The Endless, directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, was released back in 2018. It’s a Science fiction horror film. This story about two brothers, an entity that derails its victims in time loops and a seeming Camp Arcadia viewed by one of the brothers as a cult, is a perfect blend of a David Lynch mystery film and Lovecraftian horror. The mood that the film sets has this very strange aura reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s Get Out. When one of the brothers said that he’d rather be in the time loop of death than be in a menial life with a mediocre job, that speaks a lot. That in itself shows this sense of alienation from oneself that one would rather escape from into certain doom than to live a mundane life. This thought provoking film’s true horror is about the different views that the brother’s had about their past. The ending itself just proves how effective a horror film is regardless if it’s low budget or not, that all you need is a well cemented narrative and creative use of the monsters and what truly terrifies us. That sense of having escaped only to realize that you haven’t, that like the brothers, you’re actually stuck in that loop. The play on memory here is very poignant as it was what initially affected the two brothers. The power invested in how they remembered two different versions of their past was what was strikingly at the heart of the film’s conflict. That more than the supernatural evil lurking it was in the psychological realm that was truly terrifying. That was what truly made this film stand-out and gain a cult status. It was in the terror of not knowing what to believe or if what they were remembering was correct. There was a huge discrepancy in the dangers of having to look back into one’s past only to discover that much of it was a lie or at least a vast majority of everything you believed proves itself to be false and at its worst even sinister. Moving throughout the pace of the story towards the ending with that cliffhanger just shows how much of this was well thought and how the danger lurking has always been most powerful in the doubts that they had let grow. That there in the doubting that they have done have caused great distress. Thus as it shows that there indeed is the importance in remembering. The great magnitude and importance of how memory plays itself out. The importance of memory is that it shows the many dangers of things that we might not remember or remember differently. For there lies the creeping sensation of memory that plays well into the film and the many different facets that go with it. For there the cliffhanger relies heavily upon the many different phases that their memory go through and the dangers of not only forgetting but also remembering wrongly of how the truth really went by.

Sorry to Bother You is a film by Boots Riley released in 2018. It’s a science fiction sprinkled in with dark comedy. This film speaks a lot about the plight of the working class. As It is a story about a young black tele-marketer that adopted a white accent in order to make it in his industry. He is then later on forced to choose between loads of profit or organizing against the labor he faces with activist friends as he stumbles into a corporate conspiracy. This is a film that has a heavy backdrop of a story that speaks levels about corporate America and the chances of colored individuals when it comes to succeeding in their work. It’s a work that looks into the world of capitalism of how we view the puppet masters behind the puppets that drive our capitalist society. Armie Hammer’s character who represents the new capitalism has a line where he says: “I’m not your boss, I’m your friend.” You have here a loveable fellow winning every time due to how he positions himself. This was what struck me throughout the film in the regard of how effective it sounds and how it may just well be how it truly works in the real corporate world that exists in our reality. This film speaks to the modern placement of Black America. The working class is highly shown here to be quite into the fit of a world so enamored with capitalism and with making money that here it shows how that very mindset seeps into every aspect of our modern society. There is also a filtered lens with which the film bestows upon a commentary over the role and hardship of Blacks in America and the way with which they endured through decades of having to work through so much difficulty in the workplace. That then stems towards the degree and control of corporate greed and the secrets in most corporate structures that often overlooks the greater good and takes into consideration only the welfare of those in the throes of power and those in seated in positions of said power. This shows the inequality that is being faced by the working class today as they are slaved off into a sojourn of the bare minimum when it comes to the returns of their wages. The usage of the white accent by the black character is also very indicative of the very racism and inequality. The unfair treatment of minorities and the sentiment of the people when it comes to that, is that they usually set aside those that are different from there. That there are many of us whom are set in the peripheries just because we are different and thus society breeds a face that is fake, that requires us to be fake just so that we be able to have any semblance of success or achievement. This is of course a wrong that needs to be righted for inequality should not stand, not anywhere and especially not in the workplace. For such a thing is a blight against human dignity and has harsh effects against those whom are affected immensely.

