#jason zada

[deepestconnoisseurmoon]

The Forest (2016)

[automaticvr]

HOW AI IS TRANSFORMING ENTERTAINMENT IN 2024 AND BEYOND - JASON ZADA, Founder, Director at Secret Level - Claus Bülow Christensen

[i-love-movie-posters]

The Forest

2016 directed by Jason Zada

[littlemovieposters]

2023 Home Viewing #46: The Forest. (dir. Jason Zada, 2016)

This drama based on Japan's "suicide forest" Aokigahara is the final modern, random oddity I will ever rent via DVD from Netflix. They are ending their DVD service nine days from now after 25 years. I've been a member for most of that time, and this will be minorly life-changing for me. I don't like streaming; I've already cancelled the two non-Netflix streaming services I had access to, and I'm thinking about cancelling Netflix altogether when the DVDs end. I no longer go to the cinema once a week, nor is it possible in my preferred form; in the post-pandemic world, Chicago theaters simply don't show movies past 8 PM very often, and I generally can't go any earlier than that. I suppose it's not important enough for me to adjust to the way theaters work now, but I do miss the days when I would routinely take chances with indie filmmaking I'd never have a chance to see if I didn't live in a major city and attend the cinemas frequently. I'm not sure why this derided indie horror film wound up in my queue, but after watching it I think I must have seen its trailer at Facets Cinematheque, a grubby little volunteer-run theater I often attended for late-night screenings. I don't think they even show films on weekdays anymore, and I always tried to avoid weekend movies. I used to put anything and everything in my Netflix queue if I'd seen the trailer and it was half interesting, and I never removed anything from my queue. This meant I'd often get DVDs in the mail I had no memory of selecting, and sometimes my interest in them had waned, but I'd watch anyway. I'm glad I saw The Forest; it gives me one last taste of my old movie-watching ways. It may be a bit corny, but I thought it was fine for what it is. I've got one last Netflix DVD coming my way before they stop forever, but it's something I've seen half a dozen times. The Forest is the real end of this line for me.

[raybizzle]

"Out-of-Sync" (1995) is a neo-noir film directed by Debbie Allen and produced by Tim Ried under his production company United Image Entertainment. The movie stars LL Cool J, Victoria Dillard, Aries Spears, Yahpet Kotto, Howard Hesseman, and Ramy Zada. The film has a dark atmosphere, and Allen navigates the audience through this fictional underground world. LL Cool J and Allen were already working together in the sitcom "In the House," so she was able to help display LL's best characteristics in his first leading role. However, the movie did have a small budget and only appeared in limited theaters. Nevertheless, this was Reid's early attempt to open doors for black filmmakers with his production company in the mid-90s.

Director: Debbie Allen Writer: Robert E. Dorn

Starring LL Cool J, Victoria Dillard, Aries Spears, Yahpet Kotto, Howard Hesseman, Tim Reid, Ramy Zada, Luis Antonio Ramos, Henry Kingi, Monica Worthy

Storyline Even with his personal life out of control, no one commands the rave club audience like deejay and ex-con Jason St. Julian (LL Cool J). That makes him the perfect target for ruthless cop Marcus Caldwell (Howard Hesseman), who forces Jason to become his eyes and ears at the dance club owned by drug dealer Danny Simon, the same man responsible for sending Jason to prison. While waiting for the big drug deal to go down, Jason flirts with danger every time he flirts with scintillating Monica Collins (Victoria Dillard), Danny's main squeeze. Even in a world of conscienceless hitmen, cutthroat, and sadistic drug lords, Monica is the most dangerous player.

Available on DVD and streaming services.

[tctmp]

Horror  Mystery  Thriller

[vintagewarhol]

[skin-ripper]

The Forest (2016)

[celestica-1988]

Gli yurei sono diversi dai fantasmi, la foresta li usa per ingannarti. Lo sai perché non devi mai lasciare il sentiero? Perché se ti perdi e c'è la tristezza nel tuo cuore loro la useranno contro di te. Gli yurei vengono a cercarti, ti fanno vedere cose, ti fanno desiderare la morte finché non ti uccidi.

Jukai - la foresta dei suicidi, Jason Zada

[moviespot-blog1]

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[movie-shelf]

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[rickjacquet]

The Forest (2016) Directed by Jason Zada

[fuckyeahmovieposters]

The Forest

[raybizzle]

"Out-of-Sync" (1995) is a neo-noir film directed by Debbie Allen and produced by Tim Ried under his production company United Image Entertainment. The movie stars LL Cool J, Victoria Dillard, Aries Spears, Yahpet Kotto, Howard Hesseman, and Ramy Zada. The film has a dark atmosphere, and Allen navigates the audience through this fictional underground world. LL Cool J and Allen were already working together in the sitcom "In the House," so she was able to help display LL's best characteristics in his first leading role. However, the movie did have a small budget and only appeared in limited theaters. Nevertheless, this was Reid's early attempt to open doors for black filmmakers with his production company in the mid-90s.

