Side Effects (2013) Dir: S. Soderberg
Synopsis:
The protagonist is a psychiatrist who gets a patient who has attempted suicide. She later has a parasomnia episode where she stabs her husband to death and goes back to sleep.
It turns out that this is a giant scam.
She killed her husband while "doped" up on a new to market drug.
Well actually she just straight up murdered him and skated on the charges by faking the symptoms really well and actually taking this drug but not previous ones described. The psychiatrist continues probing after however and he figures it all out.
She conspired with her previous psychiatrist to murder her husband and tank the stocks of a firm and cause its main competitor to rise. He plays both of them...gets the other in jail and his patient permanently confined in a mental hospital.
My take:
Decent story and the pacing is a bit off but that disjointedness actually helps bring the psychosis of the people in the movie out to the audience. At the end of the movie no one comes out clean and the protagonist, though left in a better place can be looked at with a bit of a suspicious eye. He didn't get justice...he got even. This movie was about vengeance and in the end it deilvered int he most chilling fashion possible.
Of course the real world implications for how we view and treat mental patients is also chilling. Once you are put through that system how easy would it be for a corrupt official or doctor to abuse you? Easy. The film achieves a very subtle but deep level of horror if the viewer cares to give more than a moments pause. The pacing of the movie also helps to get the viewer to think about each phase.
All in all... grade A-
The downside of the movie? A few plot holes that could have been sewn up with better writers who care about the subject material. Thanks to great acting and a solid piece of directions and good production...the movie hits on all fronts and might leave most people stunned and wondering...WTF did I just see?
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
The Next Mass Effect - Locations I'd like to visit
Well in each Mass Effect we get to visit some different places and also some recurrences take place.
Noveria: ME, ME2, ME3 as an example. In the first mass effect however we get the most expansive look at what is on Noveria and it otherwise gets short shrift in the other series editions.
Earth: barely visited save the final battle in Mass Effect 3, but present for missions/resource gathering in each other series.
The Citadel: Of course the citadel - good ole base of operations. Should be interesting to see whats happened with it since ME3...has it stayed in Earth orbit or moved back to the Widow Nebula?
Those were old places...but for new locations?
Irune: The Volus homeworld is a high pressure ammonia based world and would be an interesting place for the next series to have some encounters. develop the culture of the volus more and maybe a good wya to get a volus team mate.
Ilos: Going back to Ilos...perhaps humans have started to colonize this former prothean world as well. More missions, more npcs....more exploration fun to be had.
Kahje: The Hanar homeworld and adopted world of some of the Drell...the rest of the Drell according to lore are still at war over the limited resources on their real home world. Would be an interesting conflict driver and fun times to be had fighting in aquatic environments and exploring drell/hanar social conventions.
Thessia: We only get the barest glimpse of it during the Reaper War...going back would be great (maybe Liara is there!)
Turvess: The as yet unseen Raloi homeworld. having an Raloi (avian spiecies) as a team mate and exploring their culture would be exciting as well.
Taking a tour of the council races home worlds to review the rebuilding after the Reaper war would be a good way to explore for resources/knowledge and to bring new players up to date on the universe they are in. So Thessia/Palaven/Sur'Kesh and ostensibly Earth.
Perhaps the Batarians have resettled on Earth or have new colonies out in the Attican Traverse.
Checking in on the Elkoss would also be interesting...perhaps being human you have to wear special life support armor with enhanced mass effect fields on their homeworld.
Valhallan Threshold and Perseus Veil of course for more Geth/Quarian (if either or both survived).
Depending on the ending you chose the galaxy could be in vastly different states:
Destruction: No Geth, no EDI, and still massive rebuilding to be done
Control: Could have Geth and EDI rebuilding would be majorly done but society would be largely unchanged and static due to Shepard's influence and protection.
Synthesis: Geth, EDI, everyone is better smarter, stronger. The Reapers don't just build and protect...they help innovate and become a civilization unto themselves helping their former creators (Leviathans) rebuild and repopulate after being hunted for millions of years. This 'ultimate' ending would have everything rebuilt...and indeed expanded.
How to build the synthesis ending into a new mass effect without being unbalanced vs the other choices? Maybe it should be unbalanced. Access to technologies at a higher level...say starting at level 2 instead of 1 with your ship having at least one upgrade...maybe more fuel for travel or something like that. Of course all of the models for the environment and people will have to have those green lil circuits running through/over them. So that is an additional graphical detail.
