1KsFKS342Af1TwzcgWjxoUMw7SXqaT4hzwze03yDIStFE_eUbh02kNL-y3syVTkaZfH7MypechsTML2ZCo4qnzfUCoqx22b0fx1lDb7tQudcKk9FCKz4xmj4fS1cZVGB/s16000/comeonedown6.jpg" title="Best of Donavan" /></a></div> All ready? Let's roll!Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-20472135263063885882024-02-11T06:00:00.050-04:002024-02-11T06:00:00.154-04:00This Week in Geek (4-10/02/24)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjsc1TPrcG_vYgL2FnmnNFYTO_tLvIHXcmfoOtzHJjWwyDvEUMPvUIC_bohAl1cOqO8C20vQR-aa20bDnKuNSNRFEefxFkE7ilpIhfM6ninPx4CTbBwepg1Wfm7Vc4UcUh_1vYeiScaTy6T5L6brW02HyMoYFchS6IA3GxW8mphJSUJih2i-IU/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjsc1TPrcG_vYgL2FnmnNFYTO_tLvIHXcmfoOtzHJjWwyDvEUMPvUIC_bohAl1cOqO8C20vQR-aa20bDnKuNSNRFEefxFkE7ilpIhfM6ninPx4CTbBwepg1Wfm7Vc4UcUh_1vYeiScaTy6T5L6brW02HyMoYFchS6IA3GxW8mphJSUJih2i-IU/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Women's names, Justine Triet/Virginie Efira, therapy, people dancing/singing, international science-fiction" /></a></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzztV2GHo_Ks2-lGb2YMHxB6BwT-QU0Z8Diw_XjQz5F_NXakslc2KLrvYNZVv2mIC4gmGr5EXK3bED5YrTn4L5i3taYFUhNdle9POF60hO_5od0QXMDSNZAsPwhupSetZ5cS4cvlT4Uhyphenhyphenan5W15brZlGC2iZEng0e0L7M1-_jg0M5Hfhnwamfn/s296/1-themarvels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzztV2GHo_Ks2-lGb2YMHxB6BwT-QU0Z8Diw_XjQz5F_NXakslc2KLrvYNZVv2mIC4gmGr5EXK3bED5YrTn4L5i3taYFUhNdle9POF60hO_5od0QXMDSNZAsPwhupSetZ5cS4cvlT4Uhyphenhyphenan5W15brZlGC2iZEng0e0L7M1-_jg0M5Hfhnwamfn/w135-h200/1-themarvels.jpg" title="The slow road to Young Avengers" width="135" /></a></div>At home: I liked Captain Marvel more than most. I liked Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau in WandaVision. I liked Ms. Marvel and her world in the TV Series. But The Marvels is underwhelming superhero fare and I think it's because it doesn't really have much of a human story. We're almost always in Plot, in fact almost always in action set piece. I like the throwback to the Mar-Vell/Rick Jones switcheroo from the comics, but there's just too much switching places in the movie, making the fights a bit samey and sometimes confusing. Carol's big story is a consequence of something we didn't see happen are only told about. Monica and Kamala's character arcs are grounded in MacGuffins or plot convenience. The villain is forgettable. Now, I do appreciate that some of the ideas here are pretty loopy and things we haven't seen before, but they either don't go far enough (the musical planet) or are so silly, they'd be a better fit in She-Hulk (Ms. Marvel's parents fighting Kree warriors with mops, the Flurken sequence). There's a nod to the fun way Ms. Marvel was told, but it's not only her movie, so it's dropped. With the level of ridiculous humor (amped up in the MCU since Ragnarok's success), it doesn't feel like Captain Marvel's tone either. Watchable, but by the numbers. Marvel needs to get back to what made the first Phase such a success. It wasn't that they had "better/more well-known characters" - Iron Man and Thor weren't Spider-Man or X-Men - but that the stories were character-driven and well told. Now it's all about increased continuity and a roller coaster of laughs and dramatic moments, a formula applied to every film no matter its needs.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_DrxLyTtGQaminUWHjToAk0w8OSZSDh5bVPT2c2-9QKFfOnmJlCNt6q6FCwE8uvnOEt3nR4baDn26pxEJ6b4sN_FIOG8MHsJhQk68owNeyF31YW2ItfUnbF_tyb4UtFXgmx84gsPfVIG651vlI_f7nHuUr4gb7I_Fr_fsqS-Y8Qi8t8AYi8l/s298/2-amanda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_DrxLyTtGQaminUWHjToAk0w8OSZSDh5bVPT2c2-9QKFfOnmJlCNt6q6FCwE8uvnOEt3nR4baDn26pxEJ6b4sN_FIOG8MHsJhQk68owNeyF31YW2ItfUnbF_tyb4UtFXgmx84gsPfVIG651vlI_f7nHuUr4gb7I_Fr_fsqS-Y8Qi8t8AYi8l/w134-h200/2-amanda.jpg" title="Horse princesses" width="134" /></a></div>To compare the look of Carolina Cavalli' Amanda to Wes Anderson's films, with their symmetrical tableaux and deadpan comedy, is correct, but Anderson wouldn't be so partial to things being so out of focus. But this is well-suited to the story of the eponymous, anti-social young woman who finally finds (or wrangles) a friendship (with a shut-in) and starts to COME into focus, or who, in her lowest moments, fails to find that focus. A portrait of two borderline personalities trying to get their lives on track, even if that track isn't the one everyone else takes. Interestingly shot. Replete with a matter-of-fact irony that makes it sardonically funny. But the moments are grace I want from it are, if not completely lacking, at least rare. But that kind of sentimentality really wouldn't be proper. And so, we can find these usually obnoxious characters amusing and perhaps poignant, but they don't want you to think of them as touching. Being true to itself, it keeps us at a certain distance.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhde7gqW_34dSaOUsm4gwoGRlX1WOXjbseV635MpX5tJVkkwARaMUt4I6_ijhCRvf13uHFiF12107M3mOUseUIQaKBrE6frsvy7nhCF03ZcXg2dwRzofcx7FNrqpQm2J-SOQ2QhM0VM3v6NTN1tDm49oaeJkOoVSDKw4RbV89A3hRNoIHNMxJIs/s297/3-margaret.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhde7gqW_34dSaOUsm4gwoGRlX1WOXjbseV635MpX5tJVkkwARaMUt4I6_ijhCRvf13uHFiF12107M3mOUseUIQaKBrE6frsvy7nhCF03ZcXg2dwRzofcx7FNrqpQm2J-SOQ2QhM0VM3v6NTN1tDm49oaeJkOoVSDKw4RbV89A3hRNoIHNMxJIs/w135-h200/3-margaret.jpg" title="Girl gone rogue" width="135" /></a></div>On the surface, it's easy to get that Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret is about 9/11, the bus accident that so affects Lisa (Anna Paquin)'s character a stand-in for the second-hand trauma that hit the Western world on that date, whether one had been to New York or not, knew any victim or not (and to the point of the film, more appropriately NOT) - the event is debated in class, the shots of NYC, etc. - there's a lot more going on UNDER the surface, however. Lisa is a teenager who, even in her most selfless moments, is somewhat performative. The opera is a leitmotif in the film because teenage life if operatic. It's all drama (and so the mom who is a theater actress). And the WORLD of the film tries its best to reject that childish notion. The sound design drowns in snatches of conversation, an often continuous mumble of other people's lives distracting from the "plot". A large, very recognizable cast keeps a lot of balls in the air, as if dropping you in the city where you might ask of bystanders, "what's HIS deal?" And indeed, the roles of the accident victim and of the bus driver are to be mysteries Lisa may or may not uncover, may or may not empathize with. Considering she doesn't know herself or the people around her, very often (something she shares with her mother, and I suppose, most everyone in the film), she's also that person dropped in the middle of things (and so, everyone is). The title is a reference to a figure in a poem read in class, exactly once and not referenced again, the point of which is the selfishness of grief - that we grieve not for the dead, but for ourselves, our loss, our feelings. So Lisa can't even be the stated subject of her movie. And now go back to 9/11. If she's to realize that she's just a cog in a greater universe that doesn't care about her drama, her malaise is transferred to that event. As people come to terms with the tragic event, dissect it, get used to it, weaponize it, forget it, dismiss it, it too becomes just one stitch in a larger tapestry. Lonergan's three hours of teen angst explores those ideas, or if they don't, they made me do so.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJr1ehhm-uQrIKMJlffHuEBJV7fN8NoLT72ls-4Q5wsksNm_MkVat5gdQacPRyjwhsig7Pqh-UfIPdXfGwrkOYuLVuc-J6IoKjobVwtOfUwXqQoFbH20bCu2V5wN8xL9z8FL8Q4xtjK6XdYqejkfiZ_jFJRrtUt6sWCTTnqnV9oWNKYMXKcaX3/s275/4-sybil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJr1ehhm-uQrIKMJlffHuEBJV7fN8NoLT72ls-4Q5wsksNm_MkVat5gdQacPRyjwhsig7Pqh-UfIPdXfGwrkOYuLVuc-J6IoKjobVwtOfUwXqQoFbH20bCu2V5wN8xL9z8FL8Q4xtjK6XdYqejkfiZ_jFJRrtUt6sWCTTnqnV9oWNKYMXKcaX3/w145-h200/4-sybil.jpg" title="No way this respects union rules" width="145" /></a></div>With Sibyl, Anatomy of a Murder's Justine Triet creates a psychotherapist (Virginie Efira) who quits most of her patients to become a writer, only - and this is her central paradox/irony - despite having a life complicated enough to be a novel, she suffers from writer's block and instead latches on to a new patient's story. And professional ethics be damned. This is actually a question I've struggled with and had debates about. If someone is part of your life, can you use them as fodder for your creative endeavors, or is it THEIR story to tell? What if I become a character in someone else's story? How do I feel about that? And in this case, things are confused further by Sibyl's more and more direct interference in the patient's life, leading to some pretty insane moments no a film set where she is asked to direct something that is uncomfortably close to what's really happening. Where the film doesn't quite work for me is the way it keeps flashing back to memories that point to the mystery of Sibyl's own troubles, the solution of which is rather ordinary. Some very interesting ideas, but they don't really gel.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK25xTQd1jTjG2qXDR5FzRhrxcEOBzr-PXvQZSKnHy3_uFZJab9AeliRF8ACJRY14SWs3PwvbcmrJ1HDIEdcQ_YDig3TKgaGSo_IKAM9fqsOHmE4JPzqxx3AL7ofWXzmN1yqaQ5pFLBfmKKMA9fhhaRmcvnB3BtahKOZIDzDVRK4mmgEpyD3LL/s273/5-inbedwithvictoria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="273" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK25xTQd1jTjG2qXDR5FzRhrxcEOBzr-PXvQZSKnHy3_uFZJab9AeliRF8ACJRY14SWs3PwvbcmrJ1HDIEdcQ_YDig3TKgaGSo_IKAM9fqsOHmE4JPzqxx3AL7ofWXzmN1yqaQ5pFLBfmKKMA9fhhaRmcvnB3BtahKOZIDzDVRK4mmgEpyD3LL/w147-h200/5-inbedwithvictoria.jpg" title="Craziest episode of People's Court" width="147" /></a></div>Triet's In Bed with Victoria (or simply, Victoria, as the original title would have it) has Virginie Efira in a role not unlike the earlier Sibyl - a whip smart but damaged professional woman - but is a much warmer film, and like Vincent Lacoste's Sam, you fall in love with her despite yourself, warts and all. But though there's a romance brewing, to put this in the romantic comedy category is doing it a disservice. It's a portrait of a lawyer who, like all of Triet's protagonists, puts herself in an impossible situation and has to maneuver (not always successfully) ethical dilemmas. Here, it's a court case that involves one of her friends and a number of animal witnesses(!), even as she's suing her ex for using her life in a novel (which again throws us forward to Sibyl). Victoria is often funny, but it's tragic too, and if it IS a romcom, the formula's twists and turns are predicated on psychology rather than plot mechanics. If Sibyl kept me at a remove, Victoria draws me in close.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibvk3THd7qb9dGLMdnuI7hDGi8zTNi3r9wFhSkK90_bX_kx1SZCZ5zeJwESKxxr5NNi8TzWs_NR-pe5i-sX2Dfrs5k26A66lugJG_IpQ0jyvcq-h_iyItUlo3UA3Z7iN2xIJhppKfDWB9DbOV6DmnkHpwrvuRBgtLhLRZAFuQoHnBc-JUhNQNI/s307/6-mynameisjuliaross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibvk3THd7qb9dGLMdnuI7hDGi8zTNi3r9wFhSkK90_bX_kx1SZCZ5zeJwESKxxr5NNi8TzWs_NR-pe5i-sX2Dfrs5k26A66lugJG_IpQ0jyvcq-h_iyItUlo3UA3Z7iN2xIJhppKfDWB9DbOV6DmnkHpwrvuRBgtLhLRZAFuQoHnBc-JUhNQNI/w130-h200/6-mynameisjuliaross.jpg" title="You're sure you don't mean Rebecca?" width="130" /></a></div>A tight thriller with uneven "British" accents, My Name Is Julia Ross has Nina Foch get a job as a live-in secretary turn into a nightmare when the household attempts to gaslight her into circumstances that evoke du Maurier's Rebecca. Derivative though that is, it does create a Gothic mood, and otherwise plays more like Film Noir, with violent, evil villains, tense situations, reversals that help both Julia and her adversaries, and a good action climax (despite being marred by some rather terrible day-for-night shooting). Director Joseph H. Lewis has done better - Gun Crazy, for example - and here is sort of doing a poor man's Hitchcock as double-feature fodder (65 minutes? yeah, sounds about right). That means it's better than it ought to be, but also that it leaves you wanting more. And by "more", I certainly don't mean the facile "romantic" epilogue brought to you by the Patriarchy(TM).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH3Mt26a1bRsxcLwxXMrva40-_OWI89831mxp7Cgcla7cDk9aQ5e8q_3no0sYB3wNIp5eMnC1f-wYLnu2BaZiY-hAKFuZelTYlVTdi9VMk233M1yhJ40JXrzBoYyu-OxUmuReXXhG76TMrQ-VkXl6ilaefdsBMmmG9NOHZbleje6I39W7ROwzh/s264/7-yeast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH3Mt26a1bRsxcLwxXMrva40-_OWI89831mxp7Cgcla7cDk9aQ5e8q_3no0sYB3wNIp5eMnC1f-wYLnu2BaZiY-hAKFuZelTYlVTdi9VMk233M1yhJ40JXrzBoYyu-OxUmuReXXhG76TMrQ-VkXl6ilaefdsBMmmG9NOHZbleje6I39W7ROwzh/w152-h200/7-yeast.jpg" title="Time to get new friends" width="152" /></a></div>Do you think that sometimes YOU might be the problem? Mary Bronstein directs herself as THAT person on the cusp of losing all her remaining friends over the course of a single weekend in Yeast (the title is pretty dirty if you give it any thought), a mumblecore (screamcore might be more apt) indie also starring a young Greta Gerwig. Bronstein, or rather, Rachel is the worst kind of codependent, the "mom" you resent when you're 25. Because she is the straight person opposite the roommate who's giving her the silent treatment (Amy Judd Lieberman) and the chaos agent with borderline personality (Gerwig), you soon come to understand that Alice and Jen are justified in their treatment of her. There's a camping trip from hell - the Safdie Brothers show up out of nowhere, but that's not the hell part - but then, I'd say it's ALL "from hell", which is perhaps why it ends (rather abruptly) at an amusement park Halloween side-show. It's all quite raw, though the camera work does settle down as they get more proficient with it, and as usual, the improvisational dialog in mumblecore makes me wish for wittier scripted moments. Potentially relatable, but you hope you're none of these people.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9vman0ypc9VcvvnLnood-ogr4U5vxUfZwlW2_oiatrSC1kJ9hkpHAFdjaMVFS4D7PpxPXylRvTeCUU75f7hUrezrEyK3tU5Q3nfDp0DSf1vFW9sf2yu17b6_OT0_tT8C8296G18Qe-e9H2slPBQd_8Xw6RSEIYbb75unhLt0xAVwfDD5LV-5/s303/8-thinman4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9vman0ypc9VcvvnLnood-ogr4U5vxUfZwlW2_oiatrSC1kJ9hkpHAFdjaMVFS4D7PpxPXylRvTeCUU75f7hUrezrEyK3tU5Q3nfDp0DSf1vFW9sf2yu17b6_OT0_tT8C8296G18Qe-e9H2slPBQd_8Xw6RSEIYbb75unhLt0xAVwfDD5LV-5/w132-h200/8-thinman4.jpg" title="My cocktail sense is tingling" width="132" /></a></div>Fourth in the series, Shadow of the Thin Man is for me the most delightful since the original. By this point, it's clear that Nick and Nora Charles (and Asta the Dog, who finds a LOT of clues in this one) are going to be roped into okay, but forgettable mysteries. So what they need to do is keep the banter up and be given fun gags that involve their romance, their family, and Nick's drinking. Now Junior is a young boy and he's an amusing addition to the cast (in just the right dose), often left at home with the maid so the Charles can do what they're good at - making/drinking cocktails, rough-housing, and solving murders. The case du jour has people dying around sporting events where gambling is involved, and some nice bits at a wrestling match. There's a frame-up and dumb cops and a "dame" and Nick doing physical bits of business to figure out how the crimes were done. Good one-liners throughout keep it from fizzling out.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgST2d6dbK5B7AdoAWEIYAMEnoi16qWV2mhgtKinO083qmj-MoN-EkNvZ5eRdRVMDRuoXamDFukLBFw3_T-U8TpP1GOTdVWI1aw1rwWtIFDzJEcVVSmLNzl8AeXyq0pQl5zAUEyEebCQgRGF_R1YSYqEfwiIsVR2tQenaaAipQbQGPYVy9J74w_/s295/9=apples.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgST2d6dbK5B7AdoAWEIYAMEnoi16qWV2mhgtKinO083qmj-MoN-EkNvZ5eRdRVMDRuoXamDFukLBFw3_T-U8TpP1GOTdVWI1aw1rwWtIFDzJEcVVSmLNzl8AeXyq0pQl5zAUEyEebCQgRGF_R1YSYqEfwiIsVR2tQenaaAipQbQGPYVy9J74w_/w136-h200/9=apples.jpg" title="It's not that kind of sci-fi" width="136" /></a></div>If you could forget everything and start over, would you? Christos Nikou's Apples asks the question. There's this amnesia pandemic going around, and looking at the protagonist's life before he's taken to hospital, it seems like he's already living in a sort of forgetting. As he is given a new identity and tasks to perform to perhaps shake his memories loose, we might wonder if there isn't some joy in the amnesia. Rediscovering movies and music as if for the first time, for example. But also terror, as hardwired fears and weaknesses are exposed. Apples, the ironic Fruit of Knowledge, are the only thing the character knows he likes. And there's perhaps another amnesiac he might fancy. But the road to self-(re)discovery is a bumpy one, and connecting with people doesn't get easier when your past has been erased (this is a COVID movie, if by some distance, but certainly a film about depression). There's a dark humor at work, the humor inherent in the absurd, but mostly, a sadness.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXzmc-sS3gfi6bKEFyhrmC8VQPc12yY7nRpFBMAgDBtLO1dd1caMGWyPcTilcZrPReZwxsHatErXl20yov1BwIQ7GvTwgSi9aULHtcvoTGAWHxlr9ictK8nJ1VBoPHC6ulPVo0b4z5Ok-8Fc68CFzIbiCNx-0zFRXJId6kWwxdao3zQX3_R5Hf/s292/10-morningpatrol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXzmc-sS3gfi6bKEFyhrmC8VQPc12yY7nRpFBMAgDBtLO1dd1caMGWyPcTilcZrPReZwxsHatErXl20yov1BwIQ7GvTwgSi9aULHtcvoTGAWHxlr9ictK8nJ1VBoPHC6ulPVo0b4z5Ok-8Fc68CFzIbiCNx-0zFRXJId6kWwxdao3zQX3_R5Hf/w137-h200/10-morningpatrol.jpg" title="And it's somehow a Christmas movie too" width="137" /></a></div>I'd bet all the drachma I have that 1987's Morning Patrol was the inspiration for Apples, and not just because both lo-fi SF films are from Greece (but that helps). There's a play with memory, and its erasure following trauma here that's very similar, if not as central. Postapocalyptic art house that plays almost on silence at times, it presents us with a woman (and later a man) whose narration is pulled from various novels, wandering through a dank, decayed and deserted Athens, trying to escape its rape gangs and fascist police. It's perhaps a portrait of insomnia and its root causes, anxiety and depression, as the action takes place at night and the heroine literally drowns herself in old movie for a good part of the film. What do you do while no one else is awake, and you're running from these patrols who are just PEOPLE, an innate danger. The man she meets and forces into helping her might be someone she knows, or has known, and in this fatalistic character we might understand why she's running and what she's running from, but nothing is explicit. This is an anxious waking dream that only might lead her, and us, to some kind of understanding or catharsis. It's a real mood, and could easily be boring if yours isn't in sync with it. Ultimately, I respect it more than like it.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCPiFUmvXYH3AdCaGTS2eGzizLK4JdYcTLLz9XpagUSTBIuP3IZPG1xLi7b4BRxaKJ2QJO87QCaKqS_pQDdIyUPUqNAwuG4HCdb5K5BKqTCa8nS1yha2DFN_2tDw78MOJvSU3QW6b064lqs4K5b7chLMD4J3b6dXNFtFwxB50k1SWQSGQdTCP/s281/11-ikariexb1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCPiFUmvXYH3AdCaGTS2eGzizLK4JdYcTLLz9XpagUSTBIuP3IZPG1xLi7b4BRxaKJ2QJO87QCaKqS_pQDdIyUPUqNAwuG4HCdb5K5BKqTCa8nS1yha2DFN_2tDw78MOJvSU3QW6b064lqs4K5b7chLMD4J3b6dXNFtFwxB50k1SWQSGQdTCP/w142-h200/11-ikariexb1.jpg" title="Reverse Planet of the Apes" width="142" /></a></div>It's 1963 and the Czechoslovak New Wave pulls off a procedural space thriller titled Ikarie XB 1. It may perhaps have been screened by Kubrick when preparing for 2001 and I can believe it. The model work is very good. The stark black and white design could have transferred to sci-fi films on through Star Wars. The ship even incidentally has roundels like the TARDIS born that same year. In Czech hands, this trip to Alpha Centauri, not unlike American astronaut adventure from the 50s, becomes a much more internal story. It wants to be a look at the future of space travel, and so imagines how it might really be done and what effects long relativistic voyages would have on the crew (a half-female crew, many travelling as couples, no tokenism here). Consequently, it's not much on plot. (Loosely based on a Stanislaw Lem novel, it shares that DNA with Solaris.) There's certainly a mystery at work when the crew encounters things it can't understand, but it's a small (if important) part of the story. I've read the American dub (Voyage to the End of the Universe) changes the ending to include more of a twist, one the original film hints at (so it works with minimal changes to the dialog). I suppose Ikarie makes the same point, but is more subtle, or perhaps I should say POETIC about it. Given how influential this might be, I'm surprised it's not referenced more often (or not surprised since it's a foreign film).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHfW3JfrDisBCXtCrfjOrhQMcVLEQCQ6b0UAbBsJ2AxIM6CMpOZplc7UHJ-sAfIdiB1yIw-fZWVQhq01krNPj_dnrnDZvh9wVy3XX5zMCg9DmJg_aNAAMO-tZgSp4wjBmOUBvIpqWLNxxkIjjKnXy-dGPtKLhrk4HFdaRbvGCtTduPIj18Jd7h/s283/12-plan75.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHfW3JfrDisBCXtCrfjOrhQMcVLEQCQ6b0UAbBsJ2AxIM6CMpOZplc7UHJ-sAfIdiB1yIw-fZWVQhq01krNPj_dnrnDZvh9wVy3XX5zMCg9DmJg_aNAAMO-tZgSp4wjBmOUBvIpqWLNxxkIjjKnXy-dGPtKLhrk4HFdaRbvGCtTduPIj18Jd7h/w141-h200/12-plan75.jpg" title="Maybe there should be a bowling test" width="141" /></a></div>In Plan 75's too-close-for-comfort future, Japan has decided to reduce its economic burden by offering its seniors a simple, accessible, incentivized euthanasia program. This is viewed as a more humane solution than the one shown at the top of the film, which evokes a real-world tragedy from only a few years ago. It all feels pretty real. More real than Soylent Green's similar mechanism. Too real. Lets hope no governments look at this and think it's a good idea. We follow an old woman who shows us that even if Plan 75 is strictly voluntary, other policies are going to make it more and more mandatory, and so the most vulnerable in our society are going to find no other recourse. But it's also about the toll this kind of policy takes on health/death care workers who have to put the policy into action. How many lies do you have to tell yourself to believe this isn't state-mandated murder? And how long before it becomes the new normal and seniors are just some objectified commodity? It's a downer, but not entirely bleak thanks to the goodness of the protagonists. Might even eke out a happy ending or two (of a kind).<br /><br />A few years ago, I watched one movie per actor to play Doctor Who (I also did this with the casts of the Star Trek franchise). I've always wanted to try my hand at doing this with the actors who played companions. I've made a list, I've checked it twice, and I'm gonna try it at a rate of one a week, in order of appearance. So our first Companion Film stars William Russell (Ian Chesterton)...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggQWD7iny8t0lSC3ztYqwXJxlxv5dgCr1B1KzH9ftgMLj6xB8Op1kpfnnHCF4XoaeUhUH0OKsoVnF-RzB8hjNFs2O2me8j8PINtMsexjb5FHjJ3scXfe-xyO9FwVRWu0MWZCo9ZsOrDcvTmWuUKGhQC49HxuGlry08QMXz8pJvNdzzVOPCbJZ7/s303/13-deathwatch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggQWD7iny8t0lSC3ztYqwXJxlxv5dgCr1B1KzH9ftgMLj6xB8Op1kpfnnHCF4XoaeUhUH0OKsoVnF-RzB8hjNFs2O2me8j8PINtMsexjb5FHjJ3scXfe-xyO9FwVRWu0MWZCo9ZsOrDcvTmWuUKGhQC49HxuGlry08QMXz8pJvNdzzVOPCbJZ7/w132-h200/13-deathwatch.jpg" title="The French title , which translates as Death, Live! is better" width="132" /></a></div>Great premise in Bertrand Tavernier's Death Watch, one that foresees the ghoulish nature of Reality TV and still pushes it to enough of an extreme to still be science-fiction today. But barely, and that's one of its problems. Harvey Keitel is a human camera tasked with following a dying woman (Romy Schneider) in a world where such things are rare indeed. So cybernetic implants and all diseases have been cured, and yet it looks like 1980 Scotland in every other respect. There's no world-building beyond its core concepts. And if it's a little dull and uninvolving, it's that it doesn't hammer home any of its points. Keitel falls in love with her? If you say so. All the stuff about his fear of the dark is innate of what, exactly? She's seeking her ex-husband? Sure okay, and always happy to see Max von Sydow, but what was the point there? And indeed, why does she make that decision at the end? With the talent involved, including Harry Dean Stanton (probably the best character in the film) and Doctor Who alumni William Russell, it should have sung. Instead, it seems loathe to develop its intriguing premise and ends up feeling like any old drama about a dying woman escaping a hospital (instead of a TV program).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNpxDHQbRIcro9cGIG4sZ2FwXPl3ruzJkOrdE7jP6KG5LsslTN42YYZM6dj29aySUrpP4doSKXs-hB1Vx4Yd34my7rUoAkUOBOiu971XSe7Kogt-sYxNhdWj7dgs6YBiDVlA_266GwNc6Ir7Ifu2sm_1WsI0YANbDj_SzsqWTQ2sXigBZPgc7V/s308/14-fantasticfour2022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNpxDHQbRIcro9cGIG4sZ2FwXPl3ruzJkOrdE7jP6KG5LsslTN42YYZM6dj29aySUrpP4doSKXs-hB1Vx4Yd34my7rUoAkUOBOiu971XSe7Kogt-sYxNhdWj7dgs6YBiDVlA_266GwNc6Ir7Ifu2sm_1WsI0YANbDj_SzsqWTQ2sXigBZPgc7V/w130-h200/14-fantasticfour2022.jpg" title="World's Best Comics Magazine is back, baby!" width="130" /></a></div>Comics: I've just read the first 17 issues of Ryan North's Fantastic Four, and let me tell ya, them's good comics. I will even go so far as to say it's Marvel's World Finest, and in fact, even better. Definitely worthy of its Alex Ross covers. I was suspicious when North started the action with a disassembled FF, but the one-off tales of each member (all five, because I have to include Alicia Masters here) are so good, I needn't have worried. The series has found a way to shed some of its status quo without destroying it, do some pretty neat things with the power sets, and build on the lore with some very fun elements. A lot of done-in-ones here that feel rich and innovative, with North evidently reading some science articles to push the boundaries of what can be done with the FF. Weird threats, the leads being lovely, old villains given new life, and a light-hearted atmosphere that occasionally slips into what North is best known for: Humor. Iban Coello is more than up to the task of presenting the wild, fun world of the FF and does most of the art. The first 6 issues (collected as Whatever Happened to the Fantastic Four?) gets the band together and gives them a new home that seems perfect. The next five (Four Stories About Hope - beautifully named) pushes things even further, reminding me of the best Doctor Who stories, or ideas Grant Morrison might have come up with. After that, North goes back to his first love and webcomics success - dinosaurs. Who doesn't love crazy dinosaur action? And then more high concept amusements. The series has made me want to go back and read (and reread) more FF comics, and that might be the highest compliment I can give it.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm8n3hXDmH6l5FJanN1D6X4U5JuRDpw-voy2v1DopRtvI46qdnfhNFFaQZzRvg4M4klzeAl4ftEwMZO_WzWGNW7Iv6tiLZxfbkql7DW_5Y260QFYGRKBBPt1wVhA5CBApQBjulF1qHm_i2wbLhDOwLk3XJq3uZxUQCs7RmoyLQmwNxPRNCyKds/s400/15-Zaenquil.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm8n3hXDmH6l5FJanN1D6X4U5JuRDpw-voy2v1DopRtvI46qdnfhNFFaQZzRvg4M4klzeAl4ftEwMZO_WzWGNW7Iv6tiLZxfbkql7DW_5Y260QFYGRKBBPt1wVhA5CBApQBjulF1qHm_i2wbLhDOwLk3XJq3uZxUQCs7RmoyLQmwNxPRNCyKds/w200-h200/15-Zaenquil.png" title="He's getting prettier and prettier" width="200" /></a></div>RPGs: We were missing a player due to physical injury this week, so here's what he missed... It also made the session a little short, because it's one less person around the table. First off, remember that Akashan probe from When Cosms Collide? It was actually an escape pod, and once decanted, awakened a mysterious Akashan version of the character with a Fragmented Existence that's been in the party since the beginning (as the cybernetic loner, the boisterous rocket man, and the randy paladin). Let's call this one the Reality Zen Master. Of course, Akasha is barely described in Torg Eternity, but I do still have my trusty Space Gods sourcebook from the original game, so I devised some Perks unique to the character, taking inspiration from the Paths Perks from Pan-Pacifica, and new Psionic Powers and Gear too. In the adventure that followed, the player tried to find his way into the new personality and juggle all these new abilities, but it was fun to see the other players try to figure him out, especially the (psionic) Realm Runner because this stuff is all his usual wheelhouse, but he couldn't figure out just how the Zen Master was doing it. As for the adventure du jour, there's a Tharkold scenario in Delphi Missions: Rising Storm called Demon Death Race which is just a sketch really. You have to ferry an Important Object across the Blasted Lands while a bunch of bad guys chase you and do vehicle battle with you. The set-up does not say what the Object is, and the chases work, the whole could have lasted 4 rounds or, if battle were involved, seemed interminable. So my version is completely different and involved ferrying President Volkov - painted very patriotically (from the Russian perspective) as the man who is holding the technodemons at bay and why Tharkold has made no advances since the opening gambit of the war - to first get a mysterious artifact from another team (from Storm Break, grrrr) and then bring that down near Moscow where he gives it a mysterious woman who the players recognized as Jezrael (the High Lord's right-hand Thrall), but the characters did not. Torg Eternity GMs might know what happening here, but the players were a little uncurious, with the Realm Runner shaking hands with Volkov at the end but not even trying his psychometric tricks on him. The artifact thus remains hidden in its black piece of cloth to the end. After riding away from the Russian Mob for a few hours (without much incident, sadly, as I hinged things on Drama Cards throwing up Dilemmas that never came - the GM's dice rolls were generally terrible this time around), there's more of a chase out of Tharkold down the Volga River, pursued by drones. Then hop on a friendly VTOL, a nice hotel stay in Minsk, and perfumed invitations by a certain Dr. Grimm (who last had them trapped in an insane asylum), oh crap, why are we so drowsy...<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3jo7Ojqu1SRPM5mhbhYZW6y5z63Zh-f5LjB-9Y2q7pPdO5Gkex8rwGkzDzzDRvkmsLf4zWgDxMKj9aryT391zy8B_EyIqV1IB_R0bLWZ6OeQWEKVdFQDPbzrTYyHL4ChKxSZIri_n5wvooxNWTH914btovccay2ReftFZ-izutjBTbaZgAaWb/s600/16-breaking-news24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3jo7Ojqu1SRPM5mhbhYZW6y5z63Zh-f5LjB-9Y2q7pPdO5Gkex8rwGkzDzzDRvkmsLf4zWgDxMKj9aryT391zy8B_EyIqV1IB_R0bLWZ6OeQWEKVdFQDPbzrTYyHL4ChKxSZIri_n5wvooxNWTH914btovccay2ReftFZ-izutjBTbaZgAaWb/s16000/16-breaking-news24.jpg" title="There's that Car That Ate Paris" /></a></div>Best bits: First of all, props to the Realm Runner for being so uncurious about the mystery package, because that's absolutely correct role-playing. 1) Volkov gave him a big speech that tapped into his usual xenophobic stance that Core Earth should be for Core Earth humans and 2) the nature of Tharkold made him susceptible to the higher position of the President while also defining himself as team leader (it's always been more of a flat structure with various members claiming they're the leader as a recurring gag). This, despite his in-game attempts to soften his character, leading to a fun comedy double-act between him and the Super-Wrestler who, at his request, keeps him honest and reminds him to be "polite". Given our Wrestler isn't much of a philosopher, he did all the driving while the Zen Master grumbled in the background like Marge Simpson, the only one who thought this was all very suspicious and questioning if they'd be on the right side of history here. The Storm Break crew were - surprise! - the characters these very players used in Tharkold's Day One adventure, having shockingly defected from SHIFT to join its rival organization. When I threw up a shot of a blood-red river on the screen for the last escape, one player said "nice photo editing" and which point I revealed I hadn't color-corrected the photo. It wasn't the Volga, but it was a polluted Russian river that really looked like this. They were more shocked by this than the Storm Break reversal. (I'm always getting props for the way I describe things so disturbingly in Tharkold, I guess this peek at the real world counts.) And though the big chase was slightly uneventful in the end, the Drama Deck did seem to just throw up cards with vehicular mayhem images, so that was a pleasant coincidence.Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-50611626026248776162024-01-28T06:00:00.035-04:002024-01-29T08:30:05.196-04:00This Week in Geek (21-27/01/24)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwZrPs9z_wQPbZiph_iS9cY6IzZO3RzOXfbIU8zzxRm5oeJDAthWYWOj2U8xHgZR8MDHMkO2yCHTgCNlSWvQ-NySd1yv3s-plw69aegv0vFRvuL_7y1_3aWoBnl5ZRx4mlfDTjb-Bi9vU_5f8kaZlhUigrI3O8E4O3vjGTJDZQ18XBkotg2UVC/s545/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="545" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwZrPs9z_wQPbZiph_iS9cY6IzZO3RzOXfbIU8zzxRm5oeJDAthWYWOj2U8xHgZR8MDHMkO2yCHTgCNlSWvQ-NySd1yv3s-plw69aegv0vFRvuL_7y1_3aWoBnl5ZRx4mlfDTjb-Bi9vU_5f8kaZlhUigrI3O8E4O3vjGTJDZQ18XBkotg2UVC/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Australian films, being lower class, houses near water" /></a></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj97LFnB-BDbJN53ZbQvoWAuJ0cejh47U6xvKk_iJ3zIrZtFf8lzJEoZmML9UkmTJhRALCUPABPKw0k9j-ZEgRiMIcv8jolP2AieSz9t6nhCKZCM-pfouRY5ZMRx7kEIIrT8XtzmXbAuwCl1fgFKuNKuLdqxPJLwzxHsTAd5u37kYdif-a_6AWQ/s298/1-americanfiction.