Tag Archives: film

My Top Five Movies of 2017

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It’s January 2018, which means it’s time for 2017 wrap-up lists! I know it’s tempting to just put that dumpster fire of a year behind us and never look back, but I think we can find one facet of 2017 that didn’t let us down: Song of the Summer “Despacito ” featuring Justin Bieber. Just kidding (kind of). I’m actually talking about the incredible films released this year. Even with all the horrific scandals coming out of Hollywood in the last half of the year, the film industry still managed to deliver. What better way to distract from the world than to sit in a dark theatre, munch on some popcorn, and be thoroughly entertained for 2+ hours? I’ve compiled a list of my personal favourites from the year, which was actually pretty hard to do—there were so many great ones this year, and I haven’t seen all of them! So without further ado, here are my personal picks!

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Solaris

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Stanislaw LemWhat do you think about movie remakes? (I don’t suppose anyone has tried to rewrite a book, so I can’t really ask about that. Unless someone has done so, in which case, please let me know! The fairy & folk tales I won’t count, mind, since they’re rather perpetually in flux. Neither do adaptations. How does one go about rewriting a book without it becoming a spinoff?) Personally, I haven’t watched too many remakes, but I did just watch two versions of Solaris within a week or so of each other, and the remake wasn’t terrible, which from what I understand is just short of a miracle.* (To really complete the post, I feel like I’d have to have read the original novel by Stanislaw Lem as well. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten around to that just yet, but if anyone has, please let us know how you feel/felt about it!)

*I did also watch the remake of It, based on the behemoth of a novel by Stephen King. I  haven’t watched the original, but I did enjoy the 2017 edition (even as I found it a little preachy during that one scene – was this influenced by the times, or is this also found in the original?).

Back to the main topic. The premise of Solaris is something like this: A psychologist, Kris Kelvin, is sent to the space station where a crew of scientists are studying the planet Solaris, in order to find out what’s happening there. The ocean covering Solaris has been conjuring “visitors” that come from the crew’s minds – it’s not apparent in the movies whether they represent the scientists’ greatest regrets or if they are simply taken from their minds, because one of the scientists implies his visitor is from his imagination rather than from his memory – and they are almost perfect replicas of their originals. Even more disconcerting: they cannot be killed, and if you remove them from the ship, another will take its place that is exactly as the first, which in turn was exactly like (in form) the original memory. What is Solaris trying to do? Is it possible to understand some other form of consciousness so beyond human understanding of consciousness? Do we even understand ourselves, and is it possible for us to extend our understanding to non-human consciousness (if it is indeed a consciousness) if we do not?

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Poetry of the Apocalypse at the TIFF

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Arkady & Boris StrugatskyCalling all Tarkovsky fans! (And anyone interested in examining their innermost desires and exploring what it is to be human. Also sci-fi fans.) TIFF is currently holding a series on the films of Andrei Tarkovsky called The Poetry of Apocalypse: The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky, the schedule for which you can view here! And seeing as I’ve only seen the one film by Tarkovsky, I’m going to talk a bit about Stalker and touch lightly upon the novel that served as its inspiration: Roadside Picnic by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky.

You can check out the screenings for Stalker at the TIFF here, and they actually have a special event on Tuesday November 14th (tomorrow) where guest speaker Robert Bird talks about Tarkovksy and his influence on Soviet films.

Now, onto the film. This felt more like a foray into the heart, where each member of the group must confront their own desires and the reality of what, or who, they are before they are able to reach their destination: the area of the Zone where, people say, your deepest desire will come true. But do we really know what it is that lurks within the depths of our hearts?

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