sansay

I knew that views are widely divergent on the merits of Megalopolis, but that usually tells me that it's probably going to be something out of the ordinary. And that, it is. But I have to warn you: it is full of literary references. You will be more likely to appreciate if you have read a lot of books. Also, you will need to have a taste for wild imagination. Some references, aside from well-known classics from the Romans as well as Shakespeare, which are very important here: "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" both books were written by Russian-American writer Ayn Rand. She was a strong advocate of capitalism and of the importance of allowing people to keep control of their creations. Many of her ideas and of the events in the books are actually illustrated in this movie. That really surprised me because I had no idea Coppola was such an admirer of her work. I was at a time too, but I eventually read some criticisms of her work and got a bit more skeptic of some of her ideas.

Anyway, the storyline is actually much more straightforward than some reviewers seem to imply. It is a fable, as indicated right at the beginning. And, as such, it has interesting characters who want the best for humanity but don't agree on how to get there. And of course, all the struggles depicted in this fantasy, because let's face it, it is more of a fantasy than anything else, lead to consequences which the author conclude as he sees fit. And that is where I could see a lot of people having a hard time accepting them.

One thing that puzzles me is the ease with which a large percentage of the population can accept and enjoy fantasies such as Lord of the Rings, but would reject this kind of fantasy. Too close to home? Or too bizarre? I don't know.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was not so much on the emotional rather it was more on the intellectual level. I did not feel it was too long as some reviewers felt. I was curious, intrigued even, all along as to where it was going. The dreamlike imagery and the idiosyncrasies of the characters are what made this movie so fascinating to me. But I definitely can understand that it's not for everybody.

This Amazon TV show surprised me. I think it's a romantic drama-comedy in a futuristic world. The humor is all over the place, mixed in with the drama. It is also subtle at times, and after having read other reviews, realized I missed some. But, for me, the more important thing is the main line, the impossible love story. This show brought me to tears. I know one way it succeeded in accomplishing this: it took the time to develop the characters. At the beginning the budding couple is charming and amusing. Then, over the 10 episodes it evolves into a deep love story where you feel for this couple, you get engaged, you really want them to succeed, be together. And you feel so sorry when they hit some obstacles.

The ideas about a world where you can upload your mind into virtual reality have been explored many times over in science-fiction. Recently, Altered Carbon, a Netflix series based on the books by Richard K. Morgan, did a great job of extending this notion to uploading it straight into another body artificially created for this purpose. Upload has a different take. It shows us a world where it's only used to save your mind into a virtual reality, a computer construct. And it's not cheap. About that, I really liked how the inequality issues of society make it even into a virtual world. But, In retrospect, I think that the main topic is really the relationship between bios (still alive) with uploaded people. Just that fills so much of the show, as it raises so many questions. Watch it, it's a fun, wonderful show and it will gives you a few things to think about regarding your life and other's too.

At the beginning of this movie we watch the Kim family struggle to survive in our modern and advanced society. Yes, I am being sarcastic. That's all I have left when talking about a society where the hardship of extreme poverty is often contrasted with the excesses of extreme wealth. You might argue that without such problems in our society we wouldn't have so much material to work with and create such wonderful stories as the one depicted in Parasites. Good point, but I will get back to this at the end of my review.

The Kim family's struggle to survive is wonderfully illustrated with a perfect balance between funny and sad. We often feel like laughing but then, strangely enough, we also feel like we shouldn't. Something that will quickly become obvious is the connection between the members of the Kim family. They are acting as a tight unit. One might think that's normal since people usually unite against a common enemy, in this case, poverty. But it is also true that this is a family, not just a group of poor people. They care about each other. Anyway, coming back to the plot, they will interact with the rich Park family and that's all I think I should tell you. How they will do it, what will happen as a consequence is a complex plot which moves like a rise to the top of a mountain, followed by a rapid descent once we passed the peak. You will know immediately when that happens. This moment, obvious to me, was nevertheless striking and masterfully done.

As my step-daughter brought to my attention, no one is the main character, all the main characters, all 10 of them, are important, and extremely well acted. Music is used parsimoniously and judiciously as a counterpoint to accelerated sequences which help keep the plot flowing smoothly, and therefore, avoids dead times. The camera work, although sometimes creative, is most often straight to the point. It shows us the situation and wastes no time on useless but beautiful imagery. In other words, every shot counts.

This movie, while telling us an interesting story, is also a social statement. And, as I indicated at the beginning of this review, I see this as a great illustration of the consequences of living in a sick society. Sure, it is nothing new, but it brings to mind many questions. The most important to me: do we, as a species who is supposed to be intelligent, continue in the current direction, and continue to make interesting stories, or do we stop, clean up our act, and create only fantasy stories in worlds which are not our own? Note how the Kim family is actually pretty smart and resourceful. And yet, they are poor. Yeah s. it happens, and more often than not, just because of the way our society works, or rather, doesn't.