It's interesting to me

[674495c8a7027Kolya]

90% of everything is crap, sure. But this glasses adjustment is mostly an anime trope and if chickenhead deems it overly dramatic then it applies to anime more than other things.

[674495c8a71b6voodoo47]

symmetry!

[674495c8a7585unn_atropos]

symmetry!

You must work in symmetry
You must earn their empathy
Symmetry
You must work in symmetry
You must earn their empathy

Down, down
Cities fall down
On me

[674495c8a790bMarvin]

90% of everything is crap, sure. But this glasses adjustment is mostly an anime trope and if chickenhead deems it overly dramatic then it applies to anime more than other things.

In anime it's closer to 98% in my experience and when it comes to needless drama, even tamer Japanese programs beat Western television by a long shot. Which is a charming quality when received in smaller doses

[674495c8a7a56Aurora]

I find that 99.9% of American media that I see is overdramatised, from films and series to documentaries and news broadcasts.

[674495c8a7b96Kolya]

Yeah, boooh! American media! Booh!

* Kolya goes back to watching Stranger Things

Aww damn, Winona! Right in the feels. 

[674495c8a7e19ZylonBane]

I find that 99.9% of American media that I see is overdramatised, from films and series to documentaries and news broadcasts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGJAUnNzbhE

[674495c8a7ef9Kolya]

Phew. For a moment I thought the hot woman might stab herself...

[674495c8a8001Aurora]

The girl with the braces is in the process of demonic possession by a family cult of vampires or scientologists, and her distraught mother arrives at the scene to try and wake her up from the trance and remove her from the wheelchair, which was being used to possess her.

[674495c8a8164icemann]

Man that reminds me of Passions. Some crazy shit happened in that.

[674495c8a83aachickenhead]

demonic possession by a family cult of vampires or scientologists,

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/005/165/PFFFFT.png

[674495c8a8528fox]

Future Shock - Director Alfonso Cuarón revisits Children of Men, his overlooked 2006 masterpiece, which might be the most relevant film of 2016.
http://www.vulture.com/2016/12/children-of-men-alfonso-cuaron-c-v-r.html

[674495c8a8634voodoo47]

yeah, I didn't like/get that movie. I mean, why would I go watch a movie about hopelessness and bleakness? we have real life for that - generally, I want to watch something that will make me forget that, even just for a while.

[674495c8a87beKolya]

I haven't seen it. According to the article fox linked it's a message movie, about how to come from cynical indifference to actively creating a better world.
That being said I also prefer escapist entertainment. I think that's what story telling has always done best. The mono myth is about the micro level changes of an individual. It can give exemplary choices. But they have to have expected consequences for the story to work.
Real world problems tend to happen on a macro level of society, culture, etc. On that level any individual effort can easily become naught. A movie cannot depict that without hurting the rules of good story telling.
In other words: A good story will always tell us that we can save the world single handedly. And that plainly isn't true. It's escapism from our relative ineffectiveness. It's still comforting and motivating though.
A movie that tells me I should try really hard to achieve a minuscule goal that may be stomped down by ignorants in a blink and I may randomly die while trying - well that's realistic, but I don't need it.

[674495c8a89e3fox]

I guess that comes down to anyones definition of fictional media. To me, movies are not limited to recreational or escapistic entertainment at all. It can be that and with an overdose of (reported or experienced) horror in reality, I tend to prefer escapism over the 'message tales', as Kolya dubs them, too.

Still, to me movies and co can be much more. They can make me aware of important issues I (for whatever reason) haven't known about before, make me think or reflect about them (or me), open up new perspectives or even making me feel less alone with my sentiments by sharing and visualizing my own views. Language and visualization are the most effective way of giving people an idea about something, that they haven't actually experienced themselves yet and therefore are extremely powerful tools to make them think. They are a dangerously double edged sword too.

As for Children Of Men, I watched it when it came out on DVD and liked it for the realistic style it was filmed in. I was not 100% convinced because the fertility-problem seems too far fetched (and in contrast to the realism), so was the refugee crisis for me back then and I felt that the movie turned into too much of an (impressivley shot) action fest towards the end. Still, some scenes, like the bombing and the general atmosphere were impressive enough to stand out for me. After reading the linked article above, I'll have to watch it again, I think.

[674495c8a8affKolya]

The article says that the only things Cuaron took over from the novel "Children of Men" were the childlessness and the English setting. Maybe that explains the clash with realism.

Come to think of it: In 2006 "Fugees" were a hip hop group with a reggae vibe.

[674495c8a8c19Marvin]

Confining storytelling to escapism is a severe limitation. I can see why one would prefer it that way, but saying that a good story has to have at least escapist tendencies makes no sense at all given that many works in literature and film being considered the greatest do not seek to entertain but to remind, to warn, to teach. Maybe I lost something in translation here.

