text:
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Cannabidiol for prion disease? Not so fast.
Jun 9, 2013 • admin
In the past few weeks we've seen user comments on CureFFI.org and posts on Facebook by people wondering whether cannabidiol might be a promising treatment for prion disease.
Above: cannabis, from which cannabidiol is derived. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Cannabidiol is a non-psychoactive derivative of cannabis. Unlike THC, the foremost "active ingredient" in marijuana, cannabidiol doesn't make you high. But it can cross the blood-brain barrier to get into the brain [Deiana 2012] and it appears to have some other, non-intoxicating effects on the nervous system. A pharmacological preparation of cannabidiol marketed as Sativex® is approved for sale in Canada as a treatment of certain symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Researchers have also tested cannabidiol in animal and cell culture models of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's [Garcia-Arencibia 2007] and Alzheimer's [Martin-Moreno 2011].
There has been exactly one published study examining the effect of cannabidiol on prion disease [Dirikoc 2007 (ft)] In the group of mice receiving a high dose immediately upon prion infection, symptoms and death were each delayed by about 6%. The effect was not seen when the drug was administered later or in a lower dose.
The study was criticized in a subsequent letter [Dicou 2008] for failing to clarify the mechanism of action of the drug, in particular, whether cannabinoid receptors were involved. Dicou also noted that the drug was only shown effective in a high dose immediately after infection, whereas prion diseases in humans are not diagnosed until late stages of disease when symptoms appear. These points were also mentioned in a subsequent review article [Iuvone 2009].
But that's not all that's wrong with Dirikoc's study. The most important point is that the mice were infected "intraperitoneally", meaning by injection into the body cavity. This is often abbreviated "i.p." and, along with oral and subcutaneous infections, might be called a peripheral infection, meaning the prions are in the body but not yet in the brain.
In the sporadic and genetic forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, fatal familial insomnia and Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome, the disease starts in the brain, not in the body cavity. Even in variant or iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, acquired by food or surgery, patients don't know they're infected until they start to have neurological symptoms, meaning that prions have long since entered the brain.
So there's really no human equivalent to the notion of treating mice from the very instant they're infected with prions in the gut. One could imagine a scenario where a researcher accidentally sticks themselves with a contaminated needle, but no case of prion disease from this sort of accident on the job has ever been reported. If there were such cases, odds are we already have the tools to treat them. A decade ago, researchers at the MRC Prion Unit in London showed that, in mice with peripheral prion infections, injections of antibodies against prion protein can delay disease a very long time, probably indefinitely [White 2003]. If prion diseases all started in the body and gave us plenty of advance warning, they'd already be cured. The trouble is that the antibody treatment didn't work in mice that were already sick or that had infections in the brain.
Cannabidiol has never been shown effective – indeed never even been tested – in a scenario that realistically reflects the treatment opportunities available for prion diseases in humans – namely, treatment late in the disease course when prions are already in the brain.
Could cannabidiol still have some effect against prion disease anyway? We have no evidence to say it couldn't, but in science, the answer to every question is "no" until someone proves "yes". Dozens of drugs have shown some effect in some model of prion disease at some point in time [reviewed in Trevitt & Collinge 2006 (full text here)], but even the one that was most effective of all in treating mice, pentosan polysulfate, ultimately proved to have no effect at all in humans [Bone 2008, Tsuboi 2009]. So it's worth taking all studies of anti-prion drugs with a good dose of skepticism. When we prioritize drugs for further research, we need to consider how rigorous were the studies that showed therapeutic effects. The strongest bets are drugs that have been shown effective even late in the disease course, in animals with prion infections of the brain, and across multiple prion strains – ideally including human prion strains. Cannabidiol meets none of these criteria.
But luckily, several groups around the world have undertaken large-scale drug discovery efforts to find anti-prion treatments and are testing their drugs in animal models that much more realistically reflect what treatment in human disease will look like. The recently-announced new compound anle138b extends life in mice even late in disease course. Even if it's years away from clinical trials, this compound is an exciting possibility which appears to have some effects across more than one neurodegenerative disease. And at Prion2013 we learned that Prusiner's lab at UCSF had a new compound that looked extremely promising, but ultimately proved not to work against human CJD. That's disappointing, but at least they were smart enough to test their drug on CJD in the lab – it's better to know this result now than needing to wait for an unsuccessful clinical trial. They have dozens of other compounds in their pipeline and are committed to the most rigorous possible testing of their drugs before they move for anything to be tested in humans.
©2019 Prion Alliance


text:
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Stack;

public class ConvexHullGrahamScan {
	class Point implements Comparable<Point> {
		public Point(double x, double y) {
			this.x = x;
			this.y = y;
		}

		public void getPolarCoordinates(Point pole) {
			double x = this.x - pole.x;
			double y = this.y - pole.y;

			if ( y == 0 ) {
				polarAngle = x >= 0 ? 0 : Math.PI;
			} else if ( x == 0 ) {
				polarAngle = y > 0 ? Math.PI / 2 : Math.PI * 3 / 2;
			} else {
				polarAngle = y > 0 ? Math.atan2(y, x) :
								Math.atan2(y, x) + Math.PI;
			}
			polarRadius = Math.sqrt(x *x + y * y);
		}

		public int compareTo(Point o) {
			if ( this.polarAngle < o.polarAngle ) {
				return -1;
			} else if ( this.polarAngle > o.polarAngle ) {
				return 1;
			} else {
				if ( this.polarRadius < o.polarRadius ) {
					return 1;
				} else if ( this.polarRadius > o.polarRadius ) {
					return -1;
				} else {
					return 0;
				}
			}
		}

		public String toString() {
			return String.format("Cartesian: (%.2f, %.2f) / Polar: (%.2f PI, %.2f)",
					new Object[] {x, y, polarAngle / Math.PI, polarRadius});
		}

		double x;
		double y;
		double polarAngle;
		double polarRadius;
	}

	public Point getPolePoint(Point[] points) {
		double maxX = Double.MIN_VALUE;
		double minY = Double.MAX_VALUE;
		int minIndex = 0;

		for ( int i = 0; i < points.length; ++ i ) {
			Point currentPoint = points[i];
			if ( currentPoint.y < minY ) {
				minY = currentPoint.y;
				maxX = currentPoint.x;
				minIndex = i;
			} else if ( currentPoint.y == minY ) {
				if ( currentPoint.x > maxX ) {
					maxX = currentPoint.x;
					minIndex = i;
				}
			}
		}
		return points[minIndex];
	}

	public List<Point> getConvexHull(Point[] points) {
		if ( points.length < 2 ) {
			return null;
		}

		int startIndex = 0;
		int totalPoints = points.length;
		Point pole = points[startIndex ++];
		Stack<Point> candidatePoints = new Stack<Point>();
		candidatePoints.push(pole);

		for ( int i = startIndex; i < totalPoints; ++ i ) {
			Point currentPoint = points[i];

			if ( currentPoint.polarAngle != pole.polarAngle ) {
				startIndex = i;
				candidatePoints.push(currentPoint);
				break;
			}
		}
		for ( int i = startIndex; i < totalPoints; ++ i ) {
			Point currentPoint = points[i],
				  topPoint = candidatePoints.peek(),
				  nextToTopPoint = getNextToTopPoint(candidatePoints);

			if ( currentPoint.polarAngle == topPoint.polarAngle ) {
				continue;
			}
			while ( isPointInTriangle(pole, nextToTopPoint, currentPoint, topPoint) ) {
				candidatePoints.pop();
				topPoint = candidatePoints.peek();
				nextToTopPoint = getNextToTopPoint(candidatePoints);
			}
			candidatePoints.push(currentPoint);
		}
		return getConvexHullPoints(candidatePoints);
	}

	private Point getNextToTopPoint(Stack<Point> candidatePoints) {
		int totalPoints = candidatePoints.size();
		return candidatePoints.get(totalPoints - 2);
	}

	private boolean isPointInTriangle(Point pole, Point nextToTopPoint,
			Point currentPoint, Point topPoint) {
		if ( pole == nextToTopPoint ) {
			return false;
		}
		double a = getPointOnLine(currentPoint, nextToTopPoint, pole);
		double b = getPointOnLine(currentPoint, nextToTopPoint, topPoint);

		return a * b >= 0;
	}

	private double getPointOnLine(Point p1, Point p2, Point p) {
		if ( p2.x == p1.x ) {
			return p.x - p1.x;
		}
		double k = (p2.y - p1.y) / (p2.x - p1.x);
		double b = p2.y - k * p2.x;

		return p.y - k * p.x - b;
	}

	private List<Point> getConvexHullPoints(Stack<Point> candidatePoints) {
		List<Point> convexHullPoints = new ArrayList<Point>();
		for ( Point p : candidatePoints ) {
			convexHullPoints.add(p);
		}
		return convexHullPoints;
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		if ( args.length != 1 ) {
			System.out.println("java ConvexHullGrahamScan n");
			return;
		}

		int n = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
		Point[] points = new Point[n];

