#the job Burke mentions in Aliens?

[victoriadallonfan]

Having re-watched Alien (1979) and Aliens (1985), I think I've realized what went wrong with the further expanded film universe on a thematic level (this is not accounting for AVP films, which seem to exist within their own continuity atm).

The main issue is that these films made 2 intertwining mistakes:

Making the Xenomorph too animalistic

Removing the mystery of space

For the first part, Alien and Aliens are quite vague about the Xenomorph mind. Alien treats it almost like a serial killer at times, including a particularly interesting moment where it disregards Jones the Cat entirely, despite making a very easy target, and how it will sometimes meander up to the crew as if it knows it's inflicting terror upon them. This Xenomorph even seems to only flee when Parker goes to kill it with a knife and hides within the evac shuttle when it realizes that Ripley was going there as well.

Aliens forgoes this in favor of showing how terrifying their numbers are even in the face of superior (if greatly mislead) fire power, but then pulls the rug under our protagonists by (seemingly) cutting the power and testing the endurance of the auto-turrets. While the drones are not individually as intelligent as the original xenomorph from the first film, this is instead given to the Queen, who understands not only the danger Ripley poses to her Hive but hostage negotiations of the most blunt variety. And, of course, incredible spite and vengeance when Ripley burns her eggs.

Basically, the two films do a good job of making you wonder... how sapient and sentient are the Xenomorphs? Do we take Ash's word and think of them as simply Hostile Weapons or do we see them for the adaptable and complex - if instinct guided - parasites just trying to protect their hive? This is further food for thought when we learn that one of the cut endings would have had the Xenomorph kill Ripley, tentatively use the shuttles control panel, and speak into the intercom with Dallas voice (ala Predator).

Imo, that goes too far into making them human, but we'll circle back to that later. The point is that the Xenomorph is never clearly one thing or another, but rather, something that constantly foils our attempts to understand them completely.

Aliens 3, Alien: Resurrection, Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant fail in that regard, because they take the firm stance that the Xenomorph is... an animal. A very, very, dangerous and hostile animal but an animal nonetheless. It's not some vague horror that we struggle to comprehend and reason with, because all the facts (as they are for now) are laid out: the Xenomorphs are weaponized animals that just kill, reproduce, and kill etc etc.

Nothing is entirely new about the Xenomorphs in these movies (beyond the forms and one part of Covenant, but we'll circle back to that as well), but rather trying to recapture the formula of Alien and Aliens. And even when the film isn't necessarily about the Xenomorphs like Prometheus, it still goes out of its way to copy the play by play of Alien to an almost hilarious degree (except, somehow, having a cast entirely of stupid scientists).

The Xenomorph is used as a toll for the films to talk more about the human threats who would use them, which is fine, except the same message of "Weyland-Yutani wants Xenomorphs, They Failed" over and over again (except I guess for Alien: Resurrection, but that had Walmart as a plot point so...) gets tedious. It's not longer about the folley of mankind, but rather this one company led by a man (or Android?) who keeps fucking up.

Ditto goes for the second part: removing the mystery from space. Alien and Aliens treat the Space Jockey and other (non-Xenomorph) alien life at an arms distance. They are large, grand, ominous, and vaguely defined. We don't know much about WY in either movie, nor how much is them knowing versus independent people within the company (Burke mentions cutting out his own bosses for profit for example, and Bishop the company Android is heroic and horrified at the situation they are all in, a big difference to Ash). The Xenomorphs having a Queen was a huge reveal, because we literally had no idea until then if those were actual eggs or simply pods artificially created.

Aliens 3 tries to add some mystery with the prison colony, but it's also hamfisted and given a lot of exposition to explain the situation they are in, but I will give it kudos for making Weyland (???) look like Bishop as a twist. Aliens: Resurrection... yeah, no.

Prometheus and Alien Covenant gave us a plethora of seeming mysteries, but also gives us really super simple answers. Basically, Space Jockeys are just super humans seeding life across the planets and they wanted to bomb Earth into oblivion because we killed Jesus Christ (who was a Space Jockey). And one of our androids then - possibly - goes to their home planet and bombs them to oblivion thus wiping out the human race. And they made Xenomorphs yadda yadda.

Prometheus in particular seems to despise the idea of space being a mystery, with the conversation David has with a scientist being plainly spelled out as the theme of the film: "Sometimes, humans/space jockeys just build shit, and it goes wrong I guess. No gods or mysteries here, just hubris."

Which, if handled well, is still a fascinating idea (I think it's a pretty interesting 'take-that' against the stupidity of Ancient Alien Conspiracy Theorists)... but it's not handled well. At all. And certainly doesn't work well when trying to write Xeno-Horror.

So, what COULD work?

Well, I think we need to look at how Alien and Aliens made the Xenomorphs, Space Jockey's, and Space itself all work.

For the xenomorphs, I think back to one scene I actually thought was interesting in Alien: Covenant; as a chestburster is born from a hapless scientist, it lays its eyes (???) on David and replicates his movements, mimicking the first living thing it witnesses. Nothing is ever done with this (of course), but think about the potential that could be used! Plenty of animals like crows, ravens, dolphins, octopi, killer whales etc etc can use mimicry in voices and actions, and that includes things like tool-use! And of course, the fact that they take on new forms from hosts helps with that.

For the Space Jockey's: scrap them. They had their time, the mystery is basically solved. Show us new and different alien civilizations long past. Were they also victims of the Xenomorphs? From some other threat entirely? Surely, there are extraterrestrial predators out there that don't follow the Xenomorph formula. Why not have them share the splotlight, with just as little explanation?

For space itself: stop with trying to recapture Alien and Aliens. Alien: Isolation is the only successor specifically because of the format of the medium. Alien and Aliens rely heavily on the shock factor of sudden reveals. Remove that, and you are given "bug hunt" games and movies ala discount Starship Trooper. Focus more on making human space feel almost alien and beyond our understanding as well, but just enough that we can recognize the purpose that we would have them for our society.

How I would write an Alien Story:

(This would all be backstory and setup for the actual story)

I would set it within a colony satellite with an explicit task: a skyscraper ecological time-capsule for deep space experimentation of wildlife.

It would have levels, with humans situated at the second uppermost and an AI as the manager at the top level of the satellite, with all the other animals in different levels fit for their habitats (including some non-earth, non-xenomorph aliens). It's a religious sponsored and run organization, offshoots of [Insert Church Here] that is trying to get good press with cutting edge AI and biological research.

The prize is an alien lifeform that looks like a cross between a crocodile and a panther. Usually docile when fed, it has been growing more and more agitated, harming several workers on the job. Most assume it may be some late-stage degenerative disease within it's brain.

Not all things are as it seems, as at the bottom of the station, a location no one but a select few faithful engineers are sent to maintain, a pod is damaged. A young attendant watches in shock and horror as a bloody and maimed chest burster crawls out of the pod, possibly having injured itself to burn through the lock. The creature is mewling in pain, but the young attendant makes a choice: leaving food, water, and blanket for the creature. Watching as the creature watches them, before going to feast. All under the gaze of a camera.

