Indie Game

 

There are two documentaries on Netflix and Amazon that are about the creative work that independant game developers do. I watched the first one a few years ago and just watched the followup.

Some of the people that are interviewed in the films are uncouth, and there are many moments that are downright unpleasant but also many scenes are inspiring and there is a unique view about creativity and how this type of work is done.

There is some good philosophy and gems of creative ideas that will be of use to creative types.

Towards the end of the second movie there are a series of interviews that really touch on creativity and different ways of creativity and modes of development. There are many moments that might spark ideas that any artist will appreciate.

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Sing Street

When Netflix sent me Sing Street, I couldn't believe it, how did I order this one!? Not another new kid in school, finds a club to join movie, I've seen enough of those.

Since I had it, I put it on, both Jeanne and I were expecting it to be a dog!

Then, it turned out to be set in Dublin! and the characters were different, they were unusual, we cared about them!

Turns out, it's a really worthwhile movie about a kid who discovers he's a pretty good songwriter and he gets better. I love the scene where he's sitting in his bedroom while his parents are fighting in the other room and he starts singing the words to their fight!

The characters are different, they don't behave like you expect which makes this a gem for all to see, but especially those who have an artistic side screaming to get out.

"Joy" a drama of invention

Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper star in this strange odyssey loosely based on some of the events in the life of Joy Mangano. A lot is fictionalized.

Jeanne and I are both exploring the concepts of creativity so that we can learn to better better creators and better artists.

This film is a hard look at how life can devour our hopes and dreams and how one woman fought to make hers a reality. 

At a critical point, Trudy (Isabella Rossellini) asks Joy (Jennifer Lawrence) her husbands 4 questions that determine if you're a good financial risk.
1. Where did you go to High School
2. Who were you in High School
3. Are you prepared within 6 months of commencing  this venture to show adequate returns
4. You are in a room and there is a gun on the table, and the only other person in the room is an adversary in commerce. Only one of you can prevail, Yet, you have protected your business and Morris's money. Do you pick up the gun, Joy?

I found this to be a very good drama that fills my need for inspiration to do more and be more creative.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Running Down A Dream

This a biopic project that Peter Bogdonovic wrote and directed. He went through years of materials to create a completely organized and thoughtful portrayal of this incredible band. The video I watched on Netflix was almost 4 hours long and it held my interest all the way through. But the one small nugget I got to in about hour 3 was the similarity that many successful rock stars have in common. Either their Mothers died early, leaving them to fend for themselves, or their Fathers were abusive. This thread seems to create an anger in the artists that drives them to keep on fighting during their carriers. 

Art & Copy

Here  is a documentary that Jeanne and I just watched on Netflix. Put out on PBS it's a documentary that explores how art in advertising can be used to motivate us to higher levels. To explore greater heights of expression. They show many examples of ads that get to the heart of the problem that the clients want to overcome. They show how the agencies often  give the companies that come to them bigger dreams, a larger sense of self. They help to define their greater mission. This documentary isn't just entertaining, it's inspiring.

Bottle Shock

With the passing of Alan Rickman, I began thinking of his movie history. Somehow, to be remembered as the Snapes character in the Harry Potter series is unfortunate, since he was the absolute best villain in Die Hard and then in Quigley Down Under. But his best role, or one of my favorite is Steven Spurrier in Bottle Shock.

This is a film set in the mid 70's when California's wine country was just beginning to create some great wines. Bill Pullman and Chris Pine are the Father and Son who make wine out of a passion that is driving. There are great moments is this character driven drama.

I've watched this movie several times. It stands the test of time and should be on your list of favorites.

Alan Rickman died in Jan 2016 at the age of 69 from cancer. He was a voice that added to the great perfomances and a light which will be remembered at least for his role in the Harry Potter Series.

A friend wrote on Facebook,  "By Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!" a quote from his role in Galaxy Quest.

Fantastic Four 2016

This is the second try for the fantastic four.

You may recall F4 in 2005 and F4 Rise Of Silver Surfer in 2007. They were pretty good.

This one isn't. It fails on many levels. While we watched it, Jeanne, our son Dane and I were incredibly bored. They were showing details of the backstory that should have been engaging but they weren't. They got to action sequences that should have been at least interesting, but they just seemed flat. Even at the most energized parts of the show, the emotional impact just wasn't there. As I sat there wondering why the movie wasn't that good, I was dumbfounded as I realized this was a MARVEL production. They don't make bad films...what was missing?

It's the music! Maybe the sound editor was asleep. You should watch this movie and compare it to others. You'll be amazed at the difference between this and any good movie. This flick is like going to film school to learn what can go wrong. If the music was more talented and maybe had more volume compared to the rest of the soundtrack, it would have worked much better. 

Here's a perfect example of how badly they missed. There's a moment where Sue Storm asks for some music, because it helps her concentrate. Then it just shows her with a set of headphones on and coding. DUH! This was a perfect point to add some hard pounding rock that continued for the next scene creating an energetic montage that would have built the excitement of the movie, But they missed it and every other time throughout.

Too bad, it could have been great but they missed.

Gotham On Fox (Hulu)

The new season (2nd) has started on Fox  It's dark and gritty and very well done. I'm enjoying it as any comic fan will!

Hulu is a great deal!

The new TV season is upon us. If you're like me and need to shift your viewing, try Hulu. It's really great and now for a small payment, you can skip commercials. What a deal.

LDS General Conference

Okay, it's not really a mainstream form of entertainment, but I really enjoy watching the LDS general conference when they broadcast it twice a year. The speakers seem genuinely nice and caring, concerned with the folks they are addressing.

