The Lighthouse: a damned delight
Black and white and weird, The Lighthouse serves as a noir allegory for the mental cost of isolation. Pretty pertinent lockdown viewing then, but not the escapism you might be seeking. Originally meant as a contemporary version of Edgar Allan-Poe’s unfinished short story, the fi…
The fairy-tale of internal narrative
My mind deals in stories. I don’t write them so much these days, who has the time? But I do like to imagine these stories, to make grand narratives in my head neatly explaining what the hell I’m doing with my life. I revise character arcs in my head like the post-production of k…
Dismiss society; embrace your own reality
Adults debate about media representation; ‘let’s have real women on Cosmo , less airbrushing in ads, older women in film’, but it seems to me, the value we put on representation outweighs the value we put on reality. Sure, fight for equal representation, but first, let’s teach o…
Westworld: Where Ethics Reign?
I was an early onboarder of the Westworld fan bus and, as I ride into this third season, the excitement is still very much within me as we settle into the journey that follows vengeance-hunting robot Dolores, now set free into a sleek future society in which an AI system …
Ad Astra and the Pursuit of Nothing
A story about a man in space, sure, but not just a story about a man in space. Rather, Ad Astra is an existential thrill ride about what it means to be a man in space. And what does it mean really? For Brad Pitt’s Roy McBride, directed by James Gray, it means a life …
The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale
If you’re not someone totally shut off to the idea that animals aren’t so different from humans, and that primates in particular can tell us a lot about humans’ own evolutionary process, The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore is a book you must read. The novel, written as a memoir …
Thailand: Exploring the Historic Ruins of Sukhothai
As a cultural overnight trip from your Bangkok base or as part of a longer journey up towards Chiang Mai, Sukhothai is a must-see for history geeks and culture vultures alike. A kingdom once ruled over by the Khmer empire, Sukhothai is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site home…