The xenomorph grows and grows, eating more, getting bolder and allowing its "caretaker" to feel more comfortable. Soon it begins to recognize certain sounds as they pray when he feasts, and association occurs. One day, its hiss sounds suspiciously like "Lord".

This is when the young attendant reaches out to higher, but trusted, priests to share this miraculous revelation. The first one is shocked, terrified, but intrigued as the creature mimics words like "Lord" and "Mighty". Barely audible, some would say hallucinatory, but they believe they can here this humanoid creature speak their language.

The second is equally shocked, terrified, but listens and becomes a believer.

The third one does not believe. Rightfully horrified and full of questions. Their arguments in front of the beast escalate into violence and when the young attendant shoves the priest to the ground, it is the Xenomorph that pounces. Blood is shed. the creature rises in front of it's faithful, and the Xenomorph uses the same sounds it heard over the fight. Lord. Mighty. Here-tik.

They can't be delusional or driven by guilt! This is a sign... right? This creature is speaking to them!

The faith grows. Never large. Can't risk word getting out or people noticing too many missing priests. The satellite is just barely large enough that people can excuse going missing for a few days between objectives.

But key individuals are brought in. The creature is worshiped. Animal offerings are delivered. It's changing, slowly. Growing larger (not a Xenomorph Queen, it's too maimed, but adapting to a steady diet).

Things might have escalated, had one of the priests killed not had an estranged sibling/spouse/loved one who had the pull to make a formal investigatory complaint.

The investigator arrives with his repertoire, this supposed garden of eden in deep space, none the wiser to what he would uncover. (Again, this would be the backstory, not revealed except through character investigations and evidence found during that. Defeats the purpose if it's spelled out like this).

It would play with the idea of how sapient/sentient the Xenomorphs are (do they care? do they understand? if not, why act like this? if yes, what does this mean for their continued slaughter), how much one puts into faith versus delusions, and leaves lingering questions: who put the xenomorph on the ship, why is the AI so complicit with the deaths and disappearances, and why is the one non-xenomorph alien acting so dangerously agitated despite being far away from the xenomorph's quarters?

[therapardalis]

[Public Transport Meme from @deflvwered​’s Ellen Ripley.]

“We need to get off. Come on.” ------------

“Hm?” Thera raised her head, blinking. There was a joke in some circles that a Marine could sleep just about anywhere - in the dirt, in full pack, standing up leaned on a wall. It was also pretty much true, which made the slow, grumbling railcar from the accommodation levels to the docks a piece of cake.

Face scrunched a little she squinted out the grubby window, half-hoping that the other woman was mistaken, but alas the familiar outlines of cranes and loaders loomed outside and she sat up, scratching at her hair. “... fuck ...” Amended right after with a grunt and vague wave, “Thanks ...” At least ... Ellen? Yeah, Ellen ... had been kinder about it than the driver would have been, trying to get them all off his car so he could start on back. “I’m still getting used to the routine ...”

[littlemissnellie]

and finally for the san myshuno crowd is a household of my own, which I creatively named: city friends. 

when noah’s girlfriend took off in the middle of the night without a word of explanation and no means of contacting her, noah was left in a bit of pickle; he had an apartment he couldn’t pay the rent for alone, a broken heart, and worst of all, a precious little girl, who no longer had her mom. but it was parker that ended up being his saviour because she was the only thing that kept him pushing through to try to find his feet again. so after a couple of failed attempts at looking for suitable roommates, he caught wind of one of his high school friends having moved to the city to try out new cuisines for her flourishing food blog. admittedly, since dating his ex, he hadn’t spoken to peyton for years, but all it took peyton was one look at how hurt he was for her to welcome him, and his daughter, into her cosy apartment. sure, she already had a roommate: the boisterous, but perceptive, artist kimber - but they could easily clear out the office space and swap rooms around so that noah and parker could have the space they needed until he was able to work up a more stable income. it may not be an entirely conventional scenario, but the four of them have grown to become rather attached to one another...

okay, long explanation done. I just love them so much and I wanted to give their story a proper introduction thing instead of having to try to piece bits together from their fact files. I hope you don’t mind! and since I got most of the big storytelling points out of the way there, their fact files hopefully shouldn’t be too long now. 

edit: just finished them an hour and a half later... so nope, they’re not short at all, if anything, they may be my longest yet soooooo, yeah... thought i’d better warn you, ha!

anyway, as always, if you’d like to have them in your game then check out the download link below, and if not then I hope that you enjoy reading their fact files!

download: simfileshare

I hope you’re doing well! <3

peyton callaway:

has always loved trying adventurous new foods, even from a young age - sure, there’s a difference between eating paella and grass from the backyard, but at three years old peyton was willing to give anything a go - she’d just like to think that now her palate’s a little more sophisticated

will hit up ever food stall and food truck she can find on her travels across the city - her camera roll is just full of food pictures (and photos of parker being cute when she babysits her), not only to post on her food blog, but for her to reference when she’s reading through her notes and trying to replicate the recipes for herself at home, because when she’s not eating, she’s probably cooking

loves cartoons - sure, some people may think that they’re childish but she’d choose an animated movie or tv show over anything live-action every single time - and having two aspiring artists at her disposal is super convenient for her ever-growing desire to get better at drawing characters of her own

kimber burke:

super tall, like almost intimidatingly tall and totally owns it - she’s pretty outspoken and her height can help her gain some respect when she’s trying to stand her ground (particularly when defending some of her not so conventional art pieces) - but at the end of the day, her friends know that she’s really a big, gentle giant that gets upset over trampled bumblebees

her height also comes in handy for her side hobby: basketball - she’s plays for their neighbourhood team once a week but if peyton or noah can’t find her in the apartment then they’ll usually just have to look out the window and find her practicing at the hoop across the street

she’s pretty closed off romantically after some not so nice dating situations in high school, so she can often find herself relating to noah’s struggles and offering him a shoulder to cry on - but she’s matured a lot since then and has grown to be comfortable with who she is, which she often expresses through her art, even if it’s not always in the most legal of places... because hey, sometimes canvases are expensive and sidewalks or back alleys are free!

noah osario:

currently working the crappiest of crappy office jobs with a boss he despises, co-workers who are about as exciting as sloths on sedatives and printer that’s almost always jammed - but he’d work that job for the rest of his life if it meant that he could give parker a great one; after all, it’s the thought of going home to her that gets him through his days - her pictures and drawings he keeps on his desk are the only things keeping him grounded and stopping him from hurling his cold cup of coffee in his boss’ face and quitting

once he gets financially stable again though, and he and parker have a place of their own, he’d love to pursue his original passion of being a tattoo artist - he’s constantly working on designs to get done on his own body (which, let’s face it, are mostly sci-fi aliens or superheroes because he’s a big nerd at heart) that his local artist is always impressed by, so he’s hoping that when the time’s right he might be considered for a spot on the team

constantly paranoid about messing up when it comes to parenting - there have been times where he’s put her down for the night and he’s has had to cry into a pillow so that he doesn’t wake her up from her bed in the corner, or when he’s been playing with her stuffed animals and this wave of paranoia and despair crashes over him and he breaks down right in front of her - of course, she ran right over to him gave him all the cuddles and reassurances she could manage at three years old, but from knowing how close his mom and older sister were, he feels so guilty for the fact that he will never be able to give her a relationship like that - peyton and kimber are always there to encourage him, but he’ll always be hard on himself about it because he’s so determined to get it right for her; she’s his whole world, so the last thing he wants to do is screw up

parker osario:

super loving - for a girl that has had to deal with such a lot of upheaval at such a young age, it’s remarkable how chipper and kind she always seems to be - she waves to everyone she passes in the street, draws pictures for everyone in the house and neighbours across the hall and cuddles her stuffed animals for five minutes straight if they so much as fall off her bed - peyton’s convinced she’s going to grow up to be a nurse or even a doctor one day - noah just hopes he’ll be able to scrape together a college fund for her...

