Trap

 In the shoes of a serial killer

In August, I saw “Trap” at the cinema, the new film by M. Night Shyamalan, with Josh Hartnett in the leading role.

Cooper takes his teenage daughter to a concert of a pop star, Lady Raven (played by Saleka, American singer and daughter of the director), like many other parents, but once there he notices that something weird. There is an excessive deployment of police forces at the concert venue.
The problem is that Cooper is not a parent like the others: he is “the butcher”, a serial killer.

The first hour of the film is truly exceptional. Even though the trailer had already spoiled the core element of the story (Cooper’s identity), the way it is shown to the viewer is masterful.
Things get a little more difficult in the second part of the film, but overall it’s a great thriller, which kept me glued to the screen for its entire duration (also thanks to the lack of a break between the first and second half).

I can’t tell you much about how the story develops since the fun is in discovering it at the moment, but I can tell you what I liked most and least.

Josh Hartnett’s performance is definitely fantastic. The way he goes from caring father to monster with one look is chilling.
The great thing is that, despite his identity as a serial killer being revealed, in the eyes of the viewer he remains the protagonist, the hero of the story (clearly an anti-hero), while the police force together with the profiler who leads them take on the role of the bad guys. We want him to escape, also because his misdeeds are barely hinted at, without showing anything that would make us truly hate him.
Overall the story is well told through the images, in the way the scenes are edited and in the framing choices, all surrounded by the music of Lady Raven/Saleka.

There are, however, some things that work less well.

For starters, the motivation that drives the police to try to locate a man whose face they don’t know at a concert where there are approximately 3000 other men is weak (a piece of a receipt). In reality, it would have taken far too long to try to verify whether each of them was the person they were looking for. Furthermore, there was the not at all unlikely risk that he was not there at all (what if it was his wife, or someone else, who accompanied his daughter to the concert?).

Moreover, during the course of the film, there are several stretches. For example, Cooper is too easily able to make friends with people who work there and who unwittingly help him. On the other hand, however, those who give him a hard time, creating a twist, could do something simpler and less risky, but which would not allow the tension of the film to be maintained as high.

Finally, I was a little disappointed by the final twist. When I go to see a film by Shyamalan I expect a super twist at the end that shatters any previous expectations. There are several interesting twists in the movie and there is one twist at the end that should be more powerful than the others, but actually it doesn’t work at all. It’s too explained by the character who caused it and, honestly, the explanation and its consequences are too far-fetched. And moreover, there is a certain déjà-vu in it.

To be honest, I had developed an even more shocking theory in my mind and I was a little disappointed to see that the director didn’t want to go that far in characterising the protagonist. Cooper is the classic serial killer with a difficult childhood about which, however, nothing really specific is said and the lack of a real character development (the protagonist!), which would have increased the dramatic aspect of the story, is especially evident right in the final stages of the film.

The only positive note is the open ending, even if only hinted at, almost as if Shyamalan did not want to take full responsibility for leaving a little door open on the fate of a serial killer.
What a pity.

Anyway, I enjoyed it and I feel like recommending you to watch or see it, possibly on a big screen, just to enjoy the maximum possible involvement.

Enjoy!

Lola

A fascinating science fiction mockumentary

The protagonists of “Lola”

The film “Lola” is a science fiction mockumentary, that is, a fake documentary, based on the discovery of a mysterious film relating to an alternative past.

The protagonists are two sisters, Tomasina and Martha, who in 1938 inherit from their father a device (called Lola, like their mother) capable of capturing radio and television broadcasts from the future. Initially, they use it for fun, but then they think it could be useful to provide information to their homeland after the outbreak of World War II. 
The problem is that by doing so, they will end up changing that future with catastrophic consequences.

I won’t tell you more. The film itself is very short, just 75 minutes, but I assure you that it is a real gem, both as an idea and as how it was structured.
At first, it can be a bit alienating to follow the story with all this black and white, partly damaged footage, but then you get used to it. And you are fascinated by the way fiction footage is mixed with real footage from the period.

It is not simply an uchronic story, since there’s also the use of temporal paradoxes, which we usually see in stories where time travel takes place. But here, it isn’t people who travel, rather radio and television broadcasts.

Enjoy!

Then You Run

A British-German series halfway between an on-the-road thriller and a black comedy

“Then You Run” is a 2023 Sky Original series with a British-German production.

It seems like a miniseries since it has 8 episodes and is based on a novel (“You” by Zoran Drvenkar).

 

The protagonist, Tara, who lost her mother when she was just a kid, following the death of her grandmother, must move to Rotterdam to live with her father. Three of her friends and schoolmates (they are teenagers) leave for a short holiday in the Netherlands as guests at her home, but the situation quickly worsens. Upon their arrival, Tara does not answer her phone and, when they finally reach her villa, they make a macabre discovery.