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Repo Man by Alex Cox was released back in 1984, and is a science fiction comedy film that has achieved the status of being a cult classic. Widely regarded as one of the best films of 1984. It’s a story of a young punk rock enthusiast who finds himself alongside a repossession agent looking for a vehicle that may have some extra-terrestrial roots. It’s quite a campy premise and verily in the style of those 80’s films. The film reminds me of the many other films that have become the quirky bedrock and foundation for modern popular culture. The jaded repo man himself was quite the character that spoke through as someone who was hell-bent on a mission he might even no longer believe in. The mix of the whole alien villains has also been quite a welcome sight towards this strange concoction of a genre. It sure stands as one of those films that seems like it shouldn’t have worked but did. This was in the early platform and age of Science fiction where the genre was still beginning to grow and find its footing. This was fresh off the renaissance of George Lucas’ Star Wars. This fun adventure in terms of science fiction is what started the many other flavorful roots of the genre itself. This story in particular shows a very good and spry characterization in terms of its duo protagonists which can later on be seen throughout the existing characters and their dialogues in modern movies. The case in point example would be the sharp dialogue that is Shane Black-esque in terms of its smartness and the fluidity with which it matches with the characters. This could also be one of the campy films that has been a source of inspiration from films with very goofy aspects such as Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. There is this sort of zany element that mixes the realistic with the outright unbelievable. That it turns further solidifies and sweetens the legacy of films like these. The way with which this was presented with the extra-terrestrial mixed quite a lofty amount of weirdness was what makes the film work. This then reminds me of how some films despite being campy or overtly silly actually find their footing and grounding in the capacity to convey their very own silliness and their very own otherworldly problems then becomes quite the probable threat for the protagonists. This is key in every good science fiction that then succeeded this film, in terms of creating believable antagonists and the capacity of instilling the wonder of having to face those threats and survive them. That is where the magic resides and then grows ultimately as they are able to defeat the alien invasion and grow in terms of character and instance that they end up facing throughout the film. This has then since become a bedrock for the next wave of science fiction classics and modern films that have since been released in very recent memory.

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Velvet Goldmine by Todd Haynes was a film released back in 1998. It’s a musical drama that’s set in the glam rock days of the 1970’s, telling the story of a fictional pop-star named Brian Slade. There it is shown how he coiled himself away from his public life. Explored as well was his coming out of the closet in terms of his sexuality as a gay man. Slade’s career ends as he faced backlash for having faked his own murder at the expense of a cheap publicity stunt. The performances of Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers all captured the intensity and looseness of their characters. All of which were quite invested in the life that Slade chose as he entered into the superfluous lifestyle of a glam rock pop icon. This showed how easily it was for excess to enter the life of said icons and even reflected the lives of real artists that this film seemed like a reference to. This film was filled with a powerhouse cast of actors that were still in the point where they were starting out. This is quite an unknown film on their portfolio but also a poignant one with which the reach of their acting capabilities extend to quite an astounding vernacular by way of how they are able to represent such eccentric characters that lived through highly eccentric moments itself. This film was partly due through the inspiration of real life musicians back in the heyday of the people that ushered in the era of pop-rock. The generation defining movement that sparked thousands of songs and well defined lifestyles. This was what the people were shown through the film, the good and the bad and the ugly that came together with this era of films that have been able to build up towards that moment of musicality. Together these actors were able to poignantly build upon that era and gave performances that were quite spectacularly captivating despite this being in the very early line up of their respective filmographies. There is a balance shown in the main character’s public and private life that was lost. As he spiraled into the life of fame and where most of the icons of yesterday fell. They couldn’t take the backbone of their own grandeur and their own lives then followed down into the rabbit hole which then intrinsically showed the dangers of that very fame itself. The many different problems that could arise and the difficulty with which affects greatly the balance and serene aspects of both a star’s private and public life pulled into a maelstrom of conflict and radiating drama and vices. The story is an age old story of how those that rise to the top find themselves in decline due to their own means of living beyond what is reasonable and ultimately at the very expense of their own lives. At the expense of their own nobility and at the loss of their own sense of self-control which spirals as they ever grow higher to new heights of unabashed freedom.

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My Own Private Idaho by Gus Van Sant, was released back in 1991. It’s a film that was partly based on works of Shakespeare, specifically Henry IV Part’s 1 and 2 and Henry V. It starred the star-power of both Keanu Reeves and the late River Phoenix back in their prime.  It was considered as a very important and evocative film in the Queer genre of cinema. The film is mainly about how the character of Mike would drift and the scene shifts. This was very striking as it denied the usual formula of films. It’s as if the film itself was merely drifting the same way that the main protagonist did. This was very striking as it reminded me of how life could be like that most of the time, where you just stagger and drift off into another scene, another chapter of your own story the same way Mike did in this film. There’s this sense of drifting in the film much like in real life. A manner by which it was presented seems to face it as if it were some drug addled destitute reality. Wherein one ought to see the many twists and turns the film took. The characters of both Reeves and Phoenix gave early career defining portrayals of characters who were both lost at some point. In a sense there’s a sense of how these characters could speak towards the many drifting segments of one’s own everyday way of growing up. In a sense there is this rebellious streak often seen in the youth of many people. That is you pass through that stage of your life you will realize that many things are drifting, many things are puzzling and you have to figure out much of what it is that ought to be figured out in order for you to actually be able to figure out who you are. Especially taken into the context of the film of how it became one of the most important and iconic films that backed queer representation in cinema. It was in ways ahead of its time and in a way it brought forward the genre and cinema itself one step closer in being able to being towards the mainstream of having to give a face of representation for the actual wide array of different kinds of people on screen specifically that particular community. In this sense this film becomes a cornerstone of importance for many people and thus has grown to become a cult classic of sorts. Thus to that end representation from both characters has become quite one of the foundations and catalysts of the films we have today that have become paragons of representation for a lot of minorities as time progressed and as Hollywood itself progressed in being more inclusive with their films and stories as a whole. Thus in that regard this film itself has made its own mark and legacy to the inclusivity of representation in film especially when two of its stars =, although despite River passing away decades ago, are still quite both respected icons that will have this film part of their enduring legacy.