absolutely adores her dad - whenever he gets home from work she drops every toy she’s holding to run over and give him a hug - she loves it when he plays with her as well because he’s so good at making up stories and giving all her toys silly voices - she’s learnt not to mention mommy anymore either; she sometimes wonders where she went but when she asked daddy about it he started to cry and that made things even worse because she couldn’t find any tissues for him so she just used her blanket instead and had to cuddle him lots until he was happy enough to play shops with her again 

when she’s not playing with her dad though, she’s more than happy to play with auntie pey-pey or auntie kimmy - auntie pey-pey lets her help make lots of yummy snacks and is really good at doing her hair when daddy can’t get it to go right - and auntie kimmy is great at finger painting and playing aeroplanes at the park - so as much as noah is worried about her not having a mom, she may have ended up with something better: two strong, young women to act as mother-figures and role models in her flaky birth mom’s absence

[aroaceconfessions]

I forgot to add this when I queued this, but here’s a couple aspec YouTubers I know of. None of them primarily make content about being ace, but they’re great if you just want to follow more aspec people!

The Closet Historian - she primarily makes content around historical fashion and sewing, a couple years ago she came out as asexual and has a video or two about that.

Molly Burke - Molly’s videos are primarily about fashion and other typical vlogging content, but with a twist because she’s blind. She is also an activist for blind people and creates educational and story-time videos about living as a blind person. She also has a cool dog. Recently she mentioned in a video that she’s demisexual.

Bryony Farmer - Bryony posts a variety of content, but it’s mainly about menstruation/reproductive health, sustainability, and more recently about being a foster parent. I think she said in a vlog a couple years ago that she’s greysexual (or greyromantic???) but I have no idea what video that would be so I can’t confirm if she actually did. Regardless, I think her content around fostering could be very helpful to aspec people who want to be parents, since she’s chosen to become a foster parent while single.

Echo Gillette - Echo has made several videos on being asexual, but her content is mainly about art. Sometimes she draws, sometimes she reviews supplies, and sometimes she sews a giant cover for her couch to make it look like a hot dog. I think she’s done a couple videos where she unboxes sex toys, so be aware of that if that’s something that will bother you. Some of her videos about asexuality are collabs, so you’ll probably be able to find more ace creators through those. Some of her collabs include Aaron, who is next on this list.

Aaron Ansuini - Aaron makes content about art, asexuality, being trans, mental health and disabilities (he has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, ADHD, and autism). A lot of his content is about the intersectionalities of some of the above, which makes his content very interesting and unique. Unfortunately he hasn’t posted a lot this past year, but he’s active on Instagram and frequently posts photos of his cat who looks like a cross between an alien and a lamb.

Side note: some of his content is specifically about sex and he does videos sponsored by sex toy companies. He also reviews prosthetic penises. Those videos may not be suitable for you if you’re sex repulsed, but I think he does a good job at making it clear from the titles and thumbnails that that’s what he’ll be talking about, so they can be easily avoided. 

Hi! Any good ace podcast/youtube suggestions? The only things I can find with searches are explanations of aceness to ppl that are unaware ps. Thank you for all that you do for the community!!

[gcmetime-moved]

my favorite thing about hicks, is when you’re watching aliens and just. watching him in the background. the quiet way in which he observes things. he watches ripley and can gauge how uncomfortable she is with what’s going on, the situation she’s in. he watches gorman and just analyzes how he behaves, how he can tell how inexperienced he is and how out of control of the team he is. when they sit down for the briefing, he’s the only one out of the main/surviving team of the grunts who actually pay attention -- and you bet your ass he watched ripley’s report on disk like was mentioned. he can have fun with his team and joke around, he has a sense of humor but he’s also about business. this is his job. he’s a professional, and he takes what he does seriously because what he does is serious. he gets insulted when burke calls him just another grunt and implies he’s stupid, implies that the other members of the expedition are anything less than colonial marines. when everyone jumps down burke’s throat for putting the face huggers in the med bay with ripley and newt, hicks doesn’t outright not believe ripley when she says that burke did it -- he takes a moment to think. to think about what she’s saying, not to jump to conclusions. he steps away for a second, then decides she’s right.  i just love how smart and thoughtful hicks is.  also the fact that he fell asleep on the fucking drop, i love this man.

[onegoodscare]

The Creator vs. The Created - A Theory About Prometheus, Alien: Covenant and the Xenomorph

Alien: Covenant spoilers ahead!

Alien: Covenant is one hundred percent a Prometheus sequel and that will either help or hinder your enjoyment of it, as I mentioned in my mini spoiler-free review. The biggest theme running throughout this movie is definitely creation, more specifically, the creation of life. I also feel that the theme beyond creation is being unable to control what you have made. There’s a lot going on for a movie with the deceivingly simple, bare-bones premise of 'Where did the Xenomorph come from?'. Prometheus and Alien: Covenant have far more to say than that, of course. Alien: Covenant is just the first stepping stone toward the perfect organism we see in Alien. The creature has got quite a way to go. 

In Prometheus we learn that the Engineers created humanity. Humanity, in turn, create the synthetics - artificial persons. David, an artificial person, firstly infects Holloway. Holloway impregnates Shaw, who has been unable to conceive naturally, which leads to the Trilobite creature. The Trilobite impregnates and gestates the Deacon within the body of the last Engineer.

We’ve seen in Alien that the artificial people can ‘malfunction’, as Burke so delicately puts it, which goes to show that no matter how human (David) or less-than-human (Walter, the synthetic aboard the Covenant) the corporations make the synthetics they still can be unpredictable and, in some cases, uncontrollable.   Prometheus and Alien: Covenant go even further into showing just how dangerous rogue robotics can be. David-8 is the beginning of the end for the Prometheus crew, as I mentioned, he deliberately infects Holloway and seems content with letting the final Engineer bomb earth with the pathogen. He's seemingly obsessed with the pathogen and its properties, curious even to the detriment of the people he has been manufactured to serve. There’s something off about David even before he becomes thoroughly disillusioned with humanity. Walter says that the David line was discontinued due to their creativity disturbing people. Humanity is literally dialling back their creations, devolving them into what David sees as lesser beings. He very clearly sees himself as above humanity.

