Monthly Archives: June 2021

The Kid is SO Precocious: Fantastic Four (2015)

 

Because I am a Disney+ subscriber and curious about the reported train wreck that was Josh Trank’s 120-million-dollar adaptation of the Fantastic Four I began watching the 2015 film a few nights ago.

Young geniuses as Reed Richards is presented in this version are a thing and can be a compelling way to open a story. The historical drama Hidden Figures starts with a young Katherine Johnson displaying mathematical abilities beyond her grade to establish the character the prodigy she truly was. A similar thing could have been used for the fictional Reed Richards but the filmmakers unable to show the requisite restraint to tell the tale in an unfolding and tantalizing manner instead of displaying knowledge and aptitude beyond his grade young Reed, a pre-pubescent Reed, is actually building teleport devices in his garage. This is far too much far too fast.

In Hidden Figures Katherine’s teacher confronted with the young girl’s fantastic ability recognizes brilliance in her presence and works with Katherine’s parents and church to get the girl the education her mind deserves. Fantastic Four however repeats a worn, tired, and unjust trope when Reed’s teachers is simply incapable of recognizing talent that stands before him and Reed is shuffled into the misunderstood outcast archetype instead of having any actual character.

This is repeated in High School and it was at this point that my bed and slumber proved more enticing that a story written by a paint-by-numbers methodology. Instead of returning to this film in following nights I found the comically under-budgeted and scientifically challenged British Sci-Fi series Blake’s 7 far more engaging.

Character wins over spectacle.

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The Pandemic is *not* Over

Things are better, we have several highly effective vaccines available to us American and it would seem that the worst is behind us.

However, this is not the time to relax our guard. Just as with any slasher movie of the 80s the villain is not yet fully dead and if we drop out weapon and stumble outside to weep, we’ll face him once more. No, we’ll not go back to the first act, but there is still death ahead.

Right now, nearly every person who dies from COVID 19 is unvaccinated and the responsibility for those unnecessary losses lie with the death-obsessed cult that the modern Republican Party.

Slavish, cultish, and idiotic devotion to a cheat, a liar, a racist, and narcissistic twice impeached former president has led vast swaths of our country to reject the simple actions that would save lives. The more votes that went for the GOP in the last election in a county the lower the rate of vaccination. More than a year of disease and death has proved inadequate to dislodging the need to prove one’s devotion to team red. Now the Delta variant is spreading quickly through the unprotected population, more contagious than the original strain it represents a serious danger to the unvaccinated and those unable to procure or accept vaccination due to their own unique health conditions. Without vaccine acquired herd immunity which Red Staters seem intent on foiling this pandemic will continue, people will die, and the only voices heard from the right will be cries of anguish over imagined crimes of Critical Race Theory.

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Streaming Review: Saint Maud

 

Writer/Director Rose Glass’ modestly budgeted horror film Saint Maud is an impressive display of skillful filmmaking and doubly as Glass’ feature film debut.

Morfydd Clark plays Maud a former hospital nurse now turned to in-home hospice care for the dying. Maud is deeply religious and often prays in a conversational manner with God which the audience experiences as well-crafted voiceover. Haunted by a traumatic event seen only the glimpses through flashback Maud is clearly a lonely young woman of with a devout and possibly fanatical mindset. Her newest hospice charge is Amanda, played by Jennifer Ehle, a free-spirited professional dancer now confined to a wheelchair as a cancer in her spine marches her towards her death. Rather than being repelled by Amanda’s alcohol indulgences and same-sex assignations Maud becomes obsessed not only with easing Amanda’s final days but saving her soul. Throughout the film’s brief 84-minute runtime Maud experiences events that may be supernatural in origin or psychotic breaks from reality with Glass’ directorial hand deftly charting a course between the two possibilities until the film’s final few frames.

Saint Maud is a well crafter piece of mood cinema. The cinematography perfectly captures the atmosphere of Maud’s isolated life and with reveling in filth conveys the sense of a fallen and broken world that we inhabit. Clark’s soft and often understated performance as Maud couple with a script that leans towards ambiguity creates a film that invites the viewers to build their own interpretation rather than holding your hand and explaining everything. Jennifer Ehle is perfectly cast as the chaotic Amanda a woman of considerable talent now dealing with life’s cruel and chaotic misfortune. At time understanding of Maud’s faith and at other times mocking it Amanda and Maud are the dynamic that drives this feature. A fascinating and thoughtful film Saint Maud is well worth the time to watch intently and not casually while you do other chores.

Saint Maud is currently streaming on Epix and Paramount+.

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Wasting Wesley

 

Just a quick note from my writer’s desk on how the production of Star Trek: The Next Generation wasted their opportunity with the character Wesley Crusher. This is not about the use or abuse of the character’s skills and talents used to save the ship, much has been said on that issue and having a ‘tech save’ of any plot is bad writing anyway. No, this about the way the character could have fit into the show as a writing tool that would have be unique.