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj97LFnB-BDbJN53ZbQvoWAuJ0cejh47U6xvKk_iJ3zIrZtFf8lzJEoZmML9UkmTJhRALCUPABPKw0k9j-ZEgRiMIcv8jolP2AieSz9t6nhCKZCM-pfouRY5ZMRx7kEIIrT8XtzmXbAuwCl1fgFKuNKuLdqxPJLwzxHsTAd5u37kYdif-a_6AWQ/w134-h200/1-americanfiction.jpg" title="The first title was better" width="134" /></a></div>In theaters: Jeffrey Wright plays "Monk" Ellison, an African-American author, in American Fiction, but Ellison wouldn't describe himself that way. After being told his writing isn't black enough (or black at all), he writes a lampoon that reinforces and makes fun of all the stereotypes inherent to the African-American experience as seen in media as a middle finger to publishers, never expecting it to be taken seriously. But it sells like gangbusters, and he's caught in the kind of success he never wanted, acting like someone he isn't. His personal world is upper middle class, filled with doctors, lawyers, academics, beach houses, the fear of becoming like one's father, and romance over wine. So the movie gives us a "non-black" family dramady with a playful ending that riffs on the "give 'em what they expect, sell-out" nature of the film's fictional bestseller. The whole thing is grand satire, with thoughtless micro-aggressions every time a white character is in the room. Beyond the biting satire, there's Ellison's story, filled with charming and witty characters, efficiently working to ingratiate you to the family members, and knowingly nod at the send-up of white literati. Very funny, and often touching, American Fiction is a full meal that has a lot to say about how reductive our entertainment is, but also wants us to invest in a cast of well-drawn characters. It's like a good book! Indeed, it's based on one: Erasure by Percival Everett, which I really must put on my reading list.<br /><br />At home: To celebrate Australia Day earlier this week, I've decided to go through some Australian movies. Here we go...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DkI1kcXH81VpBkJImx_dsdw2P9OJ6OO5qdrABo06tLjXA5E-IWSn7KvyO5zJJXDF4TRFiTh0P3jpsrJLh8c-idmdnQ9a04JBoSUGcQeaVb0ZJaZONviMeH3BeT7KRtTW1PJ_WfQrFQq30RHxRTwJgvSWQPSZ8eFMQQvfQO0Fdfbx7ETsJOxn/s301/2-breakermorant.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DkI1kcXH81VpBkJImx_dsdw2P9OJ6OO5qdrABo06tLjXA5E-IWSn7KvyO5zJJXDF4TRFiTh0P3jpsrJLh8c-idmdnQ9a04JBoSUGcQeaVb0ZJaZONviMeH3BeT7KRtTW1PJ_WfQrFQq30RHxRTwJgvSWQPSZ8eFMQQvfQO0Fdfbx7ETsJOxn/w133-h200/2-breakermorant.jpg" title="Hard to judge" width="133" /></a></div>From factual story to stage play to film, Breaker Morant is a tale of the neglected Boer War and an early example of modern guerrilla warfare, repurposed into an investigation of what is justified in war when the enemy doesn't follow any kind of rules. Morally, is there any high ground at all, or is that an untenable position (and therefore hypocritical to claim one)? It forces an ambivalence on the audience - which I don't mean in a pejorative sense - making us question Morant and his men, but also putting on their side, since they are clearly in a kangaroo court looking to score political points. And the fact, these are Australian soldiers in a British unit makes its Empire vs. Colonies, and we do want to root for the underdog. But it's not just a moral fable, it's also a cracker of a courtroom drama, with Jack Thompson's country lawyer rising to the occasion and giving the prosecution something to sweat about. Edward Woodward brings a lot of gravitas to the role of Morant himself, and he's well supported by Bryan Brown (FX, but also every Australian movie ever, seems to me) as the "typically Aussie" loose cannon. The film asks a lot of questions, of the situation and of yourself, but no easy answers.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuD9fJvI9Umcax-0I9WsaQQo_1kN9d6sqWH2gqGY94DyH2FHPlfo6unnctb3orne7tu-f3ZsanE3xviOWY-Pn0-aVbk8pj_tGytmYJrtIDAbJcxKNY84BqxtoAl4NI_cKz__FRJTxDbTm924fV2Uma2iW17uAvHBBTbybcR7B2xYgAq4CDHmna/s290/3-rabbitprooffence.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuD9fJvI9Umcax-0I9WsaQQo_1kN9d6sqWH2gqGY94DyH2FHPlfo6unnctb3orne7tu-f3ZsanE3xviOWY-Pn0-aVbk8pj_tGytmYJrtIDAbJcxKNY84BqxtoAl4NI_cKz__FRJTxDbTm924fV2Uma2iW17uAvHBBTbybcR7B2xYgAq4CDHmna/w138-h200/3-rabbitprooffence.jpg" title="But not kid proof" width="138" /></a></div>I don't love movies about human misery, which is what Rabbit-Proof Fence seemed to promise. In the 1930s, Australia's policies regarding Natives had them kidnap kids to reeducated them in occidental culture (as did Canada, and both countries did it far past the 30s), with the added wrinkle of a eugenics program designed to breed the Native out through marriages with whites. It's ghastly, and Kenneth Branagh plays this as an evil that believes itself a good. It's not his film, however, and it's barely about the reeducation center the young leads are sent to. Rather, it's about their escape and subsequent months-long trek through the wilderness to get back home (and the authorities may or may not be waiting for them to arrive). If it hadn't actually happened, you probably wouldn't believe it. The eldest of the three girls, Molly, is played with smoldering intensity by Everlyn Sampi, who doesn't look her 14 years, and she manages to carry the film. So though it is a downer of an issues film (most are), it IS more about cultural resilience and therefore feels like a victory, albeit a Pyrrhic one.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi871aWR1GkaV69U-GjhleATluy16SbG19J5tulhKPR20R5NqfQna6wfssLLaz-npMpVdj8hXEezGDU4hmkTZ-aexy2hI57M-hICThIOu_plKXF0EB0hGhMlHN3HjTfnq8q8Hu7optgUqCQNAcEdDDx_IhF1VlItfyztxy4gB7t7jv1U3VG3WCO/s294/4-kenny.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi871aWR1GkaV69U-GjhleATluy16SbG19J5tulhKPR20R5NqfQna6wfssLLaz-npMpVdj8hXEezGDU4hmkTZ-aexy2hI57M-hICThIOu_plKXF0EB0hGhMlHN3HjTfnq8q8Hu7optgUqCQNAcEdDDx_IhF1VlItfyztxy4gB7t7jv1U3VG3WCO/w136-h200/4-kenny.jpg" title="Should be pushing bidets" width="136" /></a></div>If you ever had questions about toilet plumbing and port-a-potties, then Kenny is the film for you (it may be for you regardless). Like, sure, it's a mockumentary, but there's no reason to think it's not well-researched. Kenny (Shane Jacobson) looks like he knows what he's talking and surely, that's a real toilet convention he goes to. Regardless, this soon becomes a character study as we follow Kenny not just to big events in need of outdoor bathrooms (great use of real events to accomplish this), but in his personal life. There's something effortlessly charming about this rather guileless character who takes pride in his blue-collar job whose deepest thoughts are about, well, crap. He's about as normal a Joe as you'll find, nice but not too nice, simple but not too simple, a bit of a loser but not too much of one. This was a big hit in Australia and though I can't speak to what national character Kenny tapped into, it's just as entertaining (and even sometimes heart-warming) for the rest of us. Don't reject it out of hand because you think it's toilet humor.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqOhiaRBz20s4RC2mQH-7j5JIaODmyHcgKPCjIga6Re0VfJMn8k1DBTdZxWxPCXeRD-YsBm74SmyKO9Fha2EDF1v_bYr8U4ERrldOBSHWNZdN8t-5DFrMH-jeM65DOEM9VVmhN4CjA3GE52JDYrek33jwglQnaKvM0AbYEg1P9gTrEho5X6NMF/s287/5-summerfield.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqOhiaRBz20s4RC2mQH-7j5JIaODmyHcgKPCjIga6Re0VfJMn8k1DBTdZxWxPCXeRD-YsBm74SmyKO9Fha2EDF1v_bYr8U4ERrldOBSHWNZdN8t-5DFrMH-jeM65DOEM9VVmhN4CjA3GE52JDYrek33jwglQnaKvM0AbYEg1P9gTrEho5X6NMF/w139-h200/5-summerfield.jpg" title="Not all jobs" width="139" /></a></div>Australia's answer to The Wicker Man, perhaps, Summerfield stars Space 1999's Nick Tate as a schoolteacher/heartthrob who gets a job in an isolated community where people are either very unfriendly, or almost TOO friendly, to the point of oddness. The friendlies include a little girl that gives you Hanging Rock vibes and who he gets attached to - and her single mom - after she has an accident he feels responsible for. The film works mostly on atmosphere, as its slow burn sometimes seems to meander, a little like the main character through the seaside village. Is it though? A lot of his private investigation, trying to find out what happened to his predecessor, moves along, if not always with dialog. Not one to watch while on your phone. Where it's clever is that it makes you do exactly what Tate does: Suspect everyone and start believing in something sinister. And while you might happen on the correct answer for SOME cases, it ends on several twists, not one, and is almost sure to prove you wrong in some OTHER cases.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xnHmDzfdg-ZSLh1yB1NBT9M1nc0gpx6Kcn6iAB-FW7xSGYyCKdf3ykRxnljUJuCuGuQWHy8A8u3Umx2eYMVAiX-fAHki_jLXM2HF4wbMGPDlBDJOsmorbM8j9HLqeI1c8P7y6W4DXrx-mTcpdy-T72_sm9KMKYpZN4YjwhmhiNbWEHRK0wdv/s311/6-thecastle.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xnHmDzfdg-ZSLh1yB1NBT9M1nc0gpx6Kcn6iAB-FW7xSGYyCKdf3ykRxnljUJuCuGuQWHy8A8u3Umx2eYMVAiX-fAHki_jLXM2HF4wbMGPDlBDJOsmorbM8j9HLqeI1c8P7y6W4DXrx-mTcpdy-T72_sm9KMKYpZN4YjwhmhiNbWEHRK0wdv/w129-h200/6-thecastle.jpg" title="Going right to the pool room" width="129" /></a></div>The Castle being a hit comedy in Australia seems to confirm how much the Aussie public sees its national character as a simple folk, blokey and principled, not asking too much out of life, but loving everything they have. Australia's rural mindset is not unlike Canada's - we're British colonies, and in The Castle, authority figures have posh British accents and are trying to forcibly buy out people who live next to an airport to expand that facility. But they're happy with their shithole of a house because it's home. Downhome Australians versus the Courts is probably playing on the penal colony aspect on purpose (there's even a family member in jail). What's clever here is that it mocks the family as guileless amateurs who think they're brilliant, but are by most standards mediocre, but endears you to them so effortlessly, you cheer them on in what seems like an impossible crusade. I do think there's too much narration up top, but that's a personal preference. Generally, it's all quite amusing, quotable, and even rousing.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTDexDKJpVEAJIaBsIx90Sp4lebJflPNWBaDKScoI03pK9NRlh5bFD9oOMHTJau4speQwzVd3okcm7UktOIMNhrbiC2W9HDAocXqaXEloKlurl1_0NxF3n44aciGpyAdLDfnZj02Rlv4NB0021MIjtIMxZjj0f_AzD54K-3D5LjzxQyp0WtM93/s300/7-bigsteal.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTDexDKJpVEAJIaBsIx90Sp4lebJflPNWBaDKScoI03pK9NRlh5bFD9oOMHTJau4speQwzVd3okcm7UktOIMNhrbiC2W9HDAocXqaXEloKlurl1_0NxF3n44aciGpyAdLDfnZj02Rlv4NB0021MIjtIMxZjj0f_AzD54K-3D5LjzxQyp0WtM93/w133-h200/7-bigsteal.jpg" title="Jag off" width="133" /></a></div>Ben Mendelsohn is a BABY in The Big Steal, a "teenage wasteland" type movie with big John Hughes vibes about a young man who determines he needs to get a Jaguar because he told the girl of his dreams he had one - even though she's quick to say she doesn't care about cars - and gets swindled by a crooked used car dealer as a result. Though it takes place in the late 80s, the haircuts and vintage cars puts you in mind of 50s greaser films, and while I'm like Joanna (gorgeous Claudia Karvan) and don't care about cars, it somehow adds to the movie's charm. Fun characters (the parents, the friends, the bad guys) make up the rest. As for the various retaliations for the bad deal, back and forth, it's all rather cleverly constructed, with the players never having all the information and therefore making the situation more complicated as a result. Great use of misunderstandings and things happening simultaneously. It's aged better than a lot of Hughes flicks.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcdDw2Q1e11FXSfZxN_RDEH0u2RsU2FDZ7Bg4clz0eWmzdGFs9XNCQe5o9mOdV-2ypszLK0yUWfqtHt3rwiVr54AIQ1Egj9LUsSlSKidbH5bFQgUFmDaK0RfnKcsH7vJWyPAODXaMr_YH9Nu1rDUdTiDOV57z6Fb4wjhGe0tWUdWHirH1cmzA7/s400/8-torg-Fenrir.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcdDw2Q1e11FXSfZxN_RDEH0u2RsU2FDZ7Bg4clz0eWmzdGFs9XNCQe5o9mOdV-2ypszLK0yUWfqtHt3rwiVr54AIQ1Egj9LUsSlSKidbH5bFQgUFmDaK0RfnKcsH7vJWyPAODXaMr_YH9Nu1rDUdTiDOV57z6Fb4wjhGe0tWUdWHirH1cmzA7/w200-h200/8-torg-Fenrir.png" title="Son of a Loki" width="200" /></a></div><p>RPGs: This week we finished When Cosms Collide, months since we started this mega-adventure (and weeks for the PCs). After a big social interaction climax, it's a big combat climax as the heroes must choose which reality to align with in a big frozen battle some of the participants think is Ragnarok. The heroic thing to do is side with the Atlanteans (or Akashans as they call themselves) and the Core Earth Vikings from 1000 years ago against the Mechapotamian invaders of Fenrir the wolf, but I had prepped for the the opposite, just in case (we do have one character who is so against ANY alien foothold on Core Earth that he mused about siding with the wolf to prevent multiversal allies from sticking around, since it's harder to argue against these than enemies). The battle does not go well at all, with all the "mechs" way too powerful for the heroes, but the Viking shieldmaiden's 1000-year dream is the key - it built up enough possibilities to create a destructive storm if aimed at even Fenrir, but do the PCs let the energy build up before unleashing it? Or do they risk Fenrir also increasing in power as he awakens? They do wait (or just can't get their shit together before then) and find that Fenrir is at maximum power when they finally hit him. It's not enough. But wait, they never called down that runic missile a few Acts ago. After a lot of fumbling and bad rolls, they finally manage it, and the beast is destroyed. His forces run to the other side of the island (where they start to disconnect and disappear), and our heroes make friends with the surviving people of Akasha and Past Earth. The Baroness' special powers allow them to full their half-reality up so they survive, and someone enters the Akashan tree (the only interdimensional tree not corrupted by the Gaunt Man) to become its power source, fulfilling their destiny (this is a character the written material completely forgets about, but it seemed clear to me this is what should happen in an ideal circumstance, so I made sure they were around, though it still required a player to put the clues together). And speaking of the Baroness, she marries our Paladin (sorry, Red Raven), and he becomes Baron of Fairy Tale Aysle (which of course means they'll live happily ever after - the player introduces a new character next session), solidifying the rebel fiefdom's power in the region - and Copenhagen's independence, since they are now allied - through this alliance with the Army of Light AND S.H.I.F.T. and the Delphi Council (not to mention an Akashan reality bubble in its center). I'll be going through some timelines soon to see how giving Uthorion this big a black eye will affect the course of the War, but it definitely weakens his position.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf6o94C9dQ8Tb1rtXjQ8x8Ums07aMuZDT0V-eh773bedqwnZsToMuA8VIiPt4dDOl_dxG_dZ5YGo_bVWASxkENWpHkUIz-1MDxeq-0bYB9VscXxq2OS_VXbaU-1hJPaKczb-YOXtKDwwqfnJ7EzMn8UCN32XkBFSFq9v4-AvMzliOovF1_Slli/s600/breaking-news23.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf6o94C9dQ8Tb1rtXjQ8x8Ums07aMuZDT0V-eh773bedqwnZsToMuA8VIiPt4dDOl_dxG_dZ5YGo_bVWASxkENWpHkUIz-1MDxeq-0bYB9VscXxq2OS_VXbaU-1hJPaKczb-YOXtKDwwqfnJ7EzMn8UCN32XkBFSFq9v4-AvMzliOovF1_Slli/s16000/breaking-news23.jpg" title="I'm not sure if that's what the wolf is supposed to look like" /></a></div><p>Best bits: The Paladin jusssssst manages to jilt Red Raven, but not have it hold it against him - still, her Nemesis card against our Monster Hunter remains in effect, even though she doesn't know HE'S the "necromancer" she's looking for (a revenge story down the line?). During the battle, the Monster Hunter runs right up to Fenrir, which takes guts, even manages to make him stumble down his promontory and delaying his actions. The Wrestler spins a Hoplite around and bashes a bunch of his cohorts with him - the damage roll so high, it collapsed the either unit. The Realm Runner tried to invoke a reality storm against Fenrir, but the beast got him first - not cool, but as the heroes call the Ragnarok storm, he says "Oh you thought I was the main event? I'm just the distraction", which WAS cool. And as the missile hits, everyone gets behind the Paladin's shield, which thanks to some wonky card play (and of course invocations to the God of Light Dunad), it protects them from the blast; the crater comes right up to the lip of the shield - Dunad be praised!<br /><br />And since we're finally done...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2wJobsXAT8UiSNJ_atBsdNmJUQUr2DUg4Uv1vMnSTrYz-JUCKIbEP9l7iLdKqgJdDnp7ZnWJHJpHyiVcQw-CLO8Ls9PcQLF0O1LN4GpV7nI8MC5qFel9U6obr5ktcNF0NhUqxLeCGxlXBVZKgdeP6m1w3j_EVy4_47lF9OcriyRNRrp6S-3vs/s260/9-torg-whencosmscollide.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2wJobsXAT8UiSNJ_atBsdNmJUQUr2DUg4Uv1vMnSTrYz-JUCKIbEP9l7iLdKqgJdDnp7ZnWJHJpHyiVcQw-CLO8Ls9PcQLF0O1LN4GpV7nI8MC5qFel9U6obr5ktcNF0NhUqxLeCGxlXBVZKgdeP6m1w3j_EVy4_47lF9OcriyRNRrp6S-3vs/w154-h200/9-torg-whencosmscollide.jpg" title="When Cosms Settle" width="154" /></a></div>Books: While the Torg Eternity's other "mega-adventures" are all Cosm-specific (one for each world), When Cosms Collide takes place in Aysle, but invites a lot of other realities to play, including some not normally involved in the Possibility War (which could have been developed further, though I hear the next phase of game releases will do so). There are a lot of clever bits besides, but that shouldn't be a surprise given that Greg Gorden was the lead designer on the original Torg. That said, that exalted position is perhaps why they let him run roughshod over the rules, using them in atypical ways (which can inspire), but often just ignoring or misinterpreting them. I will also call bull on this being a 5-Act story. It's easily double that thanks to the fantasy picaresque in the middle. While I find that most encounters are important to telling the story, there is some repetition as well (too many camps to infiltrate), and as we get further into the adventure, perhaps more the GM needs to change, cut out or adapt (especially if combat isn't your thing). There are certainly a lot of NPCs to juggle, but for players, the sense of having a "cast" for an extended period of time is helpful. WCC has its problems - as generally, I think Torg Eternity products could all have used tighter editing - but it also uses the full power of the setting, which other T:E adventures more rarely do, and opens the door to a possible game changer for the enterprising table (that said, it also hedges its bets quite a lot for tables who DON'T want to get the game's meta-arc off-track).Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-12433902475963469392024-01-22T06:00:00.026-04:002024-01-22T06:00:00.138-04:00The 14th Doctor and Donna: The Character Sheets<p>In the spirit of each successive series seen as a Doctor Who RPG campaign, David and Catherine have handed in their (updated) character sheets before leaving.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdddlvXLJmxPzf7-KEkX4QVwSN1QDSHWEXrZ_x6PEScc6yLjhtqKAPEqs_dqcQGrguMtuSDu2IdOu7o30DKz4zAt81Kq6GJJcACf4Y1uVupbu1uwkwB4z8NWMMrpqXJKm4HpHEkrL3cZHwFm1SWpIKgA6IadYNgUs7KBKKYeqQdNhnyBdZOUDE/s643/dwaitas-charsheet-15th-Doc14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="643" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdddlvXLJmxPzf7-KEkX4QVwSN1QDSHWEXrZ_x6PEScc6yLjhtqKAPEqs_dqcQGrguMtuSDu2IdOu7o30DKz4zAt81Kq6GJJcACf4Y1uVupbu1uwkwB4z8NWMMrpqXJKm4HpHEkrL3cZHwFm1SWpIKgA6IadYNgUs7KBKKYeqQdNhnyBdZOUDE/s16000/dwaitas-charsheet-15th-Doc14.jpg" title="Still sorry?" /></a></div>Stuff that didn't fit on David's updated sheet, kept on the back...<br /><br /><b>SKILLS</b><br />*The Doctor has a +2 Knowledge Expertise in Linguistics.<br /><br /><b>GOOD TRAITS</b><br />Attractive (Minor)<br />Boffin (Major)<br />Brave (Minor)<br />Charming (Minor)<br />Code Breaker (Minor)<br />Devotion (Minor) - To Donna<br />Friends (Major) - UNIT<br />Indomitable (Major)<br />Keen Senses (Minor) - The Doctor's sense of taste is so acute, he can determine the properties of an object by licking it<br />Percussive Maintenance (Minor)<br />Psychic (Minor)<br />Resourceful Pockets (Minor)<br />Reverse the Polarity of the Neutron Flow (Major)<br />Run for Your Life! (Minor)<br />Sense of Direction (Minor)<br />Technically Adept (Minor)<br />Time Traveller (Major) - All Tech levels<br />Voice of Authority (Minor)<br /><b><br />BAD TRAITS</b><br />Adversaries (Major) - The Daleks, The Toymaker<br />Code of Conduct (Major) - Always gives his enemies an opportunity to put a stop to their evil plans before he puts a stop to them himself<br />Eccentric/Motormouth (Minor) - The Doctor talks a mile a minute, throwing in jokes and pop culture references, getting lost in (spoken) thought and going off on tangents (but less than before)<br />Impulsive (Minor)<br />Insatiable Curiosity (Minor)<br />Last of My Kind (Minor)<br />Very Random Regenerator (Major) - The GM can throw a free curveball at the players during regeneration<br /><br /><b>SPECIAL TRAITS</b><br />Feel the Turn of the Universe<br />Telepathy - Requires touch<br />Time Lord<br />Time Lord (Experienced)<br />Vortex<br /><br /><b>FAVORITE METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING STORY POINTS</b><br />"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor's guilt is still his principal Story Point engine. When someone's fate is extreme and final, just as Gallifrey's was, he lets it weigh on him heavily, accepting an inevitable result that might not be so inevitable with Story Point expenditure, taking needless risks in response to the situation, or refusing things that might actually be psychologically beneficial.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbWCnTkGYxbnelsSZMsjr5X3iK3EpR_szV1xwX-yWEDVR55icMGBRDb-AoSdVUZF1r8U61wPLGjJCMdZ1Ia128vNvsWnkFed2CeKTFfok9OVb7InG9o9Uypp3qfcOQoCTIl66IttJjoRc0DYhk7o9Jz55my0_reLdT1jxJNCo8NRJfWs3VPWn-/s643/dwaitas-charsheet-15th-Donna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="643" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbWCnTkGYxbnelsSZMsjr5X3iK3EpR_szV1xwX-yWEDVR55icMGBRDb-AoSdVUZF1r8U61wPLGjJCMdZ1Ia128vNvsWnkFed2CeKTFfok9OVb7InG9o9Uypp3qfcOQoCTIl66IttJjoRc0DYhk7o9Jz55my0_reLdT1jxJNCo8NRJfWs3VPWn-/s16000/dwaitas-charsheet-15th-Donna.jpg" title="Still Noble?" /></a></div>Stuff that didn't fit on Catherine's sheet, kept on the back...<br /><br /><b>SKILLS</b><br />*Donna has a +2 Knowledge Expertise in Office Work, and a Technology Expertise in Computers.<br /><br /><b>GOOD TRAITS</b><br /><strike>Amnesia (Minor) - Donna doesn't remember her time with the Doctor</strike><br />Brave (Minor)<br />Devotion (Minor) - Her family<br />Empathic (Minor)<br />Friends (Major) - UNIT<br />Lucky (Minor)<br />Photographic Memory (Minor) - Donna's eidetic memory is limited to numbers and office-type paperwork<br />Special: After the metacrisis, Donna has a vague recollection of some of the Doctor's memories<br />Stubborn (Minor)<br />Voice of Authority<br /><br /><b>BAD TRAITS</b><br />Argumentative (Minor)<br />Eccentric/Loud (Minor) - Donna shouts at the world to cover her insecurities (not to be confused with the Loud Trait)<br />Obligation (Major) - To family (husband Sean, daughter Rose, mother Sylvia and granddad Wilf<br />Unadventurous (Major)<br /><b><br />FAVORITE METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING STORY POINTS</b><br />Family is now everything to Donna, so taking her away from her family, or putting her family under threat, are all reasons to take risks, make mistakes, and collect Story Points.<br /><br />Now available: <b><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n6Ltff29YaERfv-4VhXIYtzR0-znn17G/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">The 14th and 15th Doctor character sheet bundle</a></b> in high quality printable pdf (+ blank sheet). <br /><p></p>Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-37840264122795155602024-01-21T06:00:00.028-04:002024-01-21T06:00:00.140-04:00This Week in Geek (14-20/01/24)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo4smYOpltwko1NQXcmH5g8PvdoJu2il3czhMyNoxurEiVdRtVN9yxQlXLy_p627iVAn_KK2DKDgsnAebwKIB3-kdmkm944l_icngPQzVA8UzQ17wexxEjqdJkT8wQujoHzPgJdqSuecs5VF6zDQLjLqmlVMtPCefydyBJwfaoWc2ya6xq3tkt/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo4smYOpltwko1NQXcmH5g8PvdoJu2il3czhMyNoxurEiVdRtVN9yxQlXLy_p627iVAn_KK2DKDgsnAebwKIB3-kdmkm944l_icngPQzVA8UzQ17wexxEjqdJkT8wQujoHzPgJdqSuecs5VF6zDQLjLqmlVMtPCefydyBJwfaoWc2ya6xq3tkt/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Books (inspired by and/or featuring), variable identities, wormholes" /></a></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh21pALMPLNne5riZ2Xo_8c6F5Amp4c3rWD0OuqkwThVGFmY4WvVTD0Fy4bnx2qLWfjnCF8sOX9coRjHBMHfo6u3xVb_sOhjn-h2Zb19uVXmk9Y-uYWwZ3un6174SHz31FyGa1C2RmJ_wNH0xXJvt1fabYVbRHyr5tEljmyg36RTKtl_7vW0TqL/s297/1-roleplay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh21pALMPLNne5riZ2Xo_8c6F5Amp4c3rWD0OuqkwThVGFmY4WvVTD0Fy4bnx2qLWfjnCF8sOX9coRjHBMHfo6u3xVb_sOhjn-h2Zb19uVXmk9Y-uYWwZ3un6174SHz31FyGa1C2RmJ_wNH0xXJvt1fabYVbRHyr5tEljmyg36RTKtl_7vW0TqL/w135-h200/1-roleplay.jpg" title="Not enough dice action" width="135" /></a></div>At home: Definitely not expecting Role Play to be great - just a gender-reversed, streaming-quality version of True Lies - but I've always responded positively to the comedy espionage genre, and could I resist David Oyelowo (not exactly back in a spy's shoes here, but I loved MI-5) and Bill Nighy (indeed, his scenes turn out to be the best thing about this unambitious movie. Kaley Cuoco is fine as an acerbic assassin-for-hire trying to quit the life, and almost better as the loving wife and mother of two, and the film has some charm by not being cynical about those relationships. While many have criticized this as a remix of better material (that's true), I don't agree that its dialog, for example, is some kind of A.I. aberration. While I'm not handing out Oscars or anything, for me, the film had fun with its dialog and didn't sound like the copy/paste job of many action films. The third act is rather thin as we get into rather plainly-staged action and far too few consequences, undermining the stakes, so on the low end of 3 out of 5 stars, 3 already being my "forgettable, but entertains for most of its length" rating.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSRY62JYVplgQxq9ktKwsC45AgpeGlBbQnHesLVQZO_eCtCoAI83enniQ-3tEobV3S6EAgz4FnUZ1rSwiphyhpfjuooMqARxHUHw5d_DaMQEm_cvIpChGbuMemfpk6Z6r8WTk-B2NaGguELCQe6CZCDG3Af5dmHYyCMDcTiseN7aRO4twMQbQ/s301/2-reacherS2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSRY62JYVplgQxq9ktKwsC45AgpeGlBbQnHesLVQZO_eCtCoAI83enniQ-3tEobV3S6EAgz4FnUZ1rSwiphyhpfjuooMqARxHUHw5d_DaMQEm_cvIpChGbuMemfpk6Z6r8WTk-B2NaGguELCQe6CZCDG3Af5dmHYyCMDcTiseN7aRO4twMQbQ/w133-h200/2-reacherS2.jpg" title="Like I've never seen THAT joke" width="133" /></a></div>With its second season, Reacher becomes more television-like (derogatory) by using his old team, the 101, as a cast of people almost as competent as he is. It also has an over-reliance on catch phrases which we hear repeated again and again, taking the thrill off their final payoffs. The story, based on the novel Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child, has Reacher catch up with what's left of that team when one of them is found dead, tipping them off to a high-level conspiracy that involves an arms merchant with a penchant for comic books (which DOESN'T pay off, annoyingly). When Reacher was interacting with normal people in Season 1, the contrast made the show sing. Here, most of his allies know him already (and I'm more interested in the flashbacks to an old 101 investigation where he's still a surprise to people) and the group kind of devolves into a murder squad and Reacher is practically psychotic. Righteous self-defense, a lot of this is NOT. Still often fun, but it's the second Rambo movie to Season 1's First Blood, y'know?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibnQuZb8k80uN7OkU588Vbl2hwsNCwlYIJ38B1-GEYaiNnATJqD7O180CfUnAHqozmsJaQKlcpbZRiMTBQyPAh08y77v7krFB1PWybuDjtws1z-S-ipibpfD6P_uW8ozyjzaAsfG6yxAvEZcbcb7JXvdBFEglTQxhBCz0OFEZQO2kqbDccNawW/s291/3-zigeunerweisen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="291" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibnQuZb8k80uN7OkU588Vbl2hwsNCwlYIJ38B1-GEYaiNnATJqD7O180CfUnAHqozmsJaQKlcpbZRiMTBQyPAh08y77v7krFB1PWybuDjtws1z-S-ipibpfD6P_uW8ozyjzaAsfG6yxAvEZcbcb7JXvdBFEglTQxhBCz0OFEZQO2kqbDccNawW/w137-h200/3-zigeunerweisen.jpg" title="Record scratch" width="137" /></a></div>After daring to sue a studio for breach of contract, maverick Japanese director Seijun Suzuki (best known for Tokyo Drifter) was blacklisted for a decade. His indie comeback in 1980 eschews his past gangster films, but not his formal experiments nor his surrealism. Zigeunerweisen, the first of what would become a thematic trilogy, is the story of a close but trying friendship between two academics in the post-War period, one of them having become a boorish wanderer. Though the Criterion Channel's summation of the film as "cryptic" isn't wrong, it's pretty clearly an examination of what lingers after death. From the voice of a long-dead musician accidentally caught on a record, to poetic discussions about skeletons, and the fading memory of a dead friend represented by having to return all his effects to his widow, Suzuki also creates visual evocations of death in the living (heads decapitated in frame, and so on). But he's also dissecting the state of being dead and not know it, people who are really ghosts, whose illnesses are only prolonging the inevitable, and given the setting, that's also Japanese culture as it gets infected with America's in this era. Dream logic abounds, but dreams also reach into this world and affect it. It's a strong return for the director, but he's definitely moved on since the 1960s - does he count himself as one of the dead?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-uyQX5dsqwAxNE6g4WCnffk57OHTKpfWACQryxMdWoP5NYwDD7bspn3ahdatnHW2q4dh6RpitTYnNoOPVk3FL8yW3Gb_EKpmJm8FIWvJp770luidjHM2VdEL32bPKVUJwfX0Z4eCoD5MGKnG3AuCeq8XLUFSyVD1r-JdpkFANwyU3ib8RFgIl/s285/4-cafefuniculi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-uyQX5dsqwAxNE6g4WCnffk57OHTKpfWACQryxMdWoP5NYwDD7bspn3ahdatnHW2q4dh6RpitTYnNoOPVk3FL8yW3Gb_EKpmJm8FIWvJp770luidjHM2VdEL32bPKVUJwfX0Z4eCoD5MGKnG3AuCeq8XLUFSyVD1r-JdpkFANwyU3ib8RFgIl/w140-h200/4-cafefuniculi.jpg" title="It's the pool that cools off the coffee" width="140" /></a></div>Adapted from the novel Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Café Funiculi Funicula is a sweet and sentimental film set in a café where one special seat can allow you to time travel... according to some very stringent rules. Set up as an anthology, it soom becomes apparent that the reserved barista Kazu has a date with destiny as well. The other patrons are thus our way to learn the rules, the film's way to make us smile or shed a tear early on, and surprise, they're never really out of the film. When there's a coffee shop you like, you tend to go there more than once. In fact, it's Kazu's budding romance with Ryosuke - a boy uniquely interested in the past (and cats, there's a good cat actor in this) - that seems the distraction. And yet, that too proves crucial. And I don't mean to make it sound like a tear jerker even if it did jerk tears out of me. It's told with a light touch. It's a dramatic comedy, where time travel is used to help people move forward, not back, and therefore filled with hope and joy.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_n7Q0rjDXvGOZcXi3cJ6tKfupMgyRl2FM6Chy6e0InA6aDAsnaCYYZAdGcGAiOz9eC4hkiX_cuC2gk3ETKYVLjHVqomLRqISZFJud2kxHqBUeKHXAg03yf9amhvDuWzzqxDwlJveeqCw8es3vKVYwrcJlMCzSW0GlpsyuKKxWHvffdESIskpN/s283/5-antimatter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_n7Q0rjDXvGOZcXi3cJ6tKfupMgyRl2FM6Chy6e0InA6aDAsnaCYYZAdGcGAiOz9eC4hkiX_cuC2gk3ETKYVLjHVqomLRqISZFJud2kxHqBUeKHXAg03yf9amhvDuWzzqxDwlJveeqCw8es3vKVYwrcJlMCzSW0GlpsyuKKxWHvffdESIskpN/w141-h200/5-antimatter.jpg" title="Nothing you do matters" width="141" /></a></div>In Anti Matter, three PhD students find a way to create wormholes and of course, something has to go wrong when they teleport a person through it - in this case, project leader Ana (Yaiza Figueroa, who I'd love to see in other things) - but what? In the first act, we watched people try to figure something out, and in the second, we're in a similar position, spinning theories of our own, rejecting bad hypotheses, coming up with new ones... As Ana suffers from memory lapses, we might be reminded of Memento, but for me, in the way everyone else treats her, it's rather more evocative of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Whispers". Opinions about the final solution may vary, but it's foregrounded by enough metaphysics in the previous 90 minutes to make it of a piece with the rest. Same thing with the potentially pretentious ending (the final shot resonating with what could be the ultimate result of this experiment, on the world and on Ana, depending on how you look at it). I have a soft spot for low-budget indie sci-fi like this, and Anti Matter kept me engrossed.