crimes of the future (2022)
hhmmm. gorgeous gorgeous set design/visual effects/props, absolutely obsessed with the autopsy machine and the bone breakfast chair, perfect h.r. giger style blend of beautiful/unsettling biomechanical design. interested in the ideas of sex as surgery/surgery as spectacle/intimate medical procedure as theatrical public performance art but it felt like a lot of retreading on ideas already explored by cronenberg, without introducing anything particularly new or developing them further. slow and contemplative; nothing particularly shocking or radical, but i enjoyed it :)
also obsessed with the serial killing/drill wielding mechanic duo.
the afterparty
i loved this SO much. murder mystery set at the afterparty of a high school reunion, with each episode following a different character's version of the night and taking on a new genre. plays around with unreliable narration/narrative slippage between the characters in a really fun way.
bee and puppycat: lazy in space
cute, whimsical, strange, beautiful animation :+)
moby dick- herman melville
whale as unconquerable force of nature + whale as futile revenge + whale as uncanny whiteness + whale as prosthetic + whale as ship + whale as coffin + coffin as life buoy
we have always lived in the castle- shirley jackson
VERY morning in the burned house by margaret atwood ! what if you lived an isolated life, shaped by tragedy, fixed against any kind of change or notion of the future, viewing any disruption to the peace and stability of the house as sharply intrusive and even violent because of the possibility of change, and then allowing these intrusions to push you further and further into isolation and away from the world, ultimately becoming absolutely content to remain there forever, secure in your refusal to engage with the outside world at all. house as the nursery in ray bradbury's the veldt too actually.
the echo wife- sarah gailey
unnervingly plausible sci-fi, all the more unnerving for its carefully detached and practical narrator. a fresh take on clones, exploring (of course) ideas of nature/nurture, but also cycles of abuse and power. it doesn't really have the pace or tension of a thriller but it DOES have so many patterns to turn over in your mind