"Paddington 2" and "Mission: Impossible – Fallout" Were… Fine?

Working my way through the critics' lists at the end of every year is a lot of fun.  I get to find new titles that I overlooked, compare notes with other critics, and make guesses about the awards season based on who's getting the buzz and attention.  There are always a couple of populist hits in mix, usually a PIXAR film and occasionally a fun genre outlier like "Mad Max: Fury Road." However, this year there are two titles that have thrown me for a bit of a loop: "Paddington 2" and "Mission: Impossible – Fallout."

Let me make it clear that I have no major complaints against either of these films.  However, I find myself very surprised at the level of acclaim that they've received. "Paddington 2" is perhaps a little more understandable, with its cheery Wes Anderson-esque visuals, crowd-pleasing whimsy,  and a career-resurrecting performance by Hugh Grant. Still, I didn't find anything about it that I'd classify as exceptional. It was better than the original "Paddington," and yet I thought it had too many characters and a few too many bits of manufactured drama at the end.  I appreciate it for being a gentle, charming family picture, because we always need more of them, but this wasn't something really special on the level of "Babe" or "Where the Wild Things Are."

As for "Fallout," well, I guess taste plays into it more here.  I like the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, but tend to forget them about twenty minutes after I finish watching them.  I've also found myself unable to care about Ethan Hunt as a human being since around the third movie, since I've had difficulty seeing the character as anything but an extension of Tom Cruise's warped ego. Still, I'm perfectly content to watch the crazy action sequences and slick demonstrations of spycraft, and there were plenty of then in "Fallout."  I liked the addition of Henry Cavill and Vanessa Kirby. However, there was also the return of Michelle Monaghan and Rebecca Ferguson as Cruise's love interests. I like both actresses, but is there anything more emblematic of a male power fantasy than Ethan Hunt's estranged wife absolving him of all guilt and shooing him into the arms of another woman?  Ugh.

I didn't write posts on either of these films, or even have them share a post with another title, because I only had enough of an opinion about them to fill a paragraph apiece.  The only reason I'm bringing them up now is in the context of the recent groundswell of acclaim in connection with the release of critics' Top Ten lists. Frankly, I find the critical reaction to "Paddington 2" and "Fallout" more interesting than the films themselves.  At the time of writing, Metacritic currently has them ranked as the 18th and 33rd most well regarded films of 2018, respectively. "Paddington 2" pulled off a rare 100% positive review haul. They're not going to be major contenders for any awards, because they're both very firmly escapist genre films, but their popularity ensures that they're going to be around in the public consciousness for a long time.  

I understand why some people connected with these films where I didn't.  They offer a lot of simple, beautifully executed cinematic pleasures that can be hard to get right.  There are so many action spectaculars these days, but "Fallout" boasts top tier stunt work and inventive thrills that make it feel more exciting that the bulk of its competitors.  The sequence in the bathroom is my personal favorite. "Paddington" is part of an even more dodgy genre - the family film with major CGI characters. Next to "Peter Rabbit" and "Monster Trucks," "Paddington" looks like high art.

I suspect that I'm also resistant because I think that these films aren't as good as they could be.  I'm glad the talent involved is getting plenty of encouragement though. Hugh Grant was nominated for a BAFTA, and "Paddington" director Paul King was attached to Disney's live action "Pinocchio" for a while. Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise are working on the "Top Gun" sequel next, and I'm sure it's going to be as good a version of a "Top Gun" sequel as we're ever going to get.  And maybe "Paddington 3" and "Mission Impossible 7" will be the installments that finally win me over.

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"Searching" and Screen Life on Film

"Searching" is not the first film to take place mostly on a computer desktop. Techno-thrillers like "Open Windows" and the "Unfriended" films got there first. "Searching" also incorporates video calls, news reports, and other screen content, making it closer in spirit to traditional found footage films like "Paranormal Activity" and "Chronicle." However, "Searching" is one of the most successful at using these devices to tell an engaging story, and at portraying our present day relationships with computers, social media, and other tech in a more grounded way.

John Cho plays David Kim, the protective father of high school sophomore Margot (Michelle La). They've been distant since Margot's mother died, and David learns how little he knows about his daughter's life when she disappears one night after a study group. After multiple attempts at contact fail, he calls the police. A detective, Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) is assigned to the case and turns up some concerning information. At her urging, David digs into Margot's online activity for clues, finding different facets of his daughter's life that he had no idea existed.

