This week we review and discuss The Long Walk, a dystopian survival movie directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson and Mark Hamill, about a group of young men who volunteer for a march to the death whose winner will be rewarded with immense wealth in an alternate United States impoverished by a civil war. We talk about how the movie made us care about its characters and feel for their suffering, how the movie is a bleak allegory for life itself and how that is reflected in its characters, the rules of the Long Walk itself and the worldbuilding that underpins the story, where the worldbuilding falls short and why it compares unfavourably to the Hunger Games in that area, the movie's depiction of the ugliness of violence, and much more.

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction. This week we revisit Equilibrium, dystopian science fiction movie directed by Kurt Wimmer and starring Christian Bale, Taye Diggs and Sean Bean, about an enforcement officer in a future in which feelings and artistic expression are outlawed, and a society where its citizens are forced to take psychoactive drugs to suppress emotion. We talk about why it has nostalgic value for some of us and what the first viewing experience is like more than 20 years later for others, we discuss the worldbuilding and whether it is too derivative of stories like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, how the movie doesn't fully develop or think through its idea of a society without emotion, and why the protagonist's journey is more compelling than we would have expected to the point of carrying the movie. Check out the video version: https://youtu.be/i5CrhefDEbs

1h 42m | R

The Electric State" brings Simon Stålenhag’s haunting vision to life, but does the Netflix adaptation capture the novel’s dystopian depth? Our in-depth analysis explores how the film softens its themes, shifts the narrative focus, and compares to other dystopian classics like Blade Runner 2049 and The Hunger Games.

DYSTOPIAN MOVIES ARE a favorite genre of mine. In 2007 I made a list of my ten favorite movies in the category, and after revisiting that blog post, I thought now would be a good Read more…