		ConvexHullGrahamScan chgs = new ConvexHullGrahamScan();
		for ( int i = 0; i < n; ++ i ) {
			double x = Math.random() * 100;
			double y = Math.random() * 100;
			points[i] = chgs.new Point(x, y);
		}
		Point pole = chgs.getPolePoint(points);
		for ( Point p : points ) {
			p.getPolarCoordinates(pole);
		}
		Arrays.sort(points);

		System.out.println("Candidate Points:");
		for ( Point p : points ) {
			System.out.println(p);
		}

		long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
		List<Point> convexHullPoints = chgs.getConvexHull(points);
		long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();

		System.out.println("Convex Hull Points:");
		for ( Point p : convexHullPoints ) {
			System.out.println(p);
		}
		System.out.println("Total Time: " + (endTime - startTime) + " ms");
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Gets or sets the edit value (current date).
Using the EditValue and DateTime properties makes sense in single selection mode. In multi-select mode (see SelectionMode), the EditValue and DateTime properties are not updated when a date range is selected.
You can bind the EditValue property (or the DateTime property, which is in sync with the EditValue property) to a database field, and thus allow an end-user to edit this field by clicking a date in the Calendar Control. In single date selection mode (see SelectionMode), the selected date is saved in the EditValue property.
The EditValue property is of the object type. The DateTime property, which is in sync with the EditValue property, is of the DateTime type. When the EditValue property is set to null or to a value that cannot be converted to a valid DateTime value, the DateTime property is automatically set to NullDate.
If the SyncSelectionWithEditValue option is enabled and the EditValue/DateTime property is changed, the selection is automatically set to the new date specified by the DateTime property.


text:
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Freeman Freeman & Smiley Attorneys Obtain Denied Benefits For Wounded Warrior
LOS ANGELES (August 25, 2014) — A team of Irvine attorneys with the law firm Freeman Freeman & Smiley, LLP secured benefits for a disabled Marine shot by a sniper in Afghanistan, causing him to endure 12 surgeries and intense post-traumatic stress after multiple IED explosions and devastating wounds. The pro bono case was accepted after the U.S. government rejected evidence that the Marine was permanently disabled.
The Freman Freeman & Smiley team representing the Marine was led by partner Joanne M. Frasca of the Litigation Practice Group at the firm's Irvine office. Frasca sued the government in federal court which reversed and remanded it to the original judge who had transferred the case to Kansas. After nearly a year of intense litigation, on July 29, 2014, the Marine was awarded full benefits, including those that were previously rejected in 2010.
About Freeman Freeman & Smiley, LLP
Since its inception in 1976, Freeman Freeman & Smiley, LLP has developed a nationally recognized law practice specializing in the areas of Complex International Marine and Non-Marine Insurance and Reinsurance Coverage and Litigation, Commercial and Securities Litigation, Business Transactions, Tax Planning and Controversy, Securities Regulation, Real Estate Transactions, Bankruptcy, Employment Law, Estate Planning and Charitable and Non-Profit Organization Planning. Freeman Freeman & Smiley, LLP is a full-service law firm whose goal is to deliver results while remaining committed to the best practices and resources at reasonable rates. The firm is an efficient organization exemplifying excellence in service, value and results – providing big firm expertise with the accessibility and personal service of a small firm. For more information, visit ffslaw.com.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
A ricsókafélék (Eurylaimidae) a madarak osztályának verébalakúak (Passeriformes) rendjébe tartozó család.

A Smithornis és a Calyptomena nemet áthelyezték a Calyptomenidae családba

Előfordulásuk
Indiában, a Szunda- és a Fülöp-szigetek területén honosak.

Megjelenésük
Tömzsi testalkatú madarak, rövid, széles csőrrel, meglehetősen erős lábbal, középhosszú szárnnyal és rövid vagy csak kevéssé hosszú farokkal. Csőrük rövidebb a fejnél, erős és alacsony, tövén nagyon széles, hegyén hirtelen keskenyedő, a felső káva ormán észrevehetően tarajos, hegye horgasan legörbülő. A kávaélek befelé hajlók; a szájhasíték a szem aljáig ér, ezért szájnyílásuk majdnem olyan nagy, mint a kecskefejőé. Élénkszínű tollazatuk a hímnél és tojónál meglehetősen egyforma.

Rendszertani besorolásuk
A család az alábbi 7 nem és 9 faj tartozik:

 Pseudocalyptomena (Rothschild, 1909) – 1 faj
 kékállú ricsóka (Pseudocalyptomena graueri)

 Psarisomus (Swainson, 1837) – 1 faj
 papagájricsóka (Psarisomus dalhousiae)

 Corydon (Lesson, 1828) – 1 faj
 szumátrai ricsóka (Corydon sumatranus)

 Sarcophanops – 2 faj
 visayai ricsóka (Sarcophanops samarensis vagy Eurylaimus samarensis)
 kékszemű ricsóka (Sarcophanops steerii vagy Eurylaimus steerii)

 Serilophus (Swainson, 1837) – 1 faj
 gébicsricsóka vagy holdas ricsóka (Serilophus lunatus)
 Cymbirhynchus (Vigors & Horsfield, 1830) – 1 faj
 csónakcsőrű ricsóka (Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchus)

 Eurylaimus (Horsfield, 1821) – 2 faj
 rózsásfejű ricsóka (Eurylaimus javanicus)
 örvös ricsóka (Eurylaimus ochromalus)

