April felt like my first month in quarantine thanks to March’s distraction. I am handling it better than most since I have no problem being a recluse. But I have fallen prey to common time filling behaviors just like everyone else stuck at home. Writing essays on twitter, compulsively checking the news, all of a sudden I’m a chef, etc.
Strangely, I feel like I’ve been socializing more during the pandemic than before with all these video calls. I’m not complaining. It’s lead to several Netflix Parties that featured great movies I never could get around to watching.
The theme of my input this month seems to be imagination… or memories. They’re not all that different.
SHIRKERS
Sandi Tan has nothing but memories with her directorial debut. In the summer of 1992, a teenage Sandi and her friends shot a full length movie in Singapore with the help of their high school film studies teacher. Then the footage disappeared for nearly two decades.
This documentary is beautiful, intercut with vibrant clips from the recovered film footage. Sandi recounts her memory of events and interviews her friends for what they remember as she journeys to pick up the footage they all thought was lost. Her earnest voice-over paired with the silent footage of what never was made me feel like I had stepped into her dream of what could have been.
I felt jealous of someone so young taking the initiative a shoot a whole movie. Then sorrowful when her hard work evaporated. But finally joyful that her imagination and decades of loss ultimately lead to such an affecting film.
KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF EIZOUKEN!
On its surface, this show is about how anime is produced. While other anime that depict artistic activities (music, manga, etc.) usually focus on craft, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is unique because it revels in the creativity and imagination of its characters. Huge sections of several episodes are dedicated to digressions into the main characters’ half-formed fantasy worlds that evolve from pencil sketches to radiant watercolor dimensions. A beautiful visualization of creative process.
Eizouken is simply lovely. From the odd architecture of the city in which the series is set to the quirky, excellently written characters. The opening song is also unreasonably catchy.
The series begins when Sayaka, who has a nose for business, introduces Midori, an imaginative concept artist, to Mizusaki, an animator passionate about movement. It’s an awkward introduction, but the moment Midori and Mizusaki begin comparing their sketches and get lost in their collective imagination is magic. From there we watch a nascent animation studio form with Sayaka acting as a shrewd producer to corral the often scattered artists and devise endless creative solutions to fund their endeavors.
A joy to watch.
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Science Saru, the studio behind Eizouken!, already has a fantastic catalogue of work including the wild Devilman: Crybaby. Check them out.
BEOWULF
I haven’t read this Old English tale since college. I was glad to discover through reading this graphic novel adaptation that despite my struggle to comprehend the arcane poem in class, I did retain the important details of the story. The creators’ visualization of Grendel, Grendel’s Mother, and the dragon differ from my memories of what I imagined (I’d argue it’s an improvement), but their rendition of all the other scenes are dead on. It was enchanting to see what were ephemeral images in my mind’s eye given form and power on the page.
It also stoked excitement in me to reread Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in preparation for what may be my summer blockbuster of the year.
Photo by @catsandbolts // www.catsandbolts.com
CONTROL
If there was a way for me to snort this like coke, I would. The world, the themes, the gameplay. Remedy Entertainment has my number. To cap it all off, Control is also an impeccably polished experience.
Welcome to the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), the United States’ invisible, and only, line of defense against the paranormal. Headquartered in The Oldest House (an undetectable structure in New York City with doors that lead to places you wouldn’t expect), the FBC investigates and captures paranormal phenomena across the nation and seeds disinformation to the public for their own “safety”.
Control’s inspirations are obvious and welcome. The X-files, Fringe, Lost, conspiracy, coverups, urban legends, ancient powers, and oh so many questions.
Control also pulls heavily from the SCP Foundation, a fascinating online collaborative writing project. SCP is a wiki that anyone can contribute to if one follows a few set rules and themes. Submissions are then voted on and the best rise to the top. The site is mainly filled with dry documentation authored by SCP Foundation employees that describes the containment procedures of paranormal, often nightmarish, entities. Because of the crowdfunded nature of the SCP Foundation, its mythology is sprawling and evolves with the community. It’s what makes SCP unique and gives rise to some truly creative work.
Controls draws on the bureaucratic tone of the SCP and the dry, dark humor through endless memos, reports, and documentation found scattered throughout The Oldest House. But there the similarity ends. Control has a streamlined mythos of deceptively simple cause and effect: the astral plane connects our reality with others and often influences aspects of our world. Usually, these influences manifest as paranormal events or objects. Other times, entities slip from the astral plane into ours.
No werewolves or aliens here, unfortunately.
Enter Jesse Faden, our protagonist. Inexplicably drawn to The Oldest House, Jesse finds the FBC under assault by an entity called The Hiss which has enthralled the majority of Bureau agents and turned them against their coworkers. Worse still, she discovers the Bureau’s Director dead. When she picks up the fallen Director’s Service Weapon, she is suddenly contacted via telepathy by The Board with the message: You are the Director now.
It’s up to Jesse to stop The Hiss and retake The Oldest House. This brings us to Control’s combat, which absolutely scintillates. Remedy has done a fantastic job allowing the player to feel like they grow in power along with Jesse. The introduction of new weapons, powers, and strategies are paced so well, you truly feel vulnerable in the face of the enemy at the start and a forced to be reckoned with by the end.
I could wander around The Oldest House for days (in fact, I have). One, because secrets are hidden everywhere. Two, the architecture is fantastic. The imposing brutalist design inspires awe and regions where reality has begun to break boggles the mind with hypnotic geometric patterns. Control is the most visually original and engaging video games I have played in awhile.
I want a cool leather jacket.
The player can unlock several outfits for Jesse throughout the game. Most are related to story elements but some are novelties, like janitor coveralls. In most cases, Jesse’s default streetwear is the perfect attire for flying around and raining destruction down on The Hiss. But once I unlocked the Gold Suit, I realized it was the only correct choice.
Photo by @catsandbolts // www.catsandbolts.com
There are a couple reasons for this. First, Jesse is given a navy business suit at the conclusion of the game. Her official uniform as the new Director of the FBC. It is undeniable a sharp suit. However, it is aesthetically similar to the suit of former Director Trench. A major theme in Control is the culture of secrecy perpetuated by FBC leadership, withholding information at every level. This refusal to communicate vital information to the whole organization is presented as what ultimately enabled the current crisis. Jesse comments on this numerous times and vows things will be different under her leadership.
A navy blue suit does not reflect this new direction for the FBC, it mirrors the old. But a gold suit contrasts visually against the attire of the shadowy former Director and illustrates the philosophical contrast between Jesse and old leadership. Thus, the Gold Suit is the only proper dress for Jesse Faden.
The second reason is that she looks like an unmitigated badass in it.
Control is mesmerizing, smartly written, and a joy to play. I haven’t been so enamored with a game since Shadow of the Colossus.
Watch:
“What Kind of Times Are These”
poem by Adrienne Rich
video by Brit Marling & Black Holland