Inside Jappaguri

In lighter news, here's a great piece -- 12 things you might have missed in Parasite.

Nature's Revenge

The film version of Annihilation is truly excellent, with a rare performance by Natalie Portman that I actually enjoyed.  (For me, she's usually just kind of there without really bringing much to her parts).  In fact, the cast overall is a good one (Jennifer Jason Leigh brings a lot of layers to her performance as well), and the pacing is pretty much perfect with a genuinely uncanny ending that won't leave you any time soon.

Other things I appreciated -- based on the first novel of a trilogy, it would have been in keeping with the times to set up the second and third books for future cash-grabs sequels but no, Alex Garland settled on making a sci-fi opus that comes in under two hours but tells just as much of a story as necessary.

It's a shame that in a world of endless comic-book spin-offs (many of which I enjoy!  honestly!) a truly great, thoughtful, intentionally slow-paced, and relatively low-budget sci-fi flick literally can't make any money.

If you enjoyed the film, do yourself a favor and read the books which are a lot different in terms of characters and plot, but pretty similar in mood and themes.