We see David and Mr. Weyland’s initial conversation about creation in the opening of Alien: Covenant and it seems fitting that David is with Mr. Weyland at the conception of the journey to find humanity's makers and at the end of Weyland’s life where he is killed by the very thing he sought. David only continues on his warped path looking to make his own life, completely removed from any ties he had to humanity previously.  

In short, the Engineers created humanity and then sought to destroy us. Humanity created synthetic people and then, when concerned with what they had done, made them less like people. David contributed to the creation of a new lifeform and became obsessed with the idea of surpassing humanity, his creators, and then the genocide idea occurs.

The Engineers were perhaps unable to control humanity so they decided humanity should end. David takes it upon himself, as revealed in Covenant, to put an end to the Engineers by bombing their home world with the very pathogen they made to destroy humanity. David becomes more powerful than those which made his makers by wiping them out. Creator-versus-Created is a vicious cycle which repeats itself again and again and again throughout these two movies. 

Fast forward ten years and David has been tampering with genetics. Without more Engineers to seed worlds with humanity, David just needs one key element to finish the job and end the species he sees as desperately grasping at the stars. He creates a very familiar form of life in Alien: Covenant, however, I think there’s far more to this story. I believe that these aren’t the same creatures which will terrorize Ellen Ripley twenty years down the timeline.

Once David and Shaw arrive on the Engineer’s home world, after David has presumably killed them all and created his necropolis, he kills Shaw and begins to use her corpse to manufacture life by splicing the pathogen and human DNA. A colonisation ship, the Covenant, land after hearing a human-generated signal. There are spores around the signal’s source which are either occurring naturally thanks to the pathogen in the environment or they have been manufactured by David, either way they infect crew of the Covenant and create pale, fleshy creatures called Neomorphs. 

When he first sees it, David is captivated by the Neomorph. He is unconcerned by the corpse it has left in its wake, instead David sees a creature he has had a hand in bringing into the world and he clearly thinks he can control it. This is the first relative success he has seen, this is pre-Xenomorph but still a hybrid of human and pathogen. Maybe he really could control it if it wasn’t gunned down. David explains to Captain Oram later on that he has made something, his experiments have been a success. The Neomorph was a surprise, and a welcome one at that, but he has something far more sinister in store for the Covenant.

It is immediately clear that David set a trap and then he simply waited for humanity come and trigger it. David explains to Captain Oram that his successful creations have been dormant, waiting for something living, something human, to awaken them. The fleshy, ovoid eggs with skeletal Facehuggers have been laying in wait and Captain Oram becomes host to the very first Xenomorph... or something similar. David later explains to Walter that he does not think that humanity, their creators, are fit to continue expanding into the stars.  What is his solution? A perfect organism fit to wipe entire species clean. A genocide.

The Xenomorph born from Oram is very, very different to the ones we see twenty years later in Alien. It’s almost fully formed at chestbursting stage, complete with limbs, and it is noticeably more lanky. The Alien’s lifecycle is sped up considerably and it is both skittish and aggressive. There’s no hiding in wait picking off people one-by-one, this Xenomorph is feral and a ‘fast food’ variety of Alien. It’s launching itself openly into the fray, an assault warrior which is reckless and without finesse. It’s not there to take hosts, it’s there to destroy. David has a slight influence over it which is seen just after it has burst when it mimics his movements. The flicker of rebellion quickly rears its head when the Alien breaks a camera David is using to monitor it aboard the Covenant.

After it is killed, David is clearly disappointed that his ‘perfect organism’ failed to eliminate the entire crew of the Covenant, you can read it all over his face, and I think that’s because David hasn’t created the perfect organism at all, not yet. The entire recurring theme seems to be that you cannot control what you create, not indefinitely, and it is dangerous to try. The original Alien movies stress that the Xenomorph is highly volatile and, no matter how much Weyland-Yutani want it as a weapon, they will never, ever be able to control it. Its arrival on Earth would signal the end of a species: humanity.

I fully believe that the other Alien prequels will see David trying to perfect his prototype Xenomorphs until he develops them too far. He'll do what humanity did with him and witness as his creations surpass him, however, it will be far too late to dial back what he has made. The Xenomorphs will begin to take on a life of their own, something he has been unable to predict. They’ll evolve, creating a queen, and begin advancing at their own pace, adapting to all manner of hosts and moving far beyond anything David can ever hope to keep within his grasp. Rather than specifically being engineered to eradicate humanity they’ll adapt to be in a position to wipe out entire galaxies.

At some point in the twenty years following Alien: Covenant the true Xenomorphs will somehow escape containment aboard one of the Engineer ships, the cargo bay full of eggs will be intact as the ship crashes onto a desolate moon designated LV-426. The last act of the ship’s pilot will be to send a permanent beacon warning people to stay away because the thing growing in its chest is far too dangerous to ever be unleashed upon the world. Humanity, in its ever curious way, will of course set foot on that moon and one of the greatest sci-fi horror stories will play out in deep space until the Last Survivor of the Nostromo takes on the Perfect Organism across the stars.

[raceandspeculation]

Ripley vs. Patriarchy and Colonialism

The Alien quadrilogy is a major milestone in science fiction and horror film history. The protagonist of the quadrilogy, Ellen Ripley, goes through major transformations because of her constant battle with the series’ primary antagonist, the Xenomorphs. Although Ripley spends a majority of her time on-screen trying to survive the violent Xenomorphs, she is also contending against enemies that exist off-screen and in our own reality. Patriarchy and colonialism are themes that Aliens and Alien 3 explore in detail, as well as create different narratives and ways for the movies to be understood. These themes play off of each other, allowing for the audience to identify the social implications created by them, and a deeper understanding of Ripley’s reaction to these invisible forces.

The Xenomorphs are similar to beasts and other sci-fi monsters because they kill indiscriminately. As noted by the android Ash in the first film, they do not have “delusions of morality”. They are not mindless creatures, as displayed in the final scene of Aliens, when Ripley points a gun at the queen in order to allow herself safe passage to get to Newt. The queen lets out a roar, and the warrior drones back away, acknowledging the queens warning. Again, we see the Xenomorph in Alien 3 refuse to attack Ripley because she is pregnant with an alien queen. There is a clear and distinct respect among the Xenomorphs, especially for the queen, who serves as the mother of their species. Unfortunately, the human species doesn’t have the same set of values in regards to women.

Vasquez, the only female Marine that the film pays particular attention to, is also framed by her relationship to patriarchy. When the Marines are introduced early on in the movie, misogynist comments are directed at her by some of the male Marines. She casually and humorously brushes them off, proving she can take it and dish it out. It seems as though her bravado and gung-ho attitude are attempts to assimilate herself into an all male military unit. Her occasional use of Spanish expletives seem like a form of resistance against her white and mostly male colleagues.