Források

  – magyar nevek

Madárcsaládok

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


We challenge our students to know the Light of Christ, to grow through the Light of Christ, and to show the Light of Christ.
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Show the Light of Christ.
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Every Wednesday night brings a time of teaching, wherein we discuss principles and information from the Bible that help to equip you for life in the world of today. We encourage you to find your identity, discover your strengths, and utilize your God-given talents to develop a life of purpose and substance; in short – to answer the calling upon your life, whatever that may be. We invite YOU to come and be a part of the excitement!
We are an active youth group! Events include monthly youth rallies, Mid-Winter Youth Retreat (held annually), bowling, ice skating, Friend's Nights, and outings in the city of Columbus! We also participate in the bi-annual North American Youth Congress, along with 22,000 other young people from around the world!
City Youth Ministries strives to equip each student with tools and resources to fulfill the call given by Jesus Christ and to shine their Light within into the world without.
We welcome all young people in the Columbus area to join our ranks and be included in our biblical instruction and fun-filled activities. In the process, we hope you will develop relationships with others, and with the Lord Jesus, that will last a lifetime.
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text:
Home /Trucks & SUVs/Trucks
What Comes With a 2023 Ford Maverick Lariat?
by Tim Harding twitter linkedin | More Articles: Trucks
The 2022 Ford Maverick Lariat is the highest of the three available trims for the compact pickup truck. It costs more but still offers plenty of value at under $30,000. There's also always room to add more extra packages, options, and equipment. Opting for the fully-loaded model means you're getting the best of the best. Are you interested in buying the costliest version of one of the best new pickup trucks? Here's what comes with a 2023 Ford Maverick Lariat.
2023 Ford Maverick Lariat: Standard engine
2023 Ford Maverick | Ford
The first thing most people want to know about any vehicle is what engine comes under the hood. For the 2023 Ford Maverick Lariat, it's a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine paired with a hybrid system. Combined, the output is 191 horsepower and 155 lb-ft of torque. Additionally, the compact truck uses front-wheel drive as standard, but an optional engine and all-wheel drive are available on all trims.
The optional engine is a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder that produces 250 hp and 277 lb-ft. This setup is available on any trim for an added cost. Additionally, using the optional engine is the only way to get AWD. As you might've guessed, the standard hybrid powertrain offers much better fuel economy than the optional turbocharged variant. Optional engine buyers get 23 mpg in the city and 30 on the highway, while hybrid owners drive with 42 in the city and 33 on the highway.
What standard features come with a Maverick Lariat?
2022 Ford Maverick | Allison Barfield, MotorBiscuit
According to Edmunds, the 2023 Ford Maverick Lariat is very well-equipped. Not only does it have the features of the XL and XLT trims, but it gains even more. Extra amenities include proximity keyless entry, push-button start, dual-zone automatic climate control, simulated leather upholstery, a power-adjustable driver's seat, a power-sliding rear window, rear-seat map pockets, an upgraded driver information display, two rear-seat USB ports.
Available packages to the Lariat include a Lariat Luxury, 4K Towing, FX4 Off-Road, and Ford Co-Pilot360 package. The 4K Towing adds a trailer hitch receiver with a seven-pin trailer wiring harness connector and upgraded powertrain cooling. For off-roading, the FX4 package adds all-terrain tires, exposed front tow hooks, hill descent control, and skid plates. The only nuance is the FX4 package requires AWD and, therefore, the non-hybrid engine. Next, the Ford Co-Pilot360 package includes blind-spot monitor and lane-keeping assist.
Finally, the Lariat Luxury package is exclusive to this trim level. It adds excellent amenities like two power outlets, a spray-in bed liner, an upgraded infotainment interface, a wireless smartphone charging pad, a B&O premium sound system, heated seats, a heated steering wheel, adaptive cruise control, and evasive steering assist.
How much is the Lariat trim?
What Will Be Different With the 2023 Ford Maverick?
Finally, a highlight of the fully-loaded Ford Maverick is how cheap it is. The Lariat trim is the highest version of the compact truck, but it remains affordable. Starting at $29,450, it's the only range-topper in any pickup truck category that doesn't exceed $30,000. For such a low price, buyers get a surprising amount of equipment along with a high-quality pickup.
What comes with a Maverick Lariat?
In conclusion, the standard equipment and price of the 2023 Ford Maverick are some of the primary reasons it's so popular. With plenty of technology, standard features, and an efficient standard hybrid powertrain, buying even the most costly Maverick trim is a no-brainer. Most car buyers aim to get the most bang for their buck in a truck. That goal is accomplished easily with all of the equipment for under $30,000.
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text:
Muslim Council of Britain Writes Letter In support of INTERPAL
By gmbwatch on	 December 1, 2008 Daily
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), a U.K. umbrella group dominated by groups linked to the global Muslim Brotherhood, has announced that it has written a letter to the U.K. clearing bank said to be behind the recent troubles of INTERPAL, a U.K charity that is part of a Hamas fundraising network. According to the announcement:
MCB has written to Lloyds TSB deploring its action that places the community's most respected charity in limbo Lloyds-TSB is the clearing bank for the Islamic Bank of Britain, where Interpal holds its account.
The full text of MCB's letter to the CEO of Lloyds TSB:
Your decision to serve notice on the Islamic Bank of Britain to cease all dealings with the International Relief and Development Fund (Interpal) is causing the MCB and the Muslim community tremendous concern and anxiety. Interpal is a well-respected charity and an affiliate of the MCB providing shelter, food, medicine and education for tens of thousands of deprived Palestinians. It is a British charity and operates in accordance with English Law under the supervision of the Charity Commission. Aid is given to beneficiaries purely on the basis of need, not political or religious affiliation. We are all aware of past and present campaigns to vilify and undermine Interpal. Two investigations by the Charities Commission, in 1996 and 2003, have rejected the very serious allegations brought against it. We had hoped that all such accusations would be buried and laid to rest once and for all. We deplore the pressure that has been placed on IBB to close down the Interpal account. We note that Lloyds TSB with its high street presence has a significant number of Muslim account holders, and that it has also been reaching out for business for its shariah compliant current account. If banking services to Interpal are not reinstated, then this will inevitably influence the actions of its existing and future customer base."
An earlier post discussed an INTERPAL statement indicating that the organization faces imminent closure because their bank has received notice to stop dealing with them.
INTERPAL is perhaps the key organization in the Union of Good, a worldwide coalition of Islamic charities headed by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi that has recently been designated by the U.S. Treasury as a terrorist entity in connection with its fundraising for Hamas. INTERPAL has many connection with the European Muslim Brotherhood not the least of which is that according to a NEFA Foundation report, as of May 2007 the General Manager of INTERPAL was Abdelkarim Bensiali who in December 2005 was also the Executive Director of the Europe Trust, the charitable funding arm of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe, the European umbrella Muslim Brotherhood. INTERPAL has been the subject of numerous investigations by the U.K. Charity commission, U.K. media, and others but it appears that the U.S. designation of the Union of Good may have tipped the balance.
INTERPAL is strongly supported by many organizations in the U.K. which are part of the Muslim Brotherhood network including the Muslim Association of Britain, the British Muslim Initiative, and the Palestinian Return Centre as well as the MCB as their letter demonstrates.
Scottish Muslim Brotherhood Group Announces Agreement with CAIR - 06:26 PM Muslim Council of Britain Writes Letter In support of INTERPAL - 06:48 PM
Saudi Arabia Bans Works By Muslim Brotherhood Ideologue - 08:21 PM Video Reveals Discovery Of Holy Land Documents - 08:25 PM
CORRECTION: Yesterday's Post on Saudi Arabia - 11:04 AM Leader of Pakistani Group Calls On Pakistanis To Unite Against India - 07:56 PM WAMY Awards Graduate Scholarships - 08:12 PM
Grand Mufti Of Bosnian Awarded Prestigious German Prize For Religious Tolerance - 07:57 PM Court Upholds $156 Million Judgment Against U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Organizations - 08:35 PM
U.S. Congressman Accused Again Of Accepting Campaign Contributions From U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Leaders - 04:23 PM Pentagon Aid Who Supported U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Groups To Depart - 05:45 PM
European Muslim Brotherhood Condems Israel Over Gaza - 08:20 PM
Jaamat-e-Islami Conference Features Muslim Brotherhood Leaders; Speakers Say Islam To Rule The World - 08:13 PM
Muslim Brotherhood Demands Investigation Over Al Azhar Invitation To Israelis - 08:11 PM
CAIR Leader Repeats U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Themes At Annual Dinner - 08:15 PM
RECOMMENDED READING: "The Role Of Consensus In The Contemporary Struggle For Islam" - 12:16 PM
Muslim Brotherhood Members Deported From Southern Africa - 05:02 PM
Qaradawi Issues Fatwa Against New Zealand Meat - 12:48 PM ICNA Expands Advertising Campaign To Use of Highway Billboards - 05:55 PM
ANALYSIS: Law Journal Article On Terrorism Highlights U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Position On Terrorism - 07:47 PM Son Of Youssef Qaradawi May Have Converted To Shia Islam - 10:46 PM
Jamaat-E-Islami Leader Says Party WIll Launch Mass Protest Against U.S. Drone Attacks - 07:26 PM Italian Government Official Rules Out Accords With Italian Muslim Brotherhood - 07:47 PM
Global Muslim Brotherhood Steps Up Gaza Blockade Efforts - 09:36 PM Mecca Pilgrimage Of First Muslim Congressman Paid For By U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Group - 10:09 PM
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Identifies Global Brotherhood Organizations - 07:04 PM Pastor Close To Obama Speaks At MPAC Convention - 07:11 PM
Jamaat-e-Islami Leader Threatens To Block Key Supply Route For NATO/U.S Forces - 06:59 PM Leader Of Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood Calls For Slaughter Of Jews - 07:05 PM
UK Muslim Delegation Close to Muslim Brotherhood Visits Saudi Arabia - 06:06 PM French Muslim Brotherhood Leader Says Government Must Pass Law Against Islamaphobia - 06:16 PM
U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Leader To Host Radio Talk Show In D.C. - 06:02 PM Global Muslim Brotherhood Reacts To Israeli Air Strikes On Gaza - 06:51 PM
IslamOnline Opens Washington Office - 05:35 PM Largest Muslim Conference In Canada Features Muslim Brotherhood Speakers - 05:51 PM
Global Muslim Brotherhood Reacts To Israeli Air Strikes On Gaza (Part 2) - 06:11 PM Italian News Portal Fails To Identify Muslim Brotherhood Leader - 07:21 PM


text:
Texas Tech in the News Stories
Castor controversy pits bioterrorism against biofuels
Western Farm Press- Believing we can have our cake and eat it too, a group of Texas A&M and Texas Tech researchers have been working together on a castor variety that greatly reduces risk and still offers value in production. Working with the best tools agricultural science can offer, they have aggressively developed a semi-dwarf castor variety with reduced ricin levels and one that allows for mechanized production.
tags: Texas Tech in the News
23-foot arrows point to area's Comanche history, legacy
Amarillo Globe-News-At the gathering, Texas Tech University Southwest Collection Deputy Director Tai Kreidler said the Texas Panhandle was once prime grounds for Comanche, Apache and other Native American tribes to live and hunt.
A Bridge to Recovery on Campus
New York Times-Texas Tech students play catch-up in a required one-credit course, which Kitty S. Harris, director of its Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery, describes as: "How to build relationships, how to problem solve, how to talk to the opposite sex, how do you learn to avoid drama in relationships, how do you manage money."
Special Report: Research On The Dunes Sagebrush Lizard 1/25/12
CBS 7-There's been lots of debate surrounding the dunes sagebrush lizard, many are asking where's the science, at Texas Tech University in Lubbock where a team of researchers are working rigorously to answer that question.


