March 2018

1. Annihilation (2018)
   filmfreakcentral.net →

   Walter Chaw feeds into my obsession with this weird, wonderful film:

   What’s impressive is Annihilation’s willingness and ability to evoke the soul-sickness that leads to great moments of art, great moments of self-destruction, and an equation of the two. Its heroes suffer from cinematic time: years can pass and outside the theatre it’s a mere two hours. They suffer, too, from this idea that you can enter into a space, experience something that is entirely alien, and then re-emerge struggling to articulate the crucible of your experience. How many versions of your old selves have you left behind in a museum, a theatre, a concert hall, a book? Is it a thousand? How many new versions have emerged into the uncanny bright of the day outside?

2. Game Maker’s Toolkit: What Makes a Good Puzzle?
   youtube.com →

   

   Mark Brown demystifies something I’ve long considered to be a dark art: puzzle game design.

   How do you make something that leaves a player stumped and scratching their head, and then makes them feel very smart when they finally figure out the answer? What makes a puzzle too hard, Or too easy?

3. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ★★☆☆☆

   2017 film

   Watched 12 March 2018

   Almost okay. Yet another nostalgia grab that fails to be anything more.

4. The Room

   2003 film

   Watched 3 March 2018

   I have no idea how to assign a rating to this, so I won’t.

   Schadenfreude aside, I mostly just wanted it to be over. Yet I’m somehow glad I watched it. I can understand why people latch onto it, but I’m not counting myself among them.