[674495c8a8ea0fox]

The article says that the only things Cuaron took over from the novel "Children of Men" were the childlessness and the English setting. Maybe that explains the clash with realism.

Come to think of it: In 2006 "Fugees" were a hip hop group with a reggae vibe.

Not really. They went on indefinite hiatus in 1997 but Children Of Men featured one of my favourite Patois-infused hip hop-songs at the time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzAH4qZgyw0

[674495c8a9543Aurora]

yeah, I didn't like/get that movie. I mean, why would I go watch a movie about hopelessness and bleakness? we have real life for that - generally, I want to watch something that will make me forget that, even just for a while.

In other words: A good story will always tell us that we can save the world single handedly. And that plainly isn't true. It's escapism from our relative ineffectiveness. It's still comforting and motivating though.

I do not understand this perspective at all, coming from the very opposite of it. That is generally a bad story unless it is redeemed by an exceptionally clever and thought-provoking plot, precisely because it is not believable nor relatable. As such it is depressing instead of encouraging. It is like watching excessive CGI which you know cannot be true, and thus completely falls flat on its face and loses its effect. These stories are fantasies and do not teach us anything about humanity. The story of the kid who kicks his bully's arse and wins over the girl does not happen in our reality. The more informed and exposed you are to that reality, invisible from within the green pastures of lucky people who have yet to face those hardships, the less you can believe in fairy tales, and the more you realise the characters and story are very artificial in these tales.

A film that proverbially masturbates its viewer is a film from which I can derive no pleasure at all. A film like that does not challenge me nor make me think, and the typical good versus evil divide makes the characters not believable, which makes it impossible for me to feel for them. I detest most Hollywood cinema precisely because of its fantastic hero tales, especially stuff like Star Wars. The sugar-coated version of reality is uninteresting, does not teach me anything, and makes me want to throw up. The stories are so predictable that already seeing the cover art reveals the plot. The protagonist has plot armour so you know that nothing can threaten him or her.

Most of my favourite films of all time are fatalistic portrayals of reality, exploring the human condition and contemporary social issues and phenomena, either in a real-life scenario or through a fictional framework. Instead of depressing me, it actually makes me very happy to see and hear these stories be told. This is especially true in regards to stories that touch upon subjects, where a lot of people lack understanding and exposure to the more dramatic and ill-fated side of human existence and the world, either through willful ignorance or an inability to see. Brazil (1985), Kes (1969), Get Carter (1971), Silent Running (1972), The Stepford Wives (1972), Chinatown (1974), and a lot of film noir cinema comes to mind.

For some reason, such fatalistic films are always more successful in Europe than America, wanting to broadcast reality instead of providing an escape from it. On that note, you should look into how the film Brazil was butchered from the normal cut for an American release, and how widely the rating of Kes varies between US and non-US audiences.

Of course, this does not mean I need a film to be totally fatalistic and doom and gloom to be enjoyable. Among my favourites are also Robocop, Total Recall, and The Living Daylights, which all have happy endings in the contemporary sense. However, they also have thought-provoking, complex, and engaging plots, exploration of very some interesting concepts of technology, crime, and political corruption, and - perhaps with the exception the latter - plenty of social and political commentary and moral ambiguity.

[674495c8a96dcfox]

More or less just a random thought but I'm currently playing DX:MD (with mixed feelings) and after watching these commentaries on Children Of Men, I think EM took a quite a bit of inspiration from the movies depiction of a grim near future setting.

Children of Men: Don't Ignore The Background
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-woNlmVcdjc

Zizek on Children of Men
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbgrwNP_gYE

[674495c8a98a6fox]

I just watched "Children of Men" again and must say that it really does have the hallmarks of a masterpiece. Much more, uh, profound (for lack of a better word) and better constructed then I remembered. Certainly not a feelgood movie but highly recommended watching if you haven't already (and are up for "message movies").

Roger Ebert's Review:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/children-of-men-2007

The lack of children and the possibility of children are the MacGuffins in "Children of Men," inspiring all the action, but the movie significantly never tells us why children stopped being born, or how they might become possible again. The children-as-MacGuffin is simply a dramatic device to avoid actual politics while showing how the world is slipping away from civility and co-existence. The film is not really about children; it is about men and women, and civilization, and the way that fear can be used to justify a police state.

I'll eat my hat, if JJB (the art director of DXMD) wasn't inspired by this movie.

[674495c8a9a02Kolya]

The °afrofuturism of Joshua Mays.
[JoshuaMays2.jpg expired]

[674495c8a9b1cKolya]

Someone posted this over at TTLG and it's classic System Shock stuff.

[674495c8a9c41Kolya]

Interview with William Gibson in the German newspaper Die Zeit. (Google translation)