Hunted by a gang of drug dealers, the four girls are forced to flee from Rotterdam to Germany and then to Norway.

To make matters worse, during their escape, they are involved in the death of someone very close to a serial killer.

 

This series is a cross between an on-the-road thriller and a black comedy.

The protagonists find themselves in the most absurd and, at times, truly ridiculous situations and, as the corpses pile up, they emerge increasingly embittered and anaesthetised to violence.

 

Once you approach the vision with a clear idea of what kind of story it is, you will enjoy the continuous twists that are completely unexpected.

The extreme nature of the violence, of the language and of the wickedness of the characters, such that they must be at least a little bad if they don't want to die badly and that those who kill innocents can easily get away with it, make it a decidedly European work and one that we could never have found among American TV products.

 

What can I say? I enjoyed watching it and remained glued to the screen until the last minute, as I had no idea what would happen in the next minute.

 

If you like the genre, I wish you a good watching!

In the Land of Saints and Sinners

A film about revenge and redemption

“In the Land of Saints and Sinners” is a film by Robert Lorenz and starring Liam Neeson.

Set in 1974 during the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, it follows the story of Finbar Murphy, a widower who leads a quiet existence in a coastal town, between drinks in the local pub, shooting competitions with his policeman friend (Ciarán Hinds) and chats with his neighbour. 

But Finbar is actually a hired killer who has had enough of this job and wants to retire. However, he will have to postpone his intention due to the arrival in the city of a group of IRA terrorists who have just committed an attack in Belfast, in which, by mistake, some children also died.
In fact, it combines a careful look at a very particular historical period, the evocative settings of the Emerald Isle and the element of action and violence linked to the theme of terrorism and the figure of the protagonist as an avenger.
The whole thing is so well measured that the result is a pleasant work that is not at all obvious in its development and conclusion.

We are used to seeing Neeson in action stories where revenge is involved, and this is probably the reason why the title “L’ultima vendetta” (The Last Revenge) was chosen in Italia (my country). “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” instead conveys much better the dramatic soul of the story and the desire for redemption with which it is impregnated. 

The result is just under two hours of great cinema, which pass in the blink of an eye as we follow the adventures of a group of flawed characters, all of them however well-constructed and credible, through a story that, once concluded, leaves the viewer with a bittersweet sense of satisfaction.

Really beautiful!

I recommend it to you.

Cult Killer

A serial killer thriller with a noir atmosphere

One of the last films I saw at the cinema was “Cult Killer” by Jon Keeyes with Antonio Banderas and Alice Eve.

This is a thriller characterised by dark noir atmospheres that shows the unlikely alliance between a female detective and a female serial killer who both have a history of abuse.

 

It’s really hard for me to tell you anything about the story without giving too much away. I myself went to the cinema after reading the short description, and I was sorry I did so because it took away the surprise relating to an event that happens right in the first part of the film.

 

Suffice it to say that its protagonist is Cassie Holt, played by Alice Eve (who you probably also remember from “Star Trek Into Darkness”), a private detective who runs, together with Mikeal Tallini, played by Banderas, an agency that sometimes collaborates with the police. Tallini saved her from alcoholism five years earlier and represents something of a father figure to her.

The film shows in parallel the investigations on the case of the serial killer and, through a series of flashbacks, the story of Cassie and Tallini, how they met, how their friendship and their working relationship developed, but also episodes of her past abuse, which had brought her to the brink of the abyss before she met the detective.

I really loved this choice, which allows us to discover little by little what happened in the past and consequently to better understand what is happening in the present.

 

It all takes place in an Ireland with evil and corrupt characters, devoid of any sense of morality and shame, proud of their wickedness, that a serial killer is slaughtering one after the other, to take revenge for the unspeakable evil that they have caused her.

In doing so, however, she accidentally kills an innocent.

And so, as mentioned, an unlikely alliance is born between a detective and a serial killer against the real villains of this story. However, it is an imperfect alliance as it is tainted by a probably unforgivable mistake.

This film contains elements that are very dear to me, including a clever use of flashbacks and the presence of main characters with a dark side, some of whom decide to embrace it while others manage to tame the monster that lives inside them.

If you like them too, I recommend you to see it at the cinema or watch it.

Old

Growing old has never been so disquieting

“Old” is a film by M. Night Shyamalan from 2021.

At the time, I went to see it at the cinema with low expectations. I simply trusted the director in the hope of having a nice afternoon.

The story tells of a group of people who, during a holiday, get stuck on a beach where they age rapidly (every half hour is like a year of life).

I have to say I liked it. I found it extremely disturbing, but not in any way annoying. I was more curious about how it would end than worried about the fate of the characters.