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1cbkq2dZ-4-Xa4q1vW6W5HLwsnL3qdTTB-O-epiRjq2dbxRu-nuGAJzwKiX8DxC-jcqJTmZItkje4WldJbdCwEoZTORi5ZYjZWa_f1BKq1_KzIxzq_PT8BO8v5PLIwmtMijzXLuIkP8eTnt3n4VgwCaIXMt_e05G43r7UXr9wNm_DGVq1bOW/s311/6-finalcountdown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1cbkq2dZ-4-Xa4q1vW6W5HLwsnL3qdTTB-O-epiRjq2dbxRu-nuGAJzwKiX8DxC-jcqJTmZItkje4WldJbdCwEoZTORi5ZYjZWa_f1BKq1_KzIxzq_PT8BO8v5PLIwmtMijzXLuIkP8eTnt3n4VgwCaIXMt_e05G43r7UXr9wNm_DGVq1bOW/w129-h200/6-finalcountdown.jpg" title="Keep hearing the song" width="129" /></a></div>The time-travelling naval ship movie that isn't The Philadelphia Experiment, The Final Countdown (from four years earlier) has an aircraft carrier travel through a strange, spontaneous wormhole to the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a wormhole that comes to snatch it back before it can do much about it, give or take a thin stock romance and a bit of action against Japanese scout pilots. It mostly plays as a military procedural for which the U.S. Navy supplied all their toys to create one of the most overt recruitment films ever projected on movie screens. The film would otherwise run short of feature length. The proceduralism bleeds into the time travel element, as Kirk Douglas' captain tries to figure out what's going on and Martin Sheen's civilian systems analyst expounds on what it could mean. Unfortunately, he's an ambivalent character who seems sinister one minute, heroic the next, and sometimes seems to council not interfering with history, and other times changing the course of World War II. You never get a handle on him, but that's because neither did the writers. Clever time loop and all, but it feels like a Twilight Zone episode with military propaganda attached, and therefore misses the mark for me.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqKNBDgIzsjkthdDMkh_IhmertpikZx9wkgNWPSg85SaHg5NkvGQvYky6BuXAx_OGpbMZncM0pKgUMWzdMHiF_JOOdjDER3St8WgL-fIMhbdOCMMjGTtldUHQK-iowmBHfMxd2KqYlRqiin7FZyB2Bc5FQaYMTK5tYuPtOC1oGmmCTcyh7ngEI/s332/7-timewars4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqKNBDgIzsjkthdDMkh_IhmertpikZx9wkgNWPSg85SaHg5NkvGQvYky6BuXAx_OGpbMZncM0pKgUMWzdMHiF_JOOdjDER3St8WgL-fIMhbdOCMMjGTtldUHQK-iowmBHfMxd2KqYlRqiin7FZyB2Bc5FQaYMTK5tYuPtOC1oGmmCTcyh7ngEI/w121-h200/7-timewars4.jpg" title="Time Rhyme" width="121" /></a></div>Books: Volume 4 of Simon Hawke's Time Wars series, The Zenda Vendetta is really Finn's book, but also the squad's superior officer's. As usual, history and literature combine as temporal terrorists (a couple of great villains, but I'm just as interested in the local baddies) hit Ruritania during the events that allegedly inspired The Prisoner of Zenda. The villains have deep connections to boss man Moses Forrester, which involves him in an adjustment for the first time, and his back story is good too. I'm not sure the novel really sells me on the "Fate Factor" that ties history in knots of coincidence, but it's the conceit that forces Finn to take Rassendyll's place in the story (perhaps to explain why it isn't Lucas doing so using the facial reconstruction techniques of the other books) and he acquits himself quite well in the triple role. Lucas and Andre are sidelined for much of this, but they're eventually in the direst of straits, and there's real momentum in the back half of the book, as if possessed by the romantic swashbuckler spirit of Anthony Hope's original story. Fun and exciting.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_tDbYwpp2AmXKPJsBvtZJLL2dNI2THjNGi90Gfo2y4w6XqEkL-ugRPTbiGtIgTJu31XWR7DiKnw162Wd4bTviRI5Buyc7qtfhsO4Qck1nGmQioyClMgc-sR5bljNcSAIe9AyW-YdswP7Bz1FtVOxWWXPrHuN75ndCp_8kuM04IfThyYZKeZs/s317/8-finna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_tDbYwpp2AmXKPJsBvtZJLL2dNI2THjNGi90Gfo2y4w6XqEkL-ugRPTbiGtIgTJu31XWR7DiKnw162Wd4bTviRI5Buyc7qtfhsO4Qck1nGmQioyClMgc-sR5bljNcSAIe9AyW-YdswP7Bz1FtVOxWWXPrHuN75ndCp_8kuM04IfThyYZKeZs/w126-h200/8-finna.jpg" title="Nice, an aqua cover" width="126" /></a></div>Though Nino Cipri's Finna works well as a novella, I do wish it had been longer. Maybe there's a universe where it is. The book presents a fictional box store analogous to IKEA in which a wormhole forms to other stores/universes. Two employees, lovers who recently broke up (awwwwkwwward) are forced to go in to rescue an elderly shopper who accidentally stumbled into it. From there unfurls a short multiversal picaresque that turbocharges the satire on capitalism, in particular in the "hive" version of the story the Finna machine brings our reluctant heroes to in the course of their search. They'll come to terms with their broken relationship too. Cipri's prose is deliciously ironic, with strong, aptly judgmental descriptions of places and people that make you immediately relate to them, despite the absurdity of the situation. I do wonder if the final reality they visit is meant to be a "better way" or anti-capitalistic - perhaps pre- or proto-capitalistic - rather than our own late stage hell - a point that might have been more strongly made at twice the length. And while the characters are well drawn, I also feel they could have benefited from more pages. Better to leave one wanting more than overstaying your welcome, however...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmd31ES6JFgA6UeZDdjMbz2u0a3l24vahHsXzSFZQ3LWNtgmtsCtbxNH1eFI5QqZIaj9HcGyGJKZltn4OuM1zsumDCtimGN45QBVroqrDjlOVtrQZNKk23cRRmcDHXUoUM1W9LMHJ4FxIf0XGXD-pJ6oWv9UBHtsNftpjkvlzeraKGwR5I5NMf/s256/9-CoC7th.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmd31ES6JFgA6UeZDdjMbz2u0a3l24vahHsXzSFZQ3LWNtgmtsCtbxNH1eFI5QqZIaj9HcGyGJKZltn4OuM1zsumDCtimGN45QBVroqrDjlOVtrQZNKk23cRRmcDHXUoUM1W9LMHJ4FxIf0XGXD-pJ6oWv9UBHtsNftpjkvlzeraKGwR5I5NMf/w156-h200/9-CoC7th.jpg" title="But my character already HAS a beard!" width="156" /></a></div>RPGs: Had my monthly dose of Call of Cthulhu this week, and though our Keeper hoped to finish that first scenario with this third chapter, we soon got the inkling that it wasn't going to happen. There's always a danger to the party splitting up and various members perhaps spending too much time on side-quests and their own subplots, and that's what happened here. There really was no hope (it's CoC, hope is always fleeting) we'd actually resolve things that night. But all three investigators really did have different wheelhouses to cover, so it made sense in this information gathering phase to part ways. We're a patient lot, I think, so listening to scenes one is not involved in is perfectly acceptable. Especially if they're going to be entertaining. Our Keeper (GM) is very nimble in terms of improvising(?) NPCs and florid details. It was fun to see our teenage girl (really, an old woman who's had time reversed on her) become our muscle (if you consider a tiny Derringer muscle, but it beats my character's penknife). Our photo-journalist keeps making up these wild contacts (Madame Tooth?!), surprising us and the Keeper with neat NPCs. For my part, my task was to make library research exciting, and I'm loving how Phelps' cat Lucifer is fast becoming my explanation for the character's luck stat, for rolls both good and bad. Of course, the ultimate bad luck happened at the end of the night when Phelps had said Azatoth/Beetlejuice/Candyman three times and accidentally opened a portal to the mirror dimension (that sounds too benign, it's actually called the Pathless Wastes) which sucked Lucifer, Elsie and Josef into it. Phelps is left on this side of the veil to rescue them, so good thing he's researched the incantation...Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-54392580783677876942024-01-15T06:00:00.031-04:002024-01-15T06:00:00.145-04:00Doctor Who RPG: 60th Anniversary Specials<p><i>On the occasion of completing reviews on Doctor Who's 13th series, I should like to re-imagine it as a role-playing game campaign using Cubicle 7's Doctor Who RPG. (Go back one, to <b><a href="http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2022/11/doctor-who-rpg-series-13.html">Series 13</a></b>.)</i></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEkKr4TqBw2X6jYHtOwXBEYMQCLOOH0bwdJcvrPWR1tVeGNZZ0eby56Sy2Y30qBBR1TB0yoY6hUbyO1bjd5DyUWLbxHAfdm4M-KLZ7MDeu81SU6KXGXxhnqjIFdhwuuNyJlSfgX-6UV5Qe42Mdx6gKKp31RayXNQy8t7RMlpQRHMxr7jc23xqN/s643/dwaitas-charsheet-15th.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="643" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEkKr4TqBw2X6jYHtOwXBEYMQCLOOH0bwdJcvrPWR1tVeGNZZ0eby56Sy2Y30qBBR1TB0yoY6hUbyO1bjd5DyUWLbxHAfdm4M-KLZ7MDeu81SU6KXGXxhnqjIFdhwuuNyJlSfgX-6UV5Qe42Mdx6gKKp31RayXNQy8t7RMlpQRHMxr7jc23xqN/w156-h200/dwaitas-charsheet-15th.jpg" title="A tease for next week" width="156" /></a></div><p><b>The GM</b><br />Years after passing the torch, Russell is back to run some Doctor Who games. It's an anniversary year for the role-playing club, and he wants to please himself by playing a few games with some of his favorite players from the past before starting his new campaign proper. So he plans out four special games, introducing the new Doctor in the third, and then the new companion in the fourth, but he's also inviting special guests to the table, some of whom he's trying to entice into playing a secondary campaign. Looking over Chris' campaign notes, he finds some ideas he likes and passes on to his players, but also finds the tone a little serious for his tastes. He pledges to take a more "anything goes approach" and wants to make the game (and the players at the table) even more diverse than Chris did.<br /><br /><b>The Players</b><br />-David has agreed to come back and play three games, but he doesn't want to play the Tenth Doctor exactly. He does find he falls into old patterns and catch phrases once the action starts, but he's older, his character is "older", so he's playing as more serious, less hyperactive.<br />-Catherine has also agreed to come back as Donna Noble, and has worked out a backstory for the past 15+ years in the character's life and her family's, including a trans daughter named after a past companion, who Russell weaves into his plans. She's fully ready to play a "reset Donna" who doesn't understand what's happening anymore, but when Russell gives her the chance to restore the character, she dives in, head first.<br />-As a special guest-star, Bonnie shows up and updates her Mel character sheet at the GM's behest. She's to be attached to UNIT now - she comes up with a quick explanation as to how she might be back on Earth, but doesn't really solidify the details - and will play the third session.<br />-Speaking of UNIT, Russell is thinking of also launching a UNIT-centric game and he wants to lure a couple players to it. Ruth plays UNIT's spicy scientific adviser Shirley Bingham who, like herself, has spina bifida. She agrees to two sessions. The other is Jemma as UNIT leader Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. Though her character was sometimes played as an NPC, she did originate the character in the previous anniversary games. She's back for a session and seems interested in more down the line.<br />-And then there's Ncuti and Millie, who are to be the new main players and do get to play in these special games. He wants his Doctor to be great at building gadgets (and can Russell help him out with the gadgetry rules?) and a free spirit mostly untouched by past tragedy. SHE has this idea to create Ruby Sunday, an orphan who was adopted by her foster mother who became a serial foster parent, and who is in a band (and can she play her keyboard and sing at the table, is that allowed?).<br /><br /><b>Destination: Skaro.</b> After character creation (or character updates), there's some time left, so Russell engineers a quick and silly dalek story that has David's new/old Doctor bootstrap paradox the Daleks' origins. It's just a chance for his core player to get back into the swing of things, nothing serious.<br /><br /><b>The Star Beast. </b>Back before he ever GMed a session, Russell had seen a monster and idea he liked on the old DWITAS boards, and after talking to Pat, the GM who originated it, he uses it. A creature so cute, the PCs will feel the need to protect it, only to find themselves on the wrong side of history. Beep the Meep is the real monster. Of course, this is all background to restoring Donna's memory so she sticks around for other adventures, but naughty Russell still makes David and Catherine think she'll die from the metacrisis that's the only way out of his scenario. It's a good end, they allow it, but haha, no, she's saved by her daughter (in a manner of speaking). Well, two can play at that game! Catherine makes him think she WON'T go on those adventures, cuz her family needs her and her priorities have changed... Seeing Russell's face, she winks at him and splashes some coffee into the TARDIS console, giving him permission to send it away and strand her aboard.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimPKxqF9DRVticBHuIKMrL_dnfhKN_FI1y5mYbrOosHBanwVR1WSZAxLuJRlCXjb9QflEGtAWm0hEWtA8Yj8Yx2NUJbLhZJPw5Ahx6vOSP7pGfo_99L3dOaHFKjmoHCA5gKsKzBenX9ktefbcX4yKuktsQVYeQ8grkY7-XDE8FXdx_koakO0nm/s200/dwaitas1-beep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimPKxqF9DRVticBHuIKMrL_dnfhKN_FI1y5mYbrOosHBanwVR1WSZAxLuJRlCXjb9QflEGtAWm0hEWtA8Yj8Yx2NUJbLhZJPw5Ahx6vOSP7pGfo_99L3dOaHFKjmoHCA5gKsKzBenX9ktefbcX4yKuktsQVYeQ8grkY7-XDE8FXdx_koakO0nm/w200-h200/dwaitas1-beep.jpg" title="Look right in fear" width="200" /></a></div><span style="color: #0b5394;">BEEP THE MEEP<br />Attributes: Awareness 3, Coordination 2, Ingenuity 5, Presence 5, Resolve 4, Strength 2<br />Skills: Convince 5, Fighting 1, Knowledge 3, Marksman 3, Science 3, Subterfuge 4, Technology 3, Transport 2<br />Traits: Adversary (Major) – Wrarth Warriors, Alien, Alien Appearance, Attractive – Well, very cute anyway, Eccentric (Major) – Homicidal and easily angered, Selfish. Story Points: 10<br />Home Tech Level: 7 (Equipment: Ray Gun)<br /><i>Stats by Peter Gilham for the 4th Doctor Expanded Sourcebook</i></span><br /><br /><b>Wild Blue Yonder. </b>Russell sets up a puzzle at the edge of the universe, with weird doppelgangers on an empty space ship, the twist being that after the players have conversations, he THEN reveals, no you were talking to / playing the doppelganger, taking it over as it exposes itself or attacks. After a couple times, the jig is up, of course, but the players really get into it and act all sinister and stuff.<br /><br /><b>The Giggle. </b>The big UNIT session with three extra players and a special guest-star from campaign's past! Russell also digs into the campaign files and brings back an old villain - the Celestial Toymaker. Three extra players? It was supposed to be four, as Bernard, who once ran an NPC as a guest player was set to play, but sadly passed away before the session. THREE extra players? No, it's really four, as an observer (as the club likes to have) has actually drawn up his own Doctor. As the 14th Doctor is killed, Ncuti gets up, confidently grabs a chair and sits down. But Russell's not done with David. He uses the magical physics enabled by the Toymaker to split the Doctor in two, and has the TWO Doctors end the threat, together. The players keep expecting a merging of some sort, and hint at it, but Russell will have none of it, giving David the chance to retire his character as a happy civilian with his found family instead. David thinks it's pretty naughty to keep him in the loop when he only agreed to three games, but these two they have a finger-wagging smirksome relationship.<br /><br /><b>The Church on Ruby Road. </b>Over the Christmas break, Russell introduces Millie to Ncuti in their first full adventure together. The GM has here woven a mystery surrounding Ruby's biological parents, and keeps the PCs mostly apart for a good while as Ruby Sunday has all sorts of bad luck and the Doctor investigates these coincidences. Naughty Russell calls Millie's bluff about singing at the table by initiating a musical number for his coincidence-feeding goblin pirates and to his surprise, it's Ncuti who shows his improvisational singing skills first by continuing the song. Millie jumps into it bemusedly. She's fairly new to role-playing, but everything Russell throws at her makes her grin. One story in and they're having a lot of fun already.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjICHIqz_eCKphyphenhyphen4sNp_YV2FddWEPgrMqLZ-rXHqdJeIBkpSyXnf3P60k5bSi4sq_JAhfZPKEzO3CxLJiQP9Uwjhy1OSIpkAj8H1eXeEh_dLwkgQDIFRZtJk4alphOsOzD5AaFF3b10DmcpUwdJeHdMu_Ep_ael5iypMi3DxaDmoc6qiDcXA9FG/s200/dwaitas2-goblin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjICHIqz_eCKphyphenhyphen4sNp_YV2FddWEPgrMqLZ-rXHqdJeIBkpSyXnf3P60k5bSi4sq_JAhfZPKEzO3CxLJiQP9Uwjhy1OSIpkAj8H1eXeEh_dLwkgQDIFRZtJk4alphOsOzD5AaFF3b10DmcpUwdJeHdMu_Ep_ael5iypMi3DxaDmoc6qiDcXA9FG/w200-h200/dwaitas2-goblin.jpg" title="Look left in anger" width="200" /></a></div><span style="color: #660000;">GOBLINS<br />Attributes: Awareness 2, Coordination 4, Ingenuity 2, Presence 3, Resolve 4, Strength 3<br />Skills: Athletics 3, Craft 3 (AoE: Singing), Fighting 3, Knowledge 2, Marksman 2, Science 2 (AoE: The Language of Coincidence), Subterfuge 5, Survival 3, Technology 2 (AoE: The Language of Ropes), Transport 3<br />Traits: Alien, Alien Appearance, Alien Senses (coincidence), Climbing (Minor), Cutting Edge Technology (their tech is hard to decipher because it appears to be magical), Dependency (Major: their tricks are fuelled by coincidence), Single-Minded, Size: Tiny (Minor), Vortex, Weakness (Major: if the Goblin King is killed, they disappear)<br />Story Points: 6<br />Home Tech Level: 7 (Equipment: Blaster, Coms unit)</span><br /><br />Russell goes back to planning a full campaign with these players, and perhaps solidifying his plans for a UNIT game too. Heck, maybe it doesn't have to be the only spin-off. You know how it is when you get excited about an RPG...Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-25584452201452246732024-01-13T22:03:00.001-04:002024-01-19T19:04:56.243-04:00This Week in Geek (7-13/01/24)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNoAx4vRUH05uEXjfzasuusZWelyvdEQflzmFzJ0Hxj6Q09LYNshVy52uKxlk53_9QZWUUYr8t6ZrPeVeBQZyumKIc-d6ZgoSomxZJ5cFfxMBHYu-034n-PHvbAwi5PXJ1kO1naJWWgtu9w9sXpLdR9KVoFCvRUr_T1w5jruXuMqdaJS0jEfUy/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNoAx4vRUH05uEXjfzasuusZWelyvdEQflzmFzJ0Hxj6Q09LYNshVy52uKxlk53_9QZWUUYr8t6ZrPeVeBQZyumKIc-d6ZgoSomxZJ5cFfxMBHYu-034n-PHvbAwi5PXJ1kO1naJWWgtu9w9sXpLdR9KVoFCvRUr_T1w5jruXuMqdaJS0jEfUy/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Kaiju and other impossible creatures, summoning/provoking them, time travel, overcoming low budgets, long-ass titles" /></a></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLeL3eUU3zSyoeMdNk64kbWRnjsHU1KG3hKEqEIsi2KRVFLORpJwNiQLzNByp9qWq1yRy42TyMfaHI1ZovQIouSmp0pb-Pii9ChFbrbr2o54R-VyJV8Fe7kcI9ucYDLZo01foSYn1mQRMU2gMoqcWFjdM0SD2rdPwl2YTO2kUZAcld3HdGKXK/s250/1-monarch1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLeL3eUU3zSyoeMdNk64kbWRnjsHU1KG3hKEqEIsi2KRVFLORpJwNiQLzNByp9qWq1yRy42TyMfaHI1ZovQIouSmp0pb-Pii9ChFbrbr2o54R-VyJV8Fe7kcI9ucYDLZo01foSYn1mQRMU2gMoqcWFjdM0SD2rdPwl2YTO2kUZAcld3HdGKXK/w160-h200/1-monarch1.jpg" title="Why did they pick that name if they never encountered Mothra?!" width="160" /></a></div>At home: The problem with Monarch Legacy of Monsters is that it's a prequel. TWO prequels, in fact. I'm most interested in the flashbacks to the 1950s and the birth of Monarch, but anyone who's perused the Monarch history that shows up in the film credits is going to have a certain sense of déjà vu. And yet, that's initially still more interesting than the "present-day" events that take place immediately after the first Godzilla film (2015, so still a prequel, or midquel) that have young people running around the world to solve their family mystery and stumbling upon a very conspiracy-laden Monarch. And I do hate that old saw. SF shows that attempt a long story arc are always going with the conspiracy angle and I'm so bored by it. Things pick up when the kids contact Kurt Russell's character - played by Russell's own son in the past time frame - because Kurt Russell, and pick up AGAIN in the two final episodes with some nice twists. By that point, I think I cared for the kids more. We do get some monster action and Godzilla appears several times, so dedicated fans of his (present) are going to want to watch this, but there is a sense that, though it puts more of a human face on the franchise than the films do (It's their big weakness), we already know what's going to happen. It's hard to think of it as appointment television. And I'm sure no one buys Anders Holm as the Bill Randa who grows up to be John Goodman in Skull Island.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU_zP9wdFxLkeNRuBmWJbU4y6O3Me9DtayPbJR7Lu5URFWRNqSBhupYjwMNuiyERSRfMgA2U97rTb2xQCFnqTQNi7Vyvn_WjLE2SVUvDrevJj3tGT7321SCVvUt6IwQyjPrMCq9MMhUoUmSFAnCDqYSwofxA3r9V-Es5brn9x0qLKju2K_AUYc/s284/2-godzillasingularpoint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU_zP9wdFxLkeNRuBmWJbU4y6O3Me9DtayPbJR7Lu5URFWRNqSBhupYjwMNuiyERSRfMgA2U97rTb2xQCFnqTQNi7Vyvn_WjLE2SVUvDrevJj3tGT7321SCVvUt6IwQyjPrMCq9MMhUoUmSFAnCDqYSwofxA3r9V-Es5brn9x0qLKju2K_AUYc/w141-h200/2-godzillasingularpoint.jpg" title="Jet Jaguar's greatest moment" width="141" /></a></div>What is Godzilla: Singular Point even about? I get it on a surface level: Red dust, some kind of temporally active element, is allowing giant monsters to come to enter our world, and we follow various scientists, in particular a girl with an innate sense of theoretical physics and the team behind Jet Jaguar, as they try to prevent the Apocalypse. But as to what happens exactly, that's all wrapped up in a mix of hyperdimensional physics, computer programming, and zen philosophy. It is very nearly impenetrable. And even what I get from context doesn't exactly explain what happens on screen. Netflix's animated Godzilla projects are confounding to me. Between the animation and the giant monster fights, these should be perfect for kids, but the previous trilogy was ponderous and boring, and this 13-episode series (which teases a second in the end credits of the final episode) is hard for an adult to understand unless they have very specific PhDs. What gives? (If I hear the words Orthogonal Diagonalizer ever again... but then, how could I?) The animation is nice though - good-looking characters, backgrounds, effects and fights, and a cute hero AI too. Even if the monster designs are way off-model, with Rodan a swarm of pterodactyls (that put me in mind of Gamera's Gayos), for example. And fine, but I always draw the line at Godzilla himself being redesigned beyond recognition (which is one of the reasons I had a adverse reaction to Shin Godzilla). In this case, you couldn't even tell it's Godzilla if not for his trademark theme playing over his scenes, at least until his fourth form (ya, a LOT of Shinfluence) shows up. I didn't hate it - Jet Jaguar fans will get behind this - but there are too many opaque conversations.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPFm-onekX15cHJXJbEZiE-1MH9i_M8qc4453uQJ1C65z9hE8kB7W8F715DRV9mp6HJ3neHARqx0rYUmZ50cIIFSK73B8L57kFIEctpwMESG5NyLpRekvFcMCUj0gPKKrjW7L21eJc175lTItw7sxcKHhyphenhyphenEgnPZhheDUWD67ghGmcBRoS7dahH/s285/3-howlfrombeyond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPFm-onekX15cHJXJbEZiE-1MH9i_M8qc4453uQJ1C65z9hE8kB7W8F715DRV9mp6HJ3neHARqx0rYUmZ50cIIFSK73B8L57kFIEctpwMESG5NyLpRekvFcMCUj0gPKKrjW7L21eJc175lTItw7sxcKHhyphenhyphenEgnPZhheDUWD67ghGmcBRoS7dahH/w140-h200/3-howlfrombeyond.jpg" title="Kermiiiie!!!" width="140" /></a></div>I knew that Howl from Beyond the Fog used puppetry to create its kajiu, but I wasn't expecting even the human beings to be puppets! Well, it makes for a dream-like short (the streamers back it up with the making of DVD extras immediately following, so it will appear as a 70-minute film, but is actually half the length) where a ghostly woman has a relationship with a giant lake monster, which the villagers hate (as a sort of force against progress and civilization). It's very lyrically shot and paced, poetic in its visuals and dialog, and a very charming way to tell a special effects story that teeters on the edge of legend. Obviously, the doll-like humans and miniature sets make this unreal, but when you look at the charming monster work, it's no worse than the men-in-suits Show era Godzilla films, and more fluid than stop-motion effects. The monster even manages a kind of sympathetic energy that's I think the key to the best kaiju films.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1cxdTOfPXv5cQjjmBZGw8TSsq5JxD-pinI006nTF7oWv-GsqVgnCSjG07CH3CnJL3xi3tXLtgWNOTdnoWlugLv-XWxiN0hoHeAeaoAOpNJrTofN1kr079mGLZeClYQf_S21VoagNZXuaGNb-aGhom4umYh8nL2OShKHBEIUMwn69eGnYkBAMo/s299/4-wendigo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1cxdTOfPXv5cQjjmBZGw8TSsq5JxD-pinI006nTF7oWv-GsqVgnCSjG07CH3CnJL3xi3tXLtgWNOTdnoWlugLv-XWxiN0hoHeAeaoAOpNJrTofN1kr079mGLZeClYQf_S21VoagNZXuaGNb-aGhom4umYh8nL2OShKHBEIUMwn69eGnYkBAMo/w134-h200/4-wendigo.jpg" title="Where's Wolverine when you need him?" width="134" /></a></div>Patricia Clarkson and Dewey from Malcolm in the Middle are the two big stars of Wendigo, but the monster kind of isn't, and you keep wondering if it's at all real, or just part of the kid's dark, overactive imagination. But also asks whether that makes a difference, as spirits might exist on belief. That doesn't mean it doesn't have any chills and scares. After a family has a traumatizing run-in with a mean-spirited hunter in snowy upstate New York, they find themselves further terrorized up at the cabin they're borrowing from a friend. There are many volatile situations where you think things could explode, so the film works fairly well as a thriller. I wouldn't call this a kid's movie, given the blood, sex and language, but it's practically told from the boy's point of view, which is perhaps why it feels so timid at the end. Some hokey transitions and nightmare effects, but at least there's some style at play, and it works hard to cover the low-budget climax, if not entirely successfully.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS76gydwvNV8riLAiR1dUGTrrur1Fsn1t9gnrcm4MJXkRS4xX1_MPEM_WYRmX66jBQoEvsCa6X1S921Ix8EiNaTo8RIzvQKxhbIRdlLs00fTlfS0LhNvEhARwV5Ok6lQPHuhGqegUlzIdoiwF3a7STt05j1b_R3iBhOCwMc8iXNBMJdCUJkvj1/s287/5-cryptozoo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS76gydwvNV8riLAiR1dUGTrrur1Fsn1t9gnrcm4MJXkRS4xX1_MPEM_WYRmX66jBQoEvsCa6X1S921Ix8EiNaTo8RIzvQKxhbIRdlLs00fTlfS0LhNvEhARwV5Ok6lQPHuhGqegUlzIdoiwF3a7STt05j1b_R3iBhOCwMc8iXNBMJdCUJkvj1/w139-h200/5-cryptozoo.jpg" title="Watch out for rogue unicorns" width="139" /></a></div>Something of a modern fairy tale, Cryptozoo's indie animation style isn't the prettiest, but it certainly delivers on crazy (but also well-researched) visuals. Creatures and beings from myth and folklore are real and they live among us, but as humanity is big on torches and pitchforks, and governments want to harness some of their powers, there is the Cryptozoo - a sanctuary for all the cryptids, in the form of a theme park where humans can get used to their existence and even work with them. Lake Bell supplies the voice of a cryptid liberator who must recover a Japanese dream-eater before it's used against the hippie movement, and you'll find that this is very much about counter culture and the forces trying to snuff it out - whatever it may be at any given point in time. But it also explores the legitimacy of the Cryptozoo's methods and doesn't necessarily agree with its own characters or premise. I don't think it's saying that minorities should play to the majority audience, or that the burden is on them to prove their value. It's a complex piece of work. And I wish it were for kids, because the message is good, but nudity, sex, violence and language are issues parents might want to look at before pressing play. Bonus points for a legitimate Tarot reading.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6upoJfzY-OvOZOs9ZbCH8-fyMWcof8t9oit53Pi7cJbzSH3fgbTC48cn27KqaUcz66btQah0wRhN3jt4Rko_0BaDWVUSKDB8us45riLN8ONNpD1CRGEgyhxvJLpoK9Whj85KWKV-4ixV-xgfMtmuUkGKLtc1FqWS1Sx96X4vyFdBIgVUwxxjG/s307/6-catseye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6upoJfzY-OvOZOs9ZbCH8-fyMWcof8t9oit53Pi7cJbzSH3fgbTC48cn27KqaUcz66btQah0wRhN3jt4Rko_0BaDWVUSKDB8us45riLN8ONNpD1CRGEgyhxvJLpoK9Whj85KWKV-4ixV-xgfMtmuUkGKLtc1FqWS1Sx96X4vyFdBIgVUwxxjG/w130-h200/6-catseye.jpg" title="Finally, a horror movie that doesn't make the cat a monster or a victim" width="130" /></a></div>A stray tabby psychically called to a little girl's side to fight a monster connects three short PG horror stories in (Stephen King's) Cat's Eye, a movie that gets some points by starting on a Cujo joke (a film also directed by Lewis Teague). Each story has one big star attached and is pretty timid in terms of gore (more DC's House of Mystery than EC's Tales from the Crypt), and of course, your mileage will vary with these. The first two - James Woods signing up for an insane quit-smoking program and Robert Hayes becoming the target of a vertiginous bet - are too adult in premise for even older kids to really tap into, but the third, in which the cat has an epic battle with a tiny troll to protect (an also tiny) Drew Barrymore is the opposite. (That said, an animal in jeopardy could be harrowing to SOME kids.) Each story does play on fear and has good moments of suspense. They're also linked through the theme of second chances - reprieves - including the cat's. But ultimately, you're there for that last story, with its giant prop set for the actor playing the troll to run through and it's insane fight for a little girl's soul.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU8nvO16Rvwe95hk4EShFiYMrGJ5LwMeiHi2G19n7fZB0i5buIVz-dNiPT1n7htfZoNK0x_ZgwMqceMWyvXniojVZo4MLuMCqsthEwCvX4KY8DBrfDTflnkz2yb_xgOFu5qqBqejcJu-C4ig8fCr9BTBf7_ZszchFEvLJfz-5aZ8-PhtuRdaMZ/s295/7-absentia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU8nvO16Rvwe95hk4EShFiYMrGJ5LwMeiHi2G19n7fZB0i5buIVz-dNiPT1n7htfZoNK0x_ZgwMqceMWyvXniojVZo4MLuMCqsthEwCvX4KY8DBrfDTflnkz2yb_xgOFu5qqBqejcJu-C4ig8fCr9BTBf7_ZszchFEvLJfz-5aZ8-PhtuRdaMZ/w136-h200/7-absentia.jpg" title="Random Doug Jones encounter" width="136" /></a></div>Mike Flanagan's first feature film, Absentia, is a low-budget affair, but succeeds despite its limitations, especially when it only evokes the existence of its monster (though actual manifestations are brief - I'm not as bothered by them as some) and the "ghosts" it creates. The aesthetic here is part mumblecore (the image treatment and evident speed of shooting) and part letting figures go out of focus in the background, so that a ghostliness is always around the corner. Anyone could disappear from view, forever, at any time. And that's the premise. A pregnant woman (Courtney Bell actually carrying her director's child, no fake bellies here) and her drug addict sister (Katie Parker - a lot of these actors would show up in Flanagan's sophomore effort Oculus and beyond) finally get a death certificate for Bell's husband, missing for the part 7 years. But this is a neighborhood where people disappear all the time, and are taken... SOMEplace. There's some play with the idea that not knowing what happened to a missing person keeps them alive, present, and even sinister, but I also enjoyed that, unlike a lot of horror films, we do see the cops' point of view. We often wonder in these films just how any of this will be explained to the authorities after the credits roll. But not here. Absentia is a pretty bleak film, chilling and suspenseful, and you might also develop a fear of underpass walking tunnels from it (nah, I was already kind of afraid of them). Flanagan would go on to bigger and better things, but this isn't a bad starting point at all!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTjWZ_P4iIkFVnBsIpBJdMti23DbLAX6rwlcbzbgXiS4153WWn2bDh82xvEwv1drcWIu0AAXaSNoS66Uwe4vgOjGx1RMeRO4IjION-XyG0xDF3W7prdvIBHZcxIU6Vx-LxLk96dUI-3Em_9nEoS9a3QvVBXcGNK4UAEz-mF0Bi-m_SJNzlOCBg/s275/8-beyondtheinfinite2minutes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTjWZ_P4iIkFVnBsIpBJdMti23DbLAX6rwlcbzbgXiS4153WWn2bDh82xvEwv1drcWIu0AAXaSNoS66Uwe4vgOjGx1RMeRO4IjION-XyG0xDF3W7prdvIBHZcxIU6Vx-LxLk96dUI-3Em_9nEoS9a3QvVBXcGNK4UAEz-mF0Bi-m_SJNzlOCBg/w145-h200/8-beyondtheinfinite2minutes.jpg" title="Just how long are power cords in Japan?" width="145" /></a></div>Because of its recursive nature, and the way it replays scenes several times as part of its structure, I'm not sure Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes really has 71 minutes of material. The first half-hour, in particular, had me rating this lower than I eventually did as the repetition drained my enthusiasm. It's a loopy (ha! literally!) sci-fi flick in which café workers and patrons realize the computer monitor in the shop and the one in the lead's room upstairs, communicate with the past/future, but only at 2 minutes' "distance". The ensemble test their theories out, but there's really no reasoning with the bootstrap paradoxes that make the story work. It's quite the technical achievement though, and the end credit behind-the-scenes footage only shows us how they filmed this "one-take wonder", not really how they made sense of the grand temporal puzzle they built, having characters talk to themselves across micro-units of time. But what finally endeared it to me is the ending - a sweet budding romance, a point about waiting for the future to happen, and a clever action scene (not in that order).