Despite Ripley’s experience and intelligence, she is constantly ignored by men in charge. In Aliens, she is asked to accompany a unit of Marines investigating a colony on the same planet her crew first encountered the Xenomorphs. Despite her experience with Xenomorphs, her advice on how to deal with them falls on deaf ears. When she explains that the pulse rifles the Marines are using could possibly hit a reactor and cause an explosion that will kill them all, her warning isn’t acted on until Burke, a representative of the Weyland-Yutani corporation, supports this claim. The officer in charge then decides that it would be wise to use other weaponry to combat the Xenomorphs. It is only until a majority of the original crew is killed off that Ripley’s counsel is taken into consideration.

The prison warden in Alien 3 is another example of patriarchy that exists in the film.  When she requests an autopsy be performed on Newt, Ripley makes no mention of Xenomorphs or her past experiences, despite the numerous questions she is asked by the prison’s doctor. She has already been conditioned to understand that men in power either disregard her warnings or don’t believe her. The scene in which some of the prisoners ambush Ripley in an attempt to rape her is important because of the way in which she survived that situation. In an article titled, “You’ve been in my life so long I can’t remember anything else”: Into the labyrinth with Ripley and the Alien”, the author states, “ Dillon, too, rescues Ripley from the three prisoners who are about to rape and perhaps murder her, just as Parker rescued her when Ash attempted to kill her by ramming a magazine down her throat. Without their help, Ripley would not have survived” (Gibson, 47). Ripley is able to successfully defend herself from a vicious Alien species mostly by herself, but is always rescued by another man when she is brutalized by men. Later in the film, when Ripley witnesses the attack of the prison doctor by the Xenomorph, she is yelled at and told to be quiet by the warden when she alerts them of what has just happened. This isn’t the first time he has disregarded her warnings or suggestions, but it proves to be the last. After he is snatched up by the Xenomorph, the surviving inmates and staff decide that Ripley is someone worth listening to, but only because they’ve witnessed what happens to those that don’t. Her sacrifice at the end of the film is not just a means to an end, but also a political statement. The men that wish to possess her body in order to exploit it have been denied by her sacrifice, and the galaxy is all the more safer for it.

The Weyland-Yutani Corporation plays an important role in the telling of the story in these films. They manage to be present in every film by way of proxy. In Aliens, they are represented by Carter Burke. Carter Burke does a good job at fooling Ripley and the audience into believing that the Weyland-Yutani Corportations involvement and interest in the military operation is to righteously eradicate the alien scum that destroyed their colony. We realize later on in the movie that the only reason Burke was dispatched with Ripley and the unit was to oversee the possible capture of the Xenomorphs to study and possibly use as a biological weapon. In the book, Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley, the authors state,“Whereas in Alien, Ash (and Mother) were simply following orders, Burke, the self-serving bureaucrat, pursues only his interests with no consideration for law, morality, or common human decency. In a way, he is worse than Ash, for unlike the android, who was obviously programmed to be scientifically curious (as is Bishop), Burke displays no respect for, or aesthetic interest in, the Alien. He does not even acknowledge its danger; for him, the Alien is just a commodity to be traded for profit.”(Gallardo-C. & Smith, 84). It’s clear that the Weyland-Yutani Corporation is engaging in a futuristic form of colonialism. With access to an unimaginable number of planets, corporations have become their own sovereign states, taking from the galaxy as they see fit. Because of the nature of Xenomorphs and their need for human hosts, Weyland-Yutani is willing to exploit human bodies for a profit. What’s even more telling is the military unit that is dispatched to the colony on LV-426. Although they speak and behave like the Marines we know on earth, these Marines are a bit different. They are actually called the Colonial Marines, and sent on a mission deemed necessary by a corporation. The movie doesn’t make a big deal of it, but it’s worth noting that a governmental organization like the military is doing the dirty work for a mega-corporation.

Alien 3 may not have the presence of the Colonial Marines, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t expose the colonialism practiced by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. The planet Ripley has crash landed on is actually a penal colony, where the prisoners work as foundry workers. This time, the resource being exploited is convict labor. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation quickly dispatches a unit once they realize that a Xenomorph is alive and present at the prison. The resource to be exploited again becomes the Xenomorph, with the added inclusion of Ripley. Her body, and the body of the Xenomorph, are to be exploited for economical gain. In the essay, The ‘Alien’ trilogy: from feminism to Aids, the author states “In Alien 3, the body, which in retrospect seems to have been remarkably repressed in the first two films, becomes a landscape, obsessively probed and examined with fingers and eyes, pentrated in close-up with needles, knives, and saws” (Taubin, 93). The bodies of both Ripley and the Alien have become “landscapes”, waiting to be pillaged by the invasive scientists of the Weyland-Yutani corporation.

Patriarchy and colonialism are responsible for some of the most exploitative acts and practices in human history, and according to the creators of the film, they manage to live on well into the future. The films exist in a dystopian future, where human lives are considered expendable by the corporations that employ them. Men are still mostly in charge and still manipulate a woman’s body, both figuratively and literally, to serve their own wants and needs. Ripley challenges the status quo, and in the end, gives her own life to reclaim some semblance of power and control. Ripley serves as a symbol of resistance against patriarchy and colonialism, and ends up a martyr that has gained victory over her on-screen and off-screen enemies.

Word Count: 1543

Works Cited

Taubin, Amy. “The 'Alien' trilogy: from feminism to Aids.” Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader, edited by Pam Cook and Philip Dodd, Scarlet Press, London, 1997, pp. 93–100.

Gibson, Pamela Church. “"You've been in my life so long I can't remember anything else": Into the labyrinth with Ripley and the Alien.” Keyframes: Popular Cinema and Cultural Studies, edited by Matthew Tinkcom and Amy Villarejo, Routledge, London, 2001, pp. 35–51.

Gallardo-C., Ximena, and C. Jason Smith. Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley. London, Continuum, 2004.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND Sept 7, 2018 – The Nun, Peppermint, God Bless the Broken Road

Hallelujah! We made it through another summer, one with a lot of really strong studio and independent films and only a few dogs (and even those were a lot more tolerable than in years past).

Normally, the first weekend of September after Labor Day would be a down weekend but with the blockbuster success of New Line’s adaptation of Stephen King’s It last year, all that has changed. Mind you, there have been other solid September openers like Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion and a couple Resident Evil movies, but this weekend, New Line is going to go whole hog with the latest Conjuring spin-off/prequel, and another studio is gonna try to give it some genre competition.

THE NUN (New Line/WB)

The Fall movie season kicks off with a movie that could have easily opened over the summer or waited until October to take advantage of the impending Halloween (the holiday, not the movie). With last year’s huge success for New Line’s adaptation of Stephen King’s It, the studio is hoping horror fans will pull a repeat and help kick off a strong fall movie season after some late summer hits.

If you don’t already know, The Nun is a spin-off prequel to June 2016’s The Conjuring 2 directed by James Wan which grossed $102 million from a $40.4 million openig. That’s just slightly less than the original The Conjuring made in July 2013, grossing $137 mill. domestic after a $41.9 million opening.