Futureless Things by Kim Kyung-Mook is a product of the modern Korean cinema. It has an episodic narrative which focuses on one character to another. What astounded me was how it all took place within ne setting, that of which is the convenience store. It works hard to balance the comedy to entertain and the socio-criticism that it holds over the many social evils that plague the Korean culture. It’s a good arthouse film that quite stuns with its artistic direction. At first sight it may look like the usual or typical Korean film, however underneath it actually packs a whole lot more of a personality. The title itself is indicative of how the people are referred to as things, due to the fact that they are used by others for their own end. This is deep and resonates for me as it shows how we are often reduced as a means to an end by other people who would only seek to exploit us. That was something that the film shows through the characters and thus that is why they are stuck in that cycle of their work and life rendering them futureless in a way. This film felt like it was structured from a play wherein there was only one setting where multiple scenes and stories took place in. It was structured in a very smart manner wherein the characters were given this sandbox in order for their stories to be consumed and the narrative to flow in a very loose manner yet still be apprehensively effective and cohesive at the same time. The story affects you in a manner where you build an emotional connection to the characters and their time in that setting. Therefore, the smart form and structure of the film actually lends itself a great amount of heft that pits the characters within the story to have this sense of connection towards the place. The way that Korean films also seem to champion their culture is a detail that was not lost on me as there was a lot of commentary about the many different problems they had to fix with their many cultural problems. There a voice towards the many things that hound them in Korea are shown on and the commentary comes from the stories presented here. I then kind of found a parallel with how this could show more credence towards the contextualized notions of films from foreign countries and how they could easily show the voice of the masses through the telling of the stories of their everyday lives. This in turn could be utilized more in terms of how it can be applied in say films from our own country. That there should be a struggle and questions tackled from the constancy and contextualization of the proliferation of our many problems as they are thrown into the light of cinema and how they could be expressly tackled by the means of films. In this way the legacy of this film stretches far beyond their own origin.

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Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting is a cult classic. A revolutionary film that stands out, due to its visionary approach to drug addiction. Ewan McGregor’s performance is lauded and rightfully so together with his co-stars. Trainspotting is all about getting oneself out there beyond the realm of the things that render us addicted. It’s all about, as McGregor’s narration at the end states, that we choose life. That struck me as I realized that it’s all about choosing life and all the mundane difficulties that comes with its every single day. It’s all about being able to look all the challenges in the eye and not cower behind the psychedelic drugs that render us trapped in some psychological addiction. It’s about escaping that toilet bowl and finding ourselves on the run, away from the deliriousness of a life of addiction, whatever that addiction may be. Trainspotting is a classic and rightfully holds its place in the pantheon of memorable films. This film speaks heavily about addiction and that it has this placement in the pantheon of the one of the greatest modern classics ever played. With the inspired take of Ewan McGregor rendering this as one of his most iconic roles next to him playing Obi Wan Kenobi. There it shows the power of drug addiction and how it can ruin not only our lives but the lives of the people that care and love us. That at first it may all be fun and games but ultimately it proves to show that there’s great danger and that there are very real consequences to the entire role of addiction towards our capacity of becoming addicted. There thus lies the fact that when McGregor’s character finally chose to turn his life around he was able to then move forward as in his now iconic words he “chose life”. The way that his addiction being his very low became the juxtaposition for all the intricacies that life could give has been quite the ulterior theme that moved and waded through the entirety of the film. That then has become the defining factor of his change in heart. That in the realm of addiction he was missing out on all the other things life could offer. When he fell into the toilet seat that was him being drowned into darkness as if he were denying not only the bad but all the good that life can give him. When he and his friends spiraled ever deeper into their vices there he finally realized the pain and the suffering that this kind of living without responsibility has caused him. It was at the cost of almost everything in his life. From the heist they did and from the many other wrong doings they have committed. It then shows however, that no matter how low you can get, you can still have the power to turn your life around and be able to create a web of normalcy and control over it. That’s the enduring cycle of addiction and the choice of redemption as it becomes the legacy of this modern cinematic masterpiece.