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijTZY6hUA1N1Yr4OTD-lSsl1JDtonX1Si1ayFSEmJkMoNHpKNXndFFWvNFKJb7go7AFT2VRPDk_0JFHZQpqUjh4ic2_lXUiBkdsLHU_-K9295OVLUnqd9QMJ0iKfpt0mR5HKplls9hxt1PVeLz4nPMXRqvUpXC8pFJoAzXcnBGM1kAVJS_NPZf/s296/9-petitemaman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijTZY6hUA1N1Yr4OTD-lSsl1JDtonX1Si1ayFSEmJkMoNHpKNXndFFWvNFKJb7go7AFT2VRPDk_0JFHZQpqUjh4ic2_lXUiBkdsLHU_-K9295OVLUnqd9QMJ0iKfpt0mR5HKplls9hxt1PVeLz4nPMXRqvUpXC8pFJoAzXcnBGM1kAVJS_NPZf/w135-h200/9-petitemaman.jpg" title="What was in those cereal bowls?" width="135" /></a></div>In Petite Maman ("Little Mother"), a little girl is brought to her recently deceased grandmother's house to help pack up her things. But out in the woods, she magically crosses paths with her own 8-year-old mother, back in the past. It's kind of like Back to the Future with children, and without the comedy and action shenanigans. The girl and her young mother, played by sisters to foster an uncanny resemblance that bemuses the adults in both time frames, become fast friends, the way kids do on summer vacations and such. And through this friendship, the girl gets to understand and come to terms with her mom's temperament, and learns lessons we only really come to later in life - our parents are people, just like us. At the end, we wonder if the mother remembers any of this, but the film's point of view - the girl's - necessarily keeps such answers from us. Petite Maman is quiet and naturalistic, but I felt like I was hit by a ton of bricks at the end. Perhaps it's its subtle examination of grief (for the grandmother, and by extension, for relationships), but I'm not sure. It touched something deeper in me and not so easy to name.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM94ejZvRgIpPItbB5wl4speZQsNE5vO50gMg9x7LJcUW02gaV-FtWg7DIDyvQUUquTm8Uv_uGExRw2tXhqi8sIIlC9evRVJ-M2qP3T8ETotI2lizgno-PuwHuZPBuejIfdKNJeh4E1uYTLBSxFMqD9u17PRmDeo6It4fRCHgESyfjxX9CzZ6a/s293/10-magicspot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM94ejZvRgIpPItbB5wl4speZQsNE5vO50gMg9x7LJcUW02gaV-FtWg7DIDyvQUUquTm8Uv_uGExRw2tXhqi8sIIlC9evRVJ-M2qP3T8ETotI2lizgno-PuwHuZPBuejIfdKNJeh4E1uYTLBSxFMqD9u17PRmDeo6It4fRCHgESyfjxX9CzZ6a/w137-h200/10-magicspot.jpg" title="I should take a nap too" width="137" /></a></div>I'm discovering Motern Media and its Farley/Roxburgh joints with the recent Magic Spot, and yeah, it's made on the cheap, the acting is extremely variable, and the dialog feels written, but wow, what charm. In this one, cousins who work on a local cable access show in a sleepy New England town remember a rhyme their uncle taught them as kids. Only, he died long before they were born. But this isn't your traditional ghost story - the solution is actually time travel. This is a film that doesn't take itself seriously - everyone takes this stuff more or less at face value - but doesn't have an once of cynicism. The community is loving and accepting. The solution shows a lot of grace. In other hands, the portrayal of small-town folks could easily have felt snarky, but many seem to be playing shades of themselves (the non-actors), and it just feels very earnest and sweet. Everyone in the cast also seems to be musically gifted, so we can a lot of songs and musical numbers thrown in. I never felt like they were padding to get this to feature length. Its originality goes a long way to making you forget its homespun production values.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKeiibFxrZHDdeD6M7UhqaSMNKo4GZgPzMA08Owl1OKG0wKgGhGioeGNahUasjXO7QMO4WT7y6aqO4l7nYWLMaz_kwM3jT3SbNEHwNpRFWOm46HNKbx2aYlk8b0_1NVD40BNuAtGC5Vte-pXM07_9T2WHIqv94P0QzIqhMm_3MkCMU_q3UHv7F/s299/11-dontlettheriverbesstgetyou.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKeiibFxrZHDdeD6M7UhqaSMNKo4GZgPzMA08Owl1OKG0wKgGhGioeGNahUasjXO7QMO4WT7y6aqO4l7nYWLMaz_kwM3jT3SbNEHwNpRFWOm46HNKbx2aYlk8b0_1NVD40BNuAtGC5Vte-pXM07_9T2WHIqv94P0QzIqhMm_3MkCMU_q3UHv7F/w134-h200/11-dontlettheriverbesstgetyou.jpg" title="Monster can smell you being an asshole" width="134" /></a></div>The most popular Motern Media film is Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You! [red flash! red flash! look away!], a Creature from the Black Lagoon spoof using Charles Roxburgh's usual cast members and a guy in a rubber suit. While it ostensibly takes place in 2012, the script uses a clever 1950s B-movie approach. Characters have non-descript jobs (instead of "Scientist!", the lead is the Ministry of Tutoring's best tutor, and there's of course a genetic "former athlete") and speak using old-fashioned literary terms or hackneyed exposition. We're too wise today to have the naivety of those old movies, but Roxburgh and co-writer/star Matt Farley are adopting a kind of "We don't know how movies work" attitude that evokes those old pictures. But they DO know what they're doing and are using the production's low-budget and amateur actors to their benefit. And as with their other work, in total earnestness, casting a charm spell over its audience.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYvosH73I5Mk168GeODeNyim4FlZwI8idxPQg8gZ8xuZube2Jo9TSXsDy-rBlYDyV_yD72kYWbqAStbqHAK5bAdHzCbLvnNqITrGq2OfYOMSxF-GneigarxKU1FdjE7w9sCJRo6HA4baGqtZfD0GFt6BJaqTx0ec6oTG_dZpfuLF9Skj7Y0ZTe/s313/12-longwaytosmallangryplanet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYvosH73I5Mk168GeODeNyim4FlZwI8idxPQg8gZ8xuZube2Jo9TSXsDy-rBlYDyV_yD72kYWbqAStbqHAK5bAdHzCbLvnNqITrGq2OfYOMSxF-GneigarxKU1FdjE7w9sCJRo6HA4baGqtZfD0GFt6BJaqTx0ec6oTG_dZpfuLF9Skj7Y0ZTe/w128-h200/12-longwaytosmallangryplanet.jpg" title="That's how we get to know each other well" width="128" /></a></div>Books: Becky Chambers' debut novel, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, stars the diverse crew of a "tunnelling" ship bound for a distant battleground where they've been assured diplomacy has won the day and a space tunnel needs to be built for trade. But while the crew of the Wayfarer will have an impact on that larger story, it's really background for a picaresque, each chapter exploring one of the characters, giving them or resolving a dilemma, even as Chambers does some efficacious world building. It plays like a television series that, despite the special effects, is deeply centered on the characters. And what characters! I immediately fell in love with this "chosen family" and how they lent each other support. There is something about showing grace that I find incredibly touching, and these characters have it by the cargo-ful. I wept, like, a LOT. It's just charming as heck, and perhaps it's because I cast them well enough in my head (thanks to descriptions and dialog) that the performances sprung off the page so vividly. Chambers has written three more novels set in this universe, but they're not about the Wayfarer, which on the one hand, is a good idea - the spell woven here is unbroken - but on the other, I'll deeply miss this crew.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSWfhHMONTnEhRdaGn7M_OU0FmVU82f6leECnZzR8N2MG-aU75qDWix_E4aQDvlB6yZfMK13iWGzuYtvOUIHw2IbE-jsijHTobN5tcAjcFqgS4nQpOkSZeOe7HWT_-4BRFbkRuX5ymM70VGNAOACuDu8DKS-GLBtJe5UzAqOfX8ZHdp7_Z72ps/s280/13-assembly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSWfhHMONTnEhRdaGn7M_OU0FmVU82f6leECnZzR8N2MG-aU75qDWix_E4aQDvlB6yZfMK13iWGzuYtvOUIHw2IbE-jsijHTobN5tcAjcFqgS4nQpOkSZeOe7HWT_-4BRFbkRuX5ymM70VGNAOACuDu8DKS-GLBtJe5UzAqOfX8ZHdp7_Z72ps/w143-h200/13-assembly.jpg" title="May require some" width="143" /></a></div>A great literary debut from Natasha Brown, Assembly is a novella about a black woman who works in finance in London (and the descriptions match Brown's pictures, so there may be an autobiographical element) and is faced with macro and micro aggressions on the daily because she's a woman, a black woman, a black woman navigating the world of the super-wealthy. And she has cancer, which acts as a fertile metaphor for the culture that's eating at her, threatening to devour her. It's all heading towards a climax at a rich family's garden party, of all things, but it's personally epic, apocalyptic. Told with clever turns of phrase and a fragmented, poetic quality, Assembly feels intimate and immediate, full of hard truths about expectations and a world waiting for you to fail, hoping you WILL fail. Do we "assemble" ourselves to fit a certain mold, and what happens when we think of breaking that mold. What are we when disassembled? Gorgeous prose and a precise, important point of view make this a must-read of the 2020s.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZdGdc4ado-bPG1Ius84NyBzFEJCdYuyDmMHRxGD3yvBm7SiMsJiBPWcgVZBmTi7soxuW7hoJS_IHJWwNdV9OWk3T6iGRH-okp6Y5XWHC03g4r4pupyqV8gNHV8F7TMzwwLOgkaucgyy9MmGG_jahh7JvMcrsSGT27a11DAz89Oewoj1vORYk/s282/14-giftzilla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZdGdc4ado-bPG1Ius84NyBzFEJCdYuyDmMHRxGD3yvBm7SiMsJiBPWcgVZBmTi7soxuW7hoJS_IHJWwNdV9OWk3T6iGRH-okp6Y5XWHC03g4r4pupyqV8gNHV8F7TMzwwLOgkaucgyy9MmGG_jahh7JvMcrsSGT27a11DAz89Oewoj1vORYk/w142-h200/14-giftzilla.jpg" title="SKREE-ONKKK (presumably)" width="142" /></a></div>I didn't really read Godzilla Great Anatomical Picture Book - The Ultimated (sic) Illustration Book of Godzilla - by artist Nishikawa Shinji, because I don't read or speak Japanese. Wish I could though! Nishikawa was a designer during the Heisei and Millennium eras of the film franchise, so I really want to know what the caricature of himself in each entry has to say. But the only things in English are the names of the monsters, the date, and a couple words like "Explanation" that head text boxes. Still, very pretty. The artist provides a detailed illustration of every monster and every iteration of Godzilla, plus more cartoony (and quite fun) smaller images that tell the story and making of every film from 1954 to Shin Godzilla, plus de animated Godzillas currently on Netflix. None of the American stuff (though 1998's Zilla is in there by virtue of appearing in a Japanese film). Godzilla Minus One juuusssssst missed out. At the very least, it's a good visual guide for tracking the small differences between Godzilla heads, feet and tails, and reminded me that yeah, Godzilla sometimes has little ears.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje2hv2bFhytY1ZdBNw3za622BZv4inl2y8MQuMBmjNj0pqmceGDPS16k8bMvlcTzXYCzJuPQHMgDfxLHQjHODBlRQfYwO7wVCKr0nzjtUq51FVePGmOdEbIRhw2xm9YNcUiz1x8lzTHEdkUWUFnS4yGj-ostgdL-NVTDkZnizx7ox2efDXSvNQ/s260/15-torg-whencosmscollide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje2hv2bFhytY1ZdBNw3za622BZv4inl2y8MQuMBmjNj0pqmceGDPS16k8bMvlcTzXYCzJuPQHMgDfxLHQjHODBlRQfYwO7wVCKr0nzjtUq51FVePGmOdEbIRhw2xm9YNcUiz1x8lzTHEdkUWUFnS4yGj-ostgdL-NVTDkZnizx7ox2efDXSvNQ/w154-h200/15-torg-whencosmscollide.jpg" title="Put your dancing shoes on" width="154" /></a></div>RPGs: In our Torg Eternity game this week, the first of two back-to-back climaxes to When Cosms Collide, a mega-adventure we've been in now for 8 sessions, and where I paid off the large tapestry of NPCs met during that time. In fact, I went one or two better than the adventure as presented, with a Copenhagen faction (that's where it all started and I felt they needed to share in the diplomacy to keep their city free of Uthorion's influence). Our Paladin played many Romance cards in the past few months, so at least three of his love interests had to be present as well, and those relationships actually did change the course of the game - a game that had an unusual mechanic centered on a ball - ten dances (loved picking out the music), the chance to pair up with different factions, and if you "won" the dance, a chance to gain allies even as the half-undead evil high priest viking warlord was building a coalition of his own! My Realm Runner seemed to be strategizing the most, but the abstract mechanics and/or large tapestry of alliances left at least one player befuddled. It was a lot of balls to juggle for me too. In the end, the players got the best possible result. They turned every non-Army of Darkness faction to their side PLUS the Big Bad's lieutenant Red Raven (a well-exploited Romance from episode 3), secured independence and protection for Copenhagen and the Fairy Tale Barony, made Tharkold's Beacon Security flip Demontown over to the non-aligned Vikings' side rather than Uthorion's, secured fast egress from Aysle via Tharkold as well as the Atlantean probe they stole (in exchange for going on a little mission for them - I gotta start planning for the future!), and gave Helmar Corba'alson a true death as the stars aligned (very literally) and a Drama card gave him a Setback on the fourth round (it's useful to have the high priest/priestess of the God of Secrets on side to supply this tip, Copenhagen, baby!), enough time to drain him of Possibilities, lest he rise again in a fortnight.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8KfVgKuT_lRhhTtVjTnGqIwc90myYuXA5YnURwclXcDZsyDIoUqOZmPTV86V3fyILv-eHL0LjP7PF8iTg5TlBy3BrD4NnY6eCtBNuuMZrIEPaBmDFuPutSA4X7JjdSJ-5XfumS-AsKB2P47KpLgDDr9xpUVyZcJf0Qy74VrGv2Uu1WwbB_wGX/s600/16-breaking-news22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8KfVgKuT_lRhhTtVjTnGqIwc90myYuXA5YnURwclXcDZsyDIoUqOZmPTV86V3fyILv-eHL0LjP7PF8iTg5TlBy3BrD4NnY6eCtBNuuMZrIEPaBmDFuPutSA4X7JjdSJ-5XfumS-AsKB2P47KpLgDDr9xpUVyZcJf0Qy74VrGv2Uu1WwbB_wGX/s16000/16-breaking-news22.jpg" title="I kill me" /></a></div>Best bits: I liked it when the dance styles became part of the action, such as when the Tango sending the partner spinning away was used to pass a message between PCs. Or when the Realm Runner improvised a little poem/incantation to summon a fairy godmother to dance the magic-requiring elven dance (too bad he decided not to win it on purpose, but felt another player needed it more). The Realm Runner was really firing on all cylinders, actually, finally using his Aysle-powered Turtleneck of Intimidation AND Tharkold's Law of Domination to prevent a double-cross from the Tharkold representative's lieutenant as the realm's forces started to split (probably a better solution than tipping the guy off the castle terrace as originally planned). He seemed to have all the cool, badass lines this session. The Paladin' long-winded introduction by the sergeant-at-arms and the Monster Hunter's extremely brief one. And though the killing blow was technically a Thor's hammer situation, the KNOCKOUT blow that left him reeling was a super-strength kick to the groin, courtesy of our wrestler - there's no dignity in how he got taken down.Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-8325319146456947662024-01-07T06:00:00.038-04:002024-01-07T06:00:00.137-04:00This Week in Geek (31/12/23-06/01/24)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDBY1QazVMoptXh9XZdS2IyFIesvw-55HYlpTIRhcNdb46JflgalqIaipZ_2JFNE0dnbNwCsZuLL1w_XCcBrRBmqGKSA74A7COytkoHo7n8_K599dXNcq82x4lBJp5n4-dB-_vc0ygRJX1JQ7XyTX5eaEvB3FUkWrNrncG1LHq9gDSCjze2qL/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDBY1QazVMoptXh9XZdS2IyFIesvw-55HYlpTIRhcNdb46JflgalqIaipZ_2JFNE0dnbNwCsZuLL1w_XCcBrRBmqGKSA74A7COytkoHo7n8_K599dXNcq82x4lBJp5n4-dB-_vc0ygRJX1JQ7XyTX5eaEvB3FUkWrNrncG1LHq9gDSCjze2qL/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: HandMade Films, Bob Hoskins, London, you need a makeover" /></a></div><b>Gifts</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqik08nljbtzXRtwVhDGh8JxgpP8FH3HUaOQv0SnHtCxA3Dx0Sh4JdBWuuLjBNf8CK3yiresBAt68PI-6iwgCijKUUPDlMTWB5YktuisIm-pKVkYLu_eEOZZ4rKoLsmPMX0N4v0B0K1gJozx9_qqWopp1SumwQcqUhtEaKo0AWFhC3eVAAhV4z/s282/1-giftzilla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqik08nljbtzXRtwVhDGh8JxgpP8FH3HUaOQv0SnHtCxA3Dx0Sh4JdBWuuLjBNf8CK3yiresBAt68PI-6iwgCijKUUPDlMTWB5YktuisIm-pKVkYLu_eEOZZ4rKoLsmPMX0N4v0B0K1gJozx9_qqWopp1SumwQcqUhtEaKo0AWFhC3eVAAhV4z/w142-h200/1-giftzilla.jpg" title="Skee-onnk! (or however it's spelled in Japanese)" width="142" /></a></div>So we had our annual gift exchange between friends and here are some of the geekier things I found upon opening packages: From the oHOTmu crowd, Shotgun got me "The Ultimated (sic) Illustration Book of Godzilla" when she was in Japan last year, or so the English cover copy would have it. Monster names inside are in English, but I'm on my own trying to decipher the Japanese - great souvenir from her landmark trip! Isabel also went the Big GZ route with a new t-shirt for my collection, with Gojira silhouetted in blazing red-orange on a black T. Wearing it already. Art-Girl Josée remembered that I liked Kotaro Isaka's Bullet Train and got me the only other of his novels in translation, Three Assassins. Not that geeky on the surface, but DJ Nath had to contact four different provinces to find 4 bottles of Korean soju, a drink I've always wanted to try (based on my high consumption of Korean media, but really ever since I saw Daytime Drinking a decade ago). Liquor stores in New Brunswick can't legally sell it until we have a homegrown soju producer, see. The story of her quest to find soju was perhaps even better than the gift itself. Above and beyond. Outside the oHOTmu crew, I have to thank my friend Berry for the Kardashev Scale card game (I think I might combine it with Cosmic Encounter for a themed game night), and Clo who made a dumb calendar where every month, my cat's head has been Microsoft Painted over different scenes, many of them in the geek canon, like Star Trek, Doctor Who and my favorite movies. Absurd, and therefore great.<br /><br /><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEU4Cw8y3Ehk3PHNZmfnr3_FscVzF_YQRPv52dmvBzQBjo7_lejkPv6D3G35HXsEt6UdSKbc-cMIWtYCGQzpSRt4pN0QbFwNXwl43X7yL5THJZ-pe7cjhDBtor76veqav9fE1gOtzXn_u-eSTdLZAJMj1c8K-QP4HjIdaPvp-ulqEtLkYIQFk1/s295/2-ryelane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEU4Cw8y3Ehk3PHNZmfnr3_FscVzF_YQRPv52dmvBzQBjo7_lejkPv6D3G35HXsEt6UdSKbc-cMIWtYCGQzpSRt4pN0QbFwNXwl43X7yL5THJZ-pe7cjhDBtor76veqav9fE1gOtzXn_u-eSTdLZAJMj1c8K-QP4HjIdaPvp-ulqEtLkYIQFk1/w136-h200/2-ryelane.jpg" title="We know more about [planet] than we do [body part]" width="136" /></a></div>At home: Rye Lane shows that you can make a very simple story, even one we've essentially seen before, and still make it fresh, fun and exciting. Davis Jonsson and Vivian Oparah (who I enjoyed in Class, playing a very different character here) are two lonely people who, over the course of a day, bond over their previous break-ups. Romcom rules say they may be meant for each other despite their differences. He's a rather nervous sort; she's wild and unpredictable - it shouldn't work but it does. I find Jonsson's experience entirely relatable though. Sometimes, a person, group or event just makes you go with it, no matter your anxieties, and you throw caution to the wind without knowing the end result. Oparah, for her part, is so lively as to be infectious - she sells it. And then you have director Raine Allen-Miller who turns a talky little love story into something special with her style, from the opening bathroom crawl to the various ways she shows memories/stories. The finished product is funny and affecting, and makes you fall in love with its leads. Bonus points for the Love, Actually joke.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq0TFoTNG0yFRQcG62caLMTQ1GKQXT0ebuwXiJE4YfWgf5cbMyk1V-HTtnQ6sGOcF38dEgvgbH5nGD8h8aHfY_6TRjiLj6V4f9TUgDxY_GDmgh07wSwCGJUlJ_ntcNVc2h7C5WgUyZ6vAztx9ogFUq5nuEl1Tmwj9rhxn7MwzHG7ymY65C4R4A/s303/3-goodperson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq0TFoTNG0yFRQcG62caLMTQ1GKQXT0ebuwXiJE4YfWgf5cbMyk1V-HTtnQ6sGOcF38dEgvgbH5nGD8h8aHfY_6TRjiLj6V4f9TUgDxY_GDmgh07wSwCGJUlJ_ntcNVc2h7C5WgUyZ6vAztx9ogFUq5nuEl1Tmwj9rhxn7MwzHG7ymY65C4R4A/w132-h200/3-goodperson.jpg" title="I want that train set" width="132" /></a></div>Sometimes a tearjerker comes down the pike that transcends its potential for melodrama thanks to strong performances and unusual character dynamics, and I think "King of Sadness" Zach Braff's A Good Person falls into that category. It had me at Florence Pugh, of course. She plays a woman who loses her future sister-in-law and brother-in-law in a car crash, ruining her life and the family's. One year later, she's addicted to painkillers and a real mess. A chance encounter with the man who would once have been her father-in-law (Morgan Freeman, who Braff can't help but give voice-over, a dreadful cliché that he mostly gets away with in the end), now raising his children's difficult teenage daughter, gives her hope she can turn her life around. He struggles with addiction too, and while Freeman isn't as emotional as Pugh - it wouldn't fit the character - he gives just as solid a performance. So while we've seen many similar addiction stories, the unusual family dynamics and the frankly terrific performances elevate the movie above what it otherwise could have been. Pugh had me weeping, but she's always had a certain power over me. It's also that I find stories about people trying to do the right thing and showing each other grace especially touching.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJI9DBECkeke3eAq0iQazN1zESh19GCPypedlYPELUqHDhLy-4RR87wvz9T4c0O_jorovLseHf8-jofOIvV_Sq1RJRL2f6z5NsuvcN4lr1afsLx3CxrnCyLKFcs6ZMOd0E5UafEXEit8Lz8oR6MTnUQSQocF0vMy7aR9VZBm1niPY6-njkIHqM/s283/4-shinkamenrider.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJI9DBECkeke3eAq0iQazN1zESh19GCPypedlYPELUqHDhLy-4RR87wvz9T4c0O_jorovLseHf8-jofOIvV_Sq1RJRL2f6z5NsuvcN4lr1afsLx3CxrnCyLKFcs6ZMOd0E5UafEXEit8Lz8oR6MTnUQSQocF0vMy7aR9VZBm1niPY6-njkIHqM/w141-h200/4-shinkamenrider.jpg" title=""I'm so ****** up."" width="141" /></a></div>Anno's tribute to the old Japanese superhero show, Shin Kamen Rider immediately throws you into the action and never lets up in what looks like one of those compilation films that often cropped up as daytime "movies" on this side of the world. It makes the plot seem thin indeed as the Kamen Rider and his computerized gal pal Ruriko (Godzilla Minus One's Minami Hamabe, she had a good year) go through one Augment after another until they turn into suds on the ground. The look is all over the place - from HD that looks like it was shot in the backyard (harking back to an older TV look), to images that would well in anime, to goofy CG effects, to moments that seem to evoke Ozu - but I think that's by design. Anno seems to be working from childhood memories, but injecting his aesthetic where he can. Certainly, the last 45 minutes have some indelible moments, and though there's a certain repetitiveness to the film's structure, how each encounter is handled creates an arc for the heroes, from blood-splattering, thoughtless violence to empathetic reconciliation. It's balls to the walls insane action, and yet, Anno reaches for something more. Ultimately, Shin Kamen Rider is perhaps more fun than it is substantial, but that's not a bad place for a grasshopper to land.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcD5UHjqUn-7Qubg023wFCfHXlZM33o0PnAEqMOEcSMRcTVOJ9qBQAzYPTXSSbyloijG_NiebmQ0TIu6viLPSVOrvIzyfFG_FLyuPMzZveZv6ETL63nCcghIBjnfmyJu0etRoZpqIsN2H_VVHDkyQ0x-TAo86qGgsPKyvN56jPofNn5JHCj-63/s304/5-howtogetahead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcD5UHjqUn-7Qubg023wFCfHXlZM33o0PnAEqMOEcSMRcTVOJ9qBQAzYPTXSSbyloijG_NiebmQ0TIu6viLPSVOrvIzyfFG_FLyuPMzZveZv6ETL63nCcghIBjnfmyJu0etRoZpqIsN2H_VVHDkyQ0x-TAo86qGgsPKyvN56jPofNn5JHCj-63/w132-h200/5-howtogetahead.jpg" title="That's what you call a blackhead, I guess" width="132" /></a></div>There's no question that what makes How to Get Ahead in Advertising work at all is Richard E. Grant. He gives a wild, balls-out performance as a marketing expert who gives no f**ks and takes no prisoners, until he has a breakdown/epiphany and starts to go against the Orwellian system and against his nature. The schism is represented by a giant boil on his neck that has a mind - and voice - of its own. It's insane, but you can of course interpret it as the pimple being just a hallucination. Grant speaks both for and against capitalism, but both takes are condemnation given how terrible his "salesman" persona is. This is Bruce Robinson's follow-up to Withnail & I (he also plays the boil's voice, which does confuse things actually), and so Grant gets to play the same kind of cranked up character. It's not as successful, however, perhaps because it's too dogmatic, perhaps because there isn't much of a throughline - it's just a weird thing that happens to a terrible person and even their redemption is undercut by what the movie wants to say.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL3gGom2VoXtvhoh5cFA-AqrNkQu_dayZ3H2UVxY12QYiIMrXkyzV7wCu336mMIdZeBDQa9qplJEDx_haMDkfwy1lAYUo4JWwlRn_0vqMNZRvu_FLityj2x4XyOA_aWDO-zc3SQL7M8Z_shhDTp8mdghlDW9OpcmQbIpymEOcD5yN7bs3Es8Qb/s283/6-powwowhighway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL3gGom2VoXtvhoh5cFA-AqrNkQu_dayZ3H2UVxY12QYiIMrXkyzV7wCu336mMIdZeBDQa9qplJEDx_haMDkfwy1lAYUo4JWwlRn_0vqMNZRvu_FLityj2x4XyOA_aWDO-zc3SQL7M8Z_shhDTp8mdghlDW9OpcmQbIpymEOcD5yN7bs3Es8Qb/w141-h200/6-powwowhighway.jpg" title="My little pony" width="141" /></a></div>It's a strange movie for the British HandMade Films to make, but Powwow Highway is a worthy addition to their catalog. It's a road trip movie in which two Native Americans set off in a junker to bail out one of the two's sister, who has been arrested as part of a land grab scheme. A Martinez (L.A. Law) is the volatile activist who has a pragmatic take on being kept down by the white man, while Gary Farmer (Reservation Dogs) is an endearing dope who believes in his heritage's power and makes it work in his favor. Both are connecting with their culture over the course of the trip, but Martinez is really doing so kicking and screaming. Charming set pieces and strong commentary on the state of First Nations in the U.S., but I do think the film ends too early. The stakes as spelled out are unresolved. But then the final reel is really playing by its own rules, evoking magical realism to even get the characters anywhere near where they need to be, and then deciding not to pursue any consequences for their actions. But I would have been happy to follow these characters for a bit longer.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi215hpYEl0B067ulafjJ0L2ZxwZIy43szzG3y9OVEaGxrEbQs1yxUqI6Cty7nPswo1fo03BG01-uTBtn6vV5xvQ4d4UOB5LLZi-UvKc9rFTAwsbjnB2lvLQUKDMWVajs6JCHi2-JMn17nFh7GISuMIqCQh6wjqTfceV6nOIguam5z6P5bp8Q93/s301/7-longgoodfriday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi215hpYEl0B067ulafjJ0L2ZxwZIy43szzG3y9OVEaGxrEbQs1yxUqI6Cty7nPswo1fo03BG01-uTBtn6vV5xvQ4d4UOB5LLZi-UvKc9rFTAwsbjnB2lvLQUKDMWVajs6JCHi2-JMn17nFh7GISuMIqCQh6wjqTfceV6nOIguam5z6P5bp8Q93/w133-h200/7-longgoodfriday.jpg" title="I can't believe they would do that on Easter weekend" width="133" /></a></div>Bob Hoskins is terrific as a London gangster trying to go straight as a real estate mogul in The Long Good Friday, and trying to drag his whole organization in with him. But this is a biting Noir, so all his associates, all his contacts, all his reflexes are all from the criminal underworld, and that's going to cause him problems. He's pushy, he's vengeful, and there is an underlying question of whether this is "straight" business after all, and he's only really being stymied by his lower-class status (it's a British film, so it has to be at least partly about class). When his men start getting bumped off in pretty spectacular ways (check out young Pierce Brosnan as a silent assassin!), he's desperate to find out why and by whom before his deal with the Americans falls through. The violence is harsh but cool. Helen Mirren is great as Hoskins' partner in love and business. The dialog is witty. And I really love that ending. So if you're looking for a Holiday fare to watch around Easter (I'm kidding, watch it any old time), The Long Good Friday is the fun'n'nasty crime picture to break your fast with.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpODM6cYpcdq99iPfFoU4jUh2S_zb7sEQsOeapGP_KYbEXAnn1PkxbUy38jp8Zv7KytD8qRSUe_7gz0lJ7UoFko92q5XC3gbg_fFCziLeYDnsYnKq_QfXZvl8c_SbNMGm_S8S430pDaKrn3dqtNrYDlgOKC7QtxHeSpELxOT_Vb49H6GIlXfVq/s309/8-monalisa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpODM6cYpcdq99iPfFoU4jUh2S_zb7sEQsOeapGP_KYbEXAnn1PkxbUy38jp8Zv7KytD8qRSUe_7gz0lJ7UoFko92q5XC3gbg_fFCziLeYDnsYnKq_QfXZvl8c_SbNMGm_S8S430pDaKrn3dqtNrYDlgOKC7QtxHeSpELxOT_Vb49H6GIlXfVq/w129-h200/8-monalisa.jpg" title="Smile?" width="129" /></a></div>In Mona Lisa, Bob Hoskins once again plays gangster with the need to change his life around, this time an ex-con forced to drive a high-end call girl around. He hates it at first, but he eventually warms to her and perhaps a little or a lot more, because he accepts the kind of task for her that's sure to get him in trouble with the criminal underworld (represented by a bunny-stroking Michael Caine). Hoskins feel so natural in a Noir environment - it would make him perfect for Who Framed Roger Rabbit? two years later - not the least of which because he's a man out of time here, having a hard time catching up to a world that's left him behind. Even his car is out of an old Film Noir. Cathy Tyson as femme fatale is more vulnerable and wounded than most. Robbie Coltraine has a quirky side-character to play. I liked it, but I'm not sure I entirely buy the ending, given the cycle of violence that's usually represented in this type of film. Can there really be an escape from the life?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigysh0NnhnH-RGiE8UjgEt2-cy4ssM4D_wWDNuzLYI_LHFPrm0Fme_ehsnTe4bhVq857xiqrFOwYXyQ8lHMaA7zyAsjKQcUuwEJXtkcegFwrwOLoSANv2xXW5z1JU4WXrbtzgSjrrAAOD7SHn08HOSMA0i8c0-z7ZcScqmH4OlP38zfxe8b2p3/s301/9-raggedyrawney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigysh0NnhnH-RGiE8UjgEt2-cy4ssM4D_wWDNuzLYI_LHFPrm0Fme_ehsnTe4bhVq857xiqrFOwYXyQ8lHMaA7zyAsjKQcUuwEJXtkcegFwrwOLoSANv2xXW5z1JU4WXrbtzgSjrrAAOD7SHn08HOSMA0i8c0-z7ZcScqmH4OlP38zfxe8b2p3/w133-h200/9-raggedyrawney.jpg" title="Did Klinger write this?" width="133" /></a></div>Bob Hoskins' directorial debut, The Raggedy Rawney, has the feel of an odd modern fairy tale in which a green deserter hides disguised as a mad woman (or is he having a bit of a fit?) following a caravan of travelling folk, where he and Hoskins' daughter (played by Zoë Nathenson who played his daughter in Mona Lisa, so it's nice that he wanted to not only work with her again, but give her a lead role) fall in love. If there's a fable vibe to it, it's that the war feels entirely nondescript. No countries are mentioned (the film was shot in the former Czechoslovakia, which looks gorgeous, but it's not said). The enemy is referenced, but never, and is rather presented as the home army, conscripting every young man in sight and committing crimes on its own people. And though the caravan is coded as Romani, the cast is entirely made up of British types (including Dexter Fletcher, Downtown's Jim Carter, and the ubiquitous Ian McNeice) that just give it an unspecified, and therefore universal, feel. And I fell under its dark spell. In this world that already seems like an overgrown ruin, magic is both real and not, a young man is both a coward and not and a father is both kind and cruel.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZucG07eLOKRWwifqgcQNTwCqXkR89V-rn-NUkmu2PrfqHdF1I-z6aw2wbBsrsiMzb-iKEy28uDfBb7-1gegDB4DrEGO9g8yutZckTdeYvELD_lPEC09bAUUd_ZirSjfHdWvnatedIhoE-ShWAUG8-tNm1WgcQgJpE6D-1DVmTMV5VlNerE4XG/s300/10-fiasco-ratpatrol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZucG07eLOKRWwifqgcQNTwCqXkR89V-rn-NUkmu2PrfqHdF1I-z6aw2wbBsrsiMzb-iKEy28uDfBb7-1gegDB4DrEGO9g8yutZckTdeYvELD_lPEC09bAUUd_ZirSjfHdWvnatedIhoE-ShWAUG8-tNm1WgcQgJpE6D-1DVmTMV5VlNerE4XG/w133-h200/10-fiasco-ratpatrol.jpg" title="A noble animal, the norwegian rat" width="133" /></a></div>RPGs: This was for my French-language podcast, but I'll talk about it here in broad terms. I hosted a Fiasco game with the scenario Rat Patrol, in which one plays an escaped lab rat with high intelligence (think Pinky and the Brain meets The Plague Dogs). This sounds super-wonky and therefore a fan-made Fiasco set, but no, it's by Jason Morningstar himself, the designer of the game, and includes a special Rat Tilt for the perturbing elements on which the two acts pivot. The options are pretty crazy and the players really went with it. Isabel and Nath (known as near-telepathic sisters in real life COULD have gone with that very option, but opted for precognitive rats, one of which was a fake (but listeners will have to guess which). Bob and Chalif were early children of the über-rats who were the parents of the entire colony and therefore aristocratic "rat bastards" in charge of Ratopolis City, a series of tunnels stolen from the moles digging up the lab garden (and so I played ancillary moles, largely communicating with a pet's toy squeaker). Two of these rats wanted to get back to the lab, two strongly felt they should return to their natural state, infighting and backstabbing ensues. The Tilt had several experiments come to fruition (or fail) causing a lot of trouble as everything headed, yes, for a fiasco. So if you're looking for a fun playset that takes you off the beaten path, I do recommend Rat Patrol and wish you fewer rat puns around the table than this particular group (Chalif, you monster) gave me.Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-81111205531521225542024-01-03T06:00:00.041-04:002024-01-03T06:00:00.141-04:00Siskoid Awards 2023 - Technical Achievement Ceremony <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB5jyDYeidH8-nqc0WwCT3yGCZw4-sPdOwMXbYnivqBHbVYhjVzhcTsc5gsSFdovjgqfzWZ0AwyrCLbLyPZXzM7BOQQU2cv5a0F1fYRiOo-ceeNvbbPeifXVfoygwGGvmj_ppf3jkq9TgAnksgQpYmyZo3chVsklXYFWFMrlQYYm8vCZEXobP4/s498/siskoidtechawards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB5jyDYeidH8-nqc0WwCT3yGCZw4-sPdOwMXbYnivqBHbVYhjVzhcTsc5gsSFdovjgqfzWZ0AwyrCLbLyPZXzM7BOQQU2cv5a0F1fYRiOo-ceeNvbbPeifXVfoygwGGvmj_ppf3jkq9TgAnksgQpYmyZo3chVsklXYFWFMrlQYYm8vCZEXobP4/s16000/siskoidtechawards.jpg" title="Is Batman ever surprised?" /></a></div><p>As usual, the Siskoid Awards are followed by a Technical Achievement Ceremony, hosted by someone famous parallel to the main event, and by technical, we mean a grab bag of categories and jokes that would have made a mockery out of the actual ceremony.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2jWkpZxZtc2NNZZhIS_LZamIaz6HabwwLD7EupUU39dPKWrrEFIDfGUp_TLu4DYf_duZwRi7Nsz8nJroN6VHL2DHLKaSxa9DfKf315C8AfRwHf5DoXpnp3kkAoEi0i_ZW9PTjpQG5Jebjt-brehG4Z2Rdb8wdSzLJMTGnamu6rMFDHzdjNoWG/s200/siskoidtechawards-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2jWkpZxZtc2NNZZhIS_LZamIaz6HabwwLD7EupUU39dPKWrrEFIDfGUp_TLu4DYf_duZwRi7Nsz8nJroN6VHL2DHLKaSxa9DfKf315C8AfRwHf5DoXpnp3kkAoEi0i_ZW9PTjpQG5Jebjt-brehG4Z2Rdb8wdSzLJMTGnamu6rMFDHzdjNoWG/s16000/siskoidtechawards-1.jpg" title="Oh, I caught you short" /></a></div>And to host, someone who's deservedly doing great these last few years, between Russian Doll and Poker Face - Natasha Lyonne! That mess of curls, that smokey voice, that take-no-shit personality... she's exactly the sort of performer who say no to this fake awards show. But that's the great thing about fantasy... Ms. Lyonne? I hand it off to you. yes, you can have a drink on stage, let's Golden Globe this up.<br /><br /><b>Best role-playing-related product of 2023 </b>- The nominees are...<br />5. Play Dirty (John Wick)<br />4. Designers & Dragons series (Shannon Applecline)<br />3. When Cosms Collide (Torg Eternity)<br />2. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves<br />...and the Golden Typewriter Monkey goes to: Apex Predator (Torg Eternity). I have always wanted to inject a bit of Toontown into my Torg game, and have often included in plans that then didn't materialize. Fellow gamer Scott Schomburg obviously had the same idea, but he made it real and put his extremely fun 3-Act adventure on the Infiniverse Exchange for all to find. Great mechanics for creating that rapid-gag-action cartoon feel, and it gave us three of our most memorable sessions this year. Thanks again, Scott!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH3fB6KkwYLaNBEm8x2HCGCLdQbP-VztZyrd15SUQp5pF2AmgTOGEiLjTGjCh54zNQT4OTjrM_tKU8tnvCt6Ed8C6ofHnvKDKsva_EJxWe4etsDM-6OEVHbIty1qxWTqsTnCG8TFQdbE6a0v86Z7ttJzbRZz_bzXwVV4bo8ttiaEhLxvybybdk/s200/siskoidtechawards-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH3fB6KkwYLaNBEm8x2HCGCLdQbP-VztZyrd15SUQp5pF2AmgTOGEiLjTGjCh54zNQT4OTjrM_tKU8tnvCt6Ed8C6ofHnvKDKsva_EJxWe4etsDM-6OEVHbIty1qxWTqsTnCG8TFQdbE6a0v86Z7ttJzbRZz_bzXwVV4bo8ttiaEhLxvybybdk/s16000/siskoidtechawards-2.jpg" title="But no fear" /></a></div><b>Best role-playing moment of 2023: </b>The cartoon world COULD have snatched a victory here, but I'm going the other way. The original Torg Eternity crew had a timid character called Lyaksandro, and he died. Now. he was always SUPPOSED to meet a certain fate and leave the group so that a parallel self could join (this was hidden from the other players, but baked into the character concept, we're in fact on the third parallel now, but they don't always die). Lyaksandro was haunted by the Kikimora, a Ukrainian witch/spirit, all through his life. So going home to confront her, where he could also play a Martyr card and shuffle off this mortal coil seemed the thing to do. The moment itself was impactful though. Fabien, Lyky's player, had sent me a sad Ukrainian dirge to play if the moment arose, and the other players did a good job with their tearful eulogies (some of those tears were real). And the clincher, a cut scene in which his soul is sucked into the Gaunt Man's chest... Lesson: Don't die under Orrorshan conditions.<br /><br /><b>Best video game of 2023 </b>- The nominees are...<br />3. Sleeping Dogs (third playthrough, but with all the DLC)<br />2. Saints Row (the last one)<br />...and the Golden Typewriter Monkey goes to: Watch Dogs: Legion. I even called it last year after only a few missions. Here's what I had to say when I finished it: "Give or take some of the achievements (and the DLC) - I finished Watch Dogs: Legion this week. A great little evolution from past Watch Dogs games, DedSec London has its own flavor, of course, but also an interesting mechanic where you can recruit anyone of hundreds of NPCs in the game, building your own team of avatars with their own voices, fashions choices and abilities (by the end I was mostly rotating through Carmen the cargo drone-flying construction worker, Carolyn the former cop with a heart of gold and machine gun of steel, and Harriet the kooky cosplayer, but others from more than a dozen occasionally. The story has London turned into a fascist city-state in the near future and has as many side-missions as you want, really, with the recruitment stuff (I was still sad to hit the limit because I considered recruiting all of London). It ends on a surprisingly emotional note, which for purposes of continuing to play, has an epilogue mission that undoes aspects of the endgame, but is ALSO done with feeling. It asks you to run around the city a lot, so it's most effectively done while you sweep the town for all the collectibles - nicely done, Ubisoft! And there's a lot of replay value to Legion thanks to more difficult modes, in particular one where your agents' deaths are permanent(!), requiring you to mourn and recruit again and again. I'd be game, but I need to buy a new controller. The top left trigger, which is used for hacking, broke the next day (preventing any fooling around for achievements). I hacked a LOT."<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlXoB60-bJjowyVhoib74x-h4dv-OqMSBCQoFKg0uMi4oZ-RKETtZfBNh_GXJrc4boxx_C4_yi5UYR2QsXolHImQR5zxd531OysKDrTSt3pXjnNuR7aFuQ61nqf1cj9WVYLnX_6m-xd9GktRCJjtfpUkX56zp-qQ1H1-Yow97mVG2kV9c_9MYR/s200/siskoidtechawards-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlXoB60-bJjowyVhoib74x-h4dv-OqMSBCQoFKg0uMi4oZ-RKETtZfBNh_GXJrc4boxx_C4_yi5UYR2QsXolHImQR5zxd531OysKDrTSt3pXjnNuR7aFuQ61nqf1cj9WVYLnX_6m-xd9GktRCJjtfpUkX56zp-qQ1H1-Yow97mVG2kV9c_9MYR/w200-h200/siskoidtechawards-3.jpg" title="No effs given" width="200" /></a></div><b>Best and Worst Comics-Related Moments of 2023</b><br />-The Nadir Monkey goes to... Superheroes at the movies. And on TV, for that matter. The MCU finally started to crumple under its own weight as Disney tried to over-connect the different shows and movies, making the films opaque to casual audiences, and further muddying the waters by introducing distracting new characters in each one. Then they compounded the problem with some extremely lacklustre shows (Secret Invasion, Loki) and no movies really worth seeing except for Guardians vol.3. The DC movies didn't do much better, with Shazam 2 and The Flash being particularly dire. This is the year I finally felt enough disinterest to either wait for these movies to stream (as in the latter two DCEUs, but I didn't go to The Marvels and have no plans for Aquaman 2).<br />-The Apex Monkey goes to... Dawn of DC: While there are things about Mark Waid's new tenure as creative director that don't speak to me (I'm not in love with the events we've gotten, but that's not anything new), I've got to say a LOT of the Dawn of DC offerings have made me a fan of their monthly comics again. Anything BY Waid - World's Finest (Batman/Superman and Teen Titans) and Shazam - are great. I'm also enjoying Green Arrow, Fire and Ice, Cyborg, The Flash, Superman (but not action), the various JSA-related books, Nightwing (still) and Titans, Batman & Santa Claus, Unstoppable Doom Patrol... Sure, there are still too many Bat-books, Power Girl has been completely mangled, and Tom King is crapping on Wonder Woman, but you know what? We've finally got a rebranding that mostly works. (Now can they rescue the Legion?)<br /><br /><b>Best new (and old) podcast of 2023:</b> Disaster Girls. I came in just as the show was on the wane, but there's a huge back catalog of this very funny exploration of disaster films and creature features. It's got the same vibe as my own oHOTmu OR NOT?, so I'm all in.<br /><br /><b>Best refresh of an older podcast in 2023: </b>I was already enjoying Delta Flyers even if Voyager was never my favorite Trek, but during the strikes, they pivoted to nice interviews with Trek alumni, and then, AND THEN!, headed for the Wormhole, with Terri Farrell And Armin Shimmerman joining "Tom & Harry" to discuss Deep Space Nine, which IS my favorite Trek! Well... I'm not made of duranium!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1EIFpP2zX6kFuUMbOO-T3jkJ9gQf67rB812jjIAyM_77md9PnuJlPvE-bYl6Q9HJr8dqpSao4L8WtKwrymmqJ9HBIhDb1-DHOUQO7mwo7C1ASlqjHyBDdynbs7pZkAr4flMU0VDLk_ykMYlmVcbexyf-NCxkXjEvQhkwmW3sfgafAYlggEQeI/s200/siskoidtechawards-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1EIFpP2zX6kFuUMbOO-T3jkJ9gQf67rB812jjIAyM_77md9PnuJlPvE-bYl6Q9HJr8dqpSao4L8WtKwrymmqJ9HBIhDb1-DHOUQO7mwo7C1ASlqjHyBDdynbs7pZkAr4flMU0VDLk_ykMYlmVcbexyf-NCxkXjEvQhkwmW3sfgafAYlggEQeI/w200-h200/siskoidtechawards-4.jpg" title="No bullshit" width="200" /></a></div><b>My YouTube Obsession of 2023: </b>Would I Lie To You? I fully admit it. I fell into a vortex of game show insanity. Which also made me follow David Mitchell to Peep Show, so let's add 9 season of that to WILTY's 16 (and going). At the deepest end of the pool, I was tryng to make friends play the game with me. I recognize my foolishness, but I don't regret a second of it. Runner-up: This <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeYfAmz0Jlk" target="_blank">James Bond theme medley</a></b> was my background music through the last quarter.<br /><br /><b>Dumbest Move You Just Knew Hollywood Would Make: </b>Quite separate from the frankly terrible working conditions the various unions were fighting against, we have to look at Barbie's phenomenal success. For a few months there, you couldn't go to the movies without seeing mobs of pink-clad patrons snapping pics by the poster. The lesson Hollywood took from this, of course, was to greenlight a bunch of Mattel-related films. Do they actually think Hot Wheels, Magic 8 Ball, Uno and Boglins have what it takes? What Barbie's success proves is that women will show up in large numbers to movies that speak to them, fun, high-end, female-led, feminist films. It's NOT about toystalgia. Studios also failed to understand why Wonder Woman, Crazy Rich Asians and the Taylor Swift movie experience were so successful. It's dead simple: A starved demographic!<br /><br />I'd like to end the ceremony with a few movie statistics and prizes, courtesy of Letterboxd, which says I logged 508 entries (465 new) to last year's 506 (close!), and here are the top 10 stars who most appeared on my screens:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQOoD1swaP149FD8TSbDewqgznTDtMOXztGj24ApDFDXbqvNL8UN5Fwy-DpU9Z5UoB_as_aYwk5JRT2fu2P-v5suzkjeb8FN6MsQdIDL53WfysYrra62VZ9LK7gvfToVFaOEj2ceN-iP4KExifVK6d1diZx33yEDJbpIWPuULK9_56-gcxVgBv/s600/siskoidtechawards-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQOoD1swaP149FD8TSbDewqgznTDtMOXztGj24ApDFDXbqvNL8UN5Fwy-DpU9Z5UoB_as_aYwk5JRT2fu2P-v5suzkjeb8FN6MsQdIDL53WfysYrra62VZ9LK7gvfToVFaOEj2ceN-iP4KExifVK6d1diZx33yEDJbpIWPuULK9_56-gcxVgBv/s16000/siskoidtechawards-5.jpg" title="Ola Hup!" /></a></div>If Jennifer Aniston sticks out as an anomaly, watch for an upcoming podcast that explains it, but Isabelle Huppert, Parker Posey and Natasha Lyonne are the three I actually went out of my way to watch. Christopher Lloyd is probably the most REWATCHED actor as I revisited the Back to the Future trilogy, Star Trek III and the Addams Family movies. Robert Englund appears courtesy of my Nightmare on Elm Street marathon. Martin Donovan? Well, you can't watch a lot of Hal Hartley and not have him show up as often as he did. Speaking of which, here are the directors most represented:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2wphr-4O00iw4assKjzTMWGD8btySU_EWfj8FFS-_QylHm46iKETeA2qxR3qQcikQEVkA7tFQiusD8UkY6zDb99ZQoSsJ-ap6Hi9GMABndk_rey2_4oxEfrBXeR9NNwxweh_myytsfbaI6wng2u6FCejrv0__MnFYerSu83ZajG_UsB4VJU_V/s600/siskoidtechawards-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2wphr-4O00iw4assKjzTMWGD8btySU_EWfj8FFS-_QylHm46iKETeA2qxR3qQcikQEVkA7tFQiusD8UkY6zDb99ZQoSsJ-ap6Hi9GMABndk_rey2_4oxEfrBXeR9NNwxweh_myytsfbaI6wng2u6FCejrv0__MnFYerSu83ZajG_UsB4VJU_V/s16000/siskoidtechawards-6.jpg" title="Can't believe there was still this much Mike Leigh to see" /></a></div>Hartley and Mike Leigh share the top position thanks to the Criterion Channel which added a lot of their early films and well, I want a complete set. I rate every director in the Top 10 and actively made a point of watching more of their movies at some point this year, except Wes Anderson who MADE 5 films (some of them shorts) this year!<br /><br />If Letterboxd is my movie tracking platform, GoodReads has that job for my reading. I managed 66 books this year (almost 40 proper books when you discount graphic novels and RPG manuals, though I admit a lot of them were short reads). Here's a graphic of the year's reads:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-XGinJ_WuBd65wsUaEdBo-X2govyXXTxvr0pnYZFbLFfR8NWvu1CvdSucY8NwnMpVmoJYWLr0uNgZLFToI2O14OXfuhFZ1aF7Veum9U0CrZo6Wr1ZCf6qyq1EaRiS-NbuyDS2yLAdVEcc_FXPGTaHdu6GSABsxim1sLPvnaBKPY_ARvigkBS/s5183/siskoidtechawards-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5183" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-XGinJ_WuBd65wsUaEdBo-X2govyXXTxvr0pnYZFbLFfR8NWvu1CvdSucY8NwnMpVmoJYWLr0uNgZLFToI2O14OXfuhFZ1aF7Veum9U0CrZo6Wr1ZCf6qyq1EaRiS-NbuyDS2yLAdVEcc_FXPGTaHdu6GSABsxim1sLPvnaBKPY_ARvigkBS/s16000/siskoidtechawards-7.jpg" title="The ultimate scroll" /></a></div>This was the "year of series", either continuing them (like Star Trek S.C.E. and Doctor Who) or starting them (like Time Wars, Designers & Dragons, James Bond, Fafrhd and the Gray Mouser, Reacher), though I did started looking elsewhere in the third quarter, including my first ever William Gibson novel and yet another Julian Barnes (NOW, I've read everything). Looking forward to next year, I think I'll be a little bit more ambitious with my choices since I did feel "series" fatigue THIS year.<br /><br />And there you have it, folks. Another year, another completely meaningless awards season. My thanks to Ms. Lyonne and thank YOU for sticking with us all these years. The Siskoid Awards will no doubt return in a year's time, unless upcoming movies have it right, and it's the end. (No, really, is it just me or are half the new trailers about dystopias and global disasters?)<p></p>Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-36552812380428879772023-12-31T06:00:00.031-04:002023-12-31T06:00:00.129-04:00This Week in Geek (24-30/12/23)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDL60EaAQmDnjGFMZtNRTOl7UIhWS52GmE8LA3_GqIxnOKBwgjIen9LPErWW-1zJbIBW0DfPnV4uur0Ykgz3ZnFF3FvFOCfzstumDxKXTmAyivxIHK9ZrdTkYIdQJ5KpW_vmSJlBiU46zsWb6qrpx5Vdy76XXqgKOYxo6XJfEAy_-wpV2yFbUs/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDL60EaAQmDnjGFMZtNRTOl7UIhWS52GmE8LA3_GqIxnOKBwgjIen9LPErWW-1zJbIBW0DfPnV4uur0Ykgz3ZnFF3FvFOCfzstumDxKXTmAyivxIHK9ZrdTkYIdQJ5KpW_vmSJlBiU46zsWb6qrpx5Vdy76XXqgKOYxo6XJfEAy_-wpV2yFbUs/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Christmas movies, Jennifer Aniston/Jason Bateman, evil corporate types, aristocracy, switching places, movie references" /></a></div><b>Buys</b><br /><br />Haven't been investing time in video games for months, so for under 12 bucks, I nabbed some Marvel Lego games - Marvel Super Heroes, MSH2 and Avengers, with all the bonus characters and levels. Just to faff about when I'm bored, you know. <br /><b><br />"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjE78dOI4Nz0wlth_1F278PsyuAJw7MLKSiHOWqDskO6rVouA9zCn4f5tIBy-Rj331RfmzQxkgm3xhFVDqyDH2YHCrJmCB2fDnBL0VG70KFSnzfb6bHust_GxzPx9lpBuq69Ma1nUOQ5syJqV6nDk4Bn_BLgvMaK9lNLmc3wQmR_2014ZfRcMc/s297/1-ferrari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjE78dOI4Nz0wlth_1F278PsyuAJw7MLKSiHOWqDskO6rVouA9zCn4f5tIBy-Rj331RfmzQxkgm3xhFVDqyDH2YHCrJmCB2fDnBL0VG70KFSnzfb6bHust_GxzPx9lpBuq69Ma1nUOQ5syJqV6nDk4Bn_BLgvMaK9lNLmc3wQmR_2014ZfRcMc/w135-h200/1-ferrari.jpg" title="The car was toxic masculinity all along" width="135" /></a></div>In theaters: Ferrari is at a bit of a crossroads in terms of my film tastes. On the one hand, while I'm absolutely not a car guy (can't even drive!), I do like a good racing movie. On the other, the biopic is one of my least favorite genres. And Ferrari is more biopic than it is about racing, making it perhaps the quietest, least exciting movie Michael Mann ever made. Being a period piece seems to also rob it of Mann's trademark neon style, at least until the final race (final? ONLY race) starts at the top of Act 3, on a rainy night. We catch up with Enzo Ferrari at the most depressing time in his biography, and most of the film is people whispering at each other with Italian accents (while also be adverse to casting ANY Italian, by which I mean even Italian-American, actors in any part of substance), all of very variable quality. I could spin my web of literary criticism here, and say it's about a man with a vision when it comes to racing failing to implement it in his own life, where he is stuck in the past, paying for past mistakes, also unable to streamline it like one of his cars. But I'm not sure the film really makes that resonate strongly enough. Maybe you're just too distracted waiting for vroom vroom sequences to really see the family drama in those terms, and it's better appreciated on a second viewing. Certainly, Penelope Cruz deserves that second look as Ferrari's righteous, embittered and justifiably unreasonable wife. Her subplot uncovering Enzo's secret mistress seems a distraction, but it's actually the most involving part of the film.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4gmgov4bTxUk3skThhfFP1bi87UhSYoRn_L4I5vozUryBetk1uBIRjqIv-3MBzHGlKI_ivGK0JTiIL2jL6mTtttBeNv-jaWGhnIdy8VzUmidHP1QEIYk5mFmxMDS2-VPmG5UMah64S_bqRRNC7SANQ2g65kIJ8ZXBbHjlrzkq6AvkGGDFaee/s295/2-saltburn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4gmgov4bTxUk3skThhfFP1bi87UhSYoRn_L4I5vozUryBetk1uBIRjqIv-3MBzHGlKI_ivGK0JTiIL2jL6mTtttBeNv-jaWGhnIdy8VzUmidHP1QEIYk5mFmxMDS2-VPmG5UMah64S_bqRRNC7SANQ2g65kIJ8ZXBbHjlrzkq6AvkGGDFaee/w136-h200/2-saltburn.jpg" title="Call Me By Your Name but they couldn't find a peach" width="136" /></a></div>At home: Barry Keoghan puts his mouth on all sorts of things he shouldn't in Saltburn, Emerald Fannell's follow-up to Promising Young Woman, which is the name of the estate he is invited to for the summer after he catches the eye of one of the pretty people. The rich aristocrats are drawn as benign and generally nice, but don't put the same value on life that we do. The little people are disposable. In fact, except for a judgmental butler, we don't see any servants or other commoners unless they're guests (just hands or noises), and there's an interesting moment when Keoghan's Oliver leaves Saltburn where the staff is suddenly there and you wonder who ARE all these people?! Oliver has a particular knack for manipulating these people to stay in their golden aura, but there are many moments of otherness or separateness to remind him that he ISN'T one of them. There's a banal evil to being privileged, but to covet privilege is also evil, so I'm not sure there's anyone to root for here. In any case, the ending is rather facile and obvious considering the psycho-sexual depth that preceded it. It wants to be shocking, but I find it rather ordinary. And the final final ending? I've seen too much Downton Abbey to believe it.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaGMNdBZzQxmWSLzdg2A1h33sXn6NWXiSdn959fF8YFw00mpV2A9o6atbzyDvjPJ8YPW_zuXehI8W0eUWnQVrcHAx_ZrJuq3Tosr0K9sIRTmfs4O96F4oaZLCigwvVQD_cuuea0MOzGAH4gFTYpxdbKEHol5DuzfKn3uztU9M5RLlPaQ54VhGN/s294/3-switch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaGMNdBZzQxmWSLzdg2A1h33sXn6NWXiSdn959fF8YFw00mpV2A9o6atbzyDvjPJ8YPW_zuXehI8W0eUWnQVrcHAx_ZrJuq3Tosr0K9sIRTmfs4O96F4oaZLCigwvVQD_cuuea0MOzGAH4gFTYpxdbKEHol5DuzfKn3uztU9M5RLlPaQ54VhGN/w136-h200/3-switch.jpg" title="No one even turns on a light" width="136" /></a></div>It works very hard to make Jason Bateman's crime forgivable - and some still won't - but The Switch's heart is in the right place and manages to charm despite its eyebrow-raising premise. Basically, dude is Jennifer Aniston's best friend, filled with unrequited feelings for her, and when she decides to try artificial insemination to get a child, he swaps his semen for the donor's. Not entirely on purpose, and he doesn't really remember he did, until the chick comes home to roost 7 years later and he can't help but see himself (and not the athletic bro who was supposed to be the bio-dad) in the kid. That's where the film really lives. Their relationship, which is very sweet, and it makes sense that neurotic Bateman would have some advice for the equally neurotic boy. He's been there. He's STILL there. As a fellow neurotic, the film is certainly relatable, and Bateman and Aniston are very good together, with an easy chemistry that makes you believe in their friendship and potential for romance. Personally? I think it gets away with it.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdjW3LZnVz4LrcSNTKXhil3alkkxikyAANLhU53TqxtcrLoUrRIOOCiNfDfY7mlK_1llToiiO56TkAmUuu9A9QtQQXN0ZuHOqE1Gj2rmwOY3cFaElZXvHjOcuw6o2ziMKEEtrPBJDwp8xteO2S3w1KQbUrIAid6muD93kNF3K10GHAQnynVjbY/s296/4-horriblebosses1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdjW3LZnVz4LrcSNTKXhil3alkkxikyAANLhU53TqxtcrLoUrRIOOCiNfDfY7mlK_1llToiiO56TkAmUuu9A9QtQQXN0ZuHOqE1Gj2rmwOY3cFaElZXvHjOcuw6o2ziMKEEtrPBJDwp8xteO2S3w1KQbUrIAid6muD93kNF3K10GHAQnynVjbY/w135-h200/4-horriblebosses1.jpg" title="Aren't they all?" width="135" /></a></div>Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis each have Horrible Bosses, so there's your title, evil in fact, and they undertake to pull a Strangers on a Train to kill them off and get away with it. You don't want these hapless fools to kill anyone, of course, but you still want them to succeed in some way. They mostly do, and the movie has some clever story mechanics at times, though for the most part, mistakes happen because the characters are stupid and punching their own plot holes (Sudeikis' foibles feel particularly random). Interesting that they chose to make the sexual harasser the woman (Jennifer Aniston taking it to ridiculous lengths), as it seems to take the edge off, but at the same time, it's hard to find this funny (2011 was another world, I guess). Jamie Foxx comes out of this the best as their "criminal consultant", and the movie takes a lot of twists and turns to avoid predictability. A little dumb, but its darker vein brings it up to... fine.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rGMM9qKYzH2SfPCbltk-UA12AHcSg5ITCv5ytBoZ50kJPX-quj2GPPSUIprrWZylKOqSinEAMgdh2OERJnOf6GBv9uNAG1OSDgmyyOnE94XFDWew4VbAGemQ-lvgqsfFuYJt2zCKEKlCdvCEWf6R08yOnnkHCCYAZ8XTyRE6S8znMS5nZQkW/s300/5-horriblebosses2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rGMM9qKYzH2SfPCbltk-UA12AHcSg5ITCv5ytBoZ50kJPX-quj2GPPSUIprrWZylKOqSinEAMgdh2OERJnOf6GBv9uNAG1OSDgmyyOnE94XFDWew4VbAGemQ-lvgqsfFuYJt2zCKEKlCdvCEWf6R08yOnnkHCCYAZ8XTyRE6S8znMS5nZQkW/w133-h200/5-horriblebosses2.jpg" title="This is why I don't start a business" width="133" /></a></div>It's perhaps unfortunate that the theme music for Horrible Bosses 2 is "How Do You Like Me Now?" because I don't like you much at all, actually. It seems that when it comes to modern comedies, directors' cuts and sequels tend to be indulgent and lazy. There's no call for HB2 to be as long as it is, or for bring back so many characters from the first film aside from the three leads who here are going into business for themselves and get screwed over by corporate types. It's a fun twist on the title, since these bosses are horrible because they're incompetent, while also providing a similar "revenge against bosses" story for us to root for. I like the heist element in the third act, but there's a lot of tedium getting us there. At some point, someone calls out their their yammering and cross-talk, and yeah, there's just way too much of that. It just feels like everything is improvised and the script girl and the editor went out to lunch together.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2j8Sw-7415NqDQhHM3GXCVAly_N65BzbIkRtoBRwrSryVqgM10AD1er0B-4LrCVLKTxjMWS8uzZlA92DGzjCFXyRG8c25HRl25epie7CmNNjtOLqDJJgUAgfbUbbKktJ7T-wRakykzG1SWgw7ZxhsTIkpL7nDlrLmpqBwWNlxat3KachZLpxo/s290/6-officechristmasparty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2j8Sw-7415NqDQhHM3GXCVAly_N65BzbIkRtoBRwrSryVqgM10AD1er0B-4LrCVLKTxjMWS8uzZlA92DGzjCFXyRG8c25HRl25epie7CmNNjtOLqDJJgUAgfbUbbKktJ7T-wRakykzG1SWgw7ZxhsTIkpL7nDlrLmpqBwWNlxat3KachZLpxo/w138-h200/6-officechristmasparty.jpg" title="Photocopier abuse" width="138" /></a></div>Despite having a lot of comedy stars in its service, Christmas Office Party doesn't really work, chiefly because of T.J. Miller. I'm not simply docking it points because he's a terrible person, but really because he's such a non-presence in the movie. And he's in it A LOT. He's essentially playing the dumbass for whom Jason Bateman is the straight man (so the Charlie Day character, relevant seeing as it steals a couple gags from Horrible Bosses), but no way can we muster warm feelings for this off-white wallpaper of a man. Bateman is of course watchable, but you never really believe in his romance with Olivia Munn. The plot requires them to plan a giant office party to woo an investor before the Scrooge-like CEO (Jennifer Aniston) closes the branch down, so lots of stupid drunk/high comedy going on, sex jokes, etc. That's fine, but the movie sort of realizes it doesn't have much of a plot in the third act and throws a bit of a crime element there at the end. By that point, the Wicked Witch of the West is ready for her unearned turn to the Light Side of the Force, and so on. Replace Miller with someone with an ounce of charisma and you MIGHT have an average half-improvised comedy.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicbp6P7BO9uwUmnCklk2VvrKki7ngjpgdfgi3ZDJCaFvzT75BBExDPWy5MA9cDVxlB5cKA17U5iFr1-OjELi-ybwLm459t-lA2g0DGLMZVD8lPLQSG5Pfhltp4CszpD86XJDlCMCDilnllL0DJbLSIaYHk-oODDES_ejFw8hlyFkErspymigbn/s300/7-youvegotmail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicbp6P7BO9uwUmnCklk2VvrKki7ngjpgdfgi3ZDJCaFvzT75BBExDPWy5MA9cDVxlB5cKA17U5iFr1-OjELi-ybwLm459t-lA2g0DGLMZVD8lPLQSG5Pfhltp4CszpD86XJDlCMCDilnllL0DJbLSIaYHk-oODDES_ejFw8hlyFkErspymigbn/w133-h200/7-youvegotmail.jpg" title="You've got spam" width="133" /></a></div>I hate to be this cynical about You've Got Mail, but its formula feels quite artificial to me. After Norah Ephron's success with Sleepless in Seattle, it makes sense that Hollywood would team her up once again with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in a romcom inspired by a Golden Age classic, this time The Shop Around the Corner. And then throw some product placement into it, and essentially tell us that the big superstores deserve to win against small businesses. It's more or less fine until the third act - I mean, if you can believe at all that Mr Nice Guy Hanks is a corporate big wig - with a a lot of acting talent (even many of the bit parts are, or would become, recognizable faces) on screen, and Ryan and Hanks being charming as usual. The third act makes makes a painful mistake, however. It thinks that Hanks holding all the cards and manipulating Ryan to get her to fall in love with him is somehow "cute". And further, though there's the mention of a "special project" which you think will save her little bookstore, no such solution materializes, and so a final rejection is required. That's of course not what we get. The movie is completely wrong-headed and lacks a moral compass, so it's going into my spam folder.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8nH4fqlZJiTEqebrJM6IlZK10Wn0vOg0Ad3vBr3etvF5LxuN3rjHcji1jDV1q82vaHjUzlg_yHV6oKQnhakdF8kNpEqW5_X1mW1c8iXp8gUuihs12aX5hu3W1frr-29YEffqwKqOESV9RhlAAK5MVkWX4NJoWdhT8C737nYf0rfNw1NGO8ySN/s304/8-yourchristmasormine1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8nH4fqlZJiTEqebrJM6IlZK10Wn0vOg0Ad3vBr3etvF5LxuN3rjHcji1jDV1q82vaHjUzlg_yHV6oKQnhakdF8kNpEqW5_X1mW1c8iXp8gUuihs12aX5hu3W1frr-29YEffqwKqOESV9RhlAAK5MVkWX4NJoWdhT8C737nYf0rfNw1NGO8ySN/w132-h200/8-yourchristmasormine1.jpg" title="Relatable (I'm a secret aristocrat too)" width="132" /></a></div>When new couple Asa Butterfield and Cora Kirk decide to surprise each other by going to the other's family Christmas, they end up stranded with the wrong lot in Your Christmas or Mine?, a fun switcheroo holiday movie that heightens that old feeling of estrangement even when your loved one is there to parse matters. And of course, discover the other person's secrets (also conveniently heightened). So the working-class girl goes to the cold aristocratic country house, and the upper-class boy goes to the boisterous "all-in Christmas" family. It's not British cinema if it doesn't address class warfare. The movie has a lot of heart and while it's not entirely unpredictable, there are enough original moments to make the time pass pleasantly. As for the fact that both these kids would forget their heads if they weren't attached, I find that particular plot device entirely believable. Cute and amusing and probably a cut above all those Hallmark offerings.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs8DAobttkAXx7tGmIQWK4BMPAGtSPB7YiQnRSrFQXwC7v4T1o_rjybFagcNw3w_GmyWxTrDhTxlns6PEBcHXex3xqlNha9DF_DHDCXlRdmQm_5oqT8cXpb_Nl5dqQPSG36jpyOeC7ftc8QRB5k8VAdBEC8z9lSdzySLykPUdJyjm-H5mwiCLP/s300/9-yourchristmasormine2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs8DAobttkAXx7tGmIQWK4BMPAGtSPB7YiQnRSrFQXwC7v4T1o_rjybFagcNw3w_GmyWxTrDhTxlns6PEBcHXex3xqlNha9DF_DHDCXlRdmQm_5oqT8cXpb_Nl5dqQPSG36jpyOeC7ftc8QRB5k8VAdBEC8z9lSdzySLykPUdJyjm-H5mwiCLP/w133-h200/9-yourchristmasormine2.jpg" title="Krampus!" width="133" /></a></div>Even though the two families go on Christmas holiday together in the Alps, they still find a way to respect the premise promised in the title, but Your Christmas or Mine 2 just doesn't really commit to it. Or to much of any plot. Sure, there's a comic misunderstanding surrounding a wedding ring, and it does lead to a very sweet ending, but generally, this is a hang-out movie where the characters from the first film are on holiday (yes, it's the dreaded "European Vacation" sequel) and do holiday things, or perhaps have moments that evoke the first film. In the mix for American audiences(?) is Jane Krakowski, playing a shade of the self-absorbed character she's been playing for years, but then, Asa Butterfield might as well be his character from Sex Education. This isn't too demanding a movie from any of the particulars. If you invested in the characters from the first film, then you'll probably like spending more time with them, but unlike the first chapter, events don't really build one upon the other.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxJQAqhLLITEJaUbCsYWdJ4I3Y9DBkw6rrf6lQKicw70pZhm8vZHBxoi-JbFiRj06az-C-vXUTniEozPxMsrnTM6b4KnGbgfgdDZ28deds-46OOlvE4pFk4hjUXotr5qxZuwtpM9wpmVeGhLqpij8NIcnDisU24XLTqLgU7IYRjTcnOtJpUAwq/s259/10-ruinsofthelivingland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxJQAqhLLITEJaUbCsYWdJ4I3Y9DBkw6rrf6lQKicw70pZhm8vZHBxoi-JbFiRj06az-C-vXUTniEozPxMsrnTM6b4KnGbgfgdDZ28deds-46OOlvE4pFk4hjUXotr5qxZuwtpM9wpmVeGhLqpij8NIcnDisU24XLTqLgU7IYRjTcnOtJpUAwq/w154-h200/10-ruinsofthelivingland.jpg" title="I won't ruin it for you" width="154" /></a></div>Books: A sort of a chaser for the Living Land Sourcebook, Ruins of the Living Land provides 30+ pages of material cut from the main book and is a pretty good lesson on how to do smaller settings for Torg Eternity. The bulk of the book focuses on three American cities caught the dinosaur-filled Living land reality - Atlanta, New York and Washington D.C. Each has its own particularities, mysteries, factions, luminaries, and potential missions, usually built around landmarks, and I found myself spinning ideas for adventure scenarios throughout. I kind of wish the document had gone longer, and given us similar rundowns for at least one more location. The mega-adventure does cover the northern Midwest and the Yucatan, but the Caribbean and the West Coast (perhaps Vancouver?) would have made nice additions. The book also has a few new perks and two new player races, but these are really weird (in fact, only one such PC can ever exist in any campaign, according to the Unique designation), so weird they sort of throw any infiltration mission out of whack, but those Ground Sloth are hella cute. I expected this to be a book of Wonders, but what's here is surprisingly useful.