Movies
Exploring my love of cinema and the art of the motion picture.
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Movie Review: Love & Mercy
Brian Wilson. California’s closest thing to a patron saint of music. Troubled, sorrowful, misunderstood, and revered. His story is one easily understood as though it were written in broad strokes: The young man growing up with an abusive father, his brothers as co-sufferers. The rental of instruments and the writing of Surfin’ while his parents were…
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Inter(less than)stellar
Interstellar A film by Christopher Nolan I was going to write something very detailed and profound about Interstellar immediately after seeing it. I loved the movie. I loved Matthew McConaughey and his motley crew’s mission to save the human race. I just feel that what I saw wasn’t what I wanted to see. Years of…
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The Ultimate Trip
I was around 10 years old when I first saw 2001: A Space Odyssey on my local PBS station, KCET Los Angeles. I was flipping through the channels when I stumbled upon the sight of a giant room awash in red light within which, moving along to the sound of classical music, a round vehicle…
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Her: A Man-Machine Interface
Her a film by Spike Jonze On the surface, Her is a traditional love story told from the point of view of an emotionally damaged writer named Thomas, played by Joaquin Phoenix. We meet him working in his futuristic Los Angeles office, dictating a love letter to someone, only to find out that his job…
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Forbidden Planet
I watched again the classic science fiction film Forbidden Planet and I am still struck by how advanced it was for its time period. The story is now a fairly standard trope of a human exploration vessel sent out to track down and determine what happened to a ship lost in space. The crew and…
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The Power of Gravity
Gravity directed and written by Alfonso Cuarón, is one of the most intense motion pictures that I have ever seen. The overwhelming engineering that went into creating this technologically stunning work echoes and enhances the thing that it has set out to emulate; the intricate and ultimately fragile Erector sets that man has placed into the heavens.…
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The Art of Silence
I recently watched the marvelous film, The Artist. I was totally enchanted by the concept and the setting, having a deep affection for silent films and the art of coherent story telling using very little words. The movie has a seemingly simple plot: that of a well known movie star (equivalent to Douglas Fairbanks), George…
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Clouds and Atlases
I have a sense that our lives are interconnected. Sometimes small bits of data, floating in the maelstrom of our shifting inner lives, come up to the surface and integrate with our outer selves. The carefully constructed facade of “us” can either crumble or be reinforced with better materials: truth, accurate information, access to our…
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A Space Odyssey
Part Two of Debunking Stupidity: ‘2001’ set the standard for motion picture special effects, a standard that few films today meet. Kubrick, as we know, was a multitalented auteur; a man of many arts who could achieve nearly anything he set his mind to. The visuals of ‘2001’ were concocted by a team of new…
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Serious Moonlight: Debunking Stupidity
“Yes, there is a conspiracy, indeed there are a great number of conspiracies, all tripping each other up… the main thing that I learned about conspiracy theories is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in the conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that…
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Discovery 2
For anyone who has read Arthur C. Clarke’s Odyssey series of books, you would know that the Americans were building a second spacecraft to rendezvous with the original Discovery 1, only to book passage with the Russians when they found out that the Discovery 1 would plow right into Io. In this drawing I am imagining…
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1939
I recently completed this music video for the band Pinataland. They specialize in a sort of Americana-cum-whatever sound that always gives me the chills. Great lyrics, incredible technique, and very hummable melodies. They have a website at: http://www.pinataland.com http://youtu.be/5TK76zz8dN8 Hope you enjoy it as much as I liked making it!
The Numinous Cosmos 