I love how effective "Searching" is at being a crime thriller using only present-day technology and completely plausible, everyday human interactions. We've seen so many of these movies gleefully involve the dark web, criminal underworlds, and grand conspiracies, that it's good to have a reminder that normal people using the internet the way real people do, already results in plenty of drama. And as a result, "Searching" is able to comment quite a bit about online mobs, catfishing, privacy concerns, and parental monitoring without feeling so sensationalist. Well, mostly.

At its heart, "Searching" is one of those parental paranoia stories that preys on our fears about the kind of trouble that kids are getting into online. However, in this movie many of those fears turn out to be unfounded, and search engines and Facebook are very helpful at times. A good chunk of the running time is spent simply following along as David Kim works his way along the digital trail and uncovers more and more information. This isn't as tedious as it sounds, thanks to good editing and the filmmakers' unusually strong facility with internet and mobile phone visual language. If you've ever watched someone play a point-and-click adventure game, or followed an event over the internet in real time, this feels very similar.

A lot of the film's immersiveness comes from director Aneesh Chaganty and his crew largely using real world sites, apps, and social media like Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, Venmo, Youtube, and so on. There are a lot of clever uses of familiar bits of computing imagery, like seeing the old Windows XP "Bliss" desktop image in a flashback, or the Apple "Flurry" screensaver shepherding along a scene transition. It's also apparent that the filmmakers went to extreme lengths to make sure that David and Margot's online worlds feel fully fleshed out and populated. Every E-mail subject line, Instagram screen name, Facebook photo, and Youtube sidebar recommendation feels believably clickable. There are some moments that strain credulity - David's is way too good at video surveillance - but not many.

When it comes to the family drama, however, it's the actors who sell it, with John Cho having no trouble carrying the picture for long stretches of time. This is one of his few headlining dramatic roles, and proves that he should absolutely be getting more work in this vein. When I first heard about the film, I was expecting a more traditional action thriller. Instead, "Searching" provides the opportunity for Cho to do something much more intimate and relatable. Because so much of the film is limited to the desktop, often all we see is Cho's face in a window, or hear his voice over a mobile phone.

After several years of films depicting life online to various degrees of success, "Searching" is the first where it doesn't feel like a gimmick, but a legitimate storytelling choice. I expect we'll be seeing many more like it in the future. They're cheap, they're effective, and they're increasingly relevant. As our lives keep moving online to a greater and greater degree, it's only natural that our movies should follow suit.
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Spike Lee is Back With "BlacKkKlansman"

The rise of Donald Trump and the Alt Right have galvanized many of our artists recently, and it's apparent that they've spurred Spike Lee to make his most blisteringly critical, powerful film in years.

"BlacKkKlansman" is a historical drama about Colorado police detective Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), who runs an undercover operation that infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Stallworth converses with Klan members over the phone, including its leader David Duke (Topher Grace), while face to face meetings are handled by Jewish officer Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver). In his personal life, Stallworth also struggles to reconcile his position as a police officer with his loyalty to the black community. He faces hostility and discrimination at work, and dates a student organizer, Patrice (Laura Harrier), with the Black Power movement.

As you would expect from Spike Lee, "BlacKkKlansman" is a sharply insightful look at racism and hate groups, full of pointed details that tie the events in the '70s to our present day situation. However, what I think makes this one such a standout is that it's so thoroughly entertaining. Scenes where characters seriously discuss race and activism are interspersed with all the fun of seeing the investigation unfold. A lot of suspense is mined from Flip's undercover meetings with colorful local Klan members, including chapter president Walter (Ryan Eggold), aggressive race-war prepper Felix (Jasper Pääkkönen), his hefty wife Connie (Ashlie Atkinson) and dim bulb Ivanhoe (Paul Walter Hauser). Their awfulness is often played for laughs, but Lee never loses sight of how dangerous they are.

Washington and Driver are both excellent as the leads, and handle a lot of tough material featuring a lot of racial epithets with care. The films is very good at depicting how both of their characters grapple with their identities and their responsibilities as members of oppressed groups. However, it's the whole ensemble that makes the movie. I love the scene of Felix and Connie cuddling while discussing the terrible things they want to do to black people. I love Stallworth's sergeant, Trapp (Ken Garito), cracking up in the background during the calls with David Duke. I love that Harry Belafonte was recruited to deliver one of the film's stirring anti-racism speeches. Here, nobody makes the mistake of denouncing the film's villains without also providing the appropriate counterpoints to their poisonous propaganda.