Technology is now organic in the galaxy and there is no such thing as synthetic. All are one and there should be references to that...people in close proximity being able to voluntarily share data without omnitools and geth/EDI like people able to use biotics now...reapers able to use biotics. Imagine Harbinger as your team mate?
Maybe you fly around now in a Reaper dreadnought :-P Or maybe we focus on how the reapers are being held for reparations for the war. Many many plots could happen. The main driver will have to be something bigger than the reapers. Perhaps they will return to develop the theme of Dark Energy now that more time has passed. We can revisit Haestrom and explore other locations including Tuchanka and where ever else to uncover at least a piece of the problem.
In other endings it would be just as easy to explore the dark energy plot...but with reduced knowledge making the challenge much harder across future games using imported saves. Control and Synthesis would have similar likes while destruction would sort of leave the organic races 'holding the bag' so to speak/write/whatever.
Noveria: ME, ME2, ME3 as an example. In the first mass effect however we get the most expansive look at what is on Noveria and it otherwise gets short shrift in the other series editions.
Earth: barely visited save the final battle in Mass Effect 3, but present for missions/resource gathering in each other series.
The Citadel: Of course the citadel - good ole base of operations. Should be interesting to see whats happened with it since ME3...has it stayed in Earth orbit or moved back to the Widow Nebula?
Those were old places...but for new locations?
Irune: The Volus homeworld is a high pressure ammonia based world and would be an interesting place for the next series to have some encounters. develop the culture of the volus more and maybe a good wya to get a volus team mate.
Ilos: Going back to Ilos...perhaps humans have started to colonize this former prothean world as well. More missions, more npcs....more exploration fun to be had.
Kahje: The Hanar homeworld and adopted world of some of the Drell...the rest of the Drell according to lore are still at war over the limited resources on their real home world. Would be an interesting conflict driver and fun times to be had fighting in aquatic environments and exploring drell/hanar social conventions.
Thessia: We only get the barest glimpse of it during the Reaper War...going back would be great (maybe Liara is there!)
Turvess: The as yet unseen Raloi homeworld. having an Raloi (avian spiecies) as a team mate and exploring their culture would be exciting as well.
Taking a tour of the council races home worlds to review the rebuilding after the Reaper war would be a good way to explore for resources/knowledge and to bring new players up to date on the universe they are in. So Thessia/Palaven/Sur'Kesh and ostensibly Earth.
Perhaps the Batarians have resettled on Earth or have new colonies out in the Attican Traverse.
Checking in on the Elkoss would also be interesting...perhaps being human you have to wear special life support armor with enhanced mass effect fields on their homeworld.
Valhallan Threshold and Perseus Veil of course for more Geth/Quarian (if either or both survived).
Depending on the ending you chose the galaxy could be in vastly different states:
Destruction: No Geth, no EDI, and still massive rebuilding to be done
Control: Could have Geth and EDI rebuilding would be majorly done but society would be largely unchanged and static due to Shepard's influence and protection.
Synthesis: Geth, EDI, everyone is better smarter, stronger. The Reapers don't just build and protect...they help innovate and become a civilization unto themselves helping their former creators (Leviathans) rebuild and repopulate after being hunted for millions of years. This 'ultimate' ending would have everything rebuilt...and indeed expanded.
How to build the synthesis ending into a new mass effect without being unbalanced vs the other choices? Maybe it should be unbalanced. Access to technologies at a higher level...say starting at level 2 instead of 1 with your ship having at least one upgrade...maybe more fuel for travel or something like that. Of course all of the models for the environment and people will have to have those green lil circuits running through/over them. So that is an additional graphical detail.
Technology is now organic in the galaxy and there is no such thing as synthetic. All are one and there should be references to that...people in close proximity being able to voluntarily share data without omnitools and geth/EDI like people able to use biotics now...reapers able to use biotics. Imagine Harbinger as your team mate?
Maybe you fly around now in a Reaper dreadnought :-P Or maybe we focus on how the reapers are being held for reparations for the war. Many many plots could happen. The main driver will have to be something bigger than the reapers. Perhaps they will return to develop the theme of Dark Energy now that more time has passed. We can revisit Haestrom and explore other locations including Tuchanka and where ever else to uncover at least a piece of the problem.
In other endings it would be just as easy to explore the dark energy plot...but with reduced knowledge making the challenge much harder across future games using imported saves. Control and Synthesis would have similar likes while destruction would sort of leave the organic races 'holding the bag' so to speak/write/whatever.
Friday, June 07, 2013
Re-Watching ST:NG - Relic
I have always had an appreciation for Star Trek and the idea of humanity expanding into the stars and of course the ever changing environment of science as they plumb the depths of space.