The first movie led to the hit Annabelle spin-off and its prequel Annabelle: Creation, but The Nun is both a spin-off and prequel directed by Corin Hardy, who helmed the indie horror The Hallows a few years back. This one stars Taissa Farmiga, sister of The Conjuring star Vera Farmiga who has appeared on a number of seasons of FX’s American Horror Story, plus it also stars Oscar nominee Demian Bichir, who has appeared in everything from Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight to Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant.

While there might already be some franchise fatigue for these horror movies tying into the “Conjuring Universe,” the marketing for the movie has been spot-on with some of the scariest TV spots and trailers of the year. With schools back in session, the teen and older kids will certainly be up for a scary movie to see with classmates, as will older adult horror fans who appreciate the finesse that Wan brings to his horror films. As we saw with Itlast year, horror is definitely bigger money than ever especially with a strong and scary horror premise like this one.

The Nun should be good for the same $36 to 40 million range as the Annabelle movies, although it won’t get the opening weekend bump of a summer or October pre-Halloween release nor will it have much chance for legs with next week’s The Predator aiming for the same audience. If it’s any good, it should be able to still make $100 million with the other September releases seeming fairly bland.

Oh, and there’s already a sixth “Conjuring Universe” film slated for next July, so we’ll see if that’s a prequel/sequel to The Nun or maybe it will be a family film with Lorraine and Ed Warren meeting as kids and getting into ghost-chasing ala Scooby Doo. (It’s actually a movie about the Crooked Man from Conjuring 2, not to be confused with the Slender Man from Slender Man.)

Mini-Review: You probably won’t have to have seen The Conjuring 2 to know all you need to know for this suitable prequel, which is intrinsically linked to one of the more interesting side-plots from that horror movie. In fact, there’s such a simplicity to the plot and small cast within The Nunthat you probably wouldn’t even have to know that any other movies in the series exist, although obviously, you might get more out of The Conjuring 2 knowing the history of that mysterious nun.

Taking place in 1952, a young nun at a Romanian abbey has committed suicide (as we see in the opening) and Father Burke (Demian Bichir) has been sent to investigate with a young Postulant named Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga). When they arrive, they’re greeted by the still shaken groundskeeper Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet) who tells them that the abbey has been cursed, and over the course of the next few nights, Father Burke and Irene all about that curse which has the abbey’s nuns praying 24/7.

There probably isn’t too much more that needs to be said about the curse that has created the title adversary, except that producer James Wan has found another real deal in director Corin Hardy (The Hallows), sincethe Irish filmmaker knows how to create a horror movie for modern audiences that pays suitable homage to the likes of The Exorcist, as well as Italian giallo greats Bava and Argento.

The Nun might be a little slow for the younger horror fans who love jump scares and seeing stupid teens getting killed. With only three primary characters, there’s only so much killing that can be done, but there’s plenty of scares and many visuals that are quite horrific. As expected, the gore is on point with excellent creature performance by a villain that often looks like early Marilyn Manson.

Fans of The Conjuring movies will definitely like where The Nun ends up, and here’s hoping we’ll eventually see more of the Warrens, as they’re a hard act to top when it comes to supernatural investigators.

Rating: 7.5/10

PEPPERMINT (STXfilms)

The unfortunate attempt at counter-programming that will essentially be targeting the same young men and women into horror is this revenge thriller from Taken director Pierrre Morel that puts former Aliasstar Jennifer Garner back into the action realm.

Garner has been starring in a mixed bag of movies from the rom-com Love Simonearlier this year to the family film Nine Livesand faith-based hit Miracles from Heaven a few years back. She’s basically been bouncing between rom-coms and family films over the years with a couple Oscar-nominated hits (Dallas Buyers Club, Juno) in between, although she’s wisely stayed away from action since the terrible movie Elektra, itself a spin-off from the equally bad Daredevil.

She’s definitely had a few hits as a film actor as well as memorable classics like 13 Going on 30, but Peppermint will be a good test to see if she can attract men as well as women.

Revenge flicks have had a spotty history at the box office, generally doing better (and being done better) in the ‘70s, but there have been lots of attempts to revive it, everything from the Oscar-winning The Revenant to the Taken movies. Probably the best comparison for this one would be the Jan. release Proud Mary starring Taraji P. Henson, which opened with less than $10 million over the MLK weekend  ($11.7 million four-day opening). A few weeks later, Bruce Will starred in MGM’s Death Wish remake, which did slightly better with $13 million, grossing $34 million domestically.

Unfortunately, Peppermint isn’t good, and I don’t expect reviews to be that favorable, which may put off anyone who might see this over The Nun (which also is getting mixed reviews).

Opening in over 2,900 theaters, STXfilms has done a decent job promoting this to be a solid second choice for those not wanting to be scared, and that should allow Peppermint to open somewhere between the two movies mentioned with between $11 and 12 million, maybe slightly more, presuming Garner doesn’t have quite the pull of a Mark Wahlberg or Amy Schumer (the stars of STX’s bigger openers this year.)

Mini-Review: Despite the wonky, strange title for this revenge flick, one goes into it hoping that Jennifer Garner’s presence and her return to action might be a way she can revitalize her career. Sorry, but it ain’t happening.

Garner plays Riley North, an L.A. soccer mom who watches her husband and daughter gunned down by the Mexican drug cartel just because they THINK he planned on robbing from kingpin Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba). The three culprits are released due to a corrupt judge and crafty defense lawyer and Riley goes into hiding (after stealing thousands of dollars from the bank where she worked). When she returns, the three killers are found dead… and then others involved in the injustice following her husband and daughter’s murder also end up killed in brutal ways. (We see Riley doing most of the killing, so it’s no surprise.) Also in the mix are a couple detectives played by John Gallagher Jr. and John Ortiz.

I’m not quite sure exactly how or why we’re supposed to think that Riley’s actions are justified, especially with her vendetta against the Mexican mob, killing many hard-working soldiers just to get to Garcia.  In fact, Peppermint is chock-full of every single awful Latino cliché to the point where it’s almost offensive, and with so many clichés in play, it’s not hard to figure out where things are going as every beat is easily predicted.

(The title is derived from the fact that Riley’s daughter orders peppermint ice cream on her birthday before being gunned down… the word is never said again after that. Talk about random movie titling!)

It might be deemed sexist to poo-poo the idea of Garner playing a relentless bad-ass, but it’s ridiculous enough that it had an audience in stitches with the ease it takes her to kill everyone who gets in her way. There’s just no sense to the drastic transition Riley goes through, and there’s very little sign of her earlier nature.  The trailer hints at all the training Riley goes through to get to the point where she can take down a drug cartel single-handedly, but that’s nowhere to be found in the actual movie. Also nowhere to be found is Garner bringing any empathy to Riley, even when the story inserts a couple lovable homeless kids to bring a little misplaced heart to the movie’s second half.

Who knows? Maybe now that Ben Affleck isn’t playing Batman, Garner can step into the cowl, but either way, this should be a lesson to the critics who trashed Bruce Willis’ Death Wish remake, because that is an absolute masterpiece compared to this garbage. If you want to see a much better take on this sort of female-driven revenge flick, check out the movie called Revenge, which earns that title more than Peppermint earns its title.