There's also a good amount of time devoted to the Black Power movement of the times, which the director clearly admires. Stallworth's feelings are much more mixed, however, as he believes that he can effect change from within the police organization. His relationship with Patrice, a committed radical, is one of the more interesting parts of the film. It points to intolerance and myopia not only being the domain of white Americans, adding some nuance to the conversation. There's no subtlely whatsoever to the film's intentions, but I like that it does try to give everyone their due. Even the Klan members are all fairly well fleshed out human beings in the end.

This is one of Lee's denser films, full of little historical details and film references for cinema nerds. The very first shot is borrowed from "Gone With the Wind," and a key sequence involves the Klan members reacting to a screening of "Birth of a Nation." It's also a gorgeous production, shot on 35mm and designed to look like a film from the '70s. Lee's trademarks like the "floating man" dolly shots and use of archival material are present, but used with restraint. When they do appear, they have plenty of impact though. The film's ending is the most daring thing I've seen all year, refusing to let the audience ignore the real world implications of the story they've seen play out.

A lot of great art comes out of troubled times. The Trump administration and all the damage that it has wrought will be influencing our movies for years to come. "BlacKkKlansmen" wasn't the first to tackle it, but to date it's one of the most provocative and thoughtful and unabashed responses. And I hope that plenty more follow its example.
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Your 2019 Oscar Nominations

It's a weird year at the Oscars.  Many promising titles like "Widows," "First Man," "Mary Poppins Returns," "Leave No Trace,""Boy Erased," and "If Beale Street Could Talk" never managed to gain the necessary support and momentum to make any kind of impact on the awards races.  There's the big influence of Netflix this year, the big diversity push, and a clear shift toward more populist choices. It feels like the "Best Popular Film" kerfuffle and the hosting controversy really set the tone.

That leaves us with one of the most curious sets of Oscar nominees in some time.  Many of the Best Picture nominees are noticeably weak, including "Vice," "Black Panther," and "Bohemian Rhapsody."  There's certainly a lot to like about these films, but they also have massive flaws. "Black Panther" was in no way the best action film this year, and has been mocked for its poor CGI.  "Bohemian Rhapsody" was a treat to watch, but much of the narrative falls apart under any scrutiny. The current frontrunner is a black and white Spanish language period film, "Roma," with no recognizable stars.  Yorgos Lanthimos and Spike Lee are both nominated for Best Director, and their films, "Blackkklansman" and "The Favourite," are some of the stronger contenders. I suspect that "A Star Is Born" or "Green Book" might win because they're the only nominees that resemble the typical prestige drama we expect Oscar films to be.  

I get less and less interested in the acting races every year, as they feel more and more arbitrary.  However, I'm secretly glad that a lot of the performances that were getting a lot of buzz and heat, despite not really being all that impressive, didn't land nominations in the end.  I have nothing against Timothee Chalamet, Claire Foy, or even Ethan Hawke, but I'm not remotely surprised or bothered that they didn't make the cut. That said, there were few real surprises.  Marina de Tavira for "Roma" is the big one. It's easy to make predictions for most of the winners this year: Bale for "Vice," Mahershala Ali for "Green Book," and Regina King for "If Beale Street Could Talk."  Best Actress could go to Lady Gaga, Olivia Colman, or Glenn Close, but I'll be rooting for Colman personally.

Other major categories have some interesting races.  The Polish Foreign Language film nominee "Cold War" scored nominations for Best Director and Best Cinematography, while the German nominee "Never Look Back" also got a Cinematography nomination.  This has contributed to an unusual situation where the Best Cinematography and Best Editing categories, usually bellwethers for Best Picture, only have a single nominee in common: "The Favourite."  Alfonso Cuaron will probably prevail for director, but it's the other nominees in Best Director that raise some eyebrows. Pawel Pawlikowski and Adam McKay beat out newbie Bradley Cooper for slots. Bryan Singer is still persona non grata, which is why he's missing.  

There has been some grumbling about "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" missing out on Best Documentary, and "Eighth Grade" not getting a screenplay nod, but the only snub I really have any strong feelings about is the lack of Lee Chang-dong's "Burning" for Best Foreign Language film.  That said, I haven't seen most of the Foreign Language nominees yet. The surprise nomination that makes me happiest to see is "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" from "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" making it into Best Song. Netflix scored a very good haul, and I hope their squabbles with the Academy are over for now.  I'm also glad that despite the rule changes, the little seen anime "Mirai" made it into the Best Animated Film category.