The film has a horror structure, with the classic escalation of deaths, but with the substantial difference that the aim of the story is not fear (or the sense of horror) as an end in itself. The threat of growing old, and then dying, is an enemy that acts more subtly on the psychology of the characters already undermined by other problems (health, mental or family). And then, behind the events that make up the story, there are motivations that give rise to the classic final twist of Shyamalan’s films.

I admit that in some ways I found it less powerful than his other works, also because I was never able to completely suspend my disbelief in the face of what was happening. But the most interesting aspect of the film is the way in which the dynamics between the characters have been developed, who find themselves growing up or growing old in a few hours, and this completely changes their perspective on what they considered the problems of their life.

The actors are good (including Vicky Krieps, already seen in the series “Das Boot” and in the film “Phantom Thread”, and an old acquaintance like Rufus Sewell). The make-up of the adult characters who age is very convincing, as are the casting choices on the children who grow up during the film. Some of the dialogues aren’t the best, and some of the characters’ choices are a bit far-fetched, both in a negative (typical of horror stories) and a positive way, but overall I spent almost two hours of pure entertainment, so I can’t complain.

In fact, if you have the chance, I recommend you do the same.

Curfew

 A British on-the-road dystopian series

© 2019 Sky Original

“Curfew” is a 2019 British Sky Original series.

 

In a dystopian future, a virus created in a laboratory (I won’t explain for what purpose so as not to spoil) has the side effect of transforming people into primitive creatures who fear the light and feed on human beings, basically something between vampires and zombies, which brings to mind the creatures of “I am legend” by Richard Matheson and the film of the same name.

Realising that it is impossible to contain them, human beings barricade themselves in their homes during the night hours (hence the title).

 

In this context, a clandestine race is organised, which crosses the entire British Isle from south to north in a single night. The winners will be able to move to an uncontaminated island.

 

The beauty of this series is not so much the story itself (which involuntarily has references even to the recent past, given that there is a curfew due to a virus!), but the characters.

Through flashbacks expertly mixed with the events that follow one another during a single night, we get to know the characters in depth and discover where the virus comes from and how it got out of control. Everything is peppered with dark British humour, many people dying badly, and various misadventures on the road.

 

It seems it ended with a single season, even if there were the conditions to move forward and perhaps fix the virus problem.

 

In any case, I recommend it to you. At first, it may seem a little strange, but trust me, as you get to know the characters, it will fascinate you.

A freelance translator’s life

 Another way of being a writer

Image from Pixabay

As you know, I’m an author. I published some thrillers and science fiction novels, plus a non-fiction book. But being an author isn’t the only way I’m a writer. I do like writing articles and newsletters, but I especially like translating.

Actually, I’m a freelance translator for almost 20 years now, and lately I decided to dedicate a few articles to this job of mine. They are featured in a Medium publication called Babel, which you can find at this link: https://medium.com/babel

Three articles are available so far.
1)      “Why I am a translator” is about my journey to become a translator, starting from my first encounter with a foreign language when I was five, continuing with my experience studying English, French, and German, while becoming a biologist and a university researcher, and my decision to use my language skills in a profitable way.
2)      “What is translation?” explains the translation process in the mind of a translator and how being able to speak two or more languages isn’t enough to make you a translator.
3)      “Use of translation software” is about the tools a professional translator uses to deliver the best possible version of a text in another language (usually their native one).

If you are a Medium paying member, you can find them at the following links:
1)     Why I am a translator
2)     What is translation?
3)     Use of translation software
Please use these links if you’re a paying member.

If you are NOT a Medium paying member, you can use these friend links to read them:
1)      Why I am a translator
2)      What is translation?
3)      Use of translation software
Please DON’T use these links if you’re a paying member.

I hope you’ll find them interesting.
If you speak more than one language or are a linguist, please share your experience.

COBRA

An intriguing political thriller series

Sky Original (©)

This Sky Original series includes three seasons aired between 2021 and 2023 (until early 2024) and available on demand on Sky.

The story is set in a contemporary context. In the first season, due to a large coronal mass ejection, a solar storm hits Europe, bringing air transport and energy distribution to their knees. The British Prime Minister must deal with the consequences of this event through an anti-crisis unit called COBRA.

The series doesn’t talk about the catastrophic aspect of the story (and that’s the best thing!), but focuses on the way in which politics (above all), the press and public opinion deal with the crisis. It talks about difficult decisions, about characters who try to take advantage of the situation for their own benefit, and about others who risk their lives to complete their work.

Central to the plot are the characters of the (conservative) prime minister, played by a Robert Carlyle in great shape, his chief of staff, played by the excellent Victoria Hamilton, and the head of the secretariat for civil emergencies, played by phenomenal Richard Dormer (whom I had already appreciated a lot in “Fortitude”, where he was the police chief).