Rating: 5/10

GOD BLESS THE BROKEN ROAD (Freestyle Releasing)

Everyone probably knows by now how poorly I do when trying to predict faith-based films, maybe because I just have no connection to the material, but in this case, I’ve actually seen frequent commercials for this one, which is rarely the case. It’s directed by Harold Cronk, the director of God’s Not Dead, God’s Not Dead 2 and next week’s Unbroken: Path to Redemption. Yes, Cronk not only has two movies this year but he has two movies being released in back-to-back weeks with similar names. Despite having a title similar to a Rascal Flatts song, the movie is about a woman whose husband is killed at war but instead of waging war on all of Iraq ala Peppermint’s heroine, she then meets and falls for a race car driver. The movie basically offers lots of things that might appeal to people in the Red States: country music, war heroes, racing and of course, faith. I don’t know if that will make this seem that appealing, but being self-distributed into 1,200 or more theaters, this should be able to bring in around $3 million as counter-programming to the weekend’s genre films with very few other wholesome PG options in theaters.

I’ll be curious to see how much shuffling around happens in the Top 10 especially with last week’s thriller Searching doing much better than expected and Screen Gems having a lot more room to expand it based on positive word-of-mouth. (I hear that it will expand into over 2,000 theaters Friday, which should allow it to bump up into the top 5.) Also, can the late summer hits like The Meg and Mission: Impossible hold up with new and somewhat genre fare like The Nun and Peppermint opening this week?

This week’s Top 10 should look something like this…

1. The Nun  (New Line) - $38.2 million N/A 2. Crazy Rich Asians  (New Line) - $14 million -37% 3. Peppermint (STXfilms) – $11 million N/A 4. The Meg  (Warner Bros.) - $5.6 million -47% 5. Searching  (Screen Gems) - $5.2 million -14% 6. Mission: Impossible – Fallout  (Paramount) - $3.7 million -50% 7. Operation Finale  (MGM) - $3.3 million -45% 8. God Bless the Broken Road  (Freestyle Releasing) - $3 million N/A 9. Christopher Robin  (Disney) - $3 million -43% 10. Alpha  (Sony) - $2.5 million -40%

LIMITED RELEASES

Before we get to this week’s specialty releases, I want to give New Yorkers a reminder that Ethan Hawke’s musical biopic BLAZE (Sundance Selects) will open in New York at Lincoln Center and the IFC Center on Friday. You can read more about that here.

This week’s specialty releases are brought to you by the “name game” starting with the docs…

Heather Lenz’s Kusama - Infinity (Magnolia) is a portrait of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, the top-selling female artist in the world, who has alienated many of her peers even while overcoming obstacles like growing up in WWII-torn Japan. It will open at the Film Forum in New York and the Landmark Nuart in L.A. Friday, and you can find out when it will play elsewhere on the Official Site.

Anthony&Alex’s Susanne Bartsch: On Top (The Orchard) is a portrait of NYC nightlife and fashion icon Susanne Bartsch, who helped launch the career of RuPaul (the film’s Exec. Producer) while championing designers Marc Jacobs and Vivienne Westwood and raising millions to fight AIDS. It will be On Demand and Digital, but also will open in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Monica Film Center.

Amy Scott’s Hal (Oscilloscope) is obviously not about the computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but is instead about legendary filmmaker Hal Ashby, who is responsible for some of the greatest films of the ‘70s including Harold and Maude (a personal fave), The Last Detail, Coming Home and Being There.  The doc includes interviews with Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Jeff Bridges and contemporary filmmakers like Alexander Payne, Judd Apatow and more.It opens on Friday at the IFC Center, who is also doing a Hal Ashby: The Seventies retrospective starting Friday, including a couple double bills with the aforementioned doc. It will open in L.A. at the Landmark Nuart on Sept. 14. (Honestly, not being into art or fashion, this doc is probably more my speed.)

Now playing at the Film Forum and opening in L.A. on Sept. 27 is the historic doc Bisbee ’17  (4th Row Films), the new doc from Robert Greene (Kate Plays Christine, Actress), which looks at the town of Bisbee, Arizona, and the events of 1917 when 2,000 striking immigrant miners were rounded up at gunpoint and herdered into cattle cars before being abandoned in the desert. As with his past docs, Green specializes in recreating the events which his films are covering.

Next up, a disparate group of genre films…

Clive Tonge’s Mara (Saban Films) stars Olga Kurylenko as Kate Fuller, a criminal psychologist interviewing the witness of a strangling who the man’s eight-year-old daughter Sophie only identifies with the word “Mara.” Apparently that’s a demon who kills her victims as they sleep… I somehow doubt this could be anywhere near as scary as The Nun but it’s another option on VOD and Digital HD if you can’t find a theater playing it.  

Rungano Nyoni’s feature debut I Am Not a Witch (Film Movement) is set in a village in present-day Zambia, and it ALSO involves an 8-year-old girl, this one accused of being a witch and having a choice between punishments. It opens at the Quad Cinema Friday, BAM in Brooklyn as well as other theaters. You can find the full release schedule here.

The South African Western Five Fingers For Marseilles (Uncork’d Entertainment) from director Michael Matthews involves five black cowboys, known as the Five Fingers, who fight against the police oppression of the colonial town in Marseille. When two police are killed, the group breaks up and the one who killed the police becomes the outlaw known as the Lion of Marseilles once he’s released from prison twenty years later, after the battle to end Apartheid in South Africa has been won. This was a huge box office hit in South Africa that played Toronto and Fantastic Fest last year as well as Fantasia in July.

In Xavier Giannoli’s The Apparition (Music Box Films), opening in select theaters Friday, Vincent Lindon plays journalist Jacques, whose reputation as an investigator attracts the attention of the Vatican to investigate an apparition in a small French village where he meets a young girl who claims to have seen the spirit of the Virgin Mary. For those who want something a little more French than this week’s The Nun, this is the movie for you!

The new film from Frontier(s), Hitman and The Divide director Xavier Gens is Cold Skin (Samuel Goldwyn) about a steamship heading towards the Antarctic Circle with a young man on board who is meant to replace the island’s weather observer but who ends up in a lighthouse with a brute played by Ray Stevenson (Thor). It opens in select cities and On Demand.

Bil Kiely’s teen coming-of-age film Age of Summer (Freestyle Digital Media) is about a young boy (played by Percy Haynes White of Gifted) who is put to the test in the co-ed Junior Lifeguard Program in 1986.  It’ll be in select theaters and on VOD Friday.

STREAMING

Premiering on PBS this Friday and streaming on Saturday is Glenn Holstan’s doc Wyeth (American Masters), which looks at artist Andrew Wyath through interviews with his sons and never-before-seen archival material from his family’s personal collection.

On Friday, Netflix offers the quirky teen rom-com Sierra Burgess is a Loser starring Shannon Purser, RJ Cyler and Noah Centineo, which is a modern retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac, and Madeleine Gavin’s African doc City of Joy about a group of women who have been through unspeakable horros in war-torn Congo and the center that helps them regain a sense of self-powerment. (If you’re a Netflix subscriber, you can just click on the titles on Friday to watch.)

