Stop Frame

Emmanuel Lubezki won the 2014 Oscar for Cinematography for Birdman , but I haven't seen that film yet,  so let's look back at the 2013 film he won the Oscar for, Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity . Given how long ago the film came out, the following is liable to have spoilers. If you haven't seen the film yet, for shame! Buy it, watch it, enjoy it! Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a mission specialist on a space shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. A debris cloud, caused by the destruction of another satellite, shreds the shuttle and leaves Stone and veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) stranded in orbit, desperately trying to find a way back down to Earth. Gravity is a tour de force from start to finish. It opens with a long "single take" scene which begins with the shuttle slowly coming into view, then takes us on a tour of the astronauts working on the telescope. This scene culminates with the debris strike, the destruction of the...

I live in California. I was born and raised here, specifically San Francisco, and I currently reside in the Sacramento Valley. This is now and always has been a weird state. Currently it is a state of denial, especially when it comes to water. Actually, on second thought, we've always been in denial when it comes to water. Water usage and rights have a long and twisted history in California. The film Chinatown actually has a germ of historical truth to it when it discusses the machinations that brought water to the San Fernando Valley and the rest of Los Angeles. From an engineering standpoint, what Mulholland was able to do--build  a gravity fed pipe and aqueduct system that brought water into Los Angeles--is amazing (this from a man with little more than a high school education). From an ecological or even monetary point of view, what he did was disastrous. That what he did now primarily favors one set of farming interests over others is little understood. I think it's s...