While the prolonged blackout brings a whole series of problems and protests to one of the regions of the United Kingdom (the one that the Prime Minister had to sacrifice, despite his intentions, since there was a lack of spare parts to restart all the power plants, and therefore he had to make a choice), the protagonists find themselves facing serious personal and family vicissitudes.

The tension rises, episode after episode, until it reaches its climax in the last one (there are six in total), in which the story is resolved with some appreciable dramatic twists.

I admit that at some points I literally cheered.

I watched the series in the original language, and this allowed me to appreciate several nuances, such as the social differences and territorial origins of the various characters.

In general, I think the story is very well written, also and above all in terms of dialogue.

Season 2 — Sky Original (©)

This first season could almost be defined as a self-contained miniseries, given that it only includes six episodes and the story ends in some way. However, two more seasons were subsequently produced: “Cobra — Cyberwar” and “Cobra — Rebellion”.

In the second season, as you can guess from the title, the crisis affecting the United Kingdom is due to an attack on the British computer system. In the third, instead, the crisis is linked to an environmental disaster.

I liked the first season so much, I wanted more. At the same time, I feared that the choice to extend the story into a second and then even a third season would have caused an inevitable fall into repetitiveness and useless lengthening. Also because it meant that there would be at least one more big crisis, which honestly seemed a bit excessive to me in the same narrative universe and with the same characters.

Indeed, this risk has not been entirely avoided, and we need to make a little effort to accept that all happens to poor Prime Minister Sutherland! But, once this problem is put aside, I have to say that the second and third seasons are also very enjoyable, and I find myself more or less confirming the opinion I expressed for the first.

I won’t say anything else to avoid unnecessary spoilers.

Season 3 — Sky Original (©)

Maybe, if you want to watch this series, you can take advantage of the fact that all three seasons are available so you can watch it all from start to finish. This way you will not lose the connections between the seasons or forget them.

In short, you won’t risk doing as I did. Since I wasn’t sure I had seen the second season, I watched it all again because I couldn’t remember almost anything anyway!

Halo (season 1)

 A review from a non-gamer.

The image above is property of Paramount+.

Let me start by saying that I’m not interested in video games. The last time I played them was on a Windows 95 PC in 1998. So I don’t know what this series is based on. I’m talking about it as a TV-watcher who loves science fiction.

It is a military science fiction/space opera series, set in a distant future, full of beautiful spaceships, planets with the most disparate characteristics and an enemy alien species with which humanity is at war. And one of the most powerful tools of war humans have at their disposal is the Spartans, enhanced and emotionless human warriors. Among these is the protagonist, John-117, known by the nom de guerre Master Chief.

I won’t tell you anything else about the plot because I think it’s better to discover it step by step over the course of the nine episodes of the series. Rather, I’ll just clarify that I’m only referring to the first season. In fact, upon seeing it, you immediately realise that all the narrative threads do not have enough space to be concluded. It almost seems like a great introduction to the rest of the seasons. In any case, there are some aspects that are clarified. Furthermore, I found the twist ending (almost a cliffhanger) very satisfying. With such a complex narrative structure, there was the risk that certain threads would be closed too hastily, but, all things considered, this was not the case.

The plot contains a whole series of elements that are particularly congenial to me.

One of these is undoubtedly the fact of having a protagonist who does not know his own identity at all, and the revelation of the latter is central to the series.

Another interesting element is the use of artificial intelligence (Cortana), which was conceived as a tool for control, but which at a certain point asks itself questions about whether it is right to follow the orders. Here, the AI, which at the beginning has a disturbing and apparently negative connotation, then turns out to be a positive character.

Then there is the presence of a deeply ambiguous character (even more than the AI) in the hands of the supervillains (the aliens), who has a particular evolution. It’s a shame that this character has to fall victim to the usual ruthless karma of American productions, in which repentance is never enough to redeem oneself.

But aliens aren’t the only bad guys. They are in fact only the supervillains, that is, those who are just bad, without any apparent reason. Even among humans are some decidedly negative characters, such as Dr. Halsey, who is head of the Spartan program. However, in her case, motivations are brought to light which, however excessive, have an intrinsic logic that provides the character with a certain depth.

Finally, the special effects are for the most part truly remarkable. The aliens reminded me of several creatures seen in the Star Wars saga. Perhaps only the setting of the battle in the last episode is a little poor.

The only thing that puzzled me was the location of the device that suppresses the Spartans’ emotions: in the lower back. Meh!

Overall, I enjoyed watching this series. The story is intriguing and well-developed. And at the end of the viewing, the curiosity remains, and you are looking forward to diving into the second season as soon as possible.

“Halo” is available on Paramount+.