thoughts on the young pope

I am currently on the fourth episode of Paolo Sorrentino’s lurid, sensational thought experiment of a TV show: what if the Pope was young *and* American? This very premise alone already launched a thousand memes. Sorrentino captures the very essence of baroque — the show is exuberant, over-the-top, and always on the cusp of being gaudy but

Notes on Silence

1.) The accents. It just takes a while for you to get over Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver’s flawed Portuguese accents. I wish Scorsese dropped that. I mean, Liam Neeson didn’t have one? Needless distraction. 2.) Once I got over that, I was absorbed by the intensity and deep meditativeness of Silence. Prior to watching

short notes on arrival

1.) Favorite movie of 2016. 2.) This movie is made for social scientists. Of course linguists get their time in the sun. But there’s a lot of economics (game theory), political science, behavioral psychology, etc. too. 3.) Movie references: this is what Interstellar wanted to be. 2001: A Space Odyssey gets invoked a lot, especially

observations on moonlight

1.) Moonlight is based on a play entitled In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney. Barry Jenkins refracts the color blue through a prism, creating a kaleidoscope of oceans, skies, ice-filled basins and moonlit bodies. 2.) The ocean, in particular that of Miami, serve as a constant presence in the life of Little/Chiron/Black.

what i’ve been reading

On the Euro 1.) The Euro and the Battle of Ideas  by Markus Brunnermeier, Harold James, Jean-Pierre Landau — my Goodreads review here 2.) The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe by Joseph E. Stiglitz  — my Goodreads review here I’ve been reading a lot on the Euro lately because I wanted to get

notes on la la land

1.) Jazz is dying. Seb (Ryan Gosling) proclaims this early on in the film. Is cinema staging a rescue? Last year, two jazz biopics were released, Born to Be Blue and Miles Ahead (the former sent me on a Chet Baker binge). Not to mention all of Woody Allen’s movies. And Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash. Jazz is

4 notes on toni erdmann

1.) After conducting a poll with 163 critics and film curators, ‘Toni Erdmann’ was recognized as the best movie of 2016 by BFI’s influential Sight and Sound magazine. I don’t agree with that designation but I would definitely place it in my top 10. I didn’t expect to be so enamored by this film. What

initial notes on dawn by octavia e. butler

Recently, a group of friends and I have revived a dormant sci-fi book club. I decided to post my reading notes here for the sake of our discussion and for other people who wish to read along. The first book we chose was Dawn by Octavia E. Butler, the first book in her Lilith’s Brood trilogy.

for reading

1.) https://bryanalexander.org/2016/12/28/rogue-one-the-weird-ferocity-of-nostalgia/ 2.) http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/putins-real-long-game-214589 3.) http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2017/01/02/fantasy-flashbacks-and-what-ifs-2016-pays-off-the-past/

Notes on seklusyon

1.) This felt like a mash-up between two movies. One is of the actual seklusyon, with the priests battling their inner demons made manifest by the devil, and the other is of Angehla and the investigation of her origins. The latter could’ve been a good movie on its own had it been developed further, but