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Reviews
Sisters with Transistors (2020)
Must watch video, for people interested in electronic music
This is the story of early electronic music, experimental electronic music, women's role in electronic music, and in general, a story about how hard women had to work to get any recognition.
I know people are tired of social justice issues, but the marginalization of women is very real, been going on since the dawn of man, and is still present. So I think that message is on point.
But I want to talk about the electronic music. As a lifelong fan of electronics in music, and unique sounds, and non standard music, like Forbidden Planet, this documentary does a good job of trying to vocalize why people would be involved in this.
These women were rebels. They found electronic music liberating. Each of them went about things differently though. One woman created an electronic version of a piece of music that's been heard by millions of people, and is of course deeply associated with the sci fi show Doctor Who. One did installation art, where you had to be there, to understand what she was trying to do. One found a niche doing mainly commercials. One woman created the first electronic score for a motion picture. One worked with computers as a tool for creating electronic music. Etc.
I knew about some of these women, but not others. And hearing in their own words, their views on making electronic music, is of course very interesting.
Watch this with an open mind I guess, or if that's not possible, I guess don't watch it.
Asteroid City (2023)
Creative, quirky, and full of ideas
I get bored by a lot of movies. This one held my attention.
I read other reviews, and by and large, the main critique seems to be lack of plot.
Movies don't have to follow the set formula. They don't have to have a linear plot. Why can't they be about ideas?
This movie had a lot of ideas. Did I understand them all? No. But they were interesting. It felt a bit like they threw ideas into a blender. We had something that started a bit like war of the worlds. We had a play within a movie, or a movie within a play, or some combination. We have the strangers are stuck together motif. We have 1950s paranoia. We have 1950s sci fi, out in the desert. We have grief. We have actors parodying actors. We have stuff I could not even figure out like, weird vending machines ( automat? Commercialism?) We have themes of inviduals being nothing in this large universe, and dealing with it.
'Nuff said, lots of ideas.
Yes, there were a lot of huge names. Do they have to all be the stars IMO, no.
The dialog was fascinating. Without good dialog, this movie was dead. In that way, it's play-like, where dialog is almost everything. You can't make up for bad dialog with flat sets, and special effects, etc.
Some said this was boring. But it held my attention. Wondering what would happen next.
I happily give it 7/10 to try to balance the negative reviews. If you like quirky. Like interesting dialog. Like a mismash of ideas. And don't insist on a clear narrative, you might like this, nay, even love it.
Sutorîto faitâ II gekijô-ban (1994)
It's a fighting movie, not much else
It had almost no plot. This is not a problem for a movie that's all about the fights.
Not only was the plot paper thin, but it didn't make much sense in the final scene on the mountain. What was Bison trying to actually accomplish there? Maybe there's some additional story that people were supposed to know to make more sense out of it.
One seriously gratutitous T&A scene...fan service, I think anime watchers call it. I guess if you get your kicks from nekkid animated chicks...
Ok, the unimpressive stuff out of the way, fights were good. And the soundtrack was very good. So 6/10, if you like animated fighting.