Thursday Movie Picks - Mystery Edition: Media or Technology Mysteries

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We have another Mystery edition at Wandering Through The Shelves! This time we're focusing on media or technology. I kind of wanted to go a bit "out there" with this one. There's a lot of great journalism movies that fall under media, but I got stuck on one idea in my head and it just snowballed from there. 


1) Hated in the Nation - Since it's Emmy week, I have been thinking about their dumb rules and how the series Black Mirror was allowed to submit episodes as individual movies - which brings me to one of their best episodes, the 90 Hated in the Nation, where several unexplained deaths seem to be linked to autonomous bees that are meant to combat climate change. This is so thrilling and interesting. It's one I've reached several times.  


2) Searching - Told entirely through a screen, this film is about a father trying to solve his daughter's disappearance through her social media. 


3) Arrival - There's a lot of technology involved with attempting to communicate with aliens and trying to learn their purpose of being on this planet. 

Comments

  1. SJHoneywellSeptember 15, 2022 at 12:10 PM

    I liked Searching more than I thought I would.

    Arrival is one of those movies where you think someone overheard a part of your life and made a movie about it. I'm a sci-fi nerd and have a degree in linguistics (Slate interviewed one of my professors about this movie). I literally felt like this was made with me in mind.

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    1. Brittani BurnhamSeptember 16, 2022 at 6:20 AM

      Same. Searching was way better than it had any right being.

      Delete
  2. thevoid99September 15, 2022 at 2:40 PM

    Arrival is the only film in your list I have seen so far as I haven't seen anything from Black Mirror while I had been wanting to watch Searching yet never found the time.

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  3. BirgitSeptember 15, 2022 at 2:53 PM

    I know I would pass on the 2nd one as I hate that type of camera gimmick. I don't know your first pick but...how can they be TV one minute and a film the NEXT? I'm not talking a TV movie. I love your last pick I really like this film and never would have thought of it but it's perfect for this week.

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  4. WandererSeptember 15, 2022 at 5:13 PM

    Black Mirror - haven't seen this one yet. I've only seen the first two seasons I think. Well hasn't Black Mirror always sold itself as an anthology series (I think it first ran on the BBC and now on Netflix) rather than a series of movies.

    I picked Searching too. It's perfect for this theme.

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    1. Brittani BurnhamSeptember 16, 2022 at 6:18 AM

      It has but they submitted as movies at the Emmys which was so dumb

      Delete
    2. WandererSeptember 23, 2022 at 6:53 AM

      They did?? Oh I totally missed that. Haven't watched the Emmys recently.

      Delete
    3. Brittani BurnhamSeptember 23, 2022 at 7:58 AM

      Yep. San Junipero and U.S.S Callister both won for TV movie. Bandersnatch did too, which actually makes sense because it was a stand alone feature. But it should've been an anthology series the entire time.

      Delete
  5. joel65913September 16, 2022 at 7:35 PM

    I'm 0 for 3 this time out. I'm unfamiliar with the first two but have heard of the last, however it stars that Adams creature and I'm not a fan so I never bothered. I have heard it's good so maybe some day if I stumble across it just as it starts.....

    Most techno movies leave me cold but there have been a few through the years that held my interest and I love movies about the media especially if it contains a mystery. However out of the first three that came to mind only the first has to do with media but it is a HUGE favorite of mine. The other two are much more techy.

    The first is the 1975 Robert Redford/Faye Dunaway thriller "Three Days of the Condor" about a rank and file CIA codebreaker who goes out to lunch one day and comes back to find everyone murdered. He has to unravel the mystery of why. Great movie!

    Next would be 1977's Demon Seed wherein Julie Christie's psychologist becomes a prisoner of her scientist husband's A.I. system when it takes over their home. Weird and stylish and hey it has one of the greatest actresses of all time in the lead!!!

    The last isn't a great movie but has some interesting ideas, 1983's Brainstorm. Part of that is the fact that one of its stars Natalie Wood drowned in the middle of filming and the film was put on hiatus for two years. Two researchers (Christopher Walker & Louise Fletcher) develop a system that records people thoughts but then the military becomes involved and the project spins out of control while the inventors and his estranged wife (Natalie) attempt to stop them.

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    1. Brittani BurnhamSeptember 20, 2022 at 7:59 AM

      I should put Three Days of the Condor on my Blind Spot list next year. I never really knew what it was about, but it sounds good. Black Mirror is an excellent anthology series. I know there are episodes you for sure would hate, but Hated in the Nation is a good one. You should check it out!

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    2. joel65913September 21, 2022 at 7:10 PM

      I will say that as much as I love Three Days of the Condor for me it was one of those films, like the Julie Christie version of Far From the Madding Crowd, that grew in my estimation with repeat viewings. If you're looking for something that's kinetic and tense right from the get go watch the 1976's Dustin Hoffman thriller "Marathon Man" directed by John Schlesinger.

      Delete
  6. ThePunkTheoryOctober 25, 2022 at 8:59 AM

    Ooooh how have I not seen your first pick?! I must have forgotten to catch up on Black Mirror at some point

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