wisb-Guardian-Express

I think this may be the first time I've shed a tear during a zombie movie.  This short film deserves a feature film adaptation.  The concept is absolutely beautiful:  during a zombie outbreak, an infected father spends his last moments trying to bring is infant daughter to safety.

A+

On a recent episode of the Functional Nerds podcast, Patrick Hester posited that based on the prefix "professional" in "professional writer," those writers who do not make a living as writers technically don't count as pros.  I'm paraphrasing, of course, so I recommend actually listening to the podcast here (the comment appears around the 30-minute mark).  The idea is not a new one.  It falls within the same discussions about who gets to call themselves "writers" or "authors," and who has to suck a bag of too-bads and accept that they don't get to use a fancy label.  And it's likewise tied into the longstanding discussions about the term "professional" within our field, most notably in the fact that what the SFWA considers a "professional" publication has very little to do with whether one actually makes a living as a published writer.

It's from that last line that I'd like to suggest that while it's perhaps accurate to apply "professional writer" only to those who make a living as writers, the material realities of the writing life
make such a determination numerically meaningless.  So few writers actually make a living as writers, and of those that do make a living as such, most of them do so via a variety of writing avenues.  A midlist author of science fiction novels, for example, may fill in the enormous gaps from fiction publications with freelance work (essays, editing, etc.).  The number of authors who actually get to live off a single form of writing (Stephen King, for example, or Neil Gaiman...) comprises such a small number of all published writers out there that using "professional writer" on them alone wouldn't really tell us anything other than "these are the authors who sell enough books to pay a mortgage."  Since a great deal of non-writer folks likewise wouldn't fall within the domain of a "professional" based on how well they do in a given field, I just don't see why the term provides any use value if we apply so selectively.

And that's perhaps the big problem here.  What the hell is a professional writer anyway?  Would Harper Lee count as a professional writer?  She only wrote one book:  To Kill a Mockingbird.  But it sells so many copies every year that I suspect she could live quite comfortably off the various royalties and rights purchases associated with it.  Is she a professional writer?  By the standard of financial value:  yes.  By any other standard of professionalism?  Nope.  Most uses of the term professional apply to those who actually participate in the production of a "thing."  A doctor who has a practice or works at a hospital is a professional.  A practicing lawyer is a professional.  An author who sells one book and nothing else?  Well...

I suppose all of this is essentially a reflection about the state of the field of authorship.  In other fields, one can become a professional by "doing," but in the world of writing, I'm not sure there's an easy measurement for "professional" and "not."  Harper Lee is probably a professional writer, but the standards by which her professionalism would be measured wouldn't apply to someone like, say, Tobias S. Buckell, who still splits his salary between fiction sales and freelance work (I'm not sure how true that is today, though; he used to do these in-depth analyses of his yearly salary, but he's been quite busy lately).  In Hester's assessment, the former is instantly a professional writer; the latter is not.  Why?  What makes the distinction here?  Money can't be the only valuable distinction between the two.  There have to be other factors, too; otherwise, what's the point of calling anyone a professional writer if all you need to do to become one is publish one book and sell millions of copies?

Any thoughts?

This is just the beginning.  I'm going to make an announcement about this very topic after I pass my PhD candidacy exams in September.  For now, however, I'd like to offer a list of films I consider to be "the best" in the SF/F category for the years 2010-2013 (thus far).  By "the best," I mean "films I think are good movies as movies."  A lot of these films were quite popular when they were in theaters, but I'm not concerned by popularity here.  I'm only concerned with what I think are well-written and/or well-produced films.  A film with a thin plot can still be great if it does something more than just throw lots of action at the audience to hide its flaws (this is why you will see no Michael Bay films on the list).

And on that note, I will shut up.

The following are the top 10 SF/F movies released since 2010...for now (this list will change as I start to watch things I missed):

10.  Chronicle (2012)
While I'm not a huge fan of the found-footage film form, occasionally they are done right.  Chronicle is one of those times.  The semi-diary-format superhero story coupled with a narrative about the psychological impact of parental abuse and death stuck with me after I saw it in theaters.  I connected with the main character almost immediately, in part because I've had similar experiences (minus the super powers).  The director also does a pretty damn good job cobbling together the fictive pieces of the main character's film diary, gaps and all.  That earns it a spot on this list.

