Tag: movies

Contagion vs COVID-19

I would have never imagined that the movie needed a “bad guy” beyond the virus itself. It seems pretty basic that the plot should be humans united against the virus. If you were writing it now, you would have to take into account the blunders of a dishonest president and the political party that supports him. But any good studio executive would have probably told us that such a character was unbelievable and made the script more of a dark comedy than a thriller.

De-Aging

The Irishman Gets De-Aging Right—No Tracking Dots Necessary

he created a new type of camera rig that would allow Scorsese to shoot as he normally would while capturing all of the data the ILM team would need to make Frank Sheeran (De Niro), Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino), and Russell Bufalino (Pesci) whatever age they needed them to be

Primal

Insanely brutal fight scene from animated series Primal

Primal is an American animated television series created and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. It premiered on October 7, 2019 on Adult Swim. Primal follows a caveman (named “Spear” in the show’s production notes and voiced by Aaron LaPlante), a formidable hunter at the dawn of evolution, and a female Tyrannosaurus (called “Fang” in the show’s production notes) on the brink of extinction, brought together by tragedy into an unlikely partnership as they fight to survive the violent creatures that also live in the prehistoric world.

Ad Astra Reviewed

Those practicalities get especially glorious treatment in “Ad Astra.” Gray conjures the future in grandly imaginative touches that link it giddily to the present day while signaling its alienating strangeness. As travel to the moon and to Mars have become common practices, they’ve become infected with the oppressive trivializations of train stations and airports—a Subway franchise, a Hudson News kiosk, and a host of bureaucratic annoyances and intrusions. (Natasha Lyonne does a brief and brilliant turn as one of those bureaucrats.) Spaceships have all the charm of airplanes, complete with overpriced and doled-out extras.

Carnival Row

Humans and mythical creatures struggle to live together peaceably in the wake of a devastating war as a brutal serial killer runs amok in Carnival Row, a new “Victorian neo-noir” fantasy series on Amazon Prime. It’s part murder mystery, part fairy tale, and 100% wholly original, rather than being an adaptation of pre-existing source material. Small wonder Amazon has already ordered a second season of this lush and richly textured series.

10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki

An exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the genius of Japan’s foremost living film director, Hayao Miyazaki — creator of some of the world’s most iconic and enduring anime feature films. Miyazaki allowed a single documentary filmmaker to shadow him at work, as he dreamed up characters and plot lines for what would become his 2008 blockbuster, “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.” Miyazaki explores the limits of his physical ability and imagination to conjure up memorable protagonists.