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_Q7qWU9SgOd3CWupgomRfiL7dW1rHJWhhNOgEayxoTDN3uv_uIFmGo2cWfuZvmGq1IJ-7AKBI1naTYMFkjwhGnjA5YEeZg4uje20QteONyIWshd6iIMgx6oMg4c11wwpmE8OooyieN3sez3ONT3EGagt5yPNRGHUjHDNVEFOiT73SoUAAdcm/s200/11-torg-baronne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_Q7qWU9SgOd3CWupgomRfiL7dW1rHJWhhNOgEayxoTDN3uv_uIFmGo2cWfuZvmGq1IJ-7AKBI1naTYMFkjwhGnjA5YEeZg4uje20QteONyIWshd6iIMgx6oMg4c11wwpmE8OooyieN3sez3ONT3EGagt5yPNRGHUjHDNVEFOiT73SoUAAdcm/w200-h200/11-torg-baronne.jpg" title="Eyebrow action" width="200" /></a></div>RPGs: We're very close to the final act of When Cosms Collide in Torg Eternity, and while I had hopes we'd get to the Snow Ball (it's a dance, not a fight) in synch with the Holidays, we lost a session due to illness a few weeks back and it'll have to wait for January. So this was all set-up and loads of exposition to get the players ready for 1) the Ball (which is a big affair with very specific rules and strategies) and 2) the climax on the ghostly island, both of which will decide the fate of this area in Aysle, as well as that of one of the PCs as his player starts to think of exit strategies to bring in a new character (as is his wont). Oh and 3) the promised quest for our lycanthrope character to get rid of his curse. Now, normally, I'm sure a Quest should be contained in Aysle, but I felt differently. If he's ever going to use this method to solve his problem, he'll need to go to different Cosms for the ingredients/tasks. Big rewards at the end, if ever. But the players were rather timid this week, rather unsure that they even wanted to go on quests, get involved in fights, etc. The dice weren't rolling in their favor, and there's a definite lack of trust in the GM there, but I think it may be Aysle fatigue. It's a big plot and all the chickens are coming home to roost, and it's normal to be a little like "wait, why is this important again?". I dropped the dancing rules in our common chat and they players have vowed to strategize before the next session, so there's hope they'll make this a night to remember. It IS a pretty neat puzzle, but it'll only get more complicated when they see just who all the guests are.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoL1YixirOy49O7aFEtLzYua_zZY2KogvHrKX8aP-0rrclgT-oXvaK2aMPEIP41h8B7Ka67bguMa9JUJuaB2rx6nu9pjopF8UNQ-45ExUwL0XWz44J16iAl-du_VLL5cSeBH5uajNAyuOsqP0Ii7dsMfopvZLBJxCaDSeWkGj2SSsYDK4QR-wL/s600/12-torg-news21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoL1YixirOy49O7aFEtLzYua_zZY2KogvHrKX8aP-0rrclgT-oXvaK2aMPEIP41h8B7Ka67bguMa9JUJuaB2rx6nu9pjopF8UNQ-45ExUwL0XWz44J16iAl-du_VLL5cSeBH5uajNAyuOsqP0Ii7dsMfopvZLBJxCaDSeWkGj2SSsYDK4QR-wL/s16000/12-torg-news21.jpg" title="Very little Photoshop needed" /></a></div>Best bits: Realm Runner disconnects, Cosm card play, and bam, his gun is a cursed item. He throws it at an NPCs' feet (she had given it to him in the first place), which I felt was a good role-playing way to get rid of it, and from then on, she keeps stumbling into things and taking falls. The Wrestler bear hugs a giant wolf. The PCs, unwilling to face the Cyberpapacy in a rowboat, row it to a fishing boat, who give them a ride. Paladin finally gets to use his giant armor when the boat is tipped over and he sinks to the bottom of the lake in full armor. It's not too deep, so his giant self has his head above water. He'll right the boat again; the Church Police's sailboat sinks thanks to the Monster Hunter's Demon's Breath grenade. In the romance department... We like to joke that the Realm Runner and the Tharkold representative are "flirting" and it's giving us the chills, but it's really more of a cold stare down. Paladin couldn't help himself and played a Romance card on the Baroness, feeling a real dilemma because he'd already decided WHICH of his many romances was going to be "the One". Wrestler's Lycra tuxedo.Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-14080684682475456382023-12-24T06:00:00.041-04:002023-12-24T06:00:00.130-04:00This Week in Geek (17-23/12/23)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy8dp_mJ-5cjFSF8mgGYIfs8flw6U-j8yu9BmZMrvoTnitIwlf5IDOcalIqtgHROJdhhCtd_25CVa8bZ860OLJEGUh8Xgi0PdSPI1RaHn9UNYEfnvW6TP6FKyYmGSJgWP_-CPYtR9VNllwIBKVY9wpZTjMm1FjQBGpk3DHajxVzif0t9kkO1Ok/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy8dp_mJ-5cjFSF8mgGYIfs8flw6U-j8yu9BmZMrvoTnitIwlf5IDOcalIqtgHROJdhhCtd_25CVa8bZ860OLJEGUh8Xgi0PdSPI1RaHn9UNYEfnvW6TP6FKyYmGSJgWP_-CPYtR9VNllwIBKVY9wpZTjMm1FjQBGpk3DHajxVzif0t9kkO1Ok/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: The other world, travelling with Jennifer Aniston" /></a></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br />Publishing: In addition to the self-published holiday-themed Torg Eternity adventure I put up on <b><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/464368/Torg-Eternity-Silent-Night-Stormy-Night?affiliate_id=476993" target="_blank">DriveThruRPG</a></b> earlier this week (Silent Night, Stormy Night), I also got my copy of Outside In Regenerates: 163 New New Perspectives on 163 Classic DOCTOR WHO Stories by 163 Writers and I'm one of those 163 writers. Did my bit for the 60th Anniversary. Out now from <b><a href="https://www.atbpublishing.com/product/outside-in-regenerates-163-new-new-perspectives-on-163-classic-doctor-who-stories-by-163-writers/" target="_blank">ATB Publishing</a></b>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpFDU1nzby32Ay3Y89t1vADeNZEUFvCgG0EXZPMtuGm9uh8WlZ54ue3H9agMB6KB2cFXWc0IBJ9VM7IxY9PG-4N8AuNgPHfFVZQc68mM-FpNhxMmltYXLHoe_NkLUBSoTnsoP8VZ_B09l3JyU9TEgew0MW9X4qjNvgn1Qo9Nc0uP55nB6j6wra/s292/1-boyandheron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpFDU1nzby32Ay3Y89t1vADeNZEUFvCgG0EXZPMtuGm9uh8WlZ54ue3H9agMB6KB2cFXWc0IBJ9VM7IxY9PG-4N8AuNgPHfFVZQc68mM-FpNhxMmltYXLHoe_NkLUBSoTnsoP8VZ_B09l3JyU9TEgew0MW9X4qjNvgn1Qo9Nc0uP55nB6j6wra/w137-h200/1-boyandheron.jpg" title="The birds are villains so what does that say about Miyazaki's evaluation of his earlier work?" width="137" /></a></div>In theaters: It strikes me, perhaps more in The Boy and the Heron than in previous films, that Miyazaki heightens the wonder of his fantastical worlds by first giving us a very solid reality, filled with tiny, relatable details. The way your foot sinks in mud. A reflection in a mirror. All the bird poop! Less Totoro than a dark version of Spirited Away, the film nevertheless has its share of humor, usually provided by the comedy grannies, the always cute warawara, and the fascist budgies. But it's still a pretty serious story. Mahito has lost his mother in WWII's fire bombings of Tokyo, and goes out to the country to be raised by his aunt until the end of the war. There he is taunted by a trickster figure, the Heron, into entering the mysterious ruins of a tower and into a timeless underworld. Many have seen in this story something of Miyazaki's relationship with his own son, an indictment of someone disappointingly unable to take up his legacy. But aren't the film's conclusions rather an admission that things look very different from one's ivory tower, and that sons and daughters should be allowed to make their own way, according to their temperaments and priorities? As is the case with the best personal films, the audience sees what it wants to see. And there's a lot to see and digest here, about the creative process, about spending/wasting your life on it. A dark, reflective farewell piece.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwMwYgeeLgbXh1zTr6SE5OB_tWNWgy30RzEf-GmYQwLrpbscjigBU7jOVQNnqa0Eqkgv7o88XtW2_fX1m6AKjY3Zx6pNhTRqK7RUPVWW16bQfYbvkeRDW6OD-p7W6Tu8JoZ4DbqD1FYPRL0CzRu6w44EIqRlceLVdgFLSfYT31keFLRuTDw289/s311/2-brigadoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwMwYgeeLgbXh1zTr6SE5OB_tWNWgy30RzEf-GmYQwLrpbscjigBU7jOVQNnqa0Eqkgv7o88XtW2_fX1m6AKjY3Zx6pNhTRqK7RUPVWW16bQfYbvkeRDW6OD-p7W6Tu8JoZ4DbqD1FYPRL0CzRu6w44EIqRlceLVdgFLSfYT31keFLRuTDw289/w129-h200/2-brigadoon.jpg" title="Roll your Rs now!" width="129" /></a></div>At home: I'd only heard lukewarm reports about Brigadoon, but if you put Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse in something, I won't be able to resist it forever. Indeed, the dancing is of a high level, and it's when the choreography takes over that the film shines strongest. The songs, not so much. Aside from the bonafide classic "Almost Like Being in Love", they're pretty forgettable. There really needed to be some peppier numbers thrown in. The story, about a man who walks into an 18th-Century Scottish village that only appears once every hundred years and falls in love there, but finds he can't stay, and returns with his annoyingly caustic friend (Van Johnson). Except he hears the call to return. The third act does offer some surprise twists, and I like how they play Kelly being haunted by his experience, but ultimately, it's an excessively saccharine story where people make goo-goo eyes at each other and things magically resolve themselves. Charisse feels miscast, or perhaps it's just that her character is underwritten (as is Kelly's fateful decision). I won't fault her too much for a dodgy accent because that seems to be a characteristic of Brigadoon entire. Nice matte paintings on giant sets too, but in the end, it's just okay and I didn't feel the same pull back to the town Kelly did.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrA6Zj18h4VM-wkGkTy6ir_T1UJ9t_5N565U7_lbvhBqFFOwGRrG93RrDunf6oRliZPynezQk21wXx3pVFy2FBZgpMLtlzx5peYJb40REJO6ZeEkwBZO-8pqcqHEIRe0rRTJltQmtWhKxhKIkchupYqklChNVSKDJfDrrB73n-Ht3MpPXvVq6L/s298/3-murdermystery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrA6Zj18h4VM-wkGkTy6ir_T1UJ9t_5N565U7_lbvhBqFFOwGRrG93RrDunf6oRliZPynezQk21wXx3pVFy2FBZgpMLtlzx5peYJb40REJO6ZeEkwBZO-8pqcqHEIRe0rRTJltQmtWhKxhKIkchupYqklChNVSKDJfDrrB73n-Ht3MpPXvVq6L/w134-h200/3-murdermystery.jpg" title="Yachtzee" width="134" /></a></div>I do like the conceit of spy comedies where hapless normies are in way over their heads, so there was an even chance that, given its international setting, uber-rich pool of possible villains, and penchant for action comedy, I would find Murder Mystery amusing. That's IF my old nemesis Adam Sandler didn't derail the whole thing. He plays a shlubby New York cop on 15-year-late honeymoon with his wife, a mystery fan played by Jennifer Aniston who's the real hero here. Sandler's dumb jokes mostly fall flat, but Aniston has enough comic charm to get us through, and the two of them DO have comedy chemistry, which makes this re-pairing a no-brainer. The Thin Man is a clear reference (Sandler's character is even called Nick), and the whodunit elements work within that context, even if most of the characters are played for laughs. The hardest thing to believe is that "Nick" scored (not-Norah, uhm...) Audrey given not only the beauty gap, but the way he treats her until the excitement reinvigorates the marriage. Not great film-making by any means, but still enough here to justify a sequel or two.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF7H4XF15eEzXRQeUpZ1Ipr0NY3Esm_brVWhbdAUwdS3Cc-_WnL2hIuFrxbxMtyzpYuvG82VDQ0LPJIQY5rtEXOT3FwJK8hez5rngMu-rWdLZ1At8xRSMuUwUWWq2nW-MiVvRfjpfEtRXPcMTFdlZUupQADWfHy_IZOc0sxtorBABkRS4Smxjk/s300/4-murdermystery2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF7H4XF15eEzXRQeUpZ1Ipr0NY3Esm_brVWhbdAUwdS3Cc-_WnL2hIuFrxbxMtyzpYuvG82VDQ0LPJIQY5rtEXOT3FwJK8hez5rngMu-rWdLZ1At8xRSMuUwUWWq2nW-MiVvRfjpfEtRXPcMTFdlZUupQADWfHy_IZOc0sxtorBABkRS4Smxjk/w133-h200/4-murdermystery2.jpg" title="Kidnapping Mystery" width="133" /></a></div>By Murder Mystery 2, Sandler and Aniston are husband-and-wife private eyes, and not good ones, which creates a certain tonal dissonance when she starts shooting people and he breaks out the martial arts in a story that's less a whodunit than an action-comedy caper. In this one, they're invited to one of the previous film's survivors for a wedding, which leads to a kidnapping. Once again, the Sptizes are framed for it, and once again, they have to untangle a web of motives, with all the twists and turns. But we've moved away from the "hapless normies" angle despite the duo's borderline abilities. Sandler's jokes are still pretty dumb. Aniston still saves the day with little effort. We get a pair of gorgeous settings - India and Paris. Mark Strong is in it. So it's another success in the "stream on a lazy Sunday" category. Closer to the hapless spy comedies I seem to enjoy, so I might have enjoyed it more than I should have. Do with these caveats what you like. But... who puts bandages OVER their clothes?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcMxU3bNMcuwu_Mtprni-mPhck6zaN7PcKIMiIoXLkwRRVI_OGHFXlYNWx8kGktBSGoNKs9bNV9Biew4vmYR7Ev34F3U-8tjVuEfw0Gi60iWQCrBLHBjNxr8n72pkXi58cGejIKgYlz2FJt9qn044yfb7aC4CltWP6LNvFeT_2bgF9tZ-rwsD/s300/5-werethemillers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcMxU3bNMcuwu_Mtprni-mPhck6zaN7PcKIMiIoXLkwRRVI_OGHFXlYNWx8kGktBSGoNKs9bNV9Biew4vmYR7Ev34F3U-8tjVuEfw0Gi60iWQCrBLHBjNxr8n72pkXi58cGejIKgYlz2FJt9qn044yfb7aC4CltWP6LNvFeT_2bgF9tZ-rwsD/w133-h200/5-werethemillers.jpg" title="Watch out for crotchantulas" width="133" /></a></div>I think it's pretty clear what's going to happen in We're the Millers once we hear the premise. Jason Sudeikis is a drug dealer forced to smuggle way too much weed (so as to make this pretty inoffensive, all things considered) into the U.S. from Mexico. His scheme is to pretend he's just a touristy family man, and so he ropes an exotic dancer, an orphan and a runaway to be his family. So you know 1) he's gonna get hosed on the deal and 2) they're going to start acting like a real family. Some extra complications from a real ordinary family also feel like a basic building block here, but Kathryn Hahn is without a doubt the comic highlight of the movie. Overall, it's a little too sweet to earn the edgier moments - Jennifer Aniston stripping, the mock incest - but it does leave you on a smile. Some fun bloopers at the end too, don't bail out early. I guess Aniston is the queen of light entertainment, but the rest of the cast is quite watchable too.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt_oV4Q45IYbVYzl_NmSxFBwLnmg9oDFJlnaFbhk7CnVCrDAy-8tTYARnU4WWpIx0T655bUXCpBxdo0WeQ65GbCwteLQrjC2HLgGyRMWRq7s-UD-ZjxhFb3h41AY5Du4Kkh3yPDyhKDBmJx2MV806QZscZTFQYz-8Jf-lcKxKShyphenhyphenLXmRmF8qzR/s300/6-rumorhasit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt_oV4Q45IYbVYzl_NmSxFBwLnmg9oDFJlnaFbhk7CnVCrDAy-8tTYARnU4WWpIx0T655bUXCpBxdo0WeQ65GbCwteLQrjC2HLgGyRMWRq7s-UD-ZjxhFb3h41AY5Du4Kkh3yPDyhKDBmJx2MV806QZscZTFQYz-8Jf-lcKxKShyphenhyphenLXmRmF8qzR/w133-h200/6-rumorhasit.jpg" title="Not trying to seduce me" width="133" /></a></div>With Rob Reiner at the wheel, an all-star cast, and a story occurring in the shadow of The Graduate, Rumor Has It... should have been, if not a home run, at least a base hit (why am I using a baseball metaphor? is it Kevin Costner's participation?). But naw, it's pretty dull. More rom than com, eventually verging on melodrama, this flick features Jennifer Aniston as the daughter of the woman who Katharine Ross' character was based on in The Graduate, digging at old family secrets to track down who Hoffman's character was based on. Had it been more of a real-Hollywood detective story, or if there had been more laughs (Shirley MacLaine and Richard Jenkins provide a few, at least), it could have had some legs. But it doesn't really go anywhere you want it to go. Mark Ruffalo as the boyfriend is a boring match for Aniston, so you're hardly invested in their engagement's success. There's a something of a creep factor when it comes to the alternative, so not that either. Ending's got some warmth and a couple of good lines, but by this point, we're in cheeseball territory. A big meh.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioLaCTTttEZmJJ3_RckxVeNPvt1UyBRG8XCqrnUQBVMC80zaoeCyzYPjc6Cm7BELuE60UFGYVymkL-Pf6PNIjRZrgl-Aoy7fCT2cMaapqbBU-Ca3sb5-pai954Gdm2jJeMq7bx1Px6szGDyLI1dwKbWKwcEzz5v5lpKhKyOSG6F9PM13V-aZwd/s301/7-peepshow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioLaCTTttEZmJJ3_RckxVeNPvt1UyBRG8XCqrnUQBVMC80zaoeCyzYPjc6Cm7BELuE60UFGYVymkL-Pf6PNIjRZrgl-Aoy7fCT2cMaapqbBU-Ca3sb5-pai954Gdm2jJeMq7bx1Px6szGDyLI1dwKbWKwcEzz5v5lpKhKyOSG6F9PM13V-aZwd/w133-h200/7-peepshow.jpg" title="Everyone is the one" width="133" /></a></div>David Mitchell and Robert Webb weaponized their sketch work into Peep Show, where they play unlikely flat mates, one uptight to the point of emotional crippling (guess which?), the other a dumb and venal layabout. The conceit (to explain the title) is that we see everything through someone's eyes, whether a main character or a passerby. When we're in the leads' heads, then we may also hear what they're thinking (I would have liked a weirdo episode where we hear the recurring guests' thoughts instead, but maybe that would have broken the mold). If your nastiest thoughts were exposed, you'd probably come off as a terrible person too, but these guys act on those thoughts more than they should, and you can squarely place this comedy in the cringe column as a result. I find Mitchell's character personally relatable, but the only thing that saves his and Webb's characters is that almost everyone else is just as bad or worse. It can be quite a pill to watch these in the span of a few days like I did. 9 seasons, 64 episodes, it got a little depressing by the end, in spite of the laughs. A great cast surrounds our hapless losers, including Olivia Coleman before she was as big a star as she is now, Rachel Blanchard (the Conchords' "Most beautiful girl in the room", and Paterson Joseph, whose performance as the bullshitting superboss makes me think that, yes, they were right to consider him for the role of Doctor Who at around this time.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_6TpDHVsnFzj6L7KIxtJo-GSh070KewrAyrAqsQhpIu17Blojp3n8n653JKEF_t20Q7OgiB6Ckn2kRg-jSP3zavpizlzTxTUhh70qaGQ9rwpPDfCC4I3Sm2S4QzEizxVNHNQOcPxGdD50XFCOdlQLEev5FawFDZFfVW3s6XxzrdeCOj2rmLKr/s267/8-torg-livingland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_6TpDHVsnFzj6L7KIxtJo-GSh070KewrAyrAqsQhpIu17Blojp3n8n653JKEF_t20Q7OgiB6Ckn2kRg-jSP3zavpizlzTxTUhh70qaGQ9rwpPDfCC4I3Sm2S4QzEizxVNHNQOcPxGdD50XFCOdlQLEev5FawFDZFfVW3s6XxzrdeCOj2rmLKr/w150-h200/8-torg-livingland.jpg" title="Don't mist it" width="150" /></a></div>Books: The Living Land sourcebook was the first Cosm book released for Torg Eternity, and though there are some stylistic discrepancies with the rest of the line (the way Minor Laws are introduced, for example), it's still one of my favorite ones. I mean, I've always loved the Living Land, even before they peppered it with Wonders and Lost Lands. Who doesn't love dinosaurs? Lizard men? Cryptids!? In original Torg, it was a deadly jungle that nobody wanted to go to (or so I'm told). Now it does hold more attraction, I think. The sourcebook saves a lot of space - relative to others - by not having a huge amount of new abilities and gear to grind through (only Miracles work here and even Tech is extremely limited), so it uses the extra pages mostly on how to set varied adventures there. I'm not sure I really need random tables to kitbash adventures, in principle, but I did come up with several ideas reading the lists and descriptions, so no complaints. Where the book fails a little bit is that there's too much repetition. Concepts explained in the Core Rules are re-stated too often, which is okay, but information from within the book is copy-pasted from one chapter to the next for those GMs who don't read the whole thing. If it wasn't the same verbiage, I might let it pass, but it usually is. Tighter editing would have allowed a little more information on the edeinos, which I think is a little lacking. One major omission for me is the idea that individuals evolve and adapt so as to explain adding some of the biological perks mid-game. I guess it'll have to remain head canon...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCnvsuyPtlkmkysMtGJ1pqpPT8jDhV7q7nGXRDhgzSUObazn0LRmp6HD5UqAkjwcx7asK1esPkEhf_ySWWU3ct4kTD3cCPWc5l7FXAkvvFQ3_KZUAMtD2aI7k-rAU96pipzv2Kbs9egWlCs6T_RXPO8TQpXlo5-MhelHyz244pFq6qqOO58_dM/s256/9-CoC7th.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCnvsuyPtlkmkysMtGJ1pqpPT8jDhV7q7nGXRDhgzSUObazn0LRmp6HD5UqAkjwcx7asK1esPkEhf_ySWWU3ct4kTD3cCPWc5l7FXAkvvFQ3_KZUAMtD2aI7k-rAU96pipzv2Kbs9egWlCs6T_RXPO8TQpXlo5-MhelHyz244pFq6qqOO58_dM/w156-h200/9-CoC7th.jpg" title="Everyone should have a bag of marbles to represent Sanity points" width="156" /></a></div>RPGs: In this month's Call of Cthulhu session, my author, Oscar Alan Phelps, lost enough Sanity to send him into a traumatic flashback set in the Great War and two much smaller characters had to carry his bulk down some stairs. I'm lucky not to have broken my neck, I suppose. The story, involving a disappearing stage magician takes the expression "smoke and mirrors" to another level as it becomes obvious someone is travelling through mirrors, invading our hotel rooms (well, those mirrors are gonna be put out in the hall "for cleaning", ok?), and being used for murrrrderrrrrrr. The sight of a decapitated body, its head only visible in reflections was enough to send a couple of us over the deep end. But since I'm playing Phelps as a staunch unbeliever, there's a certain fearlessness there. He rips the mirror off the wall and ends up on the other side. And he thought WWI was the coldest hell he'd ever been to! In a way, he cracked the case, and yes, that's a dumb mirror joke. In terms of role-playing, my theme with him is to bring out his writerly mannerisms. He gets his notebook out to scribble a useful metaphor (the rival magician wanting to "mirror" the mirror act). He makes literary allusions ("My gorge rises at it." "Like Alice through the looking glass.". And I don't know if this is going to become a thing, but as I was thinking of how Phelps might explain the mirror trick "scientifically", I quickly researched key words and found the oldest reference to the word "teleport" in a 19th-Century Hawaiian paper.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LTqwEH0hZmihF8BJkV5tjFvs0kqJiTfnvg5BY3FG1m2ffAb5HCsOnjy8uo01mW8fJDR6hTAopcxquCY-oDg9U9_RPNoWhfKbSgTYmCRLz-fd8a7oN1zs6BbYMTBJ7y0sHODNSC10Ugm8PCeJXZautw9tfATCAutE0KVCWIg7MQGr-seMPSFg/s600/10-CoC7th-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LTqwEH0hZmihF8BJkV5tjFvs0kqJiTfnvg5BY3FG1m2ffAb5HCsOnjy8uo01mW8fJDR6hTAopcxquCY-oDg9U9_RPNoWhfKbSgTYmCRLz-fd8a7oN1zs6BbYMTBJ7y0sHODNSC10Ugm8PCeJXZautw9tfATCAutE0KVCWIg7MQGr-seMPSFg/s16000/10-CoC7th-2.jpg" title="And that's why were have teleporters today" /></a></div>Passed it off as Phelps' own piece, showing that though he's a debunker, some things are still on the books as "unexplainable".Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-18334479058723972742023-12-20T06:05:00.010-04:002023-12-20T07:32:14.941-04:00Torg Eternity: Silent Night, Stormy Night<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrQ4tQ0ya0n1MVPPugYmYNG9Q8MQFuKAEoL1IAPYTt_Oscbfqnl1PgdArjJkT737tNl5XcndF4t-uFfo7PWjkL4PSDD5y4kwLWaIjvDiYIru9VyvPgVgNZrmMRMQSZhGnf037mEXnBz0DyGIZrp_eLXRCtGYONv7Sl4lA1RHV3eN5INBaGGaA/s646/silentnighstormynight-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="646" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrQ4tQ0ya0n1MVPPugYmYNG9Q8MQFuKAEoL1IAPYTt_Oscbfqnl1PgdArjJkT737tNl5XcndF4t-uFfo7PWjkL4PSDD5y4kwLWaIjvDiYIru9VyvPgVgNZrmMRMQSZhGnf037mEXnBz0DyGIZrp_eLXRCtGYONv7Sl4lA1RHV3eN5INBaGGaA/s16000/silentnighstormynight-cover.jpg" title="I saw mummies fighting Santa Claus! (no, that doesn't actually happen)" /></a></div>Hey, I just published a Torg Eternity Christmas adventure on the Infiniverse Exchange, available <b><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/464368/Torg-Eternity-Silent-Night-Stormy-Night?affiliate_id=476993" target="_blank">HERE on DriveThruRPG!</a></b><br /><b><br />AN ADVENTURE FOR ONE SANTA AND 3 OR MORE ELVES!</b><br /><br />It's the first Christmas of the Possibility Wars and Santa Claus is real! Now you take on the roles of Old Saint Nick and his elves (or your own Storm Knights after the sleigh lands on their rooftop) and go 'round the world in a single night to deliver presents to the nice children... and at least one lump of coal to someone who's been very, very naughty. Silent Night, Stormy Night is a one-Act adventure that takes you on a tour of every realm on Earth, with notes on how to expand it beyond a single session.<br /><br />-Designed to be used with Jay Rutley’s Festive Cosm Card Pack (but not necessary for play).<br />-Scene extensions to push this one-Act adventure through more days of Christmas.<br />-Full stats for Santa Claus and elves from every Cosm.<br /><br />Enjoy!Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-61118156683006545952023-12-17T06:00:00.036-04:002023-12-17T08:14:54.483-04:00This Week in Geek (10-16/12/23)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_cCJVYE40i_U_uD0WGdiZ6SAUCPoOxEpt9MmA7XbBq4IZaE04U4DyTs72izN3u9YwIMqpwb8arEL0fNo-kzmfHQkXvoUcWw_KqIrAI67K6dPxMVpk7VNVu1eKtz3Ham_LVVFW1LAX5cSszVGS-LnHtBbdZ8SZjyckSE8X1XEf1wl0o8vRpCeA/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_cCJVYE40i_U_uD0WGdiZ6SAUCPoOxEpt9MmA7XbBq4IZaE04U4DyTs72izN3u9YwIMqpwb8arEL0fNo-kzmfHQkXvoUcWw_KqIrAI67K6dPxMVpk7VNVu1eKtz3Ham_LVVFW1LAX5cSszVGS-LnHtBbdZ8SZjyckSE8X1XEf1wl0o8vRpCeA/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Hitchcock, Ayo Edebiri, everything goes wrong" /></a></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG-wkgKn7vdxf4eljAGEPOs7GSAzaVt-rBVoXxbVd9k7NuJzX0-oOIJwjTy9NAuRY1Fy7TyfxCBmEtZTePV5R_6t2RWlzLAAPVl6sb_XDh_eohr-dpV868jzDmp1E1gGnzcExt5GdqcWrqkxW1fsjeYJHgNI27chO92_T5PQqa75i6NDUuoKVB/s284/1-godzillaminusone.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG-wkgKn7vdxf4eljAGEPOs7GSAzaVt-rBVoXxbVd9k7NuJzX0-oOIJwjTy9NAuRY1Fy7TyfxCBmEtZTePV5R_6t2RWlzLAAPVl6sb_XDh_eohr-dpV868jzDmp1E1gGnzcExt5GdqcWrqkxW1fsjeYJHgNI27chO92_T5PQqa75i6NDUuoKVB/w141-h200/1-godzillaminusone.jpg" title="I did the math" width="141" /></a></div>In theaters: Though it naturally owes a debt to the 1954 original, it's with confidence that I declare Godzilla Minus One the best Godzilla movie ever made. It's certainly the most emotional, and in a franchise where the human story is often lacking, that's where Minus One shines. This Godzilla, appearing a few years before the original attack, represents the post-war guilt and shame of an entire nation (note how civilians have to stage a kind of Dunkirk as they are abandoned by their own government and the U.S.), but it's also personal to our lead Koichi for whom the big G is his own PTSD. Minus One is crafted like a straight war drama. It just happens to have a giant monster in it, and I've got to say, I don't think I've ever seen this good an effects picture coming out of Asia. It is absolutely gorgeous and more photo-real than the Monarchverse efforts despite their surely having more money to work with. That's because the monster action is doled out in the right proportion, and doesn't mind casting the light of day on the beast. As a 70th Anniversary project is also knows to use the original Godzilla's two themes (which I always miss when absent), recreates the train scene (except this time we're inside it!), and even pays homage to the now-silly oxygen destroyer, but with a plan that feels entirely novel and believable. But again, no matter how well the kaiju stuff works, it's our caring for the cast that makes this work as well as it does, and that's something few if any Godzilla movies have EVER done.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjIR9_5badpVYbvoDK-rrEJKOnJf9avdYXIWi1FoE3C5MWy2Oo3MYMx7dJjBz48lMrDX420TREbN6DQ_IjjaZdD0gDnHr87falORtC8ERnf9MfylfGROPyVwBNyo4Z6NduYfROoIzb-VJl6_925BMdFV0ikwLP0SnUJPSr1uL-aMYp1hwcKqZE/s299/2-bottoms.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjIR9_5badpVYbvoDK-rrEJKOnJf9avdYXIWi1FoE3C5MWy2Oo3MYMx7dJjBz48lMrDX420TREbN6DQ_IjjaZdD0gDnHr87falORtC8ERnf9MfylfGROPyVwBNyo4Z6NduYfROoIzb-VJl6_925BMdFV0ikwLP0SnUJPSr1uL-aMYp1hwcKqZE/w134-h200/2-bottoms.jpg" title="This was tops" width="134" /></a></div>At home: In Bottoms, Emma Seligman creates a poisonous parody of teen movies in which co-writer Rachel Sennott and best friend Ayo Edebiri are gay girls willing to be "superbad" their senior year so they can bed the hot cheerleaders they've been lusting after all through high school. The scheme involves starting a "fight club" where they might learn to defend themselves in the preposterously violent rivalry between their school and another, which is all going to come to a head at a potentially lethal football game. Edebiri is thankfully sympathetic, since Sennott gives herself the a-hole role, but then this is a world where popularity reigns supreme, teachers are universally terrible (Marshawn Lynch hilariously so), and no one really cares that all these girls are walking around with broken noses and black eyes - well, except the jocks who don't like feminism upsetting their world order. You'll recognize the basic tropes, but they're refreshed by Seligman's gleeful contempt for them, the cutthroat satire, and the prevalent queerness. Off-putting at first, once you're into it, Bottoms is very funny.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsFYcqL-oETHoOdklPWKY9SrRWG6Ha9E022sOnXI9pZ6k21slBwYYUREzN3MYQEXsYyYG7xC7l2_7GX-iHM2DnRuzB2ptVVu_nthmagQXOSqvEU8LOsdjXN6yHwWj6979oOQpUeNNKtkfVxYEsxVNrud3YjNRWMGktHNMbzw7Kjtl6trZoJ8WT/s301/3-theatercamp.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsFYcqL-oETHoOdklPWKY9SrRWG6Ha9E022sOnXI9pZ6k21slBwYYUREzN3MYQEXsYyYG7xC7l2_7GX-iHM2DnRuzB2ptVVu_nthmagQXOSqvEU8LOsdjXN6yHwWj6979oOQpUeNNKtkfVxYEsxVNrud3YjNRWMGktHNMbzw7Kjtl6trZoJ8WT/w133-h200/3-theatercamp.jpg" title="One time, in theater camp?" width="133" /></a></div>Theater Camp is an amusing mockumentary about, well, a theater camp that faces being shuttered when its founder falls into a coma and her dumb son runs its already precarious finances into the ground. That's just the ground level premise, because the film features a bunch of side-stories, like the original show based on the founder's life (so musical fans will get their due), the two teachers connected at the hip wanting different things, the new teacher (Ayo Edebiri having an incredible year, release-wise) who doesn't know what she's doing, and even some key moments for the kids of various ages who attend the camp. All laced with a fun mocking tone that takes digs at "theater types" that, if you've ever been around amateur and professional theater people at all, are rather fair even within the comedy. It's what I call the Myth of the Artist - some people in the arts aren't so much artists as people who tap into the Bohemian ideal and see it as a lifestyle/attitude, but produce nothing. And they definitely deserve to be sent up. Theater Camp is funny, but it also has heart, so it's not a complete tear down either.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimi46ElJsVQhLoM7pzwnDKRye9YqvDTWfTsZduEuhRqROE-jnOzrHM2OcPmFuvYS35_hKNPD8hch6teQruUu43idI6BTpAB3jl2RbhXAczI9uBo85l3veGcg6bkJfKf7h4K2eMfUTp-AbYxgBxoQG0ram1O45N39Ml9t-aSCyq8tJOZ7VS9vX/s300/4-welostourhuman.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimi46ElJsVQhLoM7pzwnDKRye9YqvDTWfTsZduEuhRqROE-jnOzrHM2OcPmFuvYS35_hKNPD8hch6teQruUu43idI6BTpAB3jl2RbhXAczI9uBo85l3veGcg6bkJfKf7h4K2eMfUTp-AbYxgBxoQG0ram1O45N39Ml9t-aSCyq8tJOZ7VS9vX/w133-h200/4-welostourhuman.jpg" title="And our minds" width="133" /></a></div>Despite having grown up on Choose Your Own Adventure books, interactive movies aren't for me. I always feel like I missed some parts. Yes, you can "play again", but in the case of We Lost Our Human, I don't think the gags were good enough to make me want to. This branching animated feature stars a cat (Ben Schwartz) and a dog (Ayo Edebiri) who don't get along who lose their Human in the Glitch, a cosmic event that erases humanity from the universe and sends them on an adventure across space, time and gonzo dimensions. The Quiet Earth meets Bill & Ted, this loud and hyperactive cartoon has a lot of insane ideas, but they're playing to a younger audience. Kids will like it more than I did, for sure. For me, the jokes were underwritten and the characters rather obnoxious. It KNOWS it's branching off into different directions and makes it part of the plot, but that means it doubles back on itself, seems to undo the lessons the characters have learned, and repeats the same information a lot. Within the play time, it makes you replay the adventure three times, and that's less than half the content. But the jokes are crisp enough for me to want that second go-round.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj7GEuRJsFA8PKt67mfSjQgUdCanXZun3PYLVn50Zauepowk5FFbkgdmQ_VgECJqvk7OvSJ4E6MQVM0JotcyGmcXN9x13E98QVhhVJF5LnSJIbD8IWVCc4uv1XGNRVIukZPV7skKg4m9BsunltqEUrzlMGEEduPd9KrfMiHVhtsXLlPPA4jAhO/s304/5-blackmail.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj7GEuRJsFA8PKt67mfSjQgUdCanXZun3PYLVn50Zauepowk5FFbkgdmQ_VgECJqvk7OvSJ4E6MQVM0JotcyGmcXN9x13E98QVhhVJF5LnSJIbD8IWVCc4uv1XGNRVIukZPV7skKg4m9BsunltqEUrzlMGEEduPd9KrfMiHVhtsXLlPPA4jAhO/w132-h200/5-blackmail.jpg" title="If you don't want me to talk" width="132" /></a></div>Britain's first talkie, Blackmail has Hitchcock start production as if it were a silent film, then makes an about-face that you can sort of spot, and its silent film heritage is where its weaknesses lie. Anny Ondra, as a woman weighed down by guilt after she kills a man, is definitely acting in that mold, which is to say over-emoting. And the dialog can be, overall, a little slow, in order to match lips to looped sound (and by looped, I mean on-set simul-recording). That said, it's hard to imagine parts of this film as silent, hinging as it does on key conversations, like the blackmail negotiation. (Not to say most of it is quite visual, of course, but even the visual fixation on the knife is supported by sound here.) But even at this early juncture, Hitchcock is still creating potent tension builders, most cleverly in just WHO will be blackmailed and WHY - the answer keeps changing. Hitch also gives us an early chase through a landmark to a vertiginous spot, which would not only become one of his personal tropes, but eventually become a cliched element in 75% of action movies.