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Shin Godzilla, released 2016 and directed by Hideaki Anno, is quite a good movie. It has the look and usage of good old animatronics in terms of the Godzilla model that was used for the film. The film being a response to the 2011 earthquakes, paints Godzilla as something more of a force of magnanimous nature. It was as if the footages shown throughout the film of the wake of Godzilla’s wake and subsequent attack felt as if they could have been on the spot in lieu of the real earthquakes that hit Japan back then. This shows just how powerful metaphors could be, whether it be in the form of Godzilla or others, films could really empower the imagination to help reflect the reality of today in the forms of grand fictional stories such as this film. Shin Godzilla stands as a good metaphor for what could be lost and what could be rebuilt in the process of tackling the great monsters that constantly attack and hound us in our day to day lives. There was something powerful with the way with which the devastation was framed upon the screen. A real feeling of dread and loss was shown throughout the evisceration in the path of Godzilla himself. There’s a huge conundrum showed with the way that the world reacts towards threats unimaginable and with the way that it deals plaintively with the threats we cannot hope to fight in accordance towards the capacity with which we could fight. Here we are shown the aftermath and trembling face of calamity. Calamity so unprecedented that we really cannot hope to out muster the need of having to deal with this danger of having to confront the losses of the things that we ought to face in the sheer force of nature of Godzilla. Adding to that the means of being able to look the forces of nature just goes to show how powerless we can feel at the disaster that could emanate from all the terror being faced by the people in distress from the attack and rise of Godzilla. The powerful metaphor here as well would be our ingenuity and the resilience of the people in being able to fend off the terror and the loss that people could face in times of great disaster and terror. There in that sense we are able to face the reality that could be so infinitesimally harsh in being able to degrade the dangers that we are facing. Thus in Godzilla it was the reality of having to deal with the reality of such a creature and the power that comes from Godzilla and the dangers of the outcome of the destruction of the many lives. The lives of which have been affected greatly by the sheer destructive forces. Godzilla here is also seen as a retaliation of nature. Through the sheer tampering of mankind with nature itself, nature tends to mess back against us. Thus there is a sense of a need to survive beyond the many atrocities and problems we have caused against nature.

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Steven Soderbergh’s experimental comedy film from 1996 proves itself to be quite jarring at first and would really make you think about the satirical approach it has given towards our modern society. Since it doesn’t possess a linear plot and only has a skeletal frame for its narrative, I find that it stands out more so than other satirical films. Fletcher Munson’s character, an office employee of a company likened to Scientology, stands tall as the one that shows one of the film’s overarching themes. That would be the lack of communication. This is highly shown in how he interacts with his wife. I find this quite fascinating and prevalent in modern society today, as with how we are with our technology. As he was with his work and we are with our technology, we begin to see that there is a large lack in communication amongst many people of today. There’s this sense of alienation and the sense of loss that’s transpiring with the characters. A feeling of losing oneself is in that cathartic adulation throughout the film. It was directed in the sense that you question the motif of the characters. There indeed you find the great need for the movie to progress through the plot as it moves through the psyche of all the characters involved. There we could see the feeling of detachment that was rising in the plot of the characters as they all moved and waded through towards the multi-faceted ending of the film. Soderbergh speaks to his audience in the film through the means of showing the lack of communication that could stem into everyday life. There I was able to relate with how this could poignantly be able to affect the way in which we live. This is how the world today is in a way. With our social media usage and the means by how it is able to infiltrate our sense of communication and thus often rendering it to grow into miscommunication. That’s the kind of communication problem that is being shown by Soderbergh in his film. It’s done well as there is a disconnection between Fletcher and his wife and subsequently with the other characters in the film.  Here it is seen then how we should be able to better ourselves when it comes to the importance of being able to communicate well and let ourselves prosper in being able to communicate what we hope to convey in a manner that is both beneficial for ourselves and for others. Another part of that is the capacity to be able to listen as well as we could convey. For listening is just as important a segment of communication as being able to give out what we hope to say. That’s the importance of communication that the movie hopes to give towards their viewers even many years later. Thus Soderbergh was able to craft something great out of this and was then able to show the importance of being able to communicate properly with a large number of the important people in our lives in the hopes to not only understand them but to also understand ourselves as well.

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