text: <button class="btn-list-del">-</button>


text:
/* $Id$ */
#ifndef TABLE_INCLUDED
#define TABLE_INCLUDED
#define T Table_T
typedef struct T *T;
extern T    Table_new (int hint,
		        int cmp(const void *x, const void *y),
			        unsigned hash(const void *key));
extern void Table_free(T *table);
extern int   Table_length(T table);
extern void *Table_put   (T table, const void *key,
		        void *value);
extern void *Table_get   (T table, const void *key);
extern void *Table_remove(T table, const void *key);
extern void   Table_map    (T table,
		        void apply(const void *key, void **value, void *cl),
			        void *cl);
extern void **Table_toArray(T table, void *end);
#undef T
#endif


text:
Tag Archives: Jake Gyllenhaal
Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Jon Watts | 129 mins | Blu-ray (3D) | 2.39:1 | USA / English | 12 / PG-13
For those not keeping track (who can blame you?), Far from Home is the third Spider-Man 2. It follows in the footsteps of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 from 2004, widely regarded as one of the topmost examples of the superhero genre, and Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from 2014, widely regarded as one of the poorest examples of the superhero genre. (As you can see, they've ditched the numbers. Probably wise at this point.) Personally, while I agree with the accepted view of Raimi's film, I actually rather enjoyed Webb's sequel. That's important to know when I say that I think Far from Home is my least favourite Spider-Man 2 so far.
This one is the sequel to 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming… except Spidey's in the MCU now, so it's also a sequel to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. And that's not just a checklist of "other Spider-Man appearances", either: the events of Endgame are absolutely vital to the storyline of this movie. It may be another Spider-Man 2, but more than that it's Marvel Cinematic Universe: Episode XXIII.
Some people criticised Homecoming for having too much Iron Man and going too far in making Spider-Man into Iron Man Jr. I felt they got the balance about right, all things considered — it's not very true to comic book canon, but, as the third big-screen iteration of Spidey in the modern era, it made a reasonable change. Far from Home is where it becomes overpowering. It has to lean heavily on the overall continuity of the MCU, which means all the business of The Blip (as what we call The Snap is called in-universe) and Iron Man's death is front-loaded into the movie. The former is waived away as quickly as they can; the latter weighs heavy on the entire rest of the plot.
Meanwhile, Nick Fury is trying to get in touch with Peter Parker, who isn't interested in the big world-saving antics that implies. He's more concerned with going on a school summer trip around Europe. How a poor kid from Queens is supposed to afford a weeks-long vacation around Europe isn't even one of my issues with the film, but if you're a Spidey devotee it might be. But go on this vacation he does, only to have it interrupted in Venice by a giant water man/monster thing, which is battled by a new hero Peter's classmates reckon is a cross between Iron Man and Thor, and name Mysterio. Turns out he's working with Fury, and Fury wants Mysterio and Spider-Man to team up to fight the possibly world-ending threat. But Peter doesn't want to because he's on holiday goddammit and he has a plan to woo MJ.
So far, so Spider-Man — the conflict between his personal and 'professional' life is a regular feature of the character. But it's the way this story unspools that didn't work for me, as it drags its heels through every storyline it's got going at once, indulging in comedic asides from a whole range of characters. Having a comic relief character or double act is fine, but four or five of them? It just eats up screen time. The lack of focus robs the film of impetus or tension, as the characters and plot both meander around Europe and from set piece to set piece.
At least some of those set pieces are quite good. The Venice one is a nice change of pace, because Mysterio is off doing the main fighting bit, so Spidey's left to tidy up around him. It's something a bit different in a blockbuster action sequence. The real highlight, though, is an illusion trap Spidey endures, which is imaginative and creatively realised. Tom Holland gives the title role his all, but Jake Gyllenhaal is the standout as Mysterio, waltzing into the film and stealing it out from under everyone else's noses. His real-life alter ego, Quentin Beck, has a really nice relationship with Peter, pitched as a kind of mentoring, older brother type role, admiring of the kid's ability but not blind to his flaws. Even better, if you watch the gag reel you get the impression Gyllenhaal is kinda treating Holland like Beck treats Parker, which is… amusing.
Like every other MCU film, Far from Home is competently made with occasional flashes of inspiration, so manages to dodge being an outright disaster. But, speaking as someone who thinks Homecoming is pretty great and saw a lot of promise in this sequel's trailers, I was disappointed by the end result. Future Spidey appearances in the MCU are assured (naturally there's a post-credits tease for them), so I hope they can recapture more of that Homecoming spark next time.
Spider-Man: Far from Home is available on Sky Cinema from this weekend.
As Far from Home is officially the final film of the Infinity Saga (I guess it works as an epilogue; or perhaps the saga's very own feature-length post-credit tease), here are links to my reviews of every other MCU film so far… except for one, which this has reminded me I've forgotten to write.
I've also reviewed a bunch of the shorts and (sorta-)tie-in TV series, but I'll let you track those down if you're interested.
…and, in keeping with the style of the MCU, here's a surprise post-'credits' mini-review!
Peter's To-Do List
2020 #49a
Jon Watts | 3 mins | Blu-ray | 2.39:1 | USA / English | 12
Sony chose to bill this as a short film on Far from Home's Blu-ray release, so I'm going to treat it like one and review it. Let's begin with a dictionary definition (from, er, a very real dictionary, honest) of "short film"…
1. an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits. "The Silent Child won the Oscar for best short film."
2. a deleted scene long enough that someone thought they could get away with pretending it was conceived and created as an original motion picture. "The Spider-Man: Far from Home Blu-ray includes a short film called Peter's To-Do List."
That pretty much sums up my reaction to this — it's a glorified deleted scene. To be precise, it's several deleted scenes, so really it's a deleted sequence — Peter running various errands before his trip to Europe. If you watched any of Far from Home's trailers then you'll have seen almost all of this already because it's footage that was used extensively to advertise the movie. I believe they also did some kind of special re-release of Far from Home with this bit cut back into the feature (an option not available on the home release).
So, it's not a short film, but it is a fun-enough deleted scene. It wouldn't've been out of place left in the movie, but considering the first act is already too long and a trudge as it is, I see why they wanted to lose some stuff.
Posted in 2010s, 2020, 3 stars, 3D, Action, Adventure, Sci-fi, superhero films	| Tagged Iron Man, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jon Watts, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Peter's To-Do List, Spider-Man	| 3 Replies
Posted on February 3, 2019 by badblokebob
Dan Gilroy | 112 mins | streaming (UHD) | 1.85:1 | USA / English | 15 / R
The team behind neo-noir modern classic Nightcrawler (writer-director Dan Gilroy, stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo, cinematographer Robert Elswit, among others) reunite for this direct-to-Netflix genre mash-up — it's part art-world satire, part mystery-thriller, part horror. The Verge described it as "Robert Altman's Final Destination", and that so succinctly articulates what the film reminded me of that I decided to just lift it. Well, just pilfering someone else's work is in-keeping with the film's themes, at least.
Set in the world of high art, it stars Gyllenhaal as all-powerful critic Morf Vandewalt, whose reviews can make or break sales worth millions of dollars, plus the careers that go along with that. One person his tastes always align with is prominent dealer Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo), whose assistant Josephina (Zawe Ashton) is falling out of favour due to relationship woes. But when her reclusive neighbour dies, she finds his apartment full of striking and original artwork, which she promptly steals. Mort is bowled over by their quality, Rhodora muscles in on the sales, and soon the deceased artist is a sensation. But there's more to his disturbing work than meets the eye, and soon people start dying…
So far so Final Destination, but not very Robert Altman, I know. The latter comes more in the execution than the subject matter, in particular that this is really an ensemble piece — the marketing pitched Gyllenhaal as the lead, I guess because he's the biggest and most marketable name, but Ashton's role is at least as large and central, if not more so, for example. Plus, as well as those two and Russo that I've already mentioned, there are significant roles for Toni Collette (as an art buyer for a museum), John Malkovich (as an uninspired elder-statesman artist), Natalia Dyer (as an intern struggling to break in), Billy Magnussen (as a handyman who wants to be an artist), Tom Sturridge (as a rival dealer), and Daveed Diggs (as an up-and-coming artist everyone wants to sign). Before the thriller and horror elements come into play, this spread of characters makes the film seem much more like a portrait of the art world from multiple different perspectives.
Gilroy has specifically cited Altman's Hollywood satire The Player as an influence on how he approached things. By complete coincidence, I watched The Player just a few days before this, and so that similarity was very clear to me. That said, Gilroy's lack of experience relative to Altman perhaps shows through. Where The Player was very pointed and effective in its satire, Velvet Buzzsaw takes more of a vague, scattershot view of the contemporary art scene. Gilroy does have a specific theme in mind — the disjunct between art and commerce, and their negative effects on each other — which manifests in various ways (it's part of the film's horrors as well as its satire), but that seems slightly disconnected from the Altman-esque "different perspectives" approach. Having so many key characters does lend a slightly different feel from what you might expect, but it doesn't lead to the same kind of forensic dissection that Altman was capable of.
It's just one aspect of the film that seems somewhat muddled. It's not fatally flawed, but there are things about it here and there that just don't seem to add up. It's almost as if scenes had been arbitrarily removed; not ones that particularly affect the plot, but maybe ones that affect the details. For example, at one point Mort exclaims that he's been seeing strange things recently, but the only evidence we've seen of that came with the thing that prompted his exclamation. These kind of vague, not-quite-right bits pop up now and then. You'd almost wonder if it had something to do with the film's horror side, like it was trying to be disquieting, but it doesn't correlate or connect up to the actual horror bits.
And yet, despite that, it's so good in places. In particular, it looks gorgeous, especially in UHD. That's how Elswit has shot it, of course, but also some of the striking visual ideas Gilroy throws into the mix. His screenplay definitely has its moments also. One of Mort's first reactions to the startling work Josephina has unearthed is that "critique is so limiting and emotionally draining," which is just begging to be quoted in reviews. That line was in the trailer, so it's already threatened to take on a life of its own outside the film, but it's certainly not the only meme-in-waiting that's thrown up. "The admiration I had for your work has completely evaporated" is another choice example. Heck, about half the rest of the dialogue is as well, never mind some reaction shots.
Sometimes, star ratings really aren't nuanced enough to represent one's reaction to a film. There are bits of Velvet Buzzsaw I adored — performances, scenes, individual lines, the cinematography — at a level normally found in a five-star film. But there are other things it fumbles, like the way the story sometimes jumps as if scenes have been deleted, or the way it doesn't seem to have an answer for some of its mysteries, or the way the trailer spoilt pretty much everything (not a fault of the film itself, I know, but still a grievance). Some of those err down towards a three-star experience. It's quite frustrating in that respect. Overall, there's enough I liked that I'm going to give it a four, albeit a cautious one.
