Episode 4: Children of Men - Unto Us a Child is Born

Demographics, illegal immigration, obsession with pets, P.D. James, dystopia, hope, and the Christmas story.

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Minireview: Kin-Dza-Dza! (1986)

Oddball Russian sci-fi that somehow, as it drags along, drags one along with it. While I have a feeling I missed a lot of jokes by being American, it still has internationally funny moments, and as an effort of world-building it's terrific, being a sort of steampunk Tatooine-esque dystopian wasteland. The second half incorporates unexpected moral choices that add depth to what would otherwise be merely a weird, minimalist social satire.

And for what it's worth, Stanislav Lyubshin's Uncle Vova is the Russian Harrison Ford. The guy is coolness personified. To extend the comparisons, Gedevan would be a weird Shia LaBeouf, and the alien musicians would be two long-lost members of a Monty Python-Coen Brothers mash-up.

Koo!



4/5 stars.

Hannah Long

Noah - Movie Review

Should you see this film? Should you not see it? I think the only thing I can positively say is: Don’t see it with your grandmother.

Darren Aronofsky ruffled feathers by proclaiming his new movie Noah the “least Biblical Biblical film ever made.” This is true, if your definition of “Biblical” is “stars Charlton Heston and has an anti-Communist agenda,” as The Ten Commandments did (it’s notable they both have subplots which didn’t occur in the Bible). Noah breaks numerous Bible movie conventions, and though its iconoclastic bent can be over the top, it effectively utilizes this alienating tactic to shock the audience into seeing the story with new eyes.

First thing to go is the traditional flamboyant Middle-Eastern attire, replaced by dull tunics of animal skin right out of either the Paleolithic era or a modern dystopia. I incline towards the latter, because the film lacks a real dimension of age. The world doesn’t seem young (should it?)—but rather old and decrepit and empty. It’s a bad sign when the majority of the striking visual shots can be contained in a film’s trailer.