Category: 2017

Favorites of 2017 – Video Games & Tabletop Games

My Favorite Video Games and Tabletop Games of 2017

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Video Games

Dead Cells
dead cellsFrom my Steam Summer Sale write up on this one:

“Dead Cells is an Early Access title, but one that overcomes the stigma that label can sometimes bring. Like a side-scrolling Dark Souls, Dead Cells drops your nameless protagonist in the middle of an island dungeon with no knowledge of how they got there. As you run, jump, and kill enemies, you collect the two currencies of the game: gold and cells. Gold helps you purchase items in the shops and unlock treasure doors during play. The cells are spent at the end of each stage to upgrade and unlock new weapons and abilities. When you die you start over with your primary weapons, but everything you unlock carries over from playthroughs, able to be discovered and purchased. Addictive, smooth gameplay.”

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Movie Review – I Love You, Daddy

I Love You, Daddy (2017)
Written & Directed by Louis C.K.

ILoveYouDaddy

Glen is a television producer/writer/showrunner with a 17-year-old daughter, China that has him wrapped around her finger. She’s come to enjoy the very privileged lifestyle he can provide her and seems somewhat aimless when it comes to her direction in life. Glen strikes up the chance to cast a famous Hollywood actress in his show and while attending one of her parties China meets Leslie Goodwin. Goodwin is an arthouse writer-director in his late 60s surrounded by rumors of a proclivity for underage women. China is at first repulsed but, much to Glen’s horror becomes increasingly enthralled with the worldly older man. Glen has to decide what is more important: the love of his daughter or her well-being.

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TV Review – Search Party Season 2

Search Party Season 2 (TBS)
Written by Sarah-Violet Bliss & Charles Rogers, Jordan Firstman, Starlee Kine, Anthony King, Christina Lee, Andrew Fleming, and Matt Kriete.
Directed by Sarah-Violet Bliss & Charles Rogers, Lilly Burns, and Michael Showalter.

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The first season of Search Party ends with the central mystery solved but a much more significant problem on the hands of the four main characters: they murdered someone. The second season picks up right where the first let off and becomes an entirely new animal. Dory is wracked with guilt, knowing that her actions led to this murder. Her ex-boyfriend Drew continues to distance himself from her and is now joined by their friends Elliott and Portia. Each of them is dealing with their part in the murder and cover-up in very different ways, yet all destructive and sloppy in some manner. Whereas the first season was a mix of comedy and mystery, this round is still funny but much more psychological and darker in where it goes.

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Movie Review – Good Time

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Good Time (2017)
Written & Directed by Benny & Josh Safdie

good time

Connie Nikas is convinced that his brother, Nickie is just fine. This is despite the fact that Nickie is deaf in both ears and lacks some essential cognitive functions. Connie pulls Nickie from the program their grandmother enrolled him in. The young man has plans to rob a bank so he and his brother can run away from the city and be free of what he perceives as authority crushing them. However, many details are overlooked in this plan, and Nickie ends up caught and sent to Rikers Island. Connie spends the next day desperately manipulating, lying, and stealing to save Nickie.

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Movie Review – Super Dark Times

Super Dark Times (2017)
Written by Ben Collins & Luke Piotrowski
Directed by Kevin Phillips

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New York’s Hudson Valley in 1996 is the setting for this story of a deadly accident and the eventual breakdown of the teenagers who caused it. Zach and Josh are standard bored out of their mind teenagers, regularly unsupervised which allows them to get into a moderate amount of trouble. While hanging out with obnoxious classmate Daryl, the accident as mentioned above occurs and leaves the two friends scrambling. They fail to support each other, and as a result, the guilt slowly overtakes them leading to a horrifying climax.

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Movie Review – Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Written & Directed by Rian Johnson

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The New Galactic Republic has fallen to the First Order’s Starkiller Station. The Resistance is now fleeing its headquarters as the First Order fleet arrives to decimate them. Poe Dameron, the brash flyboy makes some questionable choices on the defensive strategy and comes into conflict with General Leia Organa. Meanwhile, Rey struggles to convince Luke Skywalker to return with her to the Resistance fleet and help turn the tide against the First Order. She eventually reveals her belief that Kylo Ren could be set back to the Light Side, but will learn the truth behind why Ren turned against Luke and his family. She also discovers the plans Luke has for the Jedi Order which will shake the foundations of the galaxy.

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Movie Review – Pottersville

Pottersville (2017)
Written by Daniel Meyer
Directed by Seth Henrikson

pottersville

Maynard runs one of the few stores that’s not been boarded up in downtown Pottersville, a small upstate New York town. One day he decides to get off work early and surprise his wife only to find her caught in a compromising situation with a fellow member of the Furry club. Despondent, Maynard drowns his sorrows in moonshine, eventually donning a gorilla costume and running around the town. As he recovers from his hangover the following morning, the man discovers he was mistaken for a Bigfoot, and now the news is spreading across the globe. A pompous television monster hunter shows up ready to exploit this mystery, and the people of Pottersville are eager to cash in on the newfound fame. But Maynard knows the truth will eventually come out.

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Movie Review – Ingrid Goes West

Ingrid Goes West (2017)
Written by David Branson Smith & Matt Spicer
Directed by Matt Spicer

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Ingrid Thorburn is a mentally unstable woman who seems to have little human contact outside of online social media, notably Instagram. She is released from a mental health facility and returns to her recently deceased mother’s home, still in grief about that loss and deep into her ongoing psychological issues. That is when she comes across an article on Taylor Sloane, a new social media tastemaker. Taylor fills her Instagram with accounts of the food she eats, the clothes she wears, and the activities she and her husband get up to living in Venice Beach. Ingrid decides that Venice Beach is where she needs to be and cashes out her inheritance to go there with the chance of running across Taylor. Eventually, this chance meeting occurs and Ingrid’s problems only compound from there.

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Movie Review – The Book of Henry

The Book of Henry (2017)
Written by Gregg Hurwitz
Directed by Colin Trevorrow

book of henry

Henry Carpenter is an 11-year-old boy living in the Hudson Valley who is practically perfect in every way. He wows his schoolteacher, his mom, and pretty much everyone he comes across. He has taken over managing the family’s money while his mother works part-time as a waitress and writes/illustrates children’s books. But Henry has also discovered a terrible secret about the girl next door. She is in an abusive situation, and Henry feels as if he is the only person who can do something about this. So Henry begins to devise a plan.

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Movie Review – Kuso

Kuso (2017)
Written by Flying Lotus, David Firth, & Zack Fox
Directed by Flying Lotus

kuso

An earthquake has struck Los Angeles somehow leading to the mutation of the inhabitants of the city. Through four segmented short films, we explore the absurd, body horror that is created as a result. Gallons of excrement and seminal fluids are splattered across the screen in a very singular work that screams with the intent of unsettling its audience.

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