Hector and the Search For Happiness

Here's an R rated film I can wholeheartedly recommend. I try to avoid that rating since so many plunge the viewer into worlds they'd be better off not experiencing, but this is a fairly wholesome light comedy that verges the borderline. There are a few F words and some undraped human form (but not full frontal nudity).

Hector is a British psychiatrist who is finding something wrong with life so he embarks on a search for happiness. And the results are magical. He finds many reasons or statements about happiness.

I found it to be a vicarious journey of self discovery and that made it easy to ignore the occasional crude humor. I find Simon Pegg to be an extremely gifted talent and this 2015 DVD release is one of those that contend for my top 100 films of all time! He brought life to his role as Scotty in the new Star Trek movies and he was great in Shaun Of The Dead and I even liked his efforts in Run Fat Boy, Run. There are several projects that I have steered clear of because of his lack of filtering, but this is one that deserves high praise.

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Project Almanac

I didn't expect much but this flick was still a disappointment. It was shot in that steady cam, home made movie style that was popularized by the Blair Witch Project. So it's already got one big strike against it, this style of movie making just begs for hard to follow crappy scripting.

So, they did have some moments that would have been fascinating if done in a normal movie style but it seemed so much more fake being a steady cam "real" experience.

And the ending was horrible! It's like they got tired of telling the story so they just wrapped it up! All through the movie they build up to a scene they discovered on an old videotape, so it comes and they just throw it away with no good resolution. 

Disappointing.

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Tracks

I had never heard of this film made in 2013 until I found it on Netflix. I watched it and then watched it again with Jeanne. We both enjoyed it completely and highly recommend it.

The story is that of Robyn Davidson, a young woman who attempted to cross the Australian desert in 1977. It is a slow moving, thoughtful and engaging film about courage, drive and grit.

A well acted film starring Mia Wasikowska as Robyn, it's no wonder I'd never heard of it, it only did 4 mil at the box office (less than it cost to make). The advertising must have been poor. I read online that both Julia Roberts and Nichole Kidman had been considered for the role but years later Mia got it. Had those earlier attempts with known actors made it, the film might have been more successful.

Rated PG-13 for some rough scenes, it's well within the standards of most families.

This is a really great one!

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Death In Paradise

I watched  some of these episodes as they were aired and now Jeanne and I are enjoying them on Netflix.

This is fun because it's a "fish out of water" story featuring a quirky detective from England stationed in the Caribbean. He doesn't like the sun or the sea or the beach. He doesn't trust his laid back co-workers or the local wildlife.

But..he's a good detective and that's what makes it a fun viewing experience.

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Jericho

I've seen it before, But found it on Netflix and re-watched it. This is a pretty good TV drama with good visuals and a well written story. It's fast paced but not so that the story is glossed over. There are better entertainment choices with this type of story, but it.s worth the time to watch it.

There are two seasons. Season one is better, they could have ended with that, but they continued with the next season, introduced some good characters and did a pretty good job wrapping it up. If you watch it and feel you need more there are two paperback books that continue the story available on Amazon.

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Backstrom

Second episode and I LIKE it! Just extremely quirky.It's just so strange. I like these kind of characters. On FOX, if you've missed these two episodes, get right onto Hulu and watch them before they're gone..Let me know what you think.

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Rediscovering An Old Friend

Sometimes we watch shows long enough that the characters become like real friends to us. Our daughter, Laura, really suffered a bit when the sitcom "Friends" ended because those characters had become so important to her. 
Jeanne and I have recently been visiting "Old Friends" on the series "Northern Exposure." We enjoy the characters even more than we did originally because they are so familiar to us. We like the quirkyness of the situations came up with and we enjoy the intellectual debates the entire town may have from episode to episode. It's been fun to re-discover an old friend!

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The Maze Runner

I haven't posted about movies for awhile, sometimes I'm just not as driven but "Maze Runner" got me interested in writing again.You see, it's a pretty good movie, it really grabs you and you get set into the action with the hero who, like us, is confused and disoriented and doesn't know whats going on. We get to go go along with him as he discovers the secrets of the "Glade" and it's occupants as the story unfolds.

The story holds up well and the effects work, it is your "typical" teenagers in trouble who need to save the world (as has been so popular in recent cinema). But the ending is very dissatisfying and at times I found myself disengaged from the story, even though I really wanted to figure out what was going on. I think it was a matter of paceing. If they had revealed some elements of the story more quickly it would have helped and at the end, when things were revealed..it happened too quickley. There was never a time where they let us as an audience take a breath and say "Oh, That's what's going on."


I hope you watch it and write your comments, I'm anxious to hear what you think of it.

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Jane Austen Book Club

I may have mentioned this one before, but Jeanne and I had a great time watching "The Jane Austen Book Club" again. It's a movie that has great characters and smart dialogue and they never forget to sprinkle in a little humor.

It is an entirely satisfactory 
(I've been reading Nero Wolfe) 
experience.

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Nanny McPhee

One of the significant things that makes this an exceptional movie is that the screenplay was adapted and written by Emma Thompson. Inspired by the Nurse Matilda trilogy, Thompson really cam up with a delightful story concept.

Jeanne and I have watched this several times and it is a source of delight, having the real magic of a much needed nanny mixed into the story. After it was finished the other night, we talked for some time about what we liked and how it proves that casting Emma in "Saving Mr. Banks" was the best choice.

The DVD has extras that lend even more insight into the  wonderful craftsmanship that went into this wonderful family fare.

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