Biosphere

It does seem like the overarching narrative universally composed for apocalyptic consumption, is that our widespread dependence on fossil fuels will eventually lead to disastrous ends.

Fossil fuels being the ancient remnants of once ebullient and flourishing life, it's like that fluid life is integral to the planet's vitality, and it's limitless use devastating to it.

It's limitless use has led to exotic comforts and prolonged longevity only conceivable to ingenious cavepeople, but the resultant destructive weather patterns ominously suggest our efforts have backfired.

Further, the desire to consume by an affluent enormous ravenous population, has led to the exhaustion of global forests, and as carnal consumption exacerbates global heating, it's as if science has proven our practical limitations.

As if God created a biodiverse planet with manifold imperceptible checks and balances, which science slowly unravels, proceeding in error from time to time.

One such balance was the number of lifeforms the environment could reasonably sustain, and if one lifeform consumed the others to preposterous limits, other ways would be found to manifest jeopardy.

In addition, the versatile life blood (oil) was voraciously used up with no regards to moderation, the Earth responding with calamitous reckoning designed to promote inhabitability. 

In Biosphere, we find two survivors living on a planet thoroughly polluted, yet to bounce back from meteorological armageddon, living together in a secluded dome.

It's an odd balance of hyper-intensity and raw comedic lackadaisical mayhem, an enticing balance struck between zealots and the easy-going precariously situated within perdition.

Perhaps it could come to that who's to precisely predict such outcomes, the Earth is quite fertile however, and sometimes finds ways to recover rather quickly.

Take animal life in local environs, during the pandemic the economy wasn't shut down for long, but since then, knock on wood, I've seen unprecedented numbers of animals curiously engaging with their surrounding environments. 

There could be other reasons to explain the abundance of wildlife and perhaps it is cyclical as others suggest (I root for The Farmers Almanac) , but if so I've waited 25 years for this point in the cycle, it clearly doesn't come along very often.

Biosphere is an incredible film vibrantly brought to life by Sterling K. Brown (Ray) and Mark Duplass (Billy), who pull it off with authentic composure within foreboding chaotic inhospitable confines.

If you're a bit squeamish about gender relations the film may not be for you.

But if you look past them and embrace alternative storytelling, you may find a compelling narrative.

*Cool to hear so many old school references. 

Seven Pounds

Seven Pounds is a touching examination of the human condition. Gabriele Muccino's text speeds things up and then flattens them out in order to capture the tenderly mysterious movements of a couple falling in love. It's a film about loss as much as it is about sacrifice and Ben Thomas (Will Smith) does his best to make the most of a dire situation. Both tragic and romantic (with Woody Harrelson demonstrating unprecedented emotional depth), Seven Pounds isolates an excruciatingly painful kernel of life and gently transmits it from dimension to another.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

The latest version of The Day the Earth Stood Still (directed by Scott Derrickson) sees Keanu Reeves (as Klaatu the alien) not trying to save humanity but destroy it. Aliens have decided that the Earth must be saved from us humans and our destructive ways since their statistics state that only a scant number of planets possess the qualities necessary to sustain life (and their projections indicate that life upon ours is irrevocably suffocating). Klaatu attempts to reason with Presidential Representative Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates) but she ain't listenin' to no alien (and neither is the President who never shows up even when the situation becomes catastrophic [a critical chide at George W.'s political awareness]). Consequently, he decides the planet must be terminated but fortunately for Earth's residents determined scientist Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) has just enough yip to contradict his forthright yap.

The film's not the greatest. Its format is sound and it unravels in a mildly entertaining fashion but there's no paprika in this bowl of chili and Connelly's good looks don't make up for the lack of structural subtlety (they are constantly highlighted). The actors portray their characters well but David Scarpa and Edmund H. North's by-the-book script leaves them little room to radiate (note James Hong's [Big Trouble in Little China] heartfelt cameo as Dr. Wu however). I liked how the alien 'robot' unleashes his plague nevertheless: army personnel hack away at his almost impregnable frame and sever a piece from which a nest of exponentially expanding synthetic insects lunge and swarm (a warning to volatile insurgents launching attacks against foes possessing significant militaristic advantages). But I was checking my watch when I should have been analyzing, sipping my cola when I could have been critiquing, shifting out of focus where I was supposed to be zooming in, having a seriously difficult time sitting still.