EVERYBODY KNOWS
The opening sequence: like the first paragraph in a short story, it provides clues and hints, it conjures coming themes, introduces the main protagonists, and establishes leading metaphors and tropes.
The church bell tower where some truth is told, some oracle is given:
“Everybody knows”
About Paco and Laura…
The clock mechanism proceeds relentlessly, setting other processes in motion: moving hands, ...
THE RIDER
“He galloped up … his heels in the horses’ s ribs and it dancing and swirling like the shape of its mane and tail…” (William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying)
The articulation of passion and identity and self—and the loss of it all. At first.
The nightmarish return of haunting images of success. And failure.
Some turning point: the accident ...
DON’T WORRY, HE WON’T GET FAR ON FOOT
“Sorrow is food swallowed too quickly, caught in the throat, making it nearly impossible to breathe” (Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing).
A form of contemplation, the quality of a gaze that strives to explore without damaging, to know without assessing. To see without becoming blind.
Gus Van Sant covering the territory of forgiveness and ...
READY PLAYER ONE
Teenage coming-of-age story the Twenty-First Century way…
Indulging in the magic that Spielberg’s works provide.
Like Scorsese’s Hugo Cabret, Ready Player One proposes some tribute to cinema
And the cultural work it provides.
An invitation NOT to play alone.
For the viewer who was a teenager in the 80’s, the enhanced visual pleasure of recognition: familiar references de-territorialized and re-contextualized in a virtual ...