Overall, I'm not disappointed with this year's nominations, probably because I haven't been paying as much attention to the awards race this year.  It only seems to be by extraordinary luck that I've managed to see as many of the nominees as I have. Maybe the nominees are just the films that Academy voters actually managed to see on their own this season and didn't have to expend too much energy hunting down.  A related trend I've noticed is that the Best Picture nominees are generally the more positive, feel-good titles. I'm not surprised "First Man" and "First Reformed" lost out, for instance, because they're so somber and dark. This year, in the current climate, the more uplifting watches may just be what everybody is more receptive to.

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Peak TV Has Become an Avalanche

Oh boy. While writing up my list of my most anticipated new television and web series of 2019, I went and looked at my lists from 2017 and 2018. It just served as a reminder of how many shows I've missed or skipped. "The Romanoffs" and "FLCL: Progressive" were on previous lists, and I haven't watched. I don't plan to, since I'm no longer interested in those shows. I have way too many programs to watch that I actually am interested in. I made it through a single episode of "Counterpart" before becoming distracted by a rush of new releases. I don't know if I'll ever get around to a second.

How is it that I haven't seen any of the new "Duck Tales" yet? I'm a massive Disney nerd, and grew up with the original. Everything I've been hearing about the reboot has been fantastic, and all the little cameos and crossovers I've heard about are aimed directly at me! What about the revival of "Murphy Brown"? It's been cancelled due to ratings, but I still want to see for myself how the show has handled certain things. Omigod, "GLOW." "GLOW" looks like so much fun, but I never seem to be in the mood to start it. I've also been curious about "Castle Rock," "Titans," "Dark," the new "She-Ra" and "Patriot." I would have watched two or three episodes of the massively hyped "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" a few years ago. Now, I can't even get past the goofy title sequence.

Part of the issue is that I've made a conscious decision to prioritize films over television, so even though I've cut down on viewing hours overall, there's been a big shift toward films. I've accepted that I'll never be able to properly keep up with the Emmy race, but the Oscars are much easier. You only have to watch about twenty to thirty films to be decently informed enough to participate in the awards season chatter. However, those twenty to thirty films still eat up a lot of time. During the winter crunch, I just end up letting episodes of current shows I'm watching pile up for later. I still haven't finished the latest series of "Doctor Who," and that ended months ago. Haven't even started "Runaways," but I'll probably wait until that one's released all its episodes and binge it. Not thinking about "Young Justice" right now.

I'm very reluctant to start new shows, especially if they're ongoing, because I'm wary of not being able to keep up with recent cinematic releases. It's gotten to the point where I'm secretly a little relieved after one of the show's I've committed to finishing finally comes to an end. Saying goodbye to "The Americans" last year was easy, and I was a little annoyed "The Expanse" was saved at the last minute. It's a good show and deserves another season, but does it really need one? And as a compulsive completionist, I can't not see how the series ends. I've gotten better about this in recent years, dropping "Mr. Robot" and "Orange is the New Black" after their first seasons, but sunk cost fallacy eventually gets to me after two or three.

"True Detective"is back this month. So are "Luther," "Star Trek: Discovery" and "The Good Place." I'll get around to all of these eventually since I've watched and enjoyed their prior seasons. I'm more willing to give chances to the shows that have been consistent performers in the past. So "The Crown" is an automatic yes, even though the entire cast will be changing this year. However, I've noticed that I'm also terribly prone to getting swept up in buzz, especially when limited streaming series are involved. That's why I watched "Maniac," "Homecoming," and "The Haunting of Hill House" last year. It's a combination of the novelty, less commitment, and immediate access, I think. Sure, the first season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" is only eight episodes, but what if it runs eight seasons?

I'm skipping the new episodes of "Making a Murderer" and "Arrested Development," but I'll give "Disenchantment" another shot. I'm doubtful about a second season of "Big Little Lies," but the appeal of Meryl Streep is strong. And frankly, the "Game of Thrones" finale is looking more and more like a disaster, but it's way too late to pull out now.