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDnc1bV3ygwNT7Vasbse4jezfaMIp6v2z6FbOlr2OUvk8lLLC72LlNcv3-awjmqA3zh1QlsrPUgahR6z9zN36OFX9z_svMmCISbjmn6HFUPXRMARkK5OYyF4S6gbSlyxcBAQi7P935M3tSAcjK9jnvfsczzXqHYXfAg5fJEj5Spsj5f7YSDJs/s290/6-murder.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDnc1bV3ygwNT7Vasbse4jezfaMIp6v2z6FbOlr2OUvk8lLLC72LlNcv3-awjmqA3zh1QlsrPUgahR6z9zN36OFX9z_svMmCISbjmn6HFUPXRMARkK5OYyF4S6gbSlyxcBAQi7P935M3tSAcjK9jnvfsczzXqHYXfAg5fJEj5Spsj5f7YSDJs/w138-h200/6-murder.jpg" title="Exclamation point? Really?" width="138" /></a></div>What if Henry Fonda was bullied to come up with the same verdict as everyone else in 12 Angry Men? And then felt so guilty about it that he spent the next few days trying to solve the theater-related crime before an innocent woman goes to the gallows? That's essentially the premise of Murder!, a very early Hitchcock talkie that has its charms - the jury deliberations, the gallows humor, seeing the play from backstage, the tense audition scene - but generally jumps around too much for it to work as an effective whodunit. Herbert Marshall makes a good effete detective - an actor himself so he can read people - and there's value in showing how the police in this case were lazy in their pursuit of the evidence. I don't know why Norah Baring (as the accused Diana... ALSO Baring? That's so weird!) is so ethereal. I suppose this is from the book being adapted that she doesn't really defend herself, but you never really connect with the character and therefore neither care nor believe people are so taken with her. What tricks Hitchcock 'ports over from silent film-making are interesting, but this is one of his lower-tier efforts.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZDf8WJ3aJ-MmWtfNHsi7bAFaJ3duBS0vvhCS2ahk7SSUKFnBww4nrI9hA-sAyIBH2sZjeDGLjbFTVoBI64aJC0k5AiQC3iNW04IDS9nyiqXt9bwjjN1lwQvOdp8ZxOLpQqdrytDXa8eMqw2qUlFl6-kk9vFtLiZpthYnv7MIrGPH2RzYYVYZ/s293/7-rebecca.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZDf8WJ3aJ-MmWtfNHsi7bAFaJ3duBS0vvhCS2ahk7SSUKFnBww4nrI9hA-sAyIBH2sZjeDGLjbFTVoBI64aJC0k5AiQC3iNW04IDS9nyiqXt9bwjjN1lwQvOdp8ZxOLpQqdrytDXa8eMqw2qUlFl6-kk9vFtLiZpthYnv7MIrGPH2RzYYVYZ/w137-h200/7-rebecca.jpg" title="A familiar Eyre" width="137" /></a></div>I know Rebecca is highly regarded, but to me, it's strident melodrama, as per the Du Maurier novel. Hitchcock nevertheless brings a certain Gothic flavor to it that reminds one of Jane Eyre, albeit with the mad woman in the attic a "ghost" that psychologically haunts the various characters. When events finally take a thrillery route, the master of suspense creates some tense moments, but they're largely smothered by exposition. Joan Fontaine plays a young, guileless woman who falls for a rich aristocrat ( Laurence Olivier) whose wife, Rebecca, is dead. But a whirlwind romance on vacation isn't the same as being married to the melancholy, mercurial man, nor living in his household filled with servants who have their own agendas. Fontaine has to navigate all sorts of social dangers while competing with the dead woman, the nature of which isn't exactly what we thought. But by the time the twists and turns arrive, it's a bit late for me. I respect the craft, but the source material just isn't my cup of tea.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-Ooyoy6o7az4U2ekbNruTWSys7IlNzPRRc_2_rbzDCmkqFcCm6k83UfSe6cDmz-dSeuGNAtVm2KbUuZAFFeH5332d8obJYSAWry_cgXgYmFD9PyHd21vZcYWmRZkLCTiW8EBORo6l_ak1Ybo-R8TfPkL39Etpm9f2XpqZDf-efbfMydTQRWq/s301/8-everything%20goes%20wrong.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-Ooyoy6o7az4U2ekbNruTWSys7IlNzPRRc_2_rbzDCmkqFcCm6k83UfSe6cDmz-dSeuGNAtVm2KbUuZAFFeH5332d8obJYSAWry_cgXgYmFD9PyHd21vZcYWmRZkLCTiW8EBORo6l_ak1Ybo-R8TfPkL39Etpm9f2XpqZDf-efbfMydTQRWq/w133-h200/8-everything%20goes%20wrong.jpg" title="Rebels without a cause" width="133" /></a></div>There's no question that what Suzuki means with the title Everything Goes Wrong is that the trouble started with World War II. War footage is in the opening credits and then we jump to 1960, the Japan of baseball, apple pie, and jazz bars. It's also the Japan of street gang and disaffected youth, a Japan where American culture rules and morality has deteriorated. On a more personal level, Jiro is a young man angry that his father died in the war and his mother's lover works for the war machine. His anger will take him far, or rather, low. He's a James Dean type whose rebellion might as well take him to criminal places. The other focus of the film is Etsuko, a young woman who has become pregnant and is desperate for an abortion, if she can only raise the funds for one. Though the two hang with the same crowd, they're not directly related, but her need will act as a catalyst for Jiro's wildest days. Suzuki cleverly ties them together in their desperation and rudderless existence. A bit bleak, but a potent manifesto about post-war Japan.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvvyRF0dr7NNDXZzdDaJZJOYZjuuiW2srbQN__hMyRKLY48WuzLgW-pJ73_QbUscTv0_Y7t6UCOf_GjnTJ-6Fwd245G-6DlMnWzjuGazTB2qiXEVns3XqcWBy4wuq46k3bYgZv2EtLUeTC-HQ0Mr51OYU9IjLeRoTq5bRGA-u7JGxQB9-4kB3A/s200/9-torg-blanchette.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvvyRF0dr7NNDXZzdDaJZJOYZjuuiW2srbQN__hMyRKLY48WuzLgW-pJ73_QbUscTv0_Y7t6UCOf_GjnTJ-6Fwd245G-6DlMnWzjuGazTB2qiXEVns3XqcWBy4wuq46k3bYgZv2EtLUeTC-HQ0Mr51OYU9IjLeRoTq5bRGA-u7JGxQB9-4kB3A/w200-h200/9-torg-blanchette.jpg" title="Looks familiar" width="200" /></a></div><p>RPGs: COVID struck two of our number last month, which means we missed a session and had some catching up to do in our Torg Eternity game. Ran it a bit fast and long, and tired players were less pone to get into long conversations like they usually do, which may have felt like this bit of When Cosms Collide was on rails a little. At this point, the players encounter "reality weavers" from an unknown cosm that use people's collective unconscious to create reality, no stelae required. From 1001 Nights to Perrault and the Grimm Bros., they have all sorts of wonky encounters as a result, and one of them even ends up with his own fairy godmother who's so proud, and made him a suit for the upcoming ball, and oh won't he look sharp in his new suit of clothes partially made from... creatures made of lightning?! It does fit his theme. He's a regular Thor, this one. Some light fighting, some chuckles at trying to use fairy tale logic against the scenario, but also some desperate moments where it was time to just run away. This was a night of very low rolls (for the players, at least) and they consequently used up their Possibilities very early in the Act. By the end, they couldn't do the cool stuff, and taking Wounds with no hope of Soaking them. They'll be heading into the climax pretty beat up, at this rate.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Px59SxTznXeED9By-gW6PC2IR0M4Rup7-8ng_R6Othisija1Nkz_HuV_2Y5Gera247JM4Kwb-okNBU6pDOiv7eWE9Vt8dcSOCCP3NByZgSCURy4IgvDk1j5SEsRiLTq3MQm7dpicVmNprfCVW2DIs7cUaCMyFTPJg83DjpcIMD6JkzpoUlSh/s600/breaking-news20.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Px59SxTznXeED9By-gW6PC2IR0M4Rup7-8ng_R6Othisija1Nkz_HuV_2Y5Gera247JM4Kwb-okNBU6pDOiv7eWE9Vt8dcSOCCP3NByZgSCURy4IgvDk1j5SEsRiLTq3MQm7dpicVmNprfCVW2DIs7cUaCMyFTPJg83DjpcIMD6JkzpoUlSh/s16000/breaking-news20.jpg" title="Somewheeeeeeeeeerrrrrre..." /></a></div>Best bits: First, some of the best bits that didn't happen. The Realm Runner had some great ideas that just didn't pan out, and I want to give them their due. Like sticking a homing device on the alien probe by way of his mobile phone and a Reality roll to keep it from going inert. Failed the skill roll. To get up to the to of the rainbow, he floated the idea that magic beans might create a handy beanstalk, but the idea was predicated on a market that didn't exist based on a prior description. Had he insisted, I would have allowed an Alteration roll on any old beans, but he didn't. The Paladin once again tried to romance someone - the Nile Empire field leader - but without a Romance card in his arsenal, and a failed Persuasion roll, she seemed more interested in SCIENCE! than love. The Wrestler jumping into the NE halftrack and knocking the Tharkold mercs off of it with a wheel spin was pretty cool. The Monster Hunter complaining that he was hungry after "woven" kebabs disappeared from reality, and thus his stomach was funny. Also overheard: "How did our team member die? Well, you see, one of our guys had this fairy godmother, see? And she made him a suit, but needed us to walk on clouds to get the final touches, and well..."Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-27010465726595196972023-12-10T06:00:00.001-04:002023-12-10T06:00:00.131-04:00This Week in Geek (3-09/12/23)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8W5kt1TdsfAx-wBPw9it9kyA_tNEbUgTrwcNFJmnXHyNOfSPYD4aV9zs5bNsRx_EYNBcZjKJ-1JR0VgIziB0glRTM9ym-GIAbXIFVS6jAM5-1zwXxY93S9EVP_j2K71uSi2J_9jRzBjG0omUbjb-M5U9ZBsuGDsDbdKTcCxGuo1rqHLXX8tZw/s600/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8W5kt1TdsfAx-wBPw9it9kyA_tNEbUgTrwcNFJmnXHyNOfSPYD4aV9zs5bNsRx_EYNBcZjKJ-1JR0VgIziB0glRTM9ym-GIAbXIFVS6jAM5-1zwXxY93S9EVP_j2K71uSi2J_9jRzBjG0omUbjb-M5U9ZBsuGDsDbdKTcCxGuo1rqHLXX8tZw/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="Mark Lewis, Carol Kane, Charlie Durning, frogs, coming from inside the house, Christmas" /></a></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLyoB0QXpbgj6za3ITX8yoUT6MQkq-ZlPMolSBQ3wudiGMZsJVdi71V-Xc905_qV52S8gBOMvAZrSglJo5mjvKrEYYlOhJOHu3wms-5gTzZdBx2srm-_bQBrAjCx9W3aXbOJ_ztaxAw8nkPI8Bs3K1CNDaFIhhbpY1L2iKqYl3f-ifWcklHKp6/s300/1-dreamscenario.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLyoB0QXpbgj6za3ITX8yoUT6MQkq-ZlPMolSBQ3wudiGMZsJVdi71V-Xc905_qV52S8gBOMvAZrSglJo5mjvKrEYYlOhJOHu3wms-5gTzZdBx2srm-_bQBrAjCx9W3aXbOJ_ztaxAw8nkPI8Bs3K1CNDaFIhhbpY1L2iKqYl3f-ifWcklHKp6/w133-h200/1-dreamscenario.jpg" title="You're better off not doing anything" width="133" /></a></div>In theaters: We're used to this. Middle-upper class straight white man gets attention for not doing very much at all, trades it in for the fruits of fame, eventually gets his ass cancelled, bristles at having been unfairly treated, exposing the fact that he was always a privileged monster. That's definitely an overlay in Dream Scenario, in which Nicholas Cage plays as awkward a normal person as he is capable of, a tenured university professor who becomes the focus of the world's attention when a large part of the population starts seeing him in their dreams. But when his anger at some of the things happening in his life leaks into the dreams, they turn to nightmares, with unforeseen consequences. It's an intriguing existential premise, well played and well shot (the dreams, especially), though the third act pivot feels like they didn't know how to end it. It goes a little Cronenberg, honestly, but I think it all tracks with the aforementioned overlay as there's real desperation to recapture something, both professionally and romantically. The movie has some genuine laughs (with special mention going to Michael Cera as one of his scuzzball agent characters), but of course a lot of pathos too (Julianne Nicholson is especially great). If you're programming some double features, I recommend this before Strawberry Mansion, as Dream Scenario could be its prequel.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkK07QWgs4C1eJVykpZp38AjO4z_E3Ta2BnEXLe3ZBvIS6f1zhnUbqkr9vVr9-XiiQhbF4cPjjIUHh7rl2n5LVLkVN8PDnIXVs86nT9jD2DSRYP7WVxelUwXkiYHhRnzpdPdRf5pM3Eq9GmmlkYTbyHmQm6BoHQo4memto9j-SrMEP9cEzmIP/s313/2-formeandmygal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkK07QWgs4C1eJVykpZp38AjO4z_E3Ta2BnEXLe3ZBvIS6f1zhnUbqkr9vVr9-XiiQhbF4cPjjIUHh7rl2n5LVLkVN8PDnIXVs86nT9jD2DSRYP7WVxelUwXkiYHhRnzpdPdRf5pM3Eq9GmmlkYTbyHmQm6BoHQo4memto9j-SrMEP9cEzmIP/w128-h200/2-formeandmygal.jpg" title="Me, my Gal, and the Army" width="128" /></a></div>At home: Gene Kelly's first film, For Me and My Gal, pairs him up with established star Judy Garland and though he's a little cartoony and can't keep up with her emotionally, it's nevertheless a quick star-making turn for him. The two of them meetcute over the title song (which is the best tune among a bunch of novelty songs, including one called Ballin' the Jack, cough cough) and off they go trying get their Vaudeville act on the Palace stage. He's the grifting opportunist, she's the purehearted girl putting her brother through medical school. I like how they fall in love. All this is happening in the shadow of World War I, so I probably shouldn't have been as surprised as I was when this 1942 piece turns into a propaganda parade in the third act. Kelly has to prove he's no coward and regret any of his attempts to dodge the draft so he can finally win Garland's hand. Oh, and buy war bonds, please. Sold as a tribute to the Vaudeville era, the film is soon coopted by another agenda, and while it's certainly stirring, it's also a bit of a Frankenstein's Monster as a result.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV1ONkkGSI23n-i_8vnyrDkfip-_sMZgCDVZ5omRH7svYTYsY49t5ER0NHS9fpFD3E-g3yDaxN17geua0Nik6mbL6iU9aHq0bd7_qPeChuNZR3GpxDCtVPpOZ6RbxTJ8OQUjTg5gKBzKcqKPXqwdky-HmqO8AxJNEWZ3oZ5hYYvnWGZAL5kmW3/s300/3-youngandinnocent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV1ONkkGSI23n-i_8vnyrDkfip-_sMZgCDVZ5omRH7svYTYsY49t5ER0NHS9fpFD3E-g3yDaxN17geua0Nik6mbL6iU9aHq0bd7_qPeChuNZR3GpxDCtVPpOZ6RbxTJ8OQUjTg5gKBzKcqKPXqwdky-HmqO8AxJNEWZ3oZ5hYYvnWGZAL5kmW3/w133-h200/3-youngandinnocent.jpg" title="That clue reallu UNDERMINED his case" width="133" /></a></div>Hitchcock's British talkies feel like lighter entertainment than the American films he would be best known for, with their quirky characters and fast dialog, but that's kind of why I like them. Case in point, Young and Innocent taps into Hitch's interest in "the wrong man", one accused of a murder he didn't commit and must now solve before the coppers do the lazy thing and send him to the headman. Hitchcock has claimed a mistrust of the police since childhood, and in these pictures it's less because of corruption than incompetence, although you might say they go hand in hand. Thankfully for our hero, the chief constable's daughter is on the case and the pair - plus a cute dog - drive around the English countryside trying to find a crucial clue. A fun runaround with romance thrown in and you won't believe where the car ends up (Hitchcock loves to balance people over the edge, doesn't he?). But the ending, well... The audience knows more than the heroes in this case, so it's no much of a mystery, and when the film reaches its maximum run time, the jig is up, almost anticlimactically. But it's a good time until the awkward minstrel show.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE24zKKRkR5oTpag5o9QACZikRj-mHicOPkf6h0tiNieCryfnHqoN63IE5NjcQIwpwtaFVtiVv1sFPQCINdqmgrmtUlfC4ab01Kq3n-v-ea9cJw2A5X8I9303xJFdKTdXF9vLFKYgviWAu71FZIiLcVFuyoAui3TxxocVvZcN_jv8XI1Hk41A-/s313/4-whenastrangercalls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE24zKKRkR5oTpag5o9QACZikRj-mHicOPkf6h0tiNieCryfnHqoN63IE5NjcQIwpwtaFVtiVv1sFPQCINdqmgrmtUlfC4ab01Kq3n-v-ea9cJw2A5X8I9303xJFdKTdXF9vLFKYgviWAu71FZIiLcVFuyoAui3TxxocVvZcN_jv8XI1Hk41A-/w128-h200/4-whenastrangercalls.jpg" title="Carol Kane was the Drew Barrymore of the 70s" width="128" /></a></div>Hard not to see inspiration for Scream in the first act of When a Stranger Calls, which builds suspense effectively as a young Carol Kane (almost unrecognizable in this genre) plays a babysitter harassed by a killer's phone calls. Seven years later, the killer has escaped from a mental institution and her own family comes under threat, but... not immediately. Instead, she drops off the face of the film so we can watch the first cop on the scene, now a private eye, try to catch the man (Krynoid-worshipper Tony Beckley in a great, even sympathetic performance) before he kills again. There's a whole unrelated person in danger, detective work, foot chases... It feels like it's part of a different movie. Finally, in the brief third act, Carol is back and she brings the FEAR. We're back in Fred Walton's world of suspense and everything WORKS. So it's really unfortunate that the film takes such a strange structural turn...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDIIpI7sMdx9rM029E_dKEOtSVl_FnFiyOJOtaxT_aUhp1TVki66EQ2Z0NVi2o1TYeIKNYxCU7QL6_DdZS65PO9MNQ2XjdRZ0uosPHI43rZTyquWyWP5GrOgOQxQK-VvwLyZGJe3U1JcZrXBu3c3NINOs7duj0NHC5Vq0J64IWnF9apjffLfq/s289/5-whenastrangercallsback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDIIpI7sMdx9rM029E_dKEOtSVl_FnFiyOJOtaxT_aUhp1TVki66EQ2Z0NVi2o1TYeIKNYxCU7QL6_DdZS65PO9MNQ2XjdRZ0uosPHI43rZTyquWyWP5GrOgOQxQK-VvwLyZGJe3U1JcZrXBu3c3NINOs7duj0NHC5Vq0J64IWnF9apjffLfq/w138-h200/5-whenastrangercallsback.jpg" title="This time, the phones are tapped!" width="138" /></a></div>14 years after When a Stranger Calls, Fred Walton made what I was going to call a TV-sanitized sequel with When a Stranger Calls Back, but it was for Showtime, so it surprises with sudden nudity at some point. In a way, that makes it harder edged than the first. The movie starts much like the first one, with a babysitter being terrorized, but the details are intriguingly different. Not quite as scary, but five years later, she's a nervous wreck and the kidnapper (not necessarily a killer in this case) is breaking into her apartment to leave her clues. So she turns to social worker Carol Kane and her friend retired policeman Charlie Durning, the perfect combo to get her in a safe place and solve the crime. If the 1979 original plays at cop show in its middle act, this feels even more like a pilot for a show where every week, Kane and Durning help a young person out and catch their weird stalker. At least in this case, it's more classically structured and we don't lose sight of the particulars. It's also a pretty bleak vision that only warms you up because Kane and Durning have a nice friendship going.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkdhgCXIVJsOQVV5JH530DdiTpF1mYgRkkIV3cSnvuDFjB6_HRnnSpQRP6EnW4xATiOBj5r-xnsIiNUgSflBfOixc5hIimKn8pkbVgV2GdrTmAeRdXJ7BLH6fl7F2oFEcwyg-gZpYeEiuSikzkdjH3lF84hX9kZ_XfZf0I7JsQDXoeWZ_us_WM/s312/6-muppetmovie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkdhgCXIVJsOQVV5JH530DdiTpF1mYgRkkIV3cSnvuDFjB6_HRnnSpQRP6EnW4xATiOBj5r-xnsIiNUgSflBfOixc5hIimKn8pkbVgV2GdrTmAeRdXJ7BLH6fl7F2oFEcwyg-gZpYeEiuSikzkdjH3lF84hX9kZ_XfZf0I7JsQDXoeWZ_us_WM/w128-h200/6-muppetmovie.jpg" title="Who invited the two old critics?" width="128" /></a></div>When they make a Muppet movie, like uhm, THE Muppet Movie, it's like a time capsule of who was a recognizable celebrity at the time. 1979 feels extremely far away when the celebs are Dom DeLuise and Cloris Leachman, Elliott Gould and... Orson Welles!? But I'm a child of that decade, so these people were in movies, talk shows, Love Boat episodes, and of course some of them - Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, Carol Kane, Mel Brooks - will never go out of fashion. Everybody wants to play with the Muppets, and that was as true when making their first movie as it is now. The movie presumes to tell the origin of the creature circus, through nonsense vaguely movie-inspired set pieces and pleasant songs - using "Rainbow Connection" (indeed, ORIGINATING it) as the key theme gives what is otherwise silly fluff a lot of poignancy - and I dunno, to me, it's all about Kermit making sure to tell Fozzie Bear he was funny after the screening. Piggy's right, he IS a good leader.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgohZ2u-pcw-1Y7732CVMFI1EqikdsPa9tfoT4M38fqIseH__gpA_ONRgWHxYP8823DUMOE69MJkk5DU0xsvYY3OrQRKp3erzyv1X58o9OfR8g4L9Ga36M8o3EVaI9dWJLWoGIl1Keb6nMP4k9sOT_HszCSBEQ9XuJAd9yc297goujV4TTH30G_/s284/7-canetoads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgohZ2u-pcw-1Y7732CVMFI1EqikdsPa9tfoT4M38fqIseH__gpA_ONRgWHxYP8823DUMOE69MJkk5DU0xsvYY3OrQRKp3erzyv1X58o9OfR8g4L9Ga36M8o3EVaI9dWJLWoGIl1Keb6nMP4k9sOT_HszCSBEQ9XuJAd9yc297goujV4TTH30G_/w141-h200/7-canetoads.jpg" title="Dairy Queen!" width="141" /></a></div>Mark Lewis's lo-fi documentary Cane Toads: An Unnatural History is by turns delightful and frightening, just like his subject. In the 1930s, Australian cane sugar farmers imported these big fat frogs from Hawaii to take care of their cane grub/beetle problem. Not only did it fail, but the invader species started eating everything in sight, reproducing in large numbers, and never found a natural predator. When the film was made, it was already taking over Australia. Isn't this the same country that had problems with invading rabbits?! Some people never learn. Lewis treats his subject like deadpan absurdist theater, showing us people who love them and people who hate them, even among scientists. How the toad has affected pop culture in the area. How cute it is. How creepy and dangerous it is. Some of the stories are almost too insane to be true. Fair warning, there's one shot of a toad eating another animal that once scene, cannot be unseen. It was shot during feeding time at a nature preserve - the film makers just watched as nature - or un-nature, as it were - took its course. Nevertheless, brr...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEopLAn2ZdAm2y-PTllnSH_gBefYJUO2H4yjKKWsMQb7JSwIRwqvPa_FwLfTnLjUnycQHQNJJWc_uxXPY9qBb3bhsYXSjM_BJ7SSNQsRUvuBOg3qWjR7sxQqX2EjGEkyA3UbBsJV1V1zvDTDkyGj0Iv_7J8D5_lq79aZEcgpQ-BmLKVUddhUr0/s355/8-rat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEopLAn2ZdAm2y-PTllnSH_gBefYJUO2H4yjKKWsMQb7JSwIRwqvPa_FwLfTnLjUnycQHQNJJWc_uxXPY9qBb3bhsYXSjM_BJ7SSNQsRUvuBOg3qWjR7sxQqX2EjGEkyA3UbBsJV1V1zvDTDkyGj0Iv_7J8D5_lq79aZEcgpQ-BmLKVUddhUr0/w113-h200/8-rat.jpg" title="Another good reason to keep the lid closed" width="113" /></a></div>With Rat, Lewis does with the New York rat what he did for the Cane Toad, though there's less context to cover, because we all know what rats are and where New York is. Indeed, he's mostly concerned with having New Yorkers recreate their rat stories, presumably with trained specimens. If their traumas are real and not as overstated as I think they sometimes are, these people were pretty brave to confront their fears for movie magic. The rats do come off better than the toads though, less invaders and more encroachers (who you tell me, who's encroaching on who?), and Lewis recreates a "nature film" look despite our looking at sewer drains, urban environments and wall interiors. That's his specialty: Where the animal world and humanity converge, the "unnatural" history. And unlike Cane Toads, there's not a disturbing moment. Well, unless you have a history with mice and rats and this gives you traumatic flashbacks about your own home invasions.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKy6ILpcDWNzFv78gXjEAZ1cysB-3FtUHBaIpAAUP2G4SccntGCzqqhkaaVh3v9bPQqIdttFSk-eni-2654e18_J_qV-P-IVhq3QjyIPLvJcHajQx6pbtdYe2P6qoPcmb73yCSOTyNlRofmj7SSVRpssng-MdUt1HfK6ct3jTIX9b8uHLoWhvs/s267/9-naturalhistoryofthechicken.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKy6ILpcDWNzFv78gXjEAZ1cysB-3FtUHBaIpAAUP2G4SccntGCzqqhkaaVh3v9bPQqIdttFSk-eni-2654e18_J_qV-P-IVhq3QjyIPLvJcHajQx6pbtdYe2P6qoPcmb73yCSOTyNlRofmj7SSVRpssng-MdUt1HfK6ct3jTIX9b8uHLoWhvs/w150-h200/9-naturalhistoryofthechicken.jpg" title="They aren't as chicken as we thought" width="150" /></a></div>While The Natural History of the Chicken continues Mark Lewis' exploration of animals and the people who love/hate/eat them (the real subjects of these nature documentaries, if truth be told), the chicken isn't as engaging a subject as cane toads or rats. Though there's an attempt to make them for of a nuisance by using the story of a cockfighter breeder whose animals bothered his neighbors, chickens are not generally pests, and so there's the frisson of past efforts is missing. There are still a lot of fun stories - one wonders where Lewis gets his human subjects, must be a lot of riffling through local newspapers - intercut, at least initially, with shots of the inhumane conditions chickens suffer in mass production farms. Especially when compared to the sweet free range birds who make up the bulk of the tales, acting "like people" whether they end up on a dinner table or not. Lewis once again manages to make people recreate key moments in their lives (which is absurd in and of itself) and shows how the same species (us) can see an animal as a pet and as food within the same culture.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2klTgKZnW6Q1Sii_l5My38nK2YB_0773NZCoNrnT-lbMyZpZYnbbNyhEkmtqwk7PcKVTC6IBBSzD09NvJeVY8FA-k0_EwdyCx9b3-6GrGkVhFxREVuP2LV4mIvHOmrhH3y6tC0xPMfHWdrykK7uICkKMlyAYsPyY2IGae9CynK0dbJkKtsNyF/s298/10-canetoads2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2klTgKZnW6Q1Sii_l5My38nK2YB_0773NZCoNrnT-lbMyZpZYnbbNyhEkmtqwk7PcKVTC6IBBSzD09NvJeVY8FA-k0_EwdyCx9b3-6GrGkVhFxREVuP2LV4mIvHOmrhH3y6tC0xPMfHWdrykK7uICkKMlyAYsPyY2IGae9CynK0dbJkKtsNyF/w134-h200/10-canetoads2.jpg" title="Oh Sydney... (wait, why am I still doing Scream?)" width="134" /></a></div>More than 20 years after the first film, Mark Lewis returns to the subject of Cane Toads in The Conquest, and while the frogs have advanced on Australia, humanity hasn't made much of a dent on its end. While Lewis has to reiterate the historical context and biological realities for a new audience (he also revisits the little girl on the original poster, now all grown up), The Conquest largely new material. He's found goofy new talking heads to interview and has pushed the documentary to feature length. If you're only going to see ONE Cane Toads documentary, I still still say it should be the 1988 original even if this one is visually slicker. I'm giving them the same essential score though, because it could be an either/or proposition. The Conquest is more up to date and Lewis put his usual effort in. It's perhaps not as shockingly absurd. But despite this being the second go-round, he still gave a transplants invasive species a certain poignancy. Can you feel bad for an entire species that "didn't ask to be here"? I guess you can.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsBKJQQG-pGa-lYi84rMCoZY0qIG_Lv4YJbGD4wYrQM2NCre0luq6rCHDzVCKdSU2VjUEEUBgHMEzyvVNeZO6ZhkLRwXZhgyvRUphZy13shki8-dlQ7zvy0zDp1lZfGKm9Ij35c1OtyWIzdk53xsEmngf1ZpjUc6mx90UA_7YmepQl6wGegKyE/s305/11-christmasevil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsBKJQQG-pGa-lYi84rMCoZY0qIG_Lv4YJbGD4wYrQM2NCre0luq6rCHDzVCKdSU2VjUEEUBgHMEzyvVNeZO6ZhkLRwXZhgyvRUphZy13shki8-dlQ7zvy0zDp1lZfGKm9Ij35c1OtyWIzdk53xsEmngf1ZpjUc6mx90UA_7YmepQl6wGegKyE/w131-h200/11-christmasevil.jpg" title="Moss! (shakes fist)" width="131" /></a></div>I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus and now I've got a really toxic relationship with Christmas, or You Better Watch Out (AKA Christmas Evil), in which a man sees himself as Santa - works in a toyshop, keeps tabs on the good and bad boys and girls of the neighborhood... So what happens when his transformation is complete? Will he be a benign, gift-giving saint? Or a dangerous slasher? A bit of both is the answer, but once the mechanics of the choice are engaged, things feel a more predictable. Still ends on a poetic moment though, so there's something to this. Like the toys his factory makes, the movie is a cheap affair, slowly burning towards its climaxes. It resists the temptation to slap dialog or narration over scenes where the man is alone, and just lets things play realistically, but as a result comes off as a little underwritten. A quirky choice for seasonal viewing - Hallmark audiences need not apply - but more interesting than most.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitn41zTYB4rOLQOvtNr3vgSG28VTP_BmDIAEk9R0ACIxRdbjKZS0Z1NFUr3zDTj_9aJNCy8enmq9y3cu64QzdAd424SrRjAr7_RvuUzbL4M6M0cgN-w277r5tlvti-aKncpZHOEZW4H0QuChy5ttIKyD-d2et4F4niAJhZ0XLSBqxs2us2TflH/s287/12-beyondtomorrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitn41zTYB4rOLQOvtNr3vgSG28VTP_BmDIAEk9R0ACIxRdbjKZS0Z1NFUr3zDTj_9aJNCy8enmq9y3cu64QzdAd424SrRjAr7_RvuUzbL4M6M0cgN-w277r5tlvti-aKncpZHOEZW4H0QuChy5ttIKyD-d2et4F4niAJhZ0XLSBqxs2us2TflH/w139-h200/12-beyondtomorrow.jpg" title="Less science-fiction than I expected" width="139" /></a></div>Though Beyond Tomorrow (AKA Beyond Christmas) has a synopsis that sounds like A Christmas Carol, its overt sentimentality prevents it from connecting to its premise properly. Or premises, plural. The talky front end lacks an engine, but three millionaires throwing wallets into the street to attract honest souls to their dinner party, creating an incidental meetcute for two of them, might have been enough to create an early hang-out film. But the old duffers die and become ghosts at the mid-point! Well, ok, ghostly shenanigans? Not really, as the movie is more interested in their eventually achieving Heaven, and there's some poignancy there. Problem is, it's pretty disconnected from what's happening to the two lovers on Earth. The ghosts comment, but they have very little agency. If they had to make sure they end up together, that's one thing, but God in this doesn't really care. And what happens on the mortal plane is such melodrama - sudden stardom, estrangement, an ex-husband with a gun... - that it begs for the ghosts to be active agents. Beyond is cute to the point of saccharine, but it does have its moments. Your sure won't know where it's going (derogatory).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNmtfyIB3Bi-kKpkc7xUYEYZtH5fHiH8gvNESO9B0UBSL1xbrevFbCOa0t_c0SszdaN-GCDdIJxDsVHt9KcLtWWZGqhvVAebfmO2C0GboqqPfbysznc_CI7QWK1Oad1K-Zk8H-cIKG874UEliVQLOCtiLycMv429qitIm6m6xJjYUOIGDHHWM8/s258/13-torg-pp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNmtfyIB3Bi-kKpkc7xUYEYZtH5fHiH8gvNESO9B0UBSL1xbrevFbCOa0t_c0SszdaN-GCDdIJxDsVHt9KcLtWWZGqhvVAebfmO2C0GboqqPfbysznc_CI7QWK1Oad1K-Zk8H-cIKG874UEliVQLOCtiLycMv429qitIm6m6xJjYUOIGDHHWM8/w155-h200/13-torg-pp.jpg" title="Can I run my table like a business meeting?" width="155" /></a></div>Books: Seven years in the making, the Pan-Pacifica Sourcebook was the last Cosm sourcebook to come out for Torg Eternity, and it had time to gestate. When the Core Rules came out, I was stoked at the prospect of adventuring in Asia seeing as original Torg's lacklustre Nippon Tech Cosm had been completely rehabilitated with a horror vibe out of Train to Busan/Resident Evil, in addition to a stronger link to Asian action cinema which I had incidentally become a big fan of since AND the really quite clever idea that this was a covert invasion and no one knew or believed it was actually happening. Core Earth under corporate takeover. But then the pandemic happened and the Contagion aspect of Pan-Pacifica was dialed back significantly in the eventual sourcebook, keeping the idea of biological warfare to implement some rather crazy bioware perks that I'm not entirely onboard with. Genetic modifications to make you stronger or see in the dark, fine. But chest tentacles and the like just seems like the purview of Tharkold's radioactive mutations, you know? To remain covert, it seems to me the casual visitor shouldn't be noticing that they're in another world/time frame and this seems out of step with P-P's 5 minutes in the future feel. The book also includes a new martial arts system, which is pretty solid. Basically you spend Chi as Shock to create various effects, available to practitioners of different Paths. I was a little confused as to how to pay for it, but I think I have a handle on it now (perhaps an example would have helped, here?). Like Tharkold, there's a lot of variety in Pan-Pacifica - corporate espionage, martial arts, psionics, a new ascetic religion, bioware... - and part of that comes from there being a lot more countries in the alliance, while most other Cosms are more geographically contained. I've personally been holding off on Pan-Pacifican play because I was waiting for the book. Now it's got me rushing a bit to get to where it wants me to be to get the dates aligned with my Cosmverse with all the big changes made from the Core Rules version. Well... I think I might delay some of it to take best advantage of what was already there before flipping the tables on my players.Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-59783759924608381602023-11-26T06:00:00.048-04:002023-11-26T06:00:00.141-04:00This Week in Geek (19-25/11/23)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXruQk_erMtIt3BA7wPjblW4lTFrQ7H0ckXc2ySigtdvzSHUY0QJhQRDaalAUoWC1R_cbjUUrKGoUY3n6UA_H5zbXZgjTOwB0tE-q16gMFLkEj-9hIqOyS4jKr_UIq9T-NXOqvbuFf4Hb_5_u-uYE2m4Zx39mEV4RB1splvty_xM0Ew3gfJ1d4/s699/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXruQk_erMtIt3BA7wPjblW4lTFrQ7H0ckXc2ySigtdvzSHUY0QJhQRDaalAUoWC1R_cbjUUrKGoUY3n6UA_H5zbXZgjTOwB0tE-q16gMFLkEj-9hIqOyS4jKr_UIq9T-NXOqvbuFf4Hb_5_u-uYE2m4Zx39mEV4RB1splvty_xM0Ew3gfJ1d4/s16000/0-thisweekingeek.jpg" title="This week's themes: Toronto, Alison Pill, female protagonists, doctor & nurses, parenting is hard, Jeff Lemire, food" /></a></b></div><b>"Accomplishments"</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj27mwHylVUpI6MbTJzmTNJ42M8rOodeuIMiprM8P74yMmy2F1l_7X604AjD3otycZ7l4z48ZhEoBwiwnLmLdzI_C5hSo49mzhQ1Dgb6h1oAFN5SuG82lC0erTRqF8z4ipj8q-0D6f-5UzRAyH-0sjxTyShhwCGZqwF-lF5IoMB-cZXMoiL1dd_/s291/1-vampirehumaniste.