REPERTORY

Gonna try to make this a more regular feature with so much new interest in older movies, not just from me, but in general. Click on the theater name for more info about the films discussed. (I hope to add other regions like Chicago and Toronto shortly.)

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Continuing the “Anime-versaries,” Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue (GKIDS/Fathom) will get a special 20thanniversary rerelease on Thursday and Saturday across the nation through Fathom while the Metrograph will be playing it for a week.

The Metrograph is also doing a Jack Smith series (sorry, not familiar with his work) and a series of films from 1968 (all celebrating their 50thanniversary!) called Everything Was Now: “1968” Circa 1968, which runs through the weekend and includes everything from George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Deadto The Battle of Algiers to Wild in the Streets and Godard’s La Chinoise.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Godard’s Rolling Stones doc Sympathy for the Devil will screen on Friday night with cinematographer Tony Richmond doing a QnA. Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon will screen on Sunday night with Kubrick right-hand man and Filmworker doc subject Leon Vitali doing a QnA. Lastly, John Landis’ The Blues Brothers will play on Saturday night as part of the theater’s Aretha Franklin tribute with Landis introducing the film.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART (L.A.):

Wes Craven’s classic The Hills Have Eyes will screen at midnight Friday with actor Suze Lanier-Bramlett in person.

AERO (LA):

Continuing its 4th “The French Had a Name For It” series with double features of Fever Rises at El Pao / Such a Pretty Little Beach tonight, Poison Ivy / The Strange Mr. Steve tomorrow night,  Maigret Sets a Trap / Symphony for a Massacre Saturday and The Last of the Six / The Assassin Lives at 21 on Sunday.  I’ve seen exactly one of those. Any guesses?

MOMA (N.Y.) continues its Jacques Audiard retrospective through Sept. 20, just before the release of the French filmmaker’s first English language film The Sisters Brothers. As a huge Audiard fan, I recommend Read My Lips, The Beat My Heart Skipped and Dheepan, presuming you’ve already seen Une Propheteand Rust and Bone.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC) will play Wilson Yip’sParadox as part of its “Fist and Sword” series on Friday and Gary Marshall’s A League of Their Own Saturday morning as part of its Family Series. You’ll also have a chance to see PT Anderson’s The Master back in 70mm as part of its 70mm series on Friday.

That’s it for this week… next week, THE PREDATOR! Plus White Boy Rick and A Simple Favor

[fic-dreamin]

Be prepared for a thinking book disguised as an adventure into human nature as it could be. Excellent book. I read these reviews and decided to take a gander at it. Im not usually this type of book reader as i prefer a total fantasy escapism. However, the idea of a plant being the superior being kinda got my gears turning. Amazing. And how this plant grew throughout the book from an egomaniac to a true pacifist. He totally grew to even understand humor and emotion. The different voices of the generations was perfect. I loved the perspectives. And the duality between the power driven choices versus the decisions used to save Pax as a whole. Each voice drew me into the character as if I could really be that character facing the challenges a new world brings. I read the book in two and a half days. Devoured it. With all of the ecology, biology, politics, humanity... All the ideas... And it wasnt pretentious at all. I read in the reviews that a possible sequel might be in the making left by the opening at the end of the book. But i love the somewhat ambiguous ending. After the journey and adventure this book took me on... Im just totally wanting to know more. To be completely emersed in this world again. But maybe that would take away from it. Maybe all it needs is a novella. Just something to let me know how they end up a hundred then several hundred years after. This was a great book. I would totally recommend it. It makes your brain reel on so many levels. Thank you Sue Burke for a real insightful look at survival. Go to Amazon

Learning to be Alien I first read a related story by this author, 'Spiders' in [[ASIN:B002AWX74W Year's Best SF 14 (Year's Best Science Fiction) in 2009 and I was able to find out that this story was part of a proposed novel due out in 2018. What fascinated me in the short story was that it mentioned a city with a population of 200 people. Go to Amazon

but we can aspire to the use of practical wisdom to seek joy, love “Grateful for this opportunity to create a new society in full harmony with nature, we enter into this covenant, promising one another our mutual trust and support. We will face hardship, danger, and potential failure, but we can aspire to the use of practical wisdom to seek joy, love, beauty, community, and life.” Go to Amazon

If Ken Follett Wrote Science Fiction Very enjoyable. Its content is rather unlike a "typical" sci fi novel. There is very little technology in it, though the xenobiological speculation is fascinating. It is extremely character-driven, and does a great job telling a story. Go to Amazon

It always fascinates me to read another’s view or opinion on what life would be like in the future or on another planet Biological twist on a classic sciFi theme A Unique book A thought-provoking tale of colonization and first contact One of the most unusual science fiction books ... Brilliant worldbuilding in an intriguing debut Best SF Novel I've read in a while ... being sci-fi (and I can always go for a good sci-fi). As I began the journey Intriguing, exiting and thought provoking. Science fiction at its best

[beautifulbookborrower]

If You Were Here

by Alafair Burke

Genre: Thriller Rating: 4/5 Released: 4 June 2013 Pages: 384 Buy it now!

McKenna Wright is a former A.D.A. whose law career was cut short by a huge scandal. Now in her second career as a journalist, she stumbles upon the unusual story of a woman who saved the life of the thief who stole her cell phone on the subway. What would be a quick article on the kindness of strangers turns into a bigger mystery when a brief clip of the scene from a passerby's cell phone shakes McKenna to the core: the woman who saves the thief's life looks exactly like her best friend Susan, who disappeared ten years ago. McKenna begins to investigate the identity of the woman on the subway, which leads her through a dangerous side of New York City. As people near her investigation begin dying, McKenna soon realizes she is over her head. Will she be able to convince the people she alienated in her former career to help unravel the mystery? Or is there a more sinister reason Susan may have been hiding this whole time? This fascinating, multi-layered thriller by Alafair Burke was a very engaging read. This is my second of Burke's thrillers, and I was really quite impressed with this one. I felt Burke did a good job bringing the characters to life, and the mystery was leaps and bounds better than the other book of hers I read, The Ex. There were a lot of moving pieces in If You Were Here, and a lot of mysteries layered on top of each other, which might have been confusing, but I thought Burke handled it well, and it created an incredibly intriguing read. Once again, the legal process played a significant role in this book, as well, which makes sense, as Burke herself is a former prosecutor. It is much more than a cookie-cutter legal thriller, though. I really appreciate that aspect in the two books of hers that I've read so far, and look forward to reading more from her in the future for that reason. The premise of If You Were Here is undeniably interesting, the characters were well-developed, and the plot was well-written, but I did think there was a bit of a problem with pacing in this novel. It seemed like there was a large portion of the middle that just seemed muddled, with a lot of unimportant information being thrown around that slowed the book down substantially. A few other reviewers mentioned how they hit a block at that point in the text, as well. I am glad I picked it up and finished it, though, and think it was another decent read by Burke. I might try her Ellie Hatcher series next, as it seems to have the best reviews out of all her books.