All the Movies I Watch...

I met a teacher in Colorado who had led the survivors out through Columbine High School after SWAT and Littleton PD had cleared them to exit. She didn't describe it to me this way, but I remember the photos they published in the 90s and the horror I felt. I didn't even know what sensationalized meant yet, but it was horrific and brutal. I remember my brain doing the work for me, imagining the trauma and horror the survivors must have felt as they walked out through the carnage. I thought about - and still do - the horror I would endure if that were to happen to my child, or maybe even worse if my child were responsible.  They put up a memorial to the two kids that shot up the white suburban affluent high school outside Littleton, Colorado. And people went berserk. Or so my wife who didn't go to CHS but was in high school in Denver when this happened. And the people in Littleton didn't mince words - they took out their anger and grief by putting the blame squarely on inn...

Alex Garland's movies never seem to be without controversy, just not the form that you would expect. Annihilation is a sci-fi mystery that seems to leave the viewer either dumb-founded at its conclusion or impressed by its depth. Needs a rewatch from me though. Ex Machina - a movie I have not seen - is apparently about the need for innovation in technology and the corruption and toxicity that naturally occur in a capitalist state. At least that what I've gathered from various reviews and Podcaster. I'll edit this if/when I see it. But the point remains that Ex Machina is a divisive movie of its own right, as all Garland's movies seem to be. I am not sure I've talked to a single person who watches an AG movie and leaves it anything short of pensive; his movies illicit a reaction even from the staunchest, most cynical viewer. So Civil War is released in 2024 featuring highly controversial subject matter - a dystopia United States having fallen into civil war, thereunt...