Since the late 80s, Sparks has been one of my favorite bands. Despite their long career there isn’t much out there about their lives and history. Edgar Wright’s documentary attempts to fill in some of that info but, other than the details of their early life and first years as a band, I left the film not knowing much more than I already did about the band. I was hoping to see more about their lives off the stage. As is briefly mentioned, Ronald is known for his quirky collections of snow globes and Air Jordans and I would have like to delve deeper into his mind and interests. As it stands, the bulk of the long running time is devoted to giving an overview of their entire music output, one album at a time.
A dark comedy in the vein of Dear Reader in which historical events are depicted in their absurd reality. Ostensibly a comedy—a very dark comedy—about the political wranglings that transpired in the days after Stalin’s death. Executions are portrayed in a matter-of-fact manner and the fearful groveling of Stalin’s underlings comes across as Three’s Company style farce.
This was a PlanetMonk Kindle reprint of a 50s pulp novel. I was expecting tons of scary drug use but the whole “junkie” thing doesn’t really play a big part. There’s a murder and the main suspect is our protagonist’s girl, the titular junkie. This story oozes with smoky, drunk jazz atmosphere. I almost finished this one wanting to listen to jazz, but my willpower against annoying music is strong.
Poirot on a plane, a blow dart, and many suspects all with reasons to kill the old hag. I was sure I knew whodunnit until, as usual in these novels, a bit of extraneous information was revealed near the end that a reader would never figure out.
Found footage film about a group of Norwegian documentarians following a guy who hunts gigantic CGI trolls. Better than most found-footage stuff but the trolls look goofy and stupid. I think this wants to be scary, but that it is not.
I read this knowing the ending but I still think it is a top-tier Poirot mystery. The confined setting means there isn’t any jumping around to locations, just a series of interviews and the analysis of clues. Everything is laid out for the reader in an orderly fashion and when the killer was finally revealed I felt like I had actively participated in the investigation.
A mostly Poirot-free Poirot novel. It was okay, I guess, but pretty forgettable. What was I talking about?
The skillful and clever style of this movie has become an aesthetic touchstone for just about every gaming YouTuber on the planet. I, however, quickly became quite annoyed by it. The lead character being a whiney, annoying dick didn’t help endear me either. I guess the point of the whole thing is his redemption, but I didn’t care. I wanted to see him defeated the whole time. All this isn’t to say the movie’s not fun, it’s just a bit too much for my grumpy, millennial-despising demeanor.
Prey takes a very ambitious approach to game play. There are always multiple paths towards achieving your goals and this goes beyond the standard stealth vs. guns blazing options. You can stack objects to get anywhere within the sizable, open environments. At times, this feels like cheating but there are sections that require it. Also, as an appeal to psychopaths, you can also kill any NPC you meet. I’m not sure if it’s possible to kill your way into an unwinnable state but I wasn’t about to waste my time trying. The problem with all this freedom is that half the time I really didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing. There are tons of special abilities you can unlock but they aren’t really required to do anything so I was never compelled to try any of them out.
The story is just as open as and free flowing as the environments. I found myself inundated with reams of boring backstory and world-building via various NPC e-mails and books. This has become a common story-telling trope that I am seriously sick of. This ain’t Zork and I want to live in this world and not read about it while monsters are cloaked and hidden everywhere. Despite all these attempts at fleshing out the universe, the story feels half-done and never really grabbed me.
Throughout the first half of the game I found myself getting beaten down constantly. Your character is so weak compared to the enemies and there is no proper tutorial explaining how you can use stealth and the objects lying around to your advantage. Maybe I just suck at this game, but I was constantly on the verge of rage quitting every ten minutes or so. I can’t say I completely hated the experience. When I did manage to defeat a particularly tough enemy in an unusual way it was quite satisfying but that wasn’t enough for me to recommend this game.
I have had this on DVD for quite some time now and am re-watching it after noticing I never gave it a proper review here. The big takeaway is that this movie is beautiful. Every frame is composed perfectly and there is a deliberate use of bright red in a corner of every scene. It’s like the whole movie was shot in Twin Peak’s Black Lodge. The visuals are complemented by a laid-back and jazzy score by Manfred Mann. Again the Twin Peaks comparisons apply here as well. The story itself is a bit undercooked, barely coherent, and relies too heavily on James Darren’s “Man, it was a trippy scene, ya dig!” narration to tie it all together. Coherence is not the point here. Just sit back, turn off your brain, and enjoy the mellow dreamscapes.
