hermit-23 Reviews

Annihilation (I) (2018)

the scientifically trained imagination runs into the Ruins of Faerie

[10/10 · 31 August 2019]

All aboriginal peoples knew, through direct experience, that the source of them, was that they were born out of the Mother (forest, sea, desert, tundra, ice&sea&sky - all was/is alive and conscious and wild and willful.

The artistic mind/imagination sees beyond, and into mystery. Military mind discovers "the shimmering", a barrier/gateway. Soldiers are sent in, and only one comes out, having lost connection to time and space, and life and form.

This film should be viewed with "Arrival", "Stranger Things", and the TV series: "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell". Once you get it, you will realize that all of us are having dreams remembering Faerie, and the return to our world of the magics of the moon.

Altered Carbon (2018–2020)

the dialogue is crucial, having/containing Ideas

[10/10 · 7 February 2018]

Sometimes TV shows and books are just a lot of flash, and the talking irrelevant to the tale, which is mostly pictures, action, special effects and other magical movie arts&crafts.

In this series if you don't follow the dialogue carefully, you will miss the meat of the series. The main character plays an unusually trained human being: an Envoy. He arrives in a future where his "kind" are only legends, so like many reviewers and others who don't really know the books, it is possible to not see the underlying struggle.

It is not a detective story. It is only marginally cyberpunk (whatever that really is). Like William Gibson and Ursula K. Le Guin, this book (as captured by the series) is about Ideas, ... about thinking about stuff ... Morgan is an acute observer of life, and this is his canvass. with which to speak to the human condition, and the possible dangers towards which our unrestrained hungers will lead ...

To see that you have to follow the dialogue, carefully. An Envoy has a set of skills and a kind of Character, which few have today. He looks for the best result, and outsmarts every game any character runs at him. He just doesn't mind violence and messes, and of course, no body really sees him coming ... I've watched it twice through in three days.

Strange Empire (2014–2015)

film is a visual art

[27 February 2017]

The one review I read, missed the point of the series. Years ago, Gene Siskel would say: don't watch a movie to see if it meets your expectations of how you would make that movie, but rather to see what the film-makers intended, and how well then did they succeed.

This is not a Western, although it "looks" like one. Having little money to spend, a story gets told of women in the West, and how hard it could be from their point of view. The women here are not the eye- candy of a typical Western. These women are the heart of a struggle to survive the vagaries of male impulsiveness, in a physical environment where there are no effective laws.

It is carefully photographed, with plays of light and dark that evoke mood, sometimes even mystical. Sure, the cast is weak against the wiles of the Hollywood pros, but scene after scene is sure in its emotions, and internal dilemmas faced, where something must be done, and no hero is going to ride in and save the day.

The women, old, young, babies, drunks, angry, scared, find a way to be together, and it is neither a romantic fairy tale, nor an story with all the lines straight and easy.

It is visually superb. Draws you along, while containing a realism that is not easily dismissed, or easy to watch. If you don't watch it alone, you'll have plenty to talk about.

Payback (I) (1999)

very underrated movie

[10/10 · 26 May 2013]

Most people who saw this movie didn't get its "genesis". It is an update of the 1930's and '40's kind of movies called: Film Noir. All the great actors in this kind of film from that era would have loved it, such as Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum. This is a perfect homage to a classic style of film, down to all its details, especially using the washed out blue coloration to remind us of those old black and white films.

No wonder all these great modern actors took roles in it. The hero is a bad guy, and his opponents are worse bad guys; and, he wins and they loose. Being a modern film they get to shoot scenes of even more violence, all very stylized, and the voice over narration by Mel Gibson, and the lines of dialog are all right on the money.

Lucy Liu is choice as a savagely funny dominatrix. Each tiny role is perfect and the language usages are all fun, such as calling a hand gun a "roscoe"

If you like Film Noir movies, this is a joy.

Nobel Son (2007)

great movie

[24 July 2011]

The great movie reviewer, Gene Siskel, once said that the only way to evaluate a movie is to start by asking yourself what the creators of the movie intended ... what they intended here, and delivered, is a weird black comedy, filled with fine performances by exceptional actors, that never ever goes where you think it is going. Just when you expected something the movie goes another way. Is it perfect, of course not. Will you have a lot of fun if you just let it take you on its journey ... maybe not, but in that case you have no sense of humor at all, ... these actors clearly enjoyed playing these roles and delivering these lines ... they had fun too.

Revolver (2005)

film good, does not answer all questions - viewer should ask more

[10/10 · 15 July 2010]

The film does an excellent job of taking a conventional story line and developing it into a study of certain deeper aspects of human nature. Toward the end of the film the transition from conventional story to psychological symbolism is handled quite well. The film disappoints (gets low ratings) because many viewers will not like the mirror it holds up to our own interior. The flaw of the film is that its psychology is ultimately weak (mostly conventional, with a bit of Eastern ideas about the ego thrown in for good measure). People will see a mirror of themselves that is not quite right, and they will be correct to instinctively reject the film's biases. There are better maps to the relationship between our own ego or I-AM, our inner world, and the world of our experience. Google the book American Anthroposophy for details.

Donnie Darko (2001)

some mental illness is not illness, but deeper perception

[10/10 · 25 May 2010]

The main character sees more deeply what is going on around him, and as well has certain experiences that would in some circumstances be called hallucinations, but which in reality are spontaneous (untrained) spiritual perceptions (he is naturally clairvoyant). But the culture in which he lives has no ideas, concepts or words which allow him to make sense of what he sees. He is also surrounded by a chaos of points of view and emotional expression, because the characters with which he interacts are themselves confused as well. There is no coherence in the story of the meaning of existence among the many characters, but rather everywhere endless conflict. Thus, he feels deeply alone, yet every effort at communication fails because while we all seem to share the same language, we don't see the world the same way. This makes him angry and frustrated. He looks for some solid ground in the world, and can't find it.

The world is a incoherent house of living mirrors (the others with which he lives), and ultimately he must leave it, for it has no place for either his intelligence or his spiritual sensitivity. The film is a beautiful representation of this common experience of today's adolescent, and while Donnie can't survive it (and others do), the depiction here of growing up in the modern world is a fine bit of art - a visual poem of the loss, and wonder the young experience while living in a civilization that is dying into chaos on its way to a new becoming. right in front of us.