Velvet Buzzsaw is available on Netflix now.
Posted in 2010s, 2019, 4 stars, Drama, Horror, Thriller	| Tagged art, Dan Gilroy, Jake Gyllenhaal, Netflix, Rene Russo, satire, Velvet Buzzsaw, Zawe Ashton	| 3 Replies
Posted on December 8, 2017 by badblokebob
Daniel Espinosa | 104 mins | streaming (HD) | 2.35:1 | USA / English & Japanese | 15 / R
Aboard the ISS in the near future, a team of astronauts receives a probe returning from Mars with samples from the surface. Included among them are some living cells — the first proof of extraterrestrial life. The cells begin to quickly evolve into a living organism, thrilling the scientists… until it turns nasty and begins to attack the crew. That feels like a spoiler, but this is a sci-fi horror and that development is kind of inherent in the genre.
Playing like a cross between Gravity (a near-future thriller where space technology is almost identical to our present capabilities) and Alien (a violent alien lifeform attacks the crew of a space vessel), Life clearly aspires to be little more than a straight-up sci-fi/horror thrill ride, and on that score it's a pretty effective piece of entertainment.
Of course, it's not without its niggles. It could've nixed some of the stupid-ass dialogue, like one of the crew commenting "it's so cold" while they're shivering and their breathe condenses. More fundamentally, as the organism rapidly develops none of the scientists seem all that concerned by this, sticking to their initial feelings of awe and wonder. Surely there should be some worry about its potential? Perhaps the film was supposed to be saying something about humanity's hubris when it comes to nature — that we wouldn't worry about such a small organism, because why would we? — but I'm not convinced that's a theme being actively invoked. Or maybe it was: comparing his movie to that other recent first contact flick, Arrival, director Daniel Espinosa notes that Denis Villeneuve's film "is a great, beautiful, cinematic essay about philosophy. Mine is a rollercoaster with some underpinnings of philosophy." Well, they're under enough that you can ignore them entirely if you like. There are certainly some even bigger ideas it could've chosen to tackle — see the ghost of 82's review for some interesting thoughts on that.
Still, we shouldn't really judge a film for things it wasn't aspiring to do. As a "rollercoaster", this is decent entertainment. It builds to a helluvan ending too, which naturally I won't spoil. That said, spoilers follow, because there are some interesting comments by Espinosa about the ending here. Two points jump out at me. One: the alien doesn't kill David — why not? Espinosa says David didn't fear it; in fact, he has a connection to it. Personally, I'd say that's not apparent in the film at all. It would certainly make the ending more interesting if it were true, but I'm not convinced it was actually set up. Two: nowadays we're so trained to expect sequels that we don't consider the implications of ambiguous endings anymore (certainly not on blockbuster-sized movies, anyway). We don't think about what it might mean, we just wait for a sequel to tell us. At best, we consider the ending in terms of "what's the next two-hour genre-friendly story here?", which is equally as limiting. He might well have a point there.
I have no idea if Life is getting a sequel to tell us what happens next or not. I believe the writers wanted one, but I'm not sure how well it did at the box office in the end. I'm not anxiously anticipating a follow-up, but I'd watch it. Life isn't interesting enough to be a great movie, but it's an entertaining thrill ride. My score is a smidge generous, but I did enjoy it overall.
Life is available on Sky Cinema from today.
Posted in 2010s, 2017, 4 stars, Horror, Sci-fi, Thriller	| Tagged Alien, Daniel Espinosa, Jake Gyllenhaal, Life, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, space	| 2 Replies
Posted on July 16, 2017 by badblokebob
Tom Ford | 117 mins | streaming (HD) | 2.35:1 | USA / English | 15 / R
In her second Oscar-worthy role of 2016 that didn't even get nominated, Amy Adams plays rich art gallery owner Susan, who out of the blue receives a package from her ex-lover Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) containing an advance copy of his debut novel, which he's dedicated to her. With the weekend alone to herself, Susan reads the novel — in which the family of Tony (Gyllenhaal again), wife Laura (Isla Fisher) and their daughter India (Ellie Bamber) are terrorised by a gang led by Ray (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), before copper Bobby Andes (Michael Shannon) helps them seek justice/revenge — in the process reliving memories of her tumultuous former relationship.
At first the plot of Edward's novel seems more interesting than the framing narrative that contains it — after all, you're pitching a tense thriller against a woman reading a book while she remembers falling for a guy. But as it becomes clear that the novel is just a pulpy thriller, and as the flashbacks to Susan and Edward's history reveal a mystery of their own, the balance begins to shift. The question is not really "why is the book dedicated to Susan", because she clearly knows that from very early on. Instead, the quandary for the viewer is: what exactly did she do that merits this lurid tale being her… what? Punishment, maybe?
Although the story is black as night, it's a beautifully constructed film — as you might expect from someone with a background in design like writer-director Tom Ford. It's not just the visually appealing work of cinematographer Seamus McGarvey or the film's various designers that is so striking, though. The three narrative strands are expertly handled. There's never any doubt about which is which, even when Ford at times intercuts between all three in one sequence, but he hasn't resorted to simplistic tricks (like vastly different colour grading, say) to pull that off. It's subtler, and more effective, than that.
To guide the characters through his sombre narratives, Ford has put together a helluva cast. Of course there's the primaries — Adams, Gyllenhaal, Shannon, and Taylor-Johnson are all superb — but turning up for just a scene or two are the likes of Isla Fisher, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney, Michael Sheen, Andrea Riseborough, and Jena Malone, any of whom could be leads in their own right. It does make it slightly disconcerting when you assume someone that recognisable will turn up again later and then they don't, but I suppose that just sits with the generally unsettling tone of the film.
Taking its artfulness to heart, some people have dismissed the film as being no more than an artily-dressed-up simplistic revenge story. Personally, I think the point of the story-within-the-story is to be simplistic. I don't think Edward is meant to be a very good writer, and that's why he's produced a very pulpy novel. What matters is the effect this bluntly allegorical piece of trash storytelling has on the person it's primarily aimed at — i.e. Susan. And there's still ambiguity for the audience in just what Susan is interpreting from the novel. I mean, Edward is Tony, that's obvious; and maybe he's Bobby, too; and Susan must be Laura… but who is Ray? Is Ray just the concept of what happened between them made flesh? Or maybe Susan is actually Ray? Or perhaps Edward is Ray too? Or perhaps it's something else entirely, I don't know.
Equally ambiguous is the ending to the present-day framing narrative, but I'm not sure I have much to add to that other than what you can easily find online, so no spoilers here. Other than to say I think the main plot points are all solved (the story-within-the-story wraps up, and how it mirrors the characters' history has been revealed), but there are some open-ended points that the viewer can choose how to read as they see fit.
Nocturnal Animals has been a pretty divisive film. Lots of people compare it to last year's even more controversial The Neon Demon, in one way or another — I've seen both "at least it's better than…" and "it would make a good double bill with…" Well, I really ought to get round to that, then, because I admired Nocturnal Animals very much. It's a beautiful movie about ugly deeds and ugly thoughts.
Nocturnal Animals is available on Sky Cinema from today.
Posted in 2010s, 2017, 5 stars, adaptations, Drama, Film Noir: Pre/Post/Neo/etc., Thriller	| Tagged Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, neo-noir, Nocturnal Animals, psychological thriller, Tom Ford	| 3 Replies
Posted on May 6, 2017 by badblokebob
Dan Gilroy | 118 mins | Blu-ray | 2.40:1 | USA / English | 15 / R
Dan Gilroy's neo-noir thriller is part "state of the nation" observational drama and part character study.
The character in question is Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a young man who, like so many in modern America, struggles to find paid employment. Indeed, as the film opens he's resorted to stealing fences to hawk to scrap metal dealers — and, when cornered by a security guard, also resorts to violence. That's the kind of man Bloom is, which will become important as the film goes on. On his way home he comes across the aftermath of a near-fatal car accident, and witnesses the freelance news cameramen rushing to the scene. For some reason this job strikes Bloom as glamorous, so he buys a camera and a police scanner and throws himself into it. His boundary-pushing enthusiasm soon puts him on the way to success, racing around nighttime L.A. chasing bloody imagery. It's a cutthroat industry, but Bloom is prepared to go pretty far for exclusive footage…
Any well-informed viewer isn't likely to glean much from Nightcrawler about the state of modern America. That Bloom is desperate for employment is more of an inciting incident than a dissected issue, though it does also partially fuel a subplot when he employs an assistant. That US TV news is all about shock value — "if it bleeds it leads" — is a truism that's decades old, too. If the film contributes anything to that discussion it's to wonder if things have reached a nadir. Writer-director Gilroy says he was trying to tell an objective and realistic story, but it's coming from a very cynical, almost satirical place about TV news. Or maybe local US news really is that extreme, I don't know. Either way, this observational stuff isn't bad, but nor is it revelatory.
Where the film really flies is in its characters. There are impressive supporting performances, from Riz Ahmed as the uncertain and kinda gullible young guy Bloom employs as his assistant, and Rene Russo as the outwardly confident but actually kinda desperate TV news producer Bloom sell his work to; plus an almost cameo-level appearance by Bill Paxton as a rival nightcrawler who rubs Louis up the wrong way.
But the film belongs to Gyllenhaal. Wild-eyed, eager to please, but not quite right in how he interacts with other human beings, and with a real thirst for the gory profession he lands upon, Bloom has a sense of morality that is quite removed from the norm. From the start we're in no doubt that this is a guy prepared to take relatively extreme measures to secure what he wants, but how far will he go? As he begins to establish himself as a respectable businessman — or, at least, someone who wants to be thought of as respectable — how much has his attitude changed, if at all? Gyllenhaal immerses himself in the role, skilfully negotiating Bloom's swings from smarmy charm to emotionless non-engagement with the horrors he films. He's physically transformed too: he lost weight, didn't eat, and stayed up nights in preparation for the role. On the Blu-ray, Ahmed comments that the literal hunger Gyllenhaal was enduring contributed to his performance as a guy who is so hungry (for success) he'll do anything necessary to achieve it.
(Talking of the Blu-ray, its only special feature (aside from an audio commentary) is a five-minute featurette that briefly features the two real-life nightcrawlers who consulted on the film. They share a couple of quick anecdotes about what the real job is like, which is quite fascinating — it's a shame there's not a fuller feature about those guys and their work. I don't know if it would sustain a whole feature documentary — maybe it would — but a decent-length DVD extra would've been nice.)
Outside of its characters, Nightcrawler impresses with technical merits. The lensing of nighttime L.A. by DP Robert Elswit is highly evocative, a netherworld where flashing red-and-blue lights illuminate scenes of carnage. The film's pace is apparently unhurried but constantly engrossing. You're not exactly sucked into this world alongside Bloom (Gilroy's right that presenting him as unnecessarily aggressive upfront serves to stall sympathy from the viewer), but you become an interested observer, unable to look away — like a rubbernecker at an accident, appropriately enough. Several scenes, especially in the film's second half, generate a level of nail-biting tension, while a climactic car chase is an action scene for the ages. Gilroy's brother Tony, a producer on the film, was one of the architects of the Bourne franchise, and you wonder if he brought some expertise to the realisation of that sequence. This isn't a film for adrenaline junkies on the whole, but that scene is a kick.
