That Horrible Pen

This piece contains spoilers for both Un beau soleil intérieur and Superbad .             The past two movies I’ve watched this summer as of this writing have both been films I initially felt were a bit outside my comfort zone: Claire Denis’ Un beau soleil intérieur (2017) and Greg Mottola’s Superbad (2007). The perfect decade split between the two was a complete and happy accident, but noticing it got me interested in actually bringing the two into conversation somewhat when my first thought was just to write about Superbad since I had the most to say about it. I used the word “initially” before because these were both movies I went into without a certain amount of excitement. I picked Un beau soleil intérieur despite the synopsis not necessarily grabbing me because I wanted to see something else by Denis and it was the film that was available on Hulu. I’ve had positive experiences being pushed a bit on my taste by friends befo...

  He’s using you so he can live Where is the honor in this? . . . . End all the cowardice now! Boy, I know you’re there; you hide behind a wall of men -           Unleash the Archers, “Ten Thousand Against One” (2017) This post is a long analysis of the action-adventure game Mortal Shell . I had mixed feelings about this game for a while since I’d only watched other people review or play it, and I saw a lot of praise for it while I felt that it wasn’t quite so remarkable-looking from a distance. When I was looking for something to play this summer, however, I ultimately settled on the game since it was pretty reasonably priced and wasn’t supposed to take too long to complete. Mortal Shell is a sort of Double-A or middle-shelf game. I think it caught a lot of people’s attention initially with its visuals, which aren’t always Triple-A quality when you see it in motion and up close but are still good enough to allow it stand...