Commentarium, our film review website, is back! And this time it’s staying. Expect one update per day – sometimes it will be just a small thought or discussion topic or link, other times it will be long and detailed reviews or articles. It shall be fun!
So what are we restarting with? Well, what else? A review of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse!
Upcoming reviews:
Yep. Fun this shall be.
I’m still here. Working very hard on creative things and being entirely too obsessive. Will be able to reveal more soon, I hope. Financially everything is still shit, so any donations (even if only of a few dollars) are greatly appreciated. But creatively things are mostly good. Rejections for short stories suck and no book news yet, but the other projects might make up for that, at least psychologically.
Damn. Being too vague. More soon. I hope. Very much.
Please keep supporting Echoes and Awakening. Awakening in particular seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people, but it could really use more visibility. A “making of” will hopefully follow in the near future. And it should be about time for the Phenomenon 32 bloopers.
Our two short films for the Parallel Lines competition are up. (Both have the same dialogue, because that’s the point of the competition.)
The first one is a question.
The second one is an answer, but not necessarily to the same question.
There are connections.
Please watch them, like them, and share them with your friends, family, colleagues, and perfect strangers. Every bit of support means we’re a tiny bit closer to being able to tell more stories.
Despite a couple of minor hiccups, good progress is being made with the two short films, and we should be able to enter the competition with two respectable, even cool entries. None of us are expecting even remotely to win – given that we are certain to be up against people (i.e. film students) with far superior equipment and effects – but we can at least try to do our best, and see where we end up. Your support, when if the time comes, will be greatly appreciated.
Finished filming another short; also edited the previous one. Results are looking good. More editing tomorrow. Lack of sleep is evident in short sentences. Cat is making typing difficult by headbutting me.
Gnome’s Lair has published a really nice review of Phenomenon 32:
Phenomenon 32, being Kyratzes’ most ambitious project so far, is much more than the sum of its parts. Besides the beautiful black and white visuals, its atmospheric soundscape and a deeply depressing and simultaneously surreal game world, Phenomenon 32 is an incredibly immersive experience, designed to be savored slowly and carefully. It is after all a hard and demanding game, that simply cannot be completed in one sitting. It also is a game filled with surprises and little touches of excellence, that go far beyond what you might expect from a free game.
As for the plot, well, it’s one of the best I’ve ever encountered in a video game ever and a key part of Phenomenon 32. Set in an alternate version of the 70s the game is engrossing, deeply political, truly unique and thought-provoking, and is supported by some quality writing and impressive voice-work.
But I do have to complain about one thing in this review: it gets my first name wrong! Again! What is it with Greek people and my first name? It’s Jonas, not John, not Jannis, not Isaac, and not Abraham, either! (Yes, I’ve been called all of those. Some people don’t believe Jonas is a real name, others confuse it with every other Jewish name there is. GRARGH!) I’m smiling as I type this, of course, because after nineteen years of living in Greece, it only drives me up the wall in a humorous way.
But seriously. Grargh.
(Edit: It’s now been fixed. Thanks!)
Awesome review, though. More please. *g*
In other news, over at Commentarium Verena has written Another Look at the Predator Movies, which you should read.
Just as importantly, this photo of basement cat. And look at all its variations! Our cat makes for good lolcats.
And all of this reminds that I really ought to update my links, maybe sort them a bit, definitely add some descriptions.
Did you know there’s a cat staring at you?
One of the biggest problems art is facing today is the definition of art in people’s minds. Too many people have been misled into believing that truly good art must consist of ambiguous abstractions that are somehow “timeless” – that art must be exclusively introspective, lacking context, and dedicated solely to celebrating the inability to come to any kind of conclusion. Good films are those that “apolitical” (i.e. lacking courage), whereas any film that attempts to find or portray truth is “message-heavy” and more propaganda than art.
Truth, after all, has been declared to be relative, at least when it’s convenient, and not the business of the artist. Good art, we are told, pretends that people exist in a vacuum and the world doesn’t change; or if the world changes, it does so in ways that are beyond our ability to comprehend. (Perhaps we should leave it to our leaders? They may do bad things, but really they’re just people with daddy issues, and a government of the people by the people for the people will be the same as a plutocracy, because all people are the same, driven by Human Nature. Right?)
That’s the going definition of art: self-important, intentionally myopic bullshit pumped out by cowards and apologizers who justify their lack of vision as belief in “the small things” and their lack of courage as “not wanting to preach.” But it’s not a coincidence that theatre evolved from religious rites; art is about the truth, and always has been: about seeking it, about finding it, about questioning it. It’s about humanity, about God, about the nature of the universe and the nature of society. It’s about justice, and truth, and love; fuck that, it’s about Justice and Truth and Love.
Art is about the fire, not about rearranging the motherfucking matches.
Things have been a little quiet at Commentarium recently, mostly because we’ve been very busy working. I know some people are still waiting for my long-delayed (and very long) Avatar article, though right now I’m considering waiting until the re-release in August. We’ll see. It’s still very important to me.
Anyway, we’ve got a new article up, and one I’m quite happy with. It’s called Can we please review video game movies with our brains switched on? and I’ve been meaning to write it for a while now. It feels good to have it out of the way. If you enjoy it, please do share it with others via Facebook, Twitter, or your pants.
OK, back to writing.
We just published a new article at Commentarium. It’s about Richard Donner, director of iconic movies such as The Omen, Lethal Weapon, The Goonies, Ladyhawke and Superman. His is really a case of the work overshadowing the man; he gets very, very little critical appreciation, even though his movies have shaped entire generations. (They also happen to be very good.)
I’d really appreciate it if people who enjoyed the article helped push it a little. Not just because I want Commentarium to get more hits (we don’t have any advertising anyway, though donations would be nice) or exposure, but because I really want more people to understand and appreciate the amazing work this man has done. So many good movies, made with so much talent and vision, should not go ignored. So let’s try to change that, if only a little.
If you want to help, you could share the article with friends, retweet it, post it on Facebook, or promote it with Digg or similar sites. The button at the end of the post (on Commentarium) can help you do some of that automatically.
Thanks.
I’ve made some real improvements to some of the levels in Phenomenon 32. This makes me very happy; they just didn’t feel right before, and now they do. Tomorrow I’ll add a couple more areas. Then I’ll playtest the game and see if the new numbers work. And then it might be done.
We saw How To Train Your Dragon today, and were totally blown away. It has some minor flaws, but they don’t really matter, because the movie has so much energy and so much heart that it just sweeps you up. It is hilarious and often deeply touching. (The trailer was terribly misleading.) Also, the dragon looks and behaves a lot like our cat – and we weren’t the only ones who thought so.
Have I ever mentioned that I adore Craig Ferguson? I wish he wasn’t so careful about being apolitical, but he makes me laugh a great deal. Especially when he claims that his audience, mostly unseen, consists of naked hobos. Yes, I’m that intellectual.
The weather has been good for the last couple of days, which has cheered me up enormously. I’m just not built for bad weather – I get deeply, deeply depressed when everything is grey and lifeless. It doesn’t help that we’re in Germany, a country which has +5 at both greyness and lifelessness.
Oh, yes. We also saw Cop Out in the sneak preview, and it nearly cost us our sanity. I think it may win the prize for Most Stupid Movie Ever Made. I’ve haven’t seen anything as infantile in… in… I don’t know actually remember anything as infantile as this. Cop Out makes Scary Movie look like Shakespeare.
And Borderlands is still great fun, especially in multiplayer. What a delightful game.