Driven by a sharp character examination from writer-director Dan Gilroy, brought to life in a compelling, committed performance from Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler is an appropriately cynical exploration of modern morality as embodied by one outsider, moulded in the shape of a fantastic noir thriller.
The UK TV premiere of Nightcrawler is on BBC Two tonight at 9pm, after which it will be available on iPlayer.
Nightcrawler was viewed as part of my What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen…? 2017 project, which you can read more about here.
It placed 8th on my list of The 17 Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2017, which can be read in full here.
Posted in 2010s, 2017, 5 stars, Crime, Drama, Film Noir: Pre/Post/Neo/etc., Thriller	| Tagged Bill Paxton, Dan Gilroy, Jake Gyllenhaal, neo-noir, Nightcrawler, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, Tony Gilroy	| Leave a reply
Demolition (2015)
Jean-Marc Vallée | 97 mins | streaming (HD) | 2.35:1 | USA / English | 15 / R
Jake Gyllenhaal is a high-flying banker struggling with the grief of his wife's death by taking his life apart — literally — in this slightly strange drama from the director of Dallas Buyers Club and Wild.
It's more of a comedy-drama, actually, despite the apparently serious subject matter, because a large chunk of the plot revolves around Gyllenhaal making a complaint to a vending machine company, pouring his heart out in the process, and then being kinda stalked by the customer service rep, and… well, that's just the first half. I said it was strange.
Despite some witty moments, the emotional truth just isn't there to hold it all together. And the trailer song I once mentioned is barely featured in the film itself, so that was disappointing.
Posted in 2010s, 2017, 3 stars, Comedy, Drama	| Tagged Chris Cooper, comedy drama, Crazy On You, Demolition, dramedy, Heart, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jean-Marc Vallée, Naomi Watts	| 1 Reply
Denis Villeneuve | 87 mins | streaming (HD) | 2.35:1 | Canada & Spain / English | 15 / R
Between his popular English-language debut Prisoners and his apparently-not-quite-as-popular-but-definitely-better-in-my-opinion drugs thriller Sicario (its IMDb score is a whole 0.5 points lower, which is more than it sounds), French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve made this less-widely-seen psychological thriller. I think it may've struggled to find distribution (here in the UK it definitely went either straight to digital or was a day-and-date cinema-and-digital release), which, once you've seen it, is unsurprising: it's considerably less accessible than any of Villeneuve's other English-language features.
The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Adam, a discontented university lecturer, who one day spots a bit player in a movie, Daniel St. Claire, who looks exactly like him. Discovering the actor's real name is Anthony, Adam tracks him down and discovers… well, that's getting into spoiler territory. Let's just say things get more than a bit weird at times.
There's no denying that Enemy is atmospheric, but the actual story was a bit too elliptical for my taste. It was all going fairly swimmingly until it suddenly stopped just before it appeared to be going to offer answers. That naturally suggests you need to go back and reconsider/deconstruct what you've already seen, but it nonetheless makes it feel a bit frustrating, at least initially, and makes reading theories online a virtual necessity for deciphering the movie's meaning (unless you want to try to work it all out by yourself, of course). I've read a few of those theories, and I'm not sure any have won me over 100%, but they did enhance my understanding. Nonetheless, I find myself sticking with my initial assessment.
While looking up those various explanations, I read at least one review that asserted it's a good thing that the film doesn't provide a clear answer at the end. Well, I think that's a debatable point. I mean, there is an answer — Villeneuve & co clearly know what they're doing, to the point where they made the actors sign contracts that forbade them from revealing too much to the press. So why is it "a good thing" that they choose to not explain that answer in the film? This isn't just a point about Enemy, it's one we can apply more widely. There's a certain kind of film critic/fan who seems to look down on any movie that ends with an explanation for all the mysteries you've seen, but if you give them a movie where those mysteries do have a definite answer but it's not actually provided as part of the film, they're in seventh heaven. (And no one likes a movie where there are mysteries but no one has an answer for them, do they? That'd just be being mysterious for precisely no purpose.) But why is this a good thing? Why is it good for there to be answers but not to give them, and bad for there to be answers and to provide them too? If the answers the filmmakers intended are too simplistic or too pat or too well-worn or too familiar, then they're poor for that reason, and surely they're still just as poor if you don't readily provide them? I rather like films that have mysteries and also give me the answers to those mysteries. Is that laziness on my part? Could be. But I come back to this: if, as a filmmaker (or novelist or whatever) you have an answer for your mystery and you don't give it in the text itself, what is your reason for not giving it in the text? Because I think perhaps you need one.
Fortunately, Enemy has much to commend aside from its confounding plot. Gyllenhaal's dual performance is great, making Adam and Anthony distinct in more ways than just their clothing (which is a help for the viewer, but not for the whole film), and conveying the pair's mental unease really well. It would seem he errs towards this kind of role, from his name-making turn in Donnie Darko on out, which does make it all the odder that he once did Prince of Persia and was very nearly almost Spider-Man. I guess everyone likes money, right? As Anthony's wife, Sarah Gadon also gets to offer a lot of generally very subtle acting. Her character's evolving thoughts and feelings are not to be found in her minimal dialogue, but are clearly conveyed through her expressions and actions. On the other hand, Mélanie Laurent feels wasted, her role as Adam's girlfriend requiring little more than being an object of desire — a part she's completely qualified for, but also one she's overqualified for.
Some find Nicolas Bolduc's yellow-soaked cinematography too much, but I thought it was highly effective. Especially when mixed with the location of Toronto, a city we're not so familiar with seeing on screen (or I'm not, anyway), it lends the setting a foreign, alien, unfamiliar feel, which is at once modern, even futuristic, but also dated, or rundown. The dystopian sensation is only emphasised by the distant yellow smog that seems to permanently hang over the city. It's pleasantly creepy, but not the creepiest thing: the use of spiders is scary as fuck. I'm not properly arachnophobic, but I don't like the buggers, and some of their surprise appearances are more effective at delivering chills (and potentially nightmares) than many a dedicated horror movie. (Incidentally, there's a bit in Arrival that instantly called this to mind. I don't know if it was a deliberate self-reference or just Villeneuve recycling techniques.)
For a certain kind of film fan, I imagine Enemy is Villeneuve's masterpiece (at least among his English language features; I'm not au fait with his earlier work). For the rest of us, I'd guess it slips in behind his other movies as an interesting but frustratingly arty also-ran.
Posted in 2010s, 2016, 3 stars, adaptations, Mystery, Thriller, world cinema	| Tagged Denis Villeneuve, Enemy, Jake Gyllenhaal, Melanie Laurent, psychological thriller, Sarah Gadon, spiders, The Double	| 11 Replies
Donnie Darko (2001)
Twenty-eight days, six hours,
forty-two minutes, twelve seconds…
that is when the world will end.
Runtime: 113 minutes | 134 minutes (director's cut)
BBFC: 15
MPAA: R
Original Release: 26th October 2001
UK Release: 25th October 2002
First Seen: cinema, November 2002
Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time)
Jena Malone (Saved!, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Ultimate Edition)
Noah Wyle (A Few Good Men, The World Made Straight)
Drew Barrymore (Never Been Kissed, 50 First Dates)
Patrick Swayze (Dirty Dancing, Ghost)
Richard Kelly (Southland Tales, The Box)
Richard Kelly (Domino, Southland Tales)
Troubled teen Donnie Darko is saved from a jet engine falling on his bedroom by a vision of a grotesque rabbit that tells him the world will end in less than a month. Over the coming weeks, more strange and possibly supernatural events occur, and it all gets quite complicated and stuff.
"Donnie Darko. What the hell kind of name is that? It's like some sort of superhero or something." "What makes you think I'm not?" The eponymous teenager is a troubled young man, possibly suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, who begins to perform acts under the influence of his imaginary rabbit friend.
Our Villains
Who's the greatest evil: Frank, the six-foot imaginary rabbit who proclaims the world is going to end; Jim Cunningham, the motivational speaker with dark secrets; or moral-crusading gym teacher Kitty Farmer?
Best Supporting Character
New girl in town Gretchen may be the only person who 'gets' Donnie. Bonus points to Kelly for writing a geek-fantasy girlfriend character who doesn't conform to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl stereotype.
Donnie: "Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?"
Frank: "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?"
"Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion." — Kitty Farmer
Donnie wakes up in the middle of nowhere at dawn, in his pyjamas but with his bike discarded nearby. As he rides home, we see snapshots of his small town and his family, all set to The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen.
The film makes strong use of contemporary pop music. It all seems to sit perfectly, which is a little ironic as a good number of tracks were changed because they couldn't afford the rights on such a low budget. The director's cut restores some of the original choices, which was a mistake. The film's soundtrack composer, Michael Andrews, and his chum Gary Jules recorded a cover of Tears for Fears' Mad World for the film, which wound up being the coveted UK Christmas number one for 2003 (beating the likes of The Darkness' Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End), and Bill Nighy's Christmas is All Around from Love Actually).
Whoever owns the rights attempted to cash in with sequel S. Darko, about Donnie's younger sister. Richard Kelly wasn't involved at all. It was not well received.
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards special citation for "the best film not to receive a proper theatrical release in Canada".
"has a texture and tang all its own, despite its remarkable mixture of genres and expressive modes — horror, romance, science fiction, teen flicks, and Robert Bresson meets Generation Y, to name a few. There's also a dry realism in its evocation of suburban life, which abrades nicely against the bouts of slow- and fast-motion photography that jiggle time and make the ordinary shiver. Kelly, who also wrote the script, has a great ear for family dinner-table arguments about politics, teenage debates about the sexual habits of Smurfs, and the quotidian absurdities of small-town colloquy. Local busybody Kitty Farmer's near-hysterical complaint to Donnie's mother, "Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion" (the name of their daughters' dance troupe), is for some unfathomable reason my favourite line of dialogue this year." — Leslie Felperin, Sight & Sound
What the American Critics Said About the Director's Cut
"First-time writer-director Richard Kelly's breathtakingly ambitious Donnie Darko was one of the best pictures released in 2001. Now that it has returned in a 20-minute longer — and richer — director's cut, it seems sure to be ranked as one of the key American films of the decade." — Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
What the British Critics Said About the Director's Cut
"If it's your first viewing, you should still be wowed by an astounding masterpiece. But this is undoubtedly the lesser of the two cuts, and since you have the choice, you should stick with version one. […] All this director has done is cut a star off his five-star debut." — William Thomas, Empire