Sigh. Here we go again.
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Netflix and "Bandersnatch"

Here comes another late review of a movie that's been readily accessible to everyone for weeks, because all of my reviews have been late these days.  Due to a combination of work-related and personal obligations, plus being ill for most of December, I've barely consumed any media in weeks, and will be playing catch-up for the foreseeable future.  I've only seen 187 films in 2018 in total, one of my lowest tallies since I started keeping track. Even then, a pretty significant chunk of these are Netflix releases. I've seen over a dozen of their "original" films since September, and they're the only reason I'm remotely informed about the current awards race at all.

But I want to write about Netflix's "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" today, the interactive viewing experience that lets the viewer direct the fate of a young video game creator in the 1980s as he works on a game called "Bandersnatch."  It's been described as a "Choose Your Own Adventure" title, as a narrative-directed video game, as a brilliant experiment, and as a colossal bore. "Black Mirror" creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones reportedly spent months on this single project, which features multiple endings, the opportunity to rewind and replay previous choices, and lots of metatextual elements in its narrative.  I spent a weekend replaying and exploring the various branching options, using online guides to reach some of the the different endings. I found it a lot of fun the first, but the whole thing got very repetitive and tedious very quickly. I can see why there have been comparisons to video games, as it felt like I was replaying bits of the story over and over again.

Was "Bandersnatch" successful and entertaining as a piece of media?  I'm very mixed on this. The interactive elements were novel, and I'm glad Netflix provided the resources to really commit to the concept.  Initially, it was fun figuring out all the ins and outs of how the narrative worked, and the mechanisms to get to the different choices. I've always been notoriously bad at "Choose Your Own Adventure," and this was no different.  I hit several dead ends early on, and had to keep going back. However, overall I didn't find the experience as satisfying as watching a regular episode of "Black Mirror." Or was it just that I didn't like the story in this particular episode?  I've been generally cooler on the installments like "Shut Up and Dance" and "Playtest," where a nerdy young protagonist finds themselves persecuted by their personal demons. Fionn Whitehead's reclusive Stefan wasn't a very compelling lead. Would I have felt different if the episode were based on "Metalhead" or "Fifteen Million Merits"?

I'm inclined to categorize "Bandersnatch" as closer to a video game than a movie, due to the nature of how the narrative plays out.  Though there is an option to simply let the system make default choices for the viewer, everything is built around the interactive element, and going through it often feels like working your way through a high budget graphic adventure game, the kind that would have video cutscenes throughout.  From that perspective, the interactive element isn't very interesting. You go around talking to other characters and gathering information like an adventure RPG, but there aren't really any puzzles to solve or tasks to accomplish. A bigger, more ambitious project might be more satisfying, but that would also take far longer to create and probably require some adjustments to Netflix's existing streaming platform.  "Bandersnatch" is already unable to be watched through certain providers that render the interactivity non-functional. Still, this is by far the widest exposure this kind of interactive media has had.

I liked the experience of going through "Bandersnatch" enough that I'd love to see Netflix continue to experiment in this space.  I wonder what other kinds of stories could be told through this format. Would I have liked it better if the story were more linear, had less (or more) choices, or were a different genre?  A romantic comedy might unfold like a Japanese dating simulator game. A mystery might offer different final culprits depending on which clues you decide to investigate. There's a "Clue" remake here just waiting to happen.  But would this kind of experience still be sustainable once the novelty factor wore off? I think so, based on the reaction we've seen to "Bandersnatch" so far, but it would be a niche audience, at least to start with. Personally, I don't think I've quite got a handle on how to process the whole experience yet.

Yet I can't help wondering about  what certain filmmakers might do with interactive media.  Francis Ford Coppola tried something like this before with "Twixt," which wasn't well received.  But what about the real boundary-pushers like Michael Haneke or Leos Carax? Dear god, what would Gaspar Noe or Lars von Trier do?      

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My Top Ten Films of 1982

This is part of my continuing series looking back on films from the years before I began this blog. The ten films below are unranked and listed in no particular order. Enjoy.

Missing - Costa Gravas looks at the 1973 Chilean coup from the POV of an ordinary American man. This is Ed, played with heartbreaking sincerity by Jack Lemmon, who wades into the middle of the chaos to search for his missing son Charles, a political activist. Faced by bureaucracy and lies at every turn, the film charts Ed's disillusionment with the American government, and reaching a gradual rapprochement with his daughter-in-law, played by Sissy Spacek. Gravas doesn't shy away from confrontation, and the results are harrowing. This is a difficult film, but a very brave and admirable one.