Wesley was introduced as Dr. Crusher’s son and not as a crew member of the new Enterprise, existing outside of the ship’s chain-of command. However fairly quickly the character was ‘upgraded’ to an acting ensign and from that point one was functionally crew.

This was a mistake.

As a person outside of the command his relationship with everyone else would have been unique. Characters would interact and say things to someone outside of the command that they could never ever speak to someone occupying a place under them in the chain-of-command. This could have been a wonderful tool to explore characters’ inner lives as they open up about themselves in a way that they would not have with a junior ensign. One of the hardest writing tasks is getting a character to reveal their inner truths especially in a military or pseudo-military setting. Instead, the character of Wesley becomes disposable because he doesn’t’ sever any vital plot or story function that couldn’t be performed by someone else.

 

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Blake’s 7

 

From 1978, one year after the KT Event in science-fiction/Fantasy know as Star Wars, until 1981 the BBC ran a weekly sf adventure program Blake’s 7.

In the distant future, exactly how distant is left quite vague, humanity has spread out across the star and Earth sits atop the corrupt and oppressive Federation. The various planets of the Federation vary wildly from colonies that have fallen into savagery to the technologically advanced drugged and despotic Earth. Blake, after discovering that some of his memories are manufactured, joins with a freedom movement seeking to overthrow the Federation. IT goes badly and after a stint on a prison ship he eventually escapes with other prisoners comes into possession of an advanced alien starship. Now armed with comrades, some of quite questionable loyalty, and the most advanced craft in the galaxy but only this one, he launches a quixotic quest to bring down the tyranny that has its boot on the face of humanity.

Pitched as The Dirty Dozen in space Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7 was a dark and cynical science-fiction series that suffered from chronic budgetary shortfalls, the BBC has given them the budget of the show previously in that time slot a police procedural, along with wildly inconsistent characters and tones, but managed to evoke a unique sensibility that holds a fanbase to this day more than 40 years later. With fewer episodes than the original run of Star Trek, a mere 52 compared to 76, and mired in rights issues that has stymied all attempts at a revival so common to other properties beloved by fans, Blake’s 7 hasn’t even gotten a proper US DVD release. But still, it’s fandom continue watching and re-watching the series adoring its flawed production, it’s surprisingly dark turns, and its chaotic churn of characters and actors. Season, or as the Brits call it Series, 4 ended on a dark a deadly cliffhanger that serves perfectly as a doomed ending to the insane quest for freedom. When other SF properties were leaving the 70s and its cynicism Blake’s 7 embraced a vision of the future that foretold that humanity would remain a flawed, petty, greedy, and occasionally noble species.

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How Not to Write a Female Character: Sands of The Kalahari

 

Sunday night I watched a mid 60s adventure film Sands of the Kalahari about a small charter aircraft that after encountering a locus swarm crashes in the Kalahari Desert and the 6 survivors struggling to overcome the harsh condition. The surviving passengers and pilot are five men and one woman played by Susannah York.

York’s role hardly qualifies as a ‘character.’ Each of the men have clearly defined personalities complete with motivations and goals while nothing at all motivates York’s Grace beyond sexual attraction. Though she was a paying passenger aboard the hastily convened flight, the regular commercial flight has been delayed overnight and the passengers commissioned this trip rather than wait in a hotel, Grace during the trip serves all the other passengers their coffee.

Once they have crashed and found refuge in a set of caves, she is attacked by the pilot who has claimed her as his sexual right by being the ‘leader’ of their band. Despite descending into savagery less than 48 hours after the crash the pilot does not in fact rape her because she’s doesn’t participate in her own sexual assault. The pilot then leaves the camp on a trek intending the cross the desert on foot and get rescue for the others.

Grace sexually fixates on the big game hunter among them having decided less than a day after escaping sexual assault that she loves this manly man. However, their assignation fails to complete when she is unable to get him to admit any ‘love’ for her at all and she rejects him. Later she changes her mind, apologizes for wanting him to love her, and simply gives herself over to him. For the rest of the film, we are expected to believe that she is torn between he-man she ‘loves’ and the growing truth that he has murdered some of the other survivors to increase his own chance of making it out. Grace has no character, no arc, no backstory, and contributes nothing to the groups survival other than cooking meals from the game the men have trapped and hunted. Her ‘character; could be replaced with a blow-up sex toy and it would have no impact on the plot.

Sands of the Kalahari is currently streaming on Paramount+.

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Streaming Review: Superdeep

 

Cinema from across the Iron Curtain produced a number of fascinating and noteworthy films including not a few deeply serious science-fiction movies some of which became bastardized American version when sold to the west. (I’m looking at you First Spaceship on Venus/The Silent Star.) Horror however was frowned upon as a serious subject and relatively few true horror movies were made with the Kremlin’s approval. With the fall of the Soviet Union and the age of digital effects that has changed and this weekend I watched a recent and decent Russian horror film Superdeep.