"Maybe Richard Kelly's fate is to be the cult circuit's Michael Cimino — forever admired for one great film amid subsequent missteps, including a director's cut of the same movie. Kelly has yet to match the mysterious mood or magnitude of his filmmaking debut […] a collision of time-travel sci-fi, commentary on '80s Reaganomics malaise and teen angst that's simultaneously witty and poignant. Non-Darkolytes should start with the enigmatic theatrical cut and proceed further if curious." — Nick Rogers, The Film Yap
IMDb Top 250 #210
When it finally made its way to UK shores, about a year after its initial US release, Donnie Darko was something of a hit — it made more money here than Stateside, in fact. I know several people who stumbled upon it "just because it was showing". Conversely, I made a special trip to see it at a distant cinema at an inconvenient hour, having heard about it from US reviews. I would've been 16, which is probably the best kind of age to become enamoured of its misunderstood teen hero and its complicated, semi-inexplicable sci-fi story. I haven't actually watched it for years, and never made time for the divisive director's cut, but (whatever I'd think of it now) it remains a key touchstone in my teenage film experience.
#27 will be…
Posted in "100 Films"..., 100 Favourites, 2000s, 5 stars, Comedy, Drama, Sci-fi	| Tagged Donnie Darko, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Patrick Swayze, Richard Kelly, Sparkle Motion	| 2 Replies
Prisoners (2013)
Denis Villeneuve | 153 mins | Blu-ray | 1.78:1 | USA / English | 15 / R
Yesterday I wrote about Predestination, a twisty sci-fi thriller in which I guessed all the twists long before the end, but it didn't matter because the film had more to offer. Today I find myself in the same situation: Prisoners is a thriller (though not of the sci-fi variety) centred around some mysteries that lead to big twists, all of which I guessed with complete accuracy about one-third of the way through.* I don't say this to boast — well, I do a little — but my other point is this: while it proved a bit of a distraction, occasionally feeling like I was sitting through aimless red herrings as I waited to be proved right, there's more to Prisoners than just OMG moments.
We set our scene on Thanksgiving in the small, slightly rundown Pennsylvania city of Conyers, where the Dover and Birch families gather for the traditional lunch at the latter's house. As things transpire, they can't find their two little girls, and a suspicious RV parked down the street has disappeared. Fearing the worst, they call the police, who track down the RV and its driver, an adult with the mental capacity of a ten-year-old. The girls are nowhere to be found. He's the obvious suspect, but he couldn't've taken them… could he? As Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) pursues an increasingly complex investigation, unsatisfied Dover patriarch Keller (Hugh Jackman) thinks he might need to take matters into his own hands…
There's a lot going on in Prisoners. While the basic format is straightforward, it's realised in the form of a multi-stranded narrative full of well-drawn characters with complications of their own. Jackman and Gyllenhaal may be top billed and on the poster (well, an air-brushed waxwork vague approximation of Jackman was on the poster), but there's actually a powerful ensemble cast here, and it's their performances that help the film to stand out from the thriller crowd — as well as to overcome the fact I guessed all the twists.
So we have: Maria Bello as Grace Dover, who begins to crack under the mental pressure of her daughter's disappearance. Terrence Howard as Franklin Birch, who, based on their houses, is clearly in a better financial situation than Keller, but is he man enough to help Keller do what he feels needs doing? His wife, Nancy, played by Viola Davis, may at first suggest a fragility to match Grace's, but it soon becomes clear she wears the trousers in this marriage. As mentally stunted suspect Alex Jones, Paul Dano gives a well-managed dialogue-light performance, not straying into caricature. The aunt who raised him, Holly, played by Melissa Leo, is protective, but also doesn't seem all that shocked by the accusations levelled against him.
Then we do have our two leads. I think Gyllenhaal's Det. Loki may be supposed to come across as a first-rate cop — he's certainly so good that he can tear his Captain a new one about not doing stuff properly and not get a dressing-down for it — but he struck me as a little less than ideal. I mean, he's effectively a small-town cop suddenly stuck in a child-kidnapping (and possibly murder) case — of course he should be out of his depth. He's not a bad detective, just not the usual genius-level investigator you normally find in thrillers, and at times you feel he's muddling his way through the investigation as best he can. Aside from giving Loki the slightly-affected tic of blinking too much, Gyllenhaal offers a reasonably restrained performance. (I'd love to know what the blinking was in aid of, but the film is woefully understocked with special features.)
Jackman gets a showier turn as Keller Dover, the dad who prides himself on being a strong, capable, prepared-for-anything kinda guy. This is partly a value his father instilled in him, he tells his son, but you have to think there's an element of it being a response to the emasculation of not being able to fully provide for his family — there's not much work around, he mentions, and their home environment clearly isn't as well-appointed as the Birches'. He does have a basement full of survivalist gear, though, and we first meet him coaxing his son into shooting his first deer. This is a man ready to do what he feels is necessary, and what he feels is necessary takes him — and, by association, several of the other characters, and indeed the whole film — to some dark places.
Not that the film needs any help accessing dark places. The truth behind what's happened to the girls is very dark indeed… though that would be spoiler territory. I thought it was a good solution, even if I did guess it so early on, but I've seen others suggest it's too neat. I dunno, but I think it's come to something when a film answering all its questions and explaining all its threads is seen as a bad thing.
Denis Villeneuve's direction gives the sense of a non-Hollywood background with the occasional arty shot choice or composition, though not to a distracting extent. He's aided by serial Oscar loser Roger Deakins on DP duty, who once again demonstrates why he shouldn't have a golden man already, he should have a cupboard full. The photography here doesn't flaunt itself with hyper-grading or endless visual trickery, but is consistently rich and varied. Deakins may also be the best action cinematographer working — pair what he brought to Skyfall with a climactic car dash here and you have a more impressive action demo reel than you'd expect from the kind of guy who has multiple Oscar nominations to his name.
In the end, I find it a little hard to succinctly assess Prisoners. We have a film of complex characters brought to life with vivid performances, though the latter are not adverse to an element of grandstanding, and some of their actions slip into genre familiarity. So too the narrative, which for all its twists and turns isn't a world away from any number of airport-bookstore doorstop thrillers — and that length is certainly mirrored in the two-and-a-half-hour running time. The fact that I was waiting for my predictions to be confirmed also colours my perception somewhat, because while I don't think the film completely leans on its twists, it was a bit of a distraction. Nonetheless, you can't deny the quality of the moviemaking, particularly Villeneuve's sweeping direction and Deakins' rich cinematography.
As a thriller that is also a drama about people caught up in those events, and the lengths to which some of them may be prepared to go, Prisoners is a must-see for anyone with the stomach for some dark material (though don't let me overemphasise that point — it's not as bleak as, say, Se7en). Is it a classic in its own right, though? Not sure. But it is very, very good.
The UK network premiere of Prisoners is on Channel 4 tonight at 9pm.
* For those playing along at home: the precise moment I got it (explained in non-spoilery terms) was when Det. Loki visits an old lady and watches a VHS. ^
Posted in 2010s, 2016, 4 stars, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller	| Tagged Denis Villeneuve, Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano, Pennsylvania, Prisoners, Roger Deakins, Terrence Howard, Viola Davis	| 2 Replies
End of Watch (2012)
David Ayer | 104 mins | streaming (HD) | 1.85:1 | USA / English | 15 / R
I don't think anyone paid writer-turned-writer/director David Ayer much heed when he was one of a pack of people penning historically-inaccurate submarine thriller U-571, inadvertent franchise-launcher The Fast and the Furious, or TV-adaptation actioner S.W.A.T.; nor when he first turned his hand to directing with L.A. crime thrillers Harsh Times and Street Kings. He did have the claim-to-fame of having penned Training Day, though. But then there was this: a found-footage cop thriller starring a shaven-headed Jake Gyllenhaal, which found its way onto a variety of best-of-year lists back in 2012. At the same time, however, it has more than a few detractors. So which is it?
The film follows a pair of South Central beat cops (Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña) who accidentally get caught up in some kind of cartel drug war. That overarching element is so subtly fed in that many a viewer seems to have missed it entirely, instead just seeing the film as a series of episodic vignettes about the life of cops. That's usually then levelled at the film as a criticism, but I think I'd like it more if that's all it was. The huge scale of the villainy our leads unwittingly find themselves facing means they encounter increasingly grand crimes, at odds with the "everyday policing" feel of the documentary-esque camerawork and tone. It ultimately leads to an overblown and unrealistic climax that would feel more at home in a Die Hard sequel than a found-footage cop thriller.
Ah, found footage. Some despise it. I'm not sure anyone loves it. I don't mind it, so long as it's used appropriately. Here, the found footage aspect is abandoned literally as soon as it's introduced, rendering it absolutely pointless. If Ayer had just shot the film handheld and up-close, it would wash as a stylistic choice; because he attempts a diegetic explanation for why it's shot this way, but then breaks the rules of that explanation instantly (and continues to do so, with increasing frequency), it turns a valid stylistic choice into an irritating, ill-thought-out distraction. Plus: you want to be innovative and shoot an L.A. cop movie on digital video? Too late! Michael Mann already got there… in 2006.
Ayer at least sees fit to include a rather cool soundtrack. It's location-appropriate, so not my kind of music generally, but it works… with the possible exception of Public Enemy's Harder Than You Think, which for some British viewers is most familiar as the theme music to the Paralympics and topical comedy series The Last Leg. On the other hand, bonus points for including a snippet of Golden Earring's Twilight Zone, thereby bringing to mind The Americans season two finale and its incredible use there. (Not enough people watch The Americans. If you don't watch The Americans, you should watch The Americans.)
Also on the bright side, there are several excellent performances. The scenes of Gyllenhaal and Peña just driving around chatting are infinitely more enjoyable than the somewhat clichéd, under-explored crimes they have to deal with. As the cops' romantic partners, Natalie Martinez and Anna Kendrick are very good when they're allowed to be, but are too briefly on screen. That's because the home-life side of things is just a subplot, but I think the film would've been more enjoyable if it had been 100 minutes just hanging around with the two officers and their families, all the crime palaver be damned.
Although there are things to commend End of Watch — in particular the performances, and even a couple of tense sequences when the filming style actually pays off — I can't get on board with it being a best-of-year-type movie. Even if it could've been more — and, in spite of that varied CV, isn't the best thing Ayer's done (I very much liked his next movie, Brad Pitt WW2 tank movie Fury) — this isn't a bad effort.
This review is part of the 100 Films Advent Calendar 2015. Read more here.
Posted in 2010s, 2015, 3 stars, Crime, Drama, Thriller	| Tagged Anna Kendrick, David Ayer, End of Watch, found footage, Jake Gyllenhaal, Los Angeles, Michael Peña, Natalie Martinez, South Central, The Americans	| Leave a reply


