ALT: Joel Kinnaman as Tak Kovacs in a dark, strange world, wearing a blue coat and shirt; he's looking around in wonder. Oh god, I didn't know whether I could get past the first episode: I love dystopian futures, but this seemed hackneyed... Altered Carbon has the feel of sometimes The Hunger Games , sometimes Harry Potter , often Repo! The Genetic Opera or Gotham City or Narcopolis .There's martial arts, comic booky treatments, digital effects and story content. Some of it is dumb, and the names for things in the future are lazy: The Array is the internet, a sleeve is a host, ONIs are basically smartphones, Poe is like TNG's Data, Meths are the 1%, and paying my chip-implanted fingers is technology that's already here. The "strong, independent woman cop" is the lamest character attempt/trope out there, and the actress is terrible. The producers seem to be trying to appease audiences on every front rather than trying to make a solid, consistent produ...
Tons of good films to recommend these days, of which the surprisingly most touching was My Architect, the story of Nathaniel Kahn's search for the truth about his father's life. Poignant and luscious architecturally, this film delivered. 
Another pleasant surprise was What the Bleep Do We Know?, surprising because it actually made the rudiments of quantum physics understandable to the layman. Normally I would run the other direction from discussions of either physics or philosophy, but with creative visuals and narrative most of the concepts are accessible. Of particular importance to the Christian was the topic of thoughts affecting 'inanimate' objects change their properties, such as the molecular shifts in the photographed water. Now, you can decide this is 'outlandish' and full of 'bizarre claims', or you can approach it with a sense of openminded wonder and mystery. It's not gospel, but it's food for thought. It stars Marlee Maitlin, too, and who doesn't love her? 
It seems to be the summer of the cineplex film, so to speak: I keep inadvertently coming across movies about people's concurrent experiences. This week I saw 13 Conversations about One Thing. While I have enjoyed the other similar movies (posted previously), this one focused on faith, the human condition and--my favourite theme--redemption. Amy Irving's character absolutely seethes with unexpressed rage, and Alan Arkin, one of those actors one tends to forget about but who is very good, plays Everyman, if we are honest. As my dad would say, 'Terrific!' 
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