The Dailies

Word of the Day

Verisimiltude (n., verr-uh-sih-MILL-ih-tood)

The quality of appearing to be true or real. Often used in reference to paintings or things that approach the uncanny valley.

Gif of the Day

TagsAnimalsPigletsJump!Almost made itI think I can...Oh, pooh?

Link of the Day

Cells Interlinked: the Quest for Humanity in Blade Runner 2049

At Dailies Central, our best rule of thumb for whether a movie is good is how much it provides for chewing and further reflection. Beyond the baseline technical components of a movie—Oh, hi, Mark—does the movie stick with you, giving you something to think about and enjoy returning to?

There have been three movies this year that have provided that: Blade Runner 2049, mother!, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. All three of these are "divisive" movies. Each has more on its mind than just chase-the-doodad plotlines. mother! is by far the most ambitious and wild of the three, but Blade Runner 2049 might be the most refined and thoughtful.

Over at Mere Orthodoxy, Jeremiah Webster and Zach Boyd look at Blade Runner 2049's exploration of what it means to be human and find some interesting threads:

For all its talk of abolition and absolution, Joi and K are expendable “product” in Blade Runner 2049. The critique of capitalism and the commodification of sex, of self, cannot be overstated. In an ironic sense, Joi will always be “Everything You Want to See / Hear” irrespective of her evolution as a sentient being. She even comes with her own fanfare, a musical motif that plays when she’s powered on (Peter’s theme from Peter and the Wolf — Prokofiev’s symphony for children). Is the aptly named Joi merely a reflection of K and his desires, or does she herself inhabit an authentic aspect of our shared humanity? And what makes humanity uniquely human, if, like Joi, a sequence of letters, genetic code, accounts for our programming as well?

Go read the whole article. And go see the movie on the biggest screen you can.

TagsMoviesBlade Runner 2049Cells interlinkedNabokovHumanity and purposeJoi to the world?