Showing posts with label forteana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forteana. Show all posts
April 10, 2015
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: So Bad the Quakers Riot
March 06, 2015
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Regional Resentments of Canadian Mollusks
November 28, 2014
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Covered in Cats and Croissant Crumbs
November 07, 2014
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Don't Read Books
September 19, 2014
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Live from Gen Con 2014
August 22, 2014
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Francis Peameal Bacon
June 20, 2014
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: The Simpering Bridegroom
April 11, 2014
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Those Punk Magicians Killed My Elephant
April 04, 2014
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Chekov’s Squid Throwing
February 14, 2014
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Hunker in the Bunker
November 29, 2013
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: You Suck as a Depicter of Matriarchies
August 23, 2013
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: My Feelings About Hatchets Have Completely Changed
In the latest episode of our briskly efficient podcast, Ken and I talk RPG languages, summer movies, Q&A lightning round and the Kazahkstan pentagram.
July 26, 2013
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: No One Likes a Blood Frenzy
In the latest episode of our high-flying podcast, Ken and I talk true place names, fictional stakes, iconic conflicts and Nazi UFOs.
March 15, 2013
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Ring-Tailed and Fructivorous
January 25, 2013
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Within the Eliptonic Radius
In the latest episode of our eponymous podcast, Ken and I talk setting exposition, filmland shadows, replacing Stalin, and the Martian ground squirrel.
December 05, 2011
All the Investigative Men
Rewatching Zodiac recently, I was struck by the desire to see David Fincher similarly tackle the Mothman incidents of 1966-1967. This is no swipe at Mark Pellington’s The Mothman Prophecies, which I quite like for the way it evokes the enveloping paranoia of paranormal inquiry. It does, however, impose a cinematic structure and sense of resolution on a series of bizarre incidents distinctive for their lack of either quality. Zodiac, however, stands as a masterpiece of negative capability, focusing as it does on a mystery that seems explicable but always tantalizingly out of reach.
I then happened to move onto the underrated Breach, the 2007 film about the apprehension of FBI mole Robert Hanssen. Although investigation occurs in the background, the dramatic action focuses on the relationship between Hanssen (Chris Cooper, in a brilliant performance) and the young agent assigned to get close to him by acting as his assistant.
The two movies share a stylistic touchstone: All the President’s Men, the classic recreation of the Woodward and Bernstein investigation into the Watergate break-in. Zodiac even employs its composer, David Shire. Alan J. Pakula’s brilliant direction wrings incredible suspense out of simple phone calls, in the heroes press reluctant witnesses to cough up essential scraps of information.
Throughout the film, we see Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, as the two protagonists, use a full range of GUMSHOE-esque interpersonal investigative abilities. Like Mutant City Blues or Ashen Stars characters, who must not only figure out what’s going on but be able to prove it, they have to confirm what they know by wringing confirmations from multiple sources. We see them use Flattery, Flirting, Bureaucracy, Inspiration, Reassurance, and even a touch of Intimidation. Bullshit Detector comes out as official denials are issued. They also use social discomfort to get information out of people. By simply refusing to take no for an answer, or to do the polite thing and go away, they exert a subtle pressure on their sources, one distinct from real Intimidation. A journalism-focused GUMSHOE iteration might add this as a new interpersonal ability—perhaps called something like Journalistic Chutzpah.
September 01, 2011
Link Round-Up: Repairer Reviewed, Santeria Smear, Detective Dee
The Repairer of Reputations scores a gratifying review at RPGnet.
Mirror appliques on mayoral campaign signs prompt Santeria smear.
Tsui Hark's delirious return to wuxia form, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, starts its limited US theatrical run tomorrow. One of my faves from last year's TIFF. Reindeer fu!
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