The Literate Kitty

"Movie Monday"... Sometimes we all need a little shock to the system—something unexpected, that we know nothing about—to grab our attention, making us sit up and take note. And sure, sometimes the reason we know nothing about whatever is because it really doesn’t hold any relevance for us…but I suspect that’s the case far less often than we might think; if presented in the right way, almost anything can be fascinating. Take “Go”. (I know. If you’re like me, you’re all, “Ummm… that’s some sort of… uh, board   game , right?” —and thus ends the sum total of your knowledge on that .) But wait… it can actually be pretty darn interesting… especially when made sort of futuristic-sci-fi-happenin’-right-the-hell-NOW , as in the surprisingly-engrossing 2017 documentary, AlphaGo (currently available to stream on Netflix). Take a little tech company, whose founders have been working on Artificial Intelligence applications—namely, one known as AlphaGo, which is focuse...

"Movie Monday"... A biology professor delivers her beginning-of-term lecture on the amazing replicative ability of a single cell… the building block of the entire universe  A soldier—MIA and presumed dead—suddenly reappears… somehow altered by whatever experience he’s been through over the past year. And, a mysterious phenomenon—referred to as “the Shimmer”, due to its glimmering appearance—threatens to consume anything—and everyone —in its path… creating seemingly-impossible hybrids from that which it absorbs. So begins Alex Garland’s 2018 film, Annihilation . _ When biologist Lena’s (played by Natalie Portman) husband Kane (Oscar Isaacs) returns, she quickly goes straight from that shock to another, as he starts convulsing and spewing blood within minutes of his surprise appearance. It’s only after he’s been spirited away to a military hospital that she—and we—begin to find out what’s really going on: Kane—along with many others before him—was sent on a re...