Serbian actor Milena Radulovic plays Anya (Presented as Anna in the English dub and subtitling) a soviet era physician haunted by her transgression of her medical ethics at the behest of the Soviet military intelligence. Now, near the collapse of the USSR Military Intelligence has called upon her services again. A secret research facility hidden in the Kola superdeep borehole has gone silent and there are hints that something biological has gone awry. Anya and the officer who pressured her into the ethical lapse are dispatched to investigate, obtain any samples for future military applications, and depart from the facility before the official rescue teams arrive. Once there they find that the lead scientist has been denounced by his lieutenant and all contact has been lost with the lower levels of the facility. Venturing underground they encounter horrors and a threat to not only the USSR but all of humanity.

Superdeep is a decent and solid horror film. The characters are engaging and believable creating enough empathy that their situation generates genuine horror. Radulopvic’s Anya provides the movie’s sole point of view allowing the filmmaker to restrict information to only what Anya see and hears herself escalating the tension of the unknown without cheesy gimmicks to hide information from the audience. Production values are high with the sets and the special effect, both practical and digital, well executed supporting a robust suspension of disbelief. The film’s cinematography is dark, moody, and atmospheric without becoming overly intrusive always managing that balance between what the environment would require versus the emotional drive of the scenes. The film is not particularly gory, but it is visually disturbing with explicit images of bodily disfigurement and horror.

Superdeep’s failings are that more than once during the movie it is nearly impossible to not think of other classic films. It is not the case that Superdeep is a ‘rip-off production’ but rather certain directorial and photographic choices were clearly influenced by films such as Alien. However, this visual rhyming with cinematic classics only harms the film marginally and reduces it merely a solidly enjoyable experience.

Superdeep (English Dub only) is currently streaming on Shudder.

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The Body Swap Hypothesis

 

Exchanging two people’s minds is a fairly common fantasy and sf trope with it propelling storylines in everything from Freaky Friday, Star Trek, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As an aside let me state that in my opinion it is fantasy one born out of our misconception that our minds and our bodies are separate and distinct phenomena. Our minds and a sense of awareness emerges from our biology and doesn’t exist independent of it, so it is something that is quite impossible to transplant. But it does make for fun entertainment.

Back in the 90s when I lived with a roommate who was equally into geeky entertainment as I was, I once asked the hypothetical questions if he could switch bodies and live for 24 hours as a woman would he do so? I was quite surprised by the speed and absolute finality with which he answered ‘no.’ I am a vastly curious person and that very much extends to how other experience their lives. I would, presuming an assured return to myself, take the chance without hesitation. I have a difficult time contemplating such a lack of curiosity about such an experience.

I am under no illusion that a brief excursion into someone else’s body for such a short time would provide a total understanding, but I think it would yield some new insights and empathy. It’s quite possible that my roommate rather than lacking curiosity rather feared emasculation. I suppose our cultural misogyny may run so deep as to make even a fantastic hypothetical threatening but if so, it doesn’t appear to have taken that deep of a root with me.

Still, the idea of the body swap is really an invitation to tryand envision life from someone else’s point of view which at its heart is the point of storytelling as well.

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Talking About My Novel

Talking About My Novel

 

Late March 2020, right as the pandemic strangled the world into a global shutdown, FlameTree Press published my debut science-fiction novel Vulcan’s Forge. It is not a Star trek tie-in novel, though as a fan of the series from the 70s onward I have enjoyed a few, nor is it about a champion racehorse or a communist plot to erupt volcanoes but rather a blend of SF and film noir about stellar colonization and a critique of idealized 50s America.

In the book, following the destruction of the Earth and the inner solar system by a rogue brown dwarf, humanity had colonized the local stars by way of automated slower-than-light ships that constructed the colonial infrastructure and then begat the first generation of colonists from stored eggs and sperm.

On the colony of Nocturnia, which has had no communication with any other successful colony and may be the only one that has survived, the third generation of colonists are just now taking their places in this new society modeled on mid-twentieth century urban Americana. Jason Kessler, the book’s protagonist, helps mold the culture by carefully curated mass media promoting the ideals and morals of this outpost of humanity. The problem for Jason is that he doesn’t fully believe in this family-oriented repressive suffocating society but wants a life free of the obligation to be nothing more than a ‘productive member of society’ and father of a nuclear family. When the seductive, sensuous, and mysterious Pamela Guest sweeps into his life offering him a way to have everything he’s every desired with the ever-present eye of the authorities every knowing he leaps at the possibility and suddenly find himself in tangled in a vast conspiracy that threatens his life and everything he thought was true.

Vulcan’s Forge is fairly well reviewed currently holding a 4.9 out of 5-star rating on Amazon and is currently available in Hardcover, paperback, and eBook from any bookseller.

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