Pink Floyd – The Wall - I love the band and I love their music, but "The Wall" is on this list for being such an indelible cinematic experience. The deeply weird Gerald Scarfe animated sequences are still fascinating, and Bob Geldof's performance as the tortured Pink is a force to behold. This is still one of the darkest and strangest musical films ever made, full of apocalyptic visions, cynical self-examination, and surreal wartime horrors. This was one of the last great rock operas of its era, and serves as a wonderful snapshot of both the music and filmmaking of the times.

Boat People - It's still rare to see any depictions of the Vietnam war from the point of view of anyone from Asia. Hong Kong New Wave filmmaker Ann Hui takes a look at the nightmarish post-war lives of the Vietnamese under the control of Ho Chi Minh's government, using a fictional Japanese reporter as her naive stranger in a strange land. It's a rough, but very effective cautionary tale about the false promises of authoritarianism, full of big emotions and heart-tugging dramatics. The original, and much more fitting title of the feature is "Run Towards the Angry Sea."

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial - One of the most iconic films of the 1980s, and perhaps the quintessential Steven Spielberg fantasy. Echoes of this film are still being felt in our media today, especially with the recent surge of '80s nostalgia for kids on bikes having adventures. As a small child, I loved the film for its special effects, chase sequences, and the John Williams score. As an adult, I love it for its depiction of the kids and their dynamics, the sunny views of suburbia, and the John Williams score even more. They don't make them like this anymore, and probably never will again.

Victor/Victoria - To date, this is my favorite Blake Edwards film by far. It's a cheeky musical comedy about cross-dressing, homosexuality, and gender-bending that's safe enough for even the smallest tots and most uptight puritans to enjoy. Julie Andrews was never so charming or attractive as she is here, as a woman playing a man playing a woman. The musical numbers composed by Henry Mancini are magnificent, the farce is delightful, and the romance is exactly what it should be. Lively and lighthearted, but never flippant, it's a very difficult film to resist.

Fitzcarraldo - The arduous making of "Fitzcarraldo" often threatens to overshadow the finished product. However, the film was clearly worth the effort. Madness has rarely been brought to screen with the same gusto as it has by Werner Herzog, and leading man Klaus Kinski is at his most unhinged. It's difficult to argue against the dedication and daring of the filmmakers when you behold a real steamship actually being dragged over the Peruvian jungle, with a roaring Kinski at the helm. It may work better as spectacle than drama, but it's spectacle that is unmatched.

Moonlighting - Jerzy Skolimowski presents a nasty little parable about exploitation, exile, and social inequities, starring Jeremy Irons as a Polish official illegally smuggling workers into London to remodel an apartment. The scale is small and the frills are minimal, but the satire is excellent and darkly enjoyable. The disastrous building project makes a great visual metaphor for the state of Poland, putting the fate of the abused workers in sharp relief. Best of all, the themes are so universal, you don't need to know anything about Poland in the '80s to appreciate it.

Poltergeist - One of my favorite haunted house films, because it challenged my view of what a haunted house film could be. Instead of something dark and drab, "Poltergeist" is full of fantastic Spielbergian special effects, absorbing mythology, and characters I cared about. It's terrifying at times, especially when it offers manifestations of childhood fears, but also full of wonder and weird delights. It brought horror home to a suburbia that I recognized, and a family dynamic that hits close to home. And I now enjoy it in an entirely different way as a parent with small children.

The Atomic Café - A look back on the Cold War era and Americans' fears of nuclear war, using only media from the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. News footage, government training films, and other archival material are edited together to give the audience a look into once common attitudes toward nuclear war. Far more concerning than the threat of nuclear annihilation is the way the public was often mislead about it, and the extent of the paranoia surrounding the subject. It's also fascinating to see the different ways that the popular culture came to reflect the nuclear age.

Koyaanisqatsi - A groundbreaking experimental documentary feature that pairs a hypnotic Philip Glass score with macroscopic views of human civilization. There are no characters, no plot, and not a single word of dialogue or narration. Instead, the visuals speak for themselves. A secondary title of the film is "Life Out of Balance," as much of the running time is devoted to observing the negative impact that industrialization has had on the planet. Two subsequent documentaries from the same filmmakers further chart the relationships between humans, nature, and technology.


Honorable mention:

Blade Runner

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