9.  John Dies at the End (2012)
This movie is weird.  Really weird.  But it's also the kind of brilliant mix of camp and horror that one expects from Don Coscarelli, Jr.  If you haven't seen the film (and like Coscarelli's work), I recommend watching it on Netflix.  I can't describe it to you.  It's, as I said, really freaking weird, and relentless in its descent into insanity.  It's sort of what I'd expect someone who just saw Cthulu to dream as they slowly fall to pieces.  Only John Dies at the End is hilarious, surreal, and dark.

8.  Pacific Rim (2013)
You can learn all about my love for this film here.

7.  Pumzi (released in the U.S. in 2010)
The only short film of this list, Wanuri Kahiu's incredible dystopian film Pumzi took academic circles by storm in 2010.  For such a short work, it manages to bring a lot to the table:  a thoroughly African setting (I suspect there are cultural clues specific to Kahiu's native Kenya, but I know too little about that nation to say for sure); a fascinating post-apocalyptic "green utopian" society; and some interesting uses of technology.  I'd say the film is cliche, but the semi-mystic undertones and the ambiguous final vertical panning shot over a seemingly threatening climate on the other side of the mountains make this one of the best films released in the last three years, if only because I've had some intense discussions about that ending.

6.  Another Earth (2011)
While action and straightforward SF films are wonderful when done right, sometimes a character drama in an SFnal universe can make for exceptional cinematic experiences.  Brit Marling and Mike Cahill's Another Earth uses its SF premise (a planet that looks suspiciously like our own earth appears suddenly in the sky) to provide an extended metaphor about second chances.  The interaction between Rhoda (Marling) and John (William Mapother) as they both come to terms with the horrors of their connected pasts (unbeknownst to John, whose family was killed in a car accident caused by Rhoda) had me captivated all the way through.  And like all good character dramas, the ending provides an ambiguous solution to the primary conflict in the narrative.  It's just a damned good film.

5.  Elysium (2013)
You can find out what I think about this movie here.  I'm likely to write several blog posts about the film, though.  I think it's actually quite an intelligent film, despite all the critics who call it propaganda, stupid, pointlessly utopian, and so on (it is neither of these things).

4.  Hugo (2011)
The only children's film on this list, Hugo's charming story about family and French cinema deserved a lot more love than it got when the awards season came around.  Asa Butterfield's exceptional performance as the title character, along with equally strong performances by Ben Kingsley and Chloe Moretz, added depth to an already exceptional and brilliantly-imagined film.  It most certainly belongs on a top ten list for children's films from the last decade!  For now, I've stuck it here.

3.  Never Let Me Go (2010)
I'm a sucker for Carey Mulligan films, I guess.  This low-key dystopia centralizes the personal growth and development of a trio of clones who will one day have their organs harvested by the British state.  I saw this film for the first time with my sister, and I recall the feeling of dread and horror that arises in the final moments -- feelings that just wouldn't exist without the direct focus on these three characters as characters.  It's not a film for everyone, but I think it's easily one of the best SF/F films ever made.

2.  Cloud Atlas (2012)
This one shouldn't surprise anyone.  The Wachowski sibling's adaptation of David Mitchell's epic novel of the same name didn't get a lot of love from the traditional SF crowd, but I wasn't surprised by that in the slightest.  More critics and viewers loved Prometheus than Cloud Atlas; I think it's fair to say that the former is a steaming pile of glittering shit stained with oils made from petrified dinosaur crap (here's what I really think about that movie...).  Cloud Atlas, however, is an incredible journey into the interconnected lives of individuals existing across various time periods.  Every time I see the film, I make new connections between characters, discover new ambiguities and symbols, and get lost in the lives of its various characters.  I don't know how else to say this, so I'll just be blunt:  Cloud Atlas is the best film of 2012, rivaled by nothing else whatsoever.

1.  Inception (2010)
What?  He picked Inception for his #1?  How typical!

Yes.  Yes I did.  Why?  There are a lot of reasons, really:

1. It's actually quite an amazing work of SF.  The multiple layers (literal and figurative) of the narrative and the almost haunting examination of the human subconscious are part of why this film got the attention it otherwise deserved.
2. It seemed like people couldn't shut up about this film.  Sometimes, the mark of a great film is found in its influence on the conversation surrounding film in general.  Blog posts and articles were consantly being written about the meaning of the symbols (such as the top at the end) in Inception.  Academics were up in arms about all the layers.  For a solid three or four months, this film was all people could talk about.  And rightly so, because...
3. The film is amazing on almost every level (see #1).  Even the music was incredible!