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="291" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj27mwHylVUpI6MbTJzmTNJ42M8rOodeuIMiprM8P74yMmy2F1l_7X604AjD3otycZ7l4z48ZhEoBwiwnLmLdzI_C5hSo49mzhQ1Dgb6h1oAFN5SuG82lC0erTRqF8z4ipj8q-0D6f-5UzRAyH-0sjxTyShhwCGZqwF-lF5IoMB-cZXMoiL1dd_/w137-h200/1-vampirehumaniste.jpg" title="Life sucks" width="137" /></a></div>In theaters: Move over Karmina, there's a new Quebecois vampire movie out and it's really great. Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant (Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person) is something of a cross between What We Do in the Shadows and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and though Ariane Louis-Seize's first feature, it's a deftly juggled black comedy with a strong dramatic core about young people contemplating suicide. It images a droll vampire subculture, where vamps have families, kids, doctors, etc. and in comes Sasha, a late bloomer who, at the end of vamp adolescence, still hasn't managed to kill someone for herself. She has too much empathy. Can Paul, the school loser who hates his life bring her out of her shell by giving her his consent? Or is the whole thing going to end in a sweet, oddball romance that will save both their lives? The leads feel everything very acutely, but they're surrounded by comic performers who create a kind of absurdist nightmare around them (especially Paul's school environment). In a world gone mad, finding a purpose one can ethically tap into is the key to fighting despair... Great music too.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAqq1s0VwVhJFmKmTAsTvbU9p3yiILOWJDY3gOFdLD-ERUAWgTO-cBeUCPcSmZ_esnMhev5gpfyg2u_BX1Q6r6cJoe8mEh1DHYjE7z82xyBzREUeukZEC1Zhm6MoC-kaLUyeWWig8IdG7yDChHv5Xx62Vly5CTp_CgynmUmpxcFbrkQ0ykNis-/s250/2-thanksgiving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAqq1s0VwVhJFmKmTAsTvbU9p3yiILOWJDY3gOFdLD-ERUAWgTO-cBeUCPcSmZ_esnMhev5gpfyg2u_BX1Q6r6cJoe8mEh1DHYjE7z82xyBzREUeukZEC1Zhm6MoC-kaLUyeWWig8IdG7yDChHv5Xx62Vly5CTp_CgynmUmpxcFbrkQ0ykNis-/w160-h200/2-thanksgiving.jpg" title="I don't need the recipe thanks" width="160" /></a></div>Over 15 years in the making! Eli Roth's fake Thanksgiving trailer in Grindhouse was a filthy slasher parody with pornographic punchlines. The actual film version has very strong gore (it's Roth, after all), but discards the gross sex stuff, crafting a really good slasher film, actually! One of the winning elements is that we've had Halloween and Christmas-inspired slashers up the wazoo, but Thanksgiving is a blank canvas that nonetheless has the proper iconography for a horror film. Roth taps into different facets of the uniquely American holiday - and I could have watched a whole movie about his Black Friday Massacre, just imagine Assault on Precinct 13 in a department store) - while also winking at moments and lines from the old trailer. As a whodunit, it's not exactly difficult to predict, but the clues and red herrings are well set up and it doesn't feel like the movie is cheating. In terms of characters, there's the usual cast of teenagers, but they and their families are better drawn than in most films of the genre, with Suits' Rick Hoffman playing the jerk businessman who nevertheless is a loving father. But mostly, you're watching this for the imaginative kills and gory effects. The tag line may say there won't be leftovers, so is it too early to ask for seconds?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxs0oWgghONj83UFekjmJE2SXJM8AMSsn298SiqexFy2OKUu3d3TNc41F9Tenc9GbwARQHbr0vSZ0XmD8RjbTDeccM4_ebRnrDK05eso_9Zlx_zbwK5dqVK447cLznYGqdq8lQzlN_e7RMBQNfYucSoKtq5IUaJuvyAl0WYHhfBUh9ANN4DuXM/s280/3-scottpilgrimtakesoff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxs0oWgghONj83UFekjmJE2SXJM8AMSsn298SiqexFy2OKUu3d3TNc41F9Tenc9GbwARQHbr0vSZ0XmD8RjbTDeccM4_ebRnrDK05eso_9Zlx_zbwK5dqVK447cLznYGqdq8lQzlN_e7RMBQNfYucSoKtq5IUaJuvyAl0WYHhfBUh9ANN4DuXM/w143-h200/3-scottpilgrimtakesoff.jpg" title="Scott stans need not apply" width="143" /></a></div>At home: The first episode of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off makes you think it will all be a rehash of the comic/movie with a few different jokes, but then throws a big curve ball - what if Scott had lost against the League of Evil Exes? - that takes the characters on an entirely different journey. And in the process - and this is the best part - we'll get to find out what Ramona's past relationships were like, delve much more into many of the characters, and actually make a better case than the original story did for the Scott-Ramona match. Many of the characters come into their own, including the Exes, but the big winners here are Young Neil, Knives Chow and Julie (Aubrey Plaza - because yes, every member of the film's cast agreed to return and voice their characters - they even integrate Edgar Wright's movie in a way). If they do a sequel, I hope they can do the same for Scott's sister and Kim Pine. So... outlandish visuals, fun format mash-ups, references to everything from Behind the Music to Dragonball and Old Man Logan (by way of Bill & Ted), and cool new music tracks. A good time whether chugged or parcelled out.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdjsGNIRlWjHz39nIJEgwCxAKnXicMX6NjPJ_SCje2rQqYv_gZh9zVeFDBe3L8ZKOXPPHwpw_zuKuHs9TvRUMWKcbwfd0C4ivnpD-4YZkN_k3p0iELC_MylqCQIUgJ8e1ZQ8v4lK8EHltQrHkiqrkntAAzrtB7R9QwnOpSHQ96YfKUeuWNJ0Cs/s301/4-zoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdjsGNIRlWjHz39nIJEgwCxAKnXicMX6NjPJ_SCje2rQqYv_gZh9zVeFDBe3L8ZKOXPPHwpw_zuKuHs9TvRUMWKcbwfd0C4ivnpD-4YZkN_k3p0iELC_MylqCQIUgJ8e1ZQ8v4lK8EHltQrHkiqrkntAAzrtB7R9QwnOpSHQ96YfKUeuWNJ0Cs/w133-h200/4-zoom.jpg" title="One of these heads is completely wrong" width="133" /></a></div>I had to think about Zoom a bit before I could decode what it was telling me, but it makes complete sense. Allison Pill is a woman who makes sex dolls, so she's in the business of fantasy. Her own fantasy is a comic strip she's drawing about a hot movie director (an animated Gael García Bernal) who is making an arty movie about a former model who wants to escape her life and become a writer, her freshman novel about a woman who makes sex dolls... Things go awry for our heroes make the wrong choices for their characters (and I'm not sure who to blame first, actually) impacting one another and, at the end of the line, themselves, since the characters are each other's writers. Playfully recursive, each "universe" shot differently and in another mode, I think what Zoom is telling us is that you can't let your your fantasy life negatively impact your real life. Pill's in-universe mistake, a boob job that causes her grief, is really predicated on fantasy inspired by her work, and she regrets it deeply. The director and writer in turn compromise their own visions, making their work suffer from a kind of ARTISTIC dismorphia. But no matter what it's own aspirations are, it's mostly amusing, if at times perhaps trying to be too clever.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRRUrGJcJV1tdAlIz8FGTyCQjYa1gqtGYaGU5g3z2A4kB1-EPYZkPBwmYabFh8Y-AhAFsXNYFhc4YriGhW8pvVvR5E9PJFdRYpBYSB3d7GHZlHQPtk4cgYj3qGRNDMeakCOXsDuEeXu9F_9XHXXvyY90NFunmh_Ar4B6tMvtSHwCpNm5xLScu/s300/5-misssloane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRRUrGJcJV1tdAlIz8FGTyCQjYa1gqtGYaGU5g3z2A4kB1-EPYZkPBwmYabFh8Y-AhAFsXNYFhc4YriGhW8pvVvR5E9PJFdRYpBYSB3d7GHZlHQPtk4cgYj3qGRNDMeakCOXsDuEeXu9F_9XHXXvyY90NFunmh_Ar4B6tMvtSHwCpNm5xLScu/w133-h200/5-misssloane.jpg" title="There's bad lobby and there's good lobby" width="133" /></a></div>Screenwriter Jonathan Perera does his best imitation of Aaron Sorkin in John Madden's Miss Sloane, a political thriller about a ruthless lobbyist played by Jessica Chastain, appearing before Congress for unethical practices in one time frame, pushing hard to pass a gun control bill in another. Polemically, it's definitely got that Sorkin vibe, with smart people debating important issues in a slick patter that amuses as much as it informs. There's enough nitty-gritty there to understand how lobbyists operate, painting the gun lobby's arguments as self-serving distortions and manipulations, but the proponents of gun reform as largely toothless unless they equally pull out all the stops. Indeed, the only way anything works in their favor at all in the film is that Miss Sloane is an incredible mastermind, outwitting her opponents every step of the way with tactics that aren't always kosher. Well? What are you ready to do for what you believe in? Chastain is well supported by a great cast, several of which are Sorkin alumni, which sent me straight to the credits, but no, it's just something Sorkin MIGHT have done.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUlDSlJfStwxxwqWUJvOAHtAlPcM7lNIb5J0cwXs4wjZ8rfM-5EpiyqdUy_9TpHpvM1Xofs8vH-D7vmd_YfJ3MYkkz-jgmIbnoJMHY39u-Oyvm1cWogt1AVZXXPi3wg2w2Jz7xGwVBEcEnEx8dnkctPDhi454WI7R5j6ZSI9jNzLZoHPR29g_p/s316/6-drylongso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUlDSlJfStwxxwqWUJvOAHtAlPcM7lNIb5J0cwXs4wjZ8rfM-5EpiyqdUy_9TpHpvM1Xofs8vH-D7vmd_YfJ3MYkkz-jgmIbnoJMHY39u-Oyvm1cWogt1AVZXXPi3wg2w2Jz7xGwVBEcEnEx8dnkctPDhi454WI7R5j6ZSI9jNzLZoHPR29g_p/w127-h200/6-drylongso.jpg" title="When you grow up at the party house" width="127" /></a></div>Am I to understand that Drylongso ran the festival circuit in 1998, won a bunch of prizes, then never found distribution until Criterion put out a restored print in 2023?! Indie cinema is a tough life, perhaps especially for a female director of color. Because Cauleen Smith's only full-length feature is too good for her not to have gotten more momentum from it. And similarly, I would have liked to see these actors in more things than what ultimately happened. Pica is a young photography student who takes pictures of black men before they disappear, though careful not to snap a pic of the boy she has feelings for, lest she tempt fate. Fate is manifest in a serial killer that's picking off youths, a kind of faceless force that's perhaps too on the nose and an attempt at giving the film a "plot" in the normal sense. It's the weakest part of what is otherwise a well-observed coming of age story, central to which is the friendship between Pica and another woman, Tobi, who starts dressing like a man to avoid lascivious stares and make the white folks get out of the way - itself commentary on, well, Drylongso, which is defined as "a sense of being that exemplifies the average African American way of being, doing, and thinking". It's a friendship at least partly based on reading Martha Washington comics together, so... I'm into it.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI6rAIkudoIEw8V6ALDWQPKYnRpK9O46gf31aL36v8QoUVfmEj_eQCs7-qyfCd9yftKu-tBt6Pv-eZsoz6ctPguIXc_O1D1e0aoO3G4q7AjGEON7uyvnMhV4SiijrqlB3ZFI29CoRf7eJMzxZp6kV_prACEUR11BQR83AYDDgmGGnR_yIZnm0V/s298/7-scarborough.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI6rAIkudoIEw8V6ALDWQPKYnRpK9O46gf31aL36v8QoUVfmEj_eQCs7-qyfCd9yftKu-tBt6Pv-eZsoz6ctPguIXc_O1D1e0aoO3G4q7AjGEON7uyvnMhV4SiijrqlB3ZFI29CoRf7eJMzxZp6kV_prACEUR11BQR83AYDDgmGGnR_yIZnm0V/w134-h200/7-scarborough.jpg" title="Hugs for all" width="134" /></a></div>Set in the diverse Toronto neighborhood of Scarborough, the film of that name follows three low-income families - one white, one Native, one Filipino, focusing on the easy friendship that blooms between a child from each, but also the hardships suffered by parents who are trying to do their best with the meagre tools available. One such tool is a literacy center where they congregate every day, hosted by the empathetic Miss Hina who always seems to know what to say, blazingly well played by Aliya Kanani. It can be difficult to watch young children in difficult situations - one in particular walks through the film clearly traumatized - but there are also moments of innocent grace and the crazy games you make up and require zero money. Scarborough is charming, but it's also incredibly moving - just grips your heart and doesn't let go (I'm writing this through tears two days after seeing it) - and I assume like the novel it's based on, it uses the town's diversity as a strength, showing a multiplicity of perspectives and realities within a microcosm a few kilometers in area.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh4OKwBS7HjaTsXjpHO6IplISK0_u0Fbs96aR2e66OtdB8wZOgQ02meUKmVylVJplV581_JQeJ9lReRSa1SdcH585d23jeWphYM6vcJjR1jJWwziPEvnMNLH-UYnW5Vgq1WzDg_Tt-eanJQAZtFDBQodlGJkIxSpxFEPkmEpzlWILg8v5S61Ma/s302/8-greenergrass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh4OKwBS7HjaTsXjpHO6IplISK0_u0Fbs96aR2e66OtdB8wZOgQ02meUKmVylVJplV581_JQeJ9lReRSa1SdcH585d23jeWphYM6vcJjR1jJWwziPEvnMNLH-UYnW5Vgq1WzDg_Tt-eanJQAZtFDBQodlGJkIxSpxFEPkmEpzlWILg8v5S61Ma/w132-h200/8-greenergrass.jpg" title="Braces for all" width="132" /></a></div>What if aliens made a movie about the suburbs? Greener Grass would be that movie. Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe - here a triple-threat as leads, writers and directors - are doing real theater of the absurd, evoking Eugene Ionesco in their so-colorful-it-hurts-my-eyes tale of suburban soccer moms who compete with each other on every level, to bizarre extremes. The catalyzing event is when Jill (DeBoer) gives Lisa (Luebbe) her baby, an over-polite gesture that creates great unhappiness and an erosion of the perfect veneer of this society of brace-wearing, golf cart-driving, extracuricular-obsessed "people". Its humor at first seems completely unhinged, but there's real method to it. Every single odd thing that happens is rooted in some waspish behavior and savagely (if surreally) satirizes it. Bonus points for having The Good Place's D'Arcy Carden as a school teacher called Miss Human - that's an irony on top of all other ironies. Greener Grass is a real shock to the system, but having decoded its vocabulary, it wouldn't take much pressure to make me watch it again.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmhFjCiaEAWJaZkmKNfdWWRlyNPixmpVMfJr1hN4_GwDfiQ96vWSI250ss_H41S8w0Cvv4HQdbGj03N3XGTiKTY23hE817XRQFGrudxD47MXZG9URidL75wbOV5JiFCSoT6LUt7hBGLuvlbCr127mZHTyU6HhTlKMP1Y_tlIU3e4E4p9jILqHP/s298/9-lunchbox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmhFjCiaEAWJaZkmKNfdWWRlyNPixmpVMfJr1hN4_GwDfiQ96vWSI250ss_H41S8w0Cvv4HQdbGj03N3XGTiKTY23hE817XRQFGrudxD47MXZG9URidL75wbOV5JiFCSoT6LUt7hBGLuvlbCr127mZHTyU6HhTlKMP1Y_tlIU3e4E4p9jILqHP/w134-h200/9-lunchbox.jpg" title="Lunch for all" width="134" /></a></div>I want to taste everything that's featured in The Lunchbox, which is usually the mark of a good food-driven movie, but it's the characters who cook and who eat are what's actually important. When the lunch meant for Ila's husband ends up on Saajan's desk by mistake (or cosmic providence), the two start a correspondence that only eventually turns into a flirtation, a correspondence that impacts their lives by changing their attitudes. Ila might see an alternative to her distant and possibly unfaithful husband, while Sajaan, a widower on the edge of retirement, has a powerful reawakening that opens him up to experiences and friendships. It's all quite subtly played, however, and we only see the needle move incrementally. In other hands - certainly those of Hollywood - this would have been a straight romcom, but The Lunchbox is more realistic. All roads do not lead to love, but they do lead SOMEwhere, even if you're not sure what station you'll end up at.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoI9yVvVZukepvBV_OgPoGwtQpKzdh1I8ygW5SvIb4ho1ArGWYzKB0exNMWflkMSRt80gUeSAyZqoukY0yDTinXO0yxFm5NugGnZ7CaldDl02kmG11hWNi6MjaJC7-3zxb9G0z6sRF9gBLuoib-iStjYE61bpBS7RFRjKLaa8ecE6exuuUpIP0/s282/10-nightnurse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoI9yVvVZukepvBV_OgPoGwtQpKzdh1I8ygW5SvIb4ho1ArGWYzKB0exNMWflkMSRt80gUeSAyZqoukY0yDTinXO0yxFm5NugGnZ7CaldDl02kmG11hWNi6MjaJC7-3zxb9G0z6sRF9gBLuoib-iStjYE61bpBS7RFRjKLaa8ecE6exuuUpIP0/w142-h200/10-nightnurse.jpg" title="What about a milk bath, tho?" width="142" /></a></div>Early Barbara Stanwyck plays the eponymous Night Nurse in an uneven pre-Code picture from 1931 that looks like a procedural ensemble picture about a hospital at first - what ER might have been like in the 30s - before ditching its medical vignette structure and turning into a crime picture featuring pre-stardom Clarke Gable as a heavy who doesn't mind punching women. And it's for the good, because there's little motive power in that first part. Stanwyck is the nurse with a heart of gold, at first contrasted with Joan Blondell's less committed party girl, and then with a crooked doctor who actively wants little children to die for [reasons]. When our heroine goes into action trying to save her in spite of a household that doesn't care and even obstructs her efforts, it's pretty gripping. Gable is menacing. Stanwyck is fierce. And we cheer for the bootlegging would-be boyfriend coming in to help. A good drunken performance from Charlotte Merriam as the bad mom too. Ralf Harolde as the evil doctor, however, is total pants. Night Nurse plays like a couple episodes of some TV melodrama, but it does lift off in the third act.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8WC1HXZH-u86cuBqCT2RR1NOFcjvIcwNSspbOtT9BFhyphenhyphenApZtUTYn1IXLvqZjiv5OIRWscl5C_Yf31_x2r2BXALpz261EYD-b6zGUOISjaROOIEugWq5d3cUhxCC0mmUCgpM0BpwkMN_9nFuddJAnfsU6Pl19oWkqQir9MNUDHisXw8-9uBdF/s305/11-panicinthestreets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8WC1HXZH-u86cuBqCT2RR1NOFcjvIcwNSspbOtT9BFhyphenhyphenApZtUTYn1IXLvqZjiv5OIRWscl5C_Yf31_x2r2BXALpz261EYD-b6zGUOISjaROOIEugWq5d3cUhxCC0mmUCgpM0BpwkMN_9nFuddJAnfsU6Pl19oWkqQir9MNUDHisXw8-9uBdF/w131-h200/11-panicinthestreets.jpg" title="Is what we're trying to avoid" width="131" /></a></div>Elia Kazan's Panic in the Streets is an intense thriller about an incipient pandemic (jeepers!) - in this case. the plague - with Mr. Intense himself, Richard Widmark, playing the physician in charge of containing it before it goes out of control. The problem? The case is a murdered immigrant who's had contact with criminals who aren't about to give themselves up (led by a young Jack Palance, no stranger to intensity himself). A manhunt ensues, ending on a pretty effective action set piece. Part of Widmark's troubles is that, whether because they are crooks or just don't trust the authorities, people are unwilling to identify the victim. The year is 1950, a couple years before Kazan would name names to the Committee on Unamerican Activities, but it's hard not to see the film foreshadow his attitude. Here, the characters refuse to point the finger (or often believe in the threat of an epidemic, which you could switch with Communism in our analogy), and bad things happen. The almost strident lesson is that you should trust the authorities and tell them all you know. Of course, a health crisis isn't the same thing as gangland peer pressure, so it shouldn't be TOO instructive. Still, there's something about how much he's pushing this button...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3sntLvLCcNstBGwo3PCWo_1BgGk5S6A1jyUfBhm8fE-TcSnrKlDQka1kTeqFqPmek0Gbac4cfPkaq4gezeMVrG4Ek_y7ZtgSfc_sFSSBYSCXfK6c4iGcsXOVQ_1SVsJS0bPqz2V-2W23MZg9f9K7ZaB7hQgEB_HFNzOfq9wl-L7_vSccKXctb/s300/12-essexcounty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3sntLvLCcNstBGwo3PCWo_1BgGk5S6A1jyUfBhm8fE-TcSnrKlDQka1kTeqFqPmek0Gbac4cfPkaq4gezeMVrG4Ek_y7ZtgSfc_sFSSBYSCXfK6c4iGcsXOVQ_1SVsJS0bPqz2V-2W23MZg9f9K7ZaB7hQgEB_HFNzOfq9wl-L7_vSccKXctb/w133-h200/12-essexcounty.jpg" title="Should I now watch the CBC mini-series?" width="133" /></a></div>Books: Jeff Lemire's Essex County remains his most enduring classic, and with ample cause. The rural county where he grew up in Ontario is, under his anxious pen and ink, a place haunted, not in the traditional sense, but my hopes and memories. All three volumes (supplemented with two short stories "cut" from the trilogy in the Collected editing) have the feel of indie autobiographies, especially Vol.1 which has a young protagonist and Lemire's own childhood scribblings, but meld what are probably biographical remembrances into a fictional narrative web that really sneaks up on you in Vol.3. Vol.1, Tales from the Farm, is about a quiet kid being raised by his uncle after a family tragedy and to those who don't know any better feels like it's Lemire's story as much as Yummy Fur is Chester Brown's. But it's deceptive. In Vol.2, Ghost Stories, we get a professional hockey player now aged and reliving his memories of family, sports and again, tragedy. It's incredibly poignant. If you read it, you which scene made me well up. Vol.3, The Country Nurse, aims to tie all these characters together (and I feel blind for missing it) and the history of the county, too. Brilliant stuff that uses the comics form to create interesting transitions and flights of imagination within grounded surroundings.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmNLnWrm99Sg25gBoFca6d3Zh1_-G0hEHHHZCU3nBCw_LlUyBBjPFLhyvbGrNkPxcXcTWFgdKC0GCMIpk9mc7ARqf7A8qfDBypqRxgP_t_uKfRK3D2b5euzQl5hbYNP1PXlug-1CG48-fZ39s8CMfyjGQZrH3BLl3QXX_7LI68UXc_RPWjKUCF/s306/13-phantomroad1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmNLnWrm99Sg25gBoFca6d3Zh1_-G0hEHHHZCU3nBCw_LlUyBBjPFLhyvbGrNkPxcXcTWFgdKC0GCMIpk9mc7ARqf7A8qfDBypqRxgP_t_uKfRK3D2b5euzQl5hbYNP1PXlug-1CG48-fZ39s8CMfyjGQZrH3BLl3QXX_7LI68UXc_RPWjKUCF/w131-h200/13-phantomroad1.jpg" title="A bear of a time" width="131" /></a></div>Hard to assess Jeff Lemire's Phantom Road as this is definitely a "Volume 1" and there's no resolution in sight, so at this point, I'm mostly taken with Gabriel Hernández Walta's art, who manages to remind me of both Guy Davis and Howard Chaykin, with a rounded solidity despite his sketchy line. The book looks quite nice, with its earth-toned desert vistas and expressive characters. The premise: A trucker and a woman he finds at the sight of an accident are pulled in and out of a hellish in-between space inhabited by zombie-like beings. Also at that intersection is an FBI agent who once experienced the same thing as a little girl. And what does all this have to do with a truck stop chain and its mascot? Lemire builds a mystery on several fronts, but the problem with serialized mysteries is that we might lose sight of the prize before we get to the end, or rather, get to the the second volume. I really should have waited for the series to be completely over before reading because I'm sure to be lost by the time Vol.2 is available.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0TdP-4xrvxGqIgUnL0k-GNRykJL5hGslRdKRBoF7QBIodxpML5MDJHaKyvmf3vHAU-Tb8x63Yur8wDOhdE-xm07BbpTlI6EkRS4-GRZLEQKuwPiAYaLee7MSS2ql4NqmrpwLjooA8AQXr0e9VnGfsU_6uXNVKs2kWsin9nP7fV1YqRWncWWY/s308/14-blackhammer1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge0TdP-4xrvxGqIgUnL0k-GNRykJL5hGslRdKRBoF7QBIodxpML5MDJHaKyvmf3vHAU-Tb8x63Yur8wDOhdE-xm07BbpTlI6EkRS4-GRZLEQKuwPiAYaLee7MSS2ql4NqmrpwLjooA8AQXr0e9VnGfsU_6uXNVKs2kWsin9nP7fV1YqRWncWWY/w130-h200/14-blackhammer1.jpg" title="Where IS Steel/Thor/Green Lantern/Batman?" width="130" /></a></div>There's a lot of love for Black Hammer out there, but coming off the first Omnibus, I think I only... like it? I think it's because I'm always a bit distracted by the fact that Lemire is riffing off established comics characters in a way that's often too close to the real thing. There's always a twist, but Golden Gail is almost too close to Shazam, for example, and Barbalien too much like the Martian Manhunter. Sometimes, the creations tickle my love for Amalgams, so Abraham Slam being part Golden Age Atom, part Captain America is neat. Or the Big Bad being at once Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor. It's just that sometimes I feel like Lemire is rewriting canons rather than commenting on them. At least the frame tale is an original one, even if the mystery is stretched beyond even the 13 issues contained in this collection. A handful of heroes disappear from Spiral City after the (let's say it) Crisis and find themselves trapped on a farm, tapping into Lemire's interest in rurality. Each chapter has a central flashback that takes us back to Spiral and various superhero eras. Black Hammer himself is conspicuous by his absence, which is actually perfect because this is a book about legacy - individual heroic legacies (especially how his daughter is used), but also the legacy of superhero comics in general. Lemire explores this literary canon by combining and twisting stories we find immediately familiar, even if drawn in an indie style. I may sound ambivalent, but I do plan to read the franchise's different books through to The End, currently being published. The Omnibus has the usual back matter - sketches, bonus art, etc. - but surprised me with early character profiles drawn up as classic Who's Who pages. The information is all wrong, but it's a fun way to show one's work, and expose what might have been had Lemire launched the book before he got caught up in a little project called Sweet Tooth.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0IxLDloD5dGxW_QPhZ_7uqh9s30cMEWLFqakkIBFW1O7dabU6Z2J1ZKCeJCiIXcMZwGbGnqpzcc6CSzLCLCyxzhWg8xeGEvxwwCPQcL3RH6xd8e5ZPyfuW07PrTByo12h93Vs0v3_msuozuo3oMci1Rh-SrXWoJxZ0EIJIWimPMD1EahwdotW/s307/15-supperclub.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0IxLDloD5dGxW_QPhZ_7uqh9s30cMEWLFqakkIBFW1O7dabU6Z2J1ZKCeJCiIXcMZwGbGnqpzcc6CSzLCLCyxzhWg8xeGEvxwwCPQcL3RH6xd8e5ZPyfuW07PrTByo12h93Vs0v3_msuozuo3oMci1Rh-SrXWoJxZ0EIJIWimPMD1EahwdotW/w130-h200/15-supperclub.jpg" title="Damn, I'd read SUPER Club" width="130" /></a></div>Jackie Morrow's teen slice of life graphic novel Supper Club has a nice idea behind it, but I don't think it makes good on early promises. Teenage girls, high school seniors, after realizing they don't have classes or after-school activities together, decide to create their own elite cooking club away from school grounds. Initially proposed as a foodie's comic - there are a few recipes at the back - the food soon takes a back seat to personal drama. Can the girls' friendships really be sustained by Supper Club even as life naturally forces them to drift apart? One is dealing with anxiety, another with a sick parent, another with young love, etc. That said, it is a sweet, wholesome look at the last hurrah for a friendship and manages to end on a poignant note. Can we really criticize it for getting away from the food when that's exactly what the characters are doing? Morrow's colorful art has a Manga vibe, sometimes in sharp focus, sometimes more roughly sketched, and there is a natural roughness here given her fuzzy wax crayon type line. But in focus or rough, the expressions are strong, the light comedy charming... I'm just not as hungry as I thought I would be reading this.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSzNnP8JxFvsJhrXEwrQMpUbpImwNvPtTvxJoVaEhlodmQW4P7UI8ouQ-46khnUZOE65VxxSnh6Ks3cY28tMr-Wj8S_2qDYiiAAqBgJTMjxmjivn9EfVIYMOtZN0rmwmDuEunQ0Ke4hfk3K2L09aJ_vK9_kMw-wjidwbP227UmsKB-QDgCkQD/s279/16-udonnoodlesoup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSzNnP8JxFvsJhrXEwrQMpUbpImwNvPtTvxJoVaEhlodmQW4P7UI8ouQ-46khnUZOE65VxxSnh6Ks3cY28tMr-Wj8S_2qDYiiAAqBgJTMjxmjivn9EfVIYMOtZN0rmwmDuEunQ0Ke4hfk3K2L09aJ_vK9_kMw-wjidwbP227UmsKB-QDgCkQD/w143-h200/16-udonnoodlesoup.jpg" title="Now I'm hungry" width="143" /></a></div>A warm bowl of soup. A home-made sweater. An old toothbrush. A childhood toy. A football shirt. These are the object around which Yani Hu crafts five short stories in Udon Noodle Soup: Little Tales for Little Things. Each is a thin slice of life, one presumes even pseudo-biographical (at least in tone), lavishly drawn and colored, usually on textured paper. The book is beautiful to look at and sucks you into its mundane yet romantic world of young people making realizations about their inner emotional lives, each object explored a vessel for the memory of a certain love, whether gone or alive or perhaps waiting to be reignited, so long as the object remains. Though the stories are grounded, Hu doesn't forbid herself flights of artistic fancy, whether her characters' imagination or interesting graphic touches, experimentations that never take you out of the book. Can you infuse an object with an emotion? Hu says yes, and proceeds to do so with every page of her book.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp5wA4JrzT6FCgwNSZWyzO3ujosLRkTI4jgqnjGDeqbiqbZqmO1kep_iiPk_klgwH97YbRlaxwcsLHhlMjtlcGTfcsgIRO16HnVypWMj0TEjlqxFvArbgTtAaci5ShEygvSxu_9FhyphenhyphenuCTAjIXO3Y3NG2vkZDNLmSEv-QMWB3R0om-j4atu74zV/s259/17-onionskin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp5wA4JrzT6FCgwNSZWyzO3ujosLRkTI4jgqnjGDeqbiqbZqmO1kep_iiPk_klgwH97YbRlaxwcsLHhlMjtlcGTfcsgIRO16HnVypWMj0TEjlqxFvArbgTtAaci5ShEygvSxu_9FhyphenhyphenuCTAjIXO3Y3NG2vkZDNLmSEv-QMWB3R0om-j4atu74zV/w154-h200/17-onionskin.jpg" title="I'll even eat out of a truck" width="154" /></a></div>Edgar Camacho's Onion Skin, winner of Mexico's first ever National Young Graphic Novel Award, starts with a food truck in a high speed chase through the desert, racing away from violent bikers. We then backtrack, spending time in different time frames, to see how the man and woman driving the truck met, and how they found themselves in this predicament. It's got good action and a bouncy pace, but I'm rather more interested in the chemical romance between the two loads, a platonic romance that makes up the best friendships. And the characters are well defined enough that we want to take this journey with them. The translation to English isn't great, however, or rather I should say the lettering. The exclamation point looks like an "I" which is annoying, and there's at least one glaring typo. I've come to expect better from Top Shelf Productions. In the grand scheme of things, these are minor complaints about what is otherwise an original story.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm-ijvCAw5nVxnWZ6D57grjpwMA7BYbLTSchTc1T7yCTE9vlo5hPxz7L6uuzUMgyJ8jUAletXvEaPJyQWUDGVbDKkCD2X_cq_PJ-b_7Fq2OdTOOkM88UGoGxjQIyHofJ9VexLlgAt00sZPaC3WjVxc3bkSlBEC6imzkj9eiGfqC_2P0yVd-gYm/s200/18-CoC-Phelps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm-ijvCAw5nVxnWZ6D57grjpwMA7BYbLTSchTc1T7yCTE9vlo5hPxz7L6uuzUMgyJ8jUAletXvEaPJyQWUDGVbDKkCD2X_cq_PJ-b_7Fq2OdTOOkM88UGoGxjQIyHofJ9VexLlgAt00sZPaC3WjVxc3bkSlBEC6imzkj9eiGfqC_2P0yVd-gYm/w200-h200/18-CoC-Phelps.jpg" title="I have no shame reusing one of our Doctor Who RPG casting calls" width="200" /></a></div>RPGs: I got roped into playing in a Call of Cthulhu game by the amiable Ian Fletcher, indeed, less than 48 hours before the first session. But Ian is a master at this particular game, and it's only going to be monthly? I was sure I could slide it into my schedule. My character is Oscar Alan Phelps, popular author of books on the Occult and professional ghost breaker. Played by John Rhys-Davies (I'm essentially channelling his Professor from Sliders), the twist is that he doesn't believe in ANY of this "poppycock" and always has some real-world reasoning to account for it. We'll see if his Sanity becomes more fragile as his convictions are challenged. He's always accompanied by a black cat, Lucifer, who sort of accounts for about a third of his charm, and half of his acute perception (I roll, but credit the cat). I do want people to know that I did not choose to have a cat, a ROLL forced me to have a pet. I am not someone who likes dealing with pets in my games, and thanks for not adding a pet/attack beast to your character in my games, prospective players. Phelps is a Newfoundlander (so a British citizen in 1922), but has worked at a more cultured accent. That's because he's mostly posture - a big personality who inveigles himself into high society to debunk mediums and gather stories for his populist books on the supernatural, though he'll sometimes pen a pulp novel based on his more fanciful adventures. Which brings us to the session. A lot of Canadian accents around the virtual table - Phelps is joined by a young journalist, a teetotalling drifter, and a seemingly young socialite who was the only player to come out (I don't want to say survived) of a previous game of Ian's, holding many secrets. We are tasked with solving the mystery of a magician who has vanished (in life, not on stage), but mostly, this session is about getting to know our characters, finding a working chemistry for them (a lot of splitting up is "in-character" early on), and setting up the mystery. It's also about finding our footing in the 1920s as a setting, and investigation as a genre. In terms of horror, there was one spooky moment, but it hasn't been dialed up yet. The characters don't know what they're in for (not that Phelps expects anything but a mundane series of parlor tricks). Ian is a fluid GM who wastes no time and doesn't hesitate even when cornered into improvising. The players are "character-first", seldom breaking the spell, speaking for characters who are each in their own way kind of a hoot - it's strange to say that in an existential horror game, but I think it's true to say that if players play up personalities, the PCs become comedy double, triple, quadruple acts pretty easily. Assessing my own performance, I reigned in Phelps' loudness lest he take over the narrative - or perhaps I'm just used to listening to Players when they talk - but was happy with the verbosity I was able to give him (hey, English is my second language).Siskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.com0