Relic (SE6,E04) starts off with the Enterprise finding a Dyson Sphere with a crashed ship (The Jenolen) still on it and remarkably Captain Scott is found alive in a continuous cycle in the transporter. And right here...at the beginning is where it jumps the shark...so to speak..erm write.
The episode becomes more about a man out of time than this fantastic...life changing find of an actual Dyson Sphere that as it is stated...can still support life with a class M environment on the inner hull area. Captain Scott's drama while compelling is more of a B-story than an A-story.
Writers today may indeed have the enterprise encounter the race who built the damned thing...rather than no explanation of why they are not present. Have they built other Dyson Spheres? There is so much more environmentally that could have been done...in-fact the Federation should have made an effort to colonize the sphere. Understanding and exploring this place would have advanced them hundreds of years in only a decade.
One of the initial shots as they enter the sphere shows a massive city on a peninsula. Hello Mega City One. This sphere is ready to colonize considering the amount of greenery and water present. The state of the environment inside at least superficially appears to be decent despite the supposed radiation bursts from the star.
Presumably solar flare activity is anticipated as part of a natural process of a main sequence class G star. Picard's observation that these flares must have driven the inhabitants away ignores many things. They BUILT A PHYSICAL STRUCTURE AROUND A STAR (or they built the structure and then ignited a star once it was built...). The sphere's structure is composed of neutronium. This sci-fi material is some sort of ultra-dense metal likely formed by the pressures equivalent to a collapsed white-dwarf star. It would be nearly impervious to destruction short of a truly massive matter-antimatter reaction or a singularity/singularity weapon. Even large mass driver type weapons would likely only leave superficial marks.
Though two science vessels are dispatched to study the sphere we never in all of the lore since ever hear about this place again. If I were Picard I would have wanted to stick around and help study it. The importance of this find in xeno-archaeology would be beyond comprehension.
The idea that solar flares would present any kind of danger to a society that can build something like this is laughable. The fact that they can ignite a star inside a structure means they must have advanced radiation and force shielding counter measures. And the fact that they can engineer a star means that likely they could exert control over the star beyond simply turning it on. Given the level of control over gravity they would need...it is likely they could snuff out a star using the systems in the Sphere.
bah!
Relic (SE6,E04) starts off with the Enterprise finding a Dyson Sphere with a crashed ship (The Jenolen) still on it and remarkably Captain Scott is found alive in a continuous cycle in the transporter. And right here...at the beginning is where it jumps the shark...so to speak..erm write.
The episode becomes more about a man out of time than this fantastic...life changing find of an actual Dyson Sphere that as it is stated...can still support life with a class M environment on the inner hull area. Captain Scott's drama while compelling is more of a B-story than an A-story.
Writers today may indeed have the enterprise encounter the race who built the damned thing...rather than no explanation of why they are not present. Have they built other Dyson Spheres? There is so much more environmentally that could have been done...in-fact the Federation should have made an effort to colonize the sphere. Understanding and exploring this place would have advanced them hundreds of years in only a decade.
One of the initial shots as they enter the sphere shows a massive city on a peninsula. Hello Mega City One. This sphere is ready to colonize considering the amount of greenery and water present. The state of the environment inside at least superficially appears to be decent despite the supposed radiation bursts from the star.
Presumably solar flare activity is anticipated as part of a natural process of a main sequence class G star. Picard's observation that these flares must have driven the inhabitants away ignores many things. They BUILT A PHYSICAL STRUCTURE AROUND A STAR (or they built the structure and then ignited a star once it was built...). The sphere's structure is composed of neutronium. This sci-fi material is some sort of ultra-dense metal likely formed by the pressures equivalent to a collapsed white-dwarf star. It would be nearly impervious to destruction short of a truly massive matter-antimatter reaction or a singularity/singularity weapon. Even large mass driver type weapons would likely only leave superficial marks.
Though two science vessels are dispatched to study the sphere we never in all of the lore since ever hear about this place again. If I were Picard I would have wanted to stick around and help study it. The importance of this find in xeno-archaeology would be beyond comprehension.
The idea that solar flares would present any kind of danger to a society that can build something like this is laughable. The fact that they can ignite a star inside a structure means they must have advanced radiation and force shielding counter measures. And the fact that they can engineer a star means that likely they could exert control over the star beyond simply turning it on. Given the level of control over gravity they would need...it is likely they could snuff out a star using the systems in the Sphere.
bah!
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