Note:  It's entirely possible that some films have been left off this list because I haven't been able to see them yet.  And how could I?  There have been something like 200 SF/F movies released in the U.S. alone.  Imagine all the Japanese, Chinese, Indian, etc. films we've all completely missed out on!

The fine folks at Flavorwire recently released a list of 50 SF/F films they think everyone should watch (technically, there are 63 titles on the list, since they counted series as one).  I figured it would be fun to turn it into a meme.  So here you go:


BOLD = You've seen it!

1. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. Moon
4. The Fellowship of the Ring
5. The Two Towers
6. The Return of the King
7. The Princess Bride
8. Labyrinth
9. Men in Black
10. Edward Scissorhands
11. Mad Max
12. Princess Mononoke
13. Spirited Away
14. Gattaca
15. Primer
16. Blade Runner
17. Fantastic Planet
18. The Wizard of Oz
19. The Secret of Roan Inish
20. Dark City
21. The Matrix
22. Time Bandits
23. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
24. La Jetée
25. Brazil
26. Metropolis
27. Big Fish
28. Solaris (original)
29. Jurassic Park
30. Alien
31. Aliens
32. Orpheus
33. Dark Star
34. 2001:  A Space Odyssey
35. Avatar
36. Back to the Future
37. Star Wars IV:  A New Hope
38. Star Wars V:  The Empire Strikes Back
39. Star Wars VI:  The Return of the Jedi
40. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
41. A Clockwork Orange
42. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
43. The Fountain
44. Sleeper
45. City of Lost Children
46. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
47. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
48. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
49. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
50. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
51. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince
52. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.1
53. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.2
54. The Day the Earth Stood Still (original)
55. Donnie Darko
56. Invasion of the Body Snathers (original)
57. Ghostbusters
58. Being John Malkovich
59. Akira
60. The Terminator
61. Terminator 2
62. Strange Days
63. Serenity

I count 49.  That's not bad, methinks...  How did you do?

Apparently, the following short film is a collaboration between a fashion designer and a photographer.  There's something to be said about the fashion industry giving attention to roleplaying games, I suppose.

In any case, this video is kinda strange and kinda awesome at the same time.  And Elijah Wood has a small part, for what it's worth.

Enjoy.

I've been wildly anticipating the next Neill Blomkamp film for a long while.  Now it's finally here, and I've joined David Annandale and Paul Weimer to talk about it in the current episode of Shoot the WISB.  Go check it out after you see the movie yourself!

On August 11th, Badass Digest released a Trekkie-voted ranked list of all the Star Trek movies to date (plus Galaxy Quest, for some reason).  It's a strange list, to say the least.  Why is Galaxy Quest on there?  Other than the fact that it's a mostly-direct parody of Star Trek, it isn't actually a Star Trek movie.  And why did they stick Star Trek Into Darkness at the end, when it's obviously not the worst film on the list?

OK, so I have a good answer for that last question.  We talked about this a little in a recent Shoot the WISB episode.  Basically, the reversal of the Khan narrative probably came off as a slap in the face to Trekkies.  I even think it smelled disgusting, even though I kind of like the idea of switching things around.  After all, Spock isn't supposed to be an emotional man, so the idea that he'd break down after the supposed death of Kirk adds some weight to the moment.  But...it wasn't handled well.  There wasn't enough character development; the death of Kirk was handled in the way you'd expect a comic book to handle it:  he's dead...wait, no, not really, here's some magic *poof.*  At least in Wrath of Khan, Spock died.  He was dead dead dead.  The film never says "hey, we'll magic him into existence...right at the end."  If you've never seen Search for Spock, you really do think the guy has friggin died.  And that's a big deal.  The audience sometimes needs that slap in the face.