The LG Optimus Vu comes with an 8 megapixel camera, capable of capturing 3264 x 2448 resolution images. There is a single LED flash, but it won't be of much help in most low-light situations.
We found the user interface to be quite convenient, though many of the important settings are inside the extended settings menu, so they take a while to toggle.
From the viewfinder you have access to the front/back camera toggle, digital zoom control, exposure compensation and flash mode. The extended settings let you adjust things like resolution, face detection, geotagging, ISO, white balance, self timer, scene and shot modes (the last two really should have been made available on the top level in the viewfinder).
While there is no hardwired shutter key, pressing the volume keys will snap a photo (either one works). It's not such a good idea though. First, the volume keys don't obviously have half press and second, it's hard to comfortably hold such a wide phone. Of course, there's the virtual on-screen shutter button as well.
Photos from the Optimus Vu have quite a bit of noise in them and the post processing algorithms that try to suppress it wipe out a good deal of fine detail and there are signs of oversharpening. There's still decent detail left, the colors are accurate and the Vu renders shadows well. Photos look at least as good as those coming from an Optimus 4X HD.
Here are a few sample shots we've taken with the LG Optimus Vu.
The LG Optimus Vu joins the long list of tested devices in our photo comparison tool. The page of the tool has information on how to use it.
The LG Optimus Vu doesn't perform as well on our synthetic resolution chart as the Optimus 4X HD, but at least it doesn't have that huge pink spot. Noise reduction is less aggressive and leaves the grass and gravel squares in the second chart in fairly good standing. Under artificial lighting, there's a slight blue tint to the photos.
The Optimus Vu's camera is capable of shooting 1080p videos at 30fps. The camcorder has the exact same settings available on the viewfinder as the still camera. From the extended settings menu you get a few more - resolution, white balance and color effects.
Videos are recorded in MP4 files with a bitrate of 10Mbps, which isn't enough for FullHD. The framerate is stable at 29fps, but a lot of the fine detail is lost to compression. Colors are okay, but the whole scene gets overexposed. That and the continuous autofocus doesn't know when to stop hunting.
Sound is recorded in stereo, with a sampling rate of 48 kHz and 155Kbps bitrate.
Here's a video sample we've uploaded on YouTube. Don't forget to switch the resolution.
And here is an untouched 1080p@30fps (0:05s, 8.9MB) and 720p@30fps (0:09s, 13.5MB) video samples taken with the Optimus Vu.
Compression artifacts are visible across the frame, but the Optimus Vu still manages to keep decent amounts of fine detail. When the lights go out, the situation isn't very flattering - everything becomes very dark and most detail is lost. The final chart shows that there's strong sharpening going on, but again no pink spot unlike the Optimus 4X HD.