But I digress.  Prepare to be pissed off.  The following is my ranked list of Star Trek movies, minus Galaxy Quest:

12.  Star Trek (you can see why I still hate the film here and here)
11.  Star Trek:  Insurrection (the villains just didn't do it for me; it felt too much like an unnecessarily extended episode of the regular show, and the absurdity of the plot never seemed to gel or follow through for me, despite some nifty action sequences in the end)
10.  Star Trek V:  The Final Frontier (I want to like this film, but too much of this film's central elements are ridiculously underdeveloped; for example, both Sybok and the "god" thing at the end are given almost the same amount of characterization, despite the fact that the latter is only in the film for maybe seven minutes -- we never really know who Sybok is, except that he's kinda nuts)
9.  Star Trek:  Nemesis (there are certainly a lot of problems with this film, most notably in the convoluted plot; however, Tom Hardy does a fantastic job as Shinzon, and Captain Kirk really does almost get sucked dry like a character in a vampire movie, which seemed pretty cool to me)
8.  Star Trek Into Darkness (though I quite enjoy this sequel to Abrams' first ST film, it certainly suffers from reboot-idis; case in point, the fact that the writers could not include Khan in this version of the universe without making annoying and poorly conceived references to the original Wrath of Khan.  More on my thoughts, along with some others, here)
7.  Star Trek:  Generations (I think if I watched this movie again, I'd like it a lot less than I do in my memory; that said, I love the continued development of Data as a character, let alone the fact that this film really does give a lot of closure to the original TNG series -- plus, saucer separation = awesome)
6.  Star Trek III:  The Search for Spock (the one thing the original ST movies did well was comedic development between the principle cast; having Spock's katra, or soul, trapped in McCoy's body pretty much makes for comedic gold.  Add in Christopher Lloyd as the villain and you've got a pretty decent ST film)
5.  Star Trek VI:  The Undiscovered Country (while the villain doesn't have quite the prowess of Khan, his obsession with Shakespeare adds a certain creep factor to this otherwise straightforward political assassination thriller -- overall, I thought it did pretty damn well for itself, particularly considering the political implications of an alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire)
4.  Star Trek:  First Contact (the Borg are probably my favorite villain species in the entire ST franchise; the best part of this film, however, involves seeing humanity make that first stretch to the stars and all that comes with it)
3.  Star Trek:  The Motion Picture (I know a lot of people hate this movie, but I've always found it infinitely fascinating; it kept with the original narrative of exploration at the heart of the show, and the discovery itself was so cool)
2.  Star Trek II:  The Wrath of Khan (you all know why this is in the top two slots; everyone loves this movie)
1.  Star Trek IV:  The Voyage Home (my grandma loved this movie, and so she made me watch it...a lot.  Obviously, it still has a special place in my heart, and it played a crucial role in my childhood love of whales and the ocean.  Also:  the movie still makes me laugh)

And here's my ranked list of Star Trek TV shows:
6.  Star Trek:  the Animated Series (it exists, and that's good enough for me)
5.  Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine (there are aspects of this show I really like, but the fact that it takes until season two for anything interesting to happen and that some of the actors are just horrible makes me unable to move this higher on the list)
4.  Star Trek:  the Original Series (it's classic, I know, but I didn't grow up on the original series, so I can only put it in the #4 slot because of its classic nature -- don't kill me)
3.  Star Trek:  Enterprise (everyone hates this one for some reason; I liked the attempt to have a single narrative riding through everything and the focus on humanity as the new kid on the proverbial block.  I'm also in agreement with one of my professors, who suggested that what makes this series so interest is the fact that humanity basically gets its ass handed to it...a lot.  That makes for a lot of interesting narratives)
2.  Star Trek:  Voyager (Captain Janeway is my favorite starship captain in the entire ST franchise; I also love the use of the Borg later in the series...and Neelix makes me happy.  There are certainly some plot issues here or there, but there are some fascinating explorations of the consequences of war and other social issues in this series.  I loved it when it was on the air in my younger years)
1.  Star Trek:  the Next Generation (the series introduced us to the Borg, who may be the greatest ST villain ever, and it was a damn good anthology-style series, with some cool stories and characters; it was also the first ST series to give us a genuinely non-humanoid character who had to grow piece by piece from start to finish -- oh, and there's a great episode where Geordi basically falls in love with a computer simulation...without brain manipulation)

And that's my list.  You're free to threaten death in the comments.