Director: Debbie Allen Writer: Robert E. Dorn

Starring LL Cool J, Victoria Dillard, Aries Spears, Yahpet Kotto, Howard Hesseman, Tim Reid, Ramy Zada, Luis Antonio Ramos, Henry Kingi, Monica Worthy

Storyline Even with his personal life out of control, no one commands the rave club audience like deejay and ex-con Jason St. Julian (LL Cool J). That makes him the perfect target for ruthless cop Marcus Caldwell (Howard Hesseman), who forces Jason to become his eyes and ears at the dance club owned by drug dealer Danny Simon, the same man responsible for sending Jason to prison. While waiting for the big drug deal to go down, Jason flirts with danger every time he flirts with scintillating Monica Collins (Victoria Dillard), Danny's main squeeze. Even in a world of conscienceless hitmen, cutthroat, and sadistic drug lords, Monica is the most dangerous player.

Available on DVD and streaming services.

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Daily Update #143: Wow (5/22/21)

Now that was a show.

Plain and simple, the Scaled and Icy Livestream Experience represented the pinnacle of the band's technical and creative achievements. It achieved everything I have ever wanted out of a Twenty One Pilots show and then delivered even more than I could have dreamed of.

Even Tumblr eating the entire first draft of this recap will not deter me from raving about just how impressive everyone, but especially Tyler Joseph, was last night. Let's get into it.

The Livestream Experience, directed by Jason Zada, essentially summed up every part of the Twenty One Pilots canon in what was at once a tight one-hour concert and a sprawling Broadway narrative spectacle. It featured almost every song off Scaled and Icy (justice for "Formidable"), contextualizing and expanding on them in a way that won over even the band/album's haters, while also bringing into the fold all of the necessities for a TØP show (the Big Three Hits, "Car Radio", "HOTY", "Trees") and a few more favorites (after 2020, I needed to hear "Migraine" live again). It featured tons of familiar faces (Mutemath members Paul Meany and Todd Gummerman, Dr. Blum, and cameos from Debby and Jenna) and a whole bunch of exciting new talents (kickass bassist Skyler Acord, guitarist Dan Geraghty, backup vocalists Kenyon Dixon and Danielle Withers, an awesome ensemble of dancers and performers, and Mark Geiger and Jo Young as Good Day Dema hosts Dan Lisden and Sally Sacarver).

It's more clear than ever that all the theorists got a lot more right than wrong, as the set-hopping narrative of the show (and especially the deteriorating appearances of Bishops Lisden and Sacarver) made clear that Scaled and Icy is very much a part of the Dema narrative. It's still more than a little muddled exactly what role Tyler/Clancy/saturation plays in this whole thing, but it is clear that there is a direction that all this is heading, and I'm excited to see where it all goes.

I'm also excited to see if/when this gets released. FBR has been doing its best playing Whack-a-mole with YouTube uploads, but I can't help but feel like they're missing major revenue by not either putting this up for sale or getting it on a streaming platform. (Especially since they honestly didn't do the best job selling exactly what the show was going to be until Thursday, which probably cost them some tickets.) I'd absolutely buy a physical copy of this if it was available.

Another thing that may have undercut the financial performance of the show: the general reviews for Scaled and Icy have been rather mixed. NME was positive with a 4/5. Clash went for a 7/10. Kerrang gave a 3/5, as did The Guardian. This is not the near-universal praise of Trench, and the streaming numbers are not as high as the last release, likely not helped by it being so overshadowed by the same-day release of Olivia Rodrigo's Sour to much greater critical and commercial acclaim. The only thing that makes me sad about that is the worry that the band won't always be able to afford to put on spectacles like last night's stream, but so long as Tyler continues to explore and express his full creativity, I will be content.

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[mtgbracket]

Tiebreaker - Tuktuk the Explorer vs Blim, Comedic Genius

Hi folks!  Today’s results included our second win, with these two red cards fetching 152 votes each in Batch 2.16.  As always, I don’t vote in the daily batches just in case.

As a reminder, the format is:

- Quality of design, scored out of 10 - Power level, scored out of 5 (overpowered cards will score lower) - Flavour, scored out of 5 - Art, scored out of 5 (taking the best of multiple arts if relevant) - Place in Magic history, scored out of 5

Here we go!

Tuktuk the Explorer

Design

Tuktuk is a simple concept - an understated creature which promises a reward if you can kill him off.  The reward is pretty simple - a 5/5 custom token - but the card itself leaves it open-ended how you are going to get there.  Unlike some other similar cards, Tuktuk can block, so there’s an easy option for you there, although that does make the card an oddly out-of-feel defensive red card.  Otherwise you can pair Tuktuk with sacrifice outlets for a nice, direct reward.  He also somewhat randomly has haste, which doesn’t add a whole bunch to the design as he’s not a compelling attacker.

Overall, I am not a massive fan of this design - it’s simple but not hugely elegant or compelling.  While getting a 5/5 for three mana feels like cheating, getting a 1/1 for three feels like getting cheated, and it’s not overall an enticing or exciting design.

Power level

Tuktuk is a fairly lacklustre card for a Legend, with a decent reward but no other immediate benefit.  Even the token is just power and toughness.  As you would expect he has a low EDHREC rank, at #1094 as a Commander and in 0% (rounded) of red decks.

Flavour

Tuktuk is a historically notably Zendikari Goblin, having gotten killed by an Eldrazi trap only to have his body replaced with rocks.  This story is well told by the design, as his token is both an artifact creature and a Goblin Golem.  His own flavour text, identical in all printings, provides a little bit of world building explaining what happened to Tuktuk and his subsequent impact on the clan of Goblins that took his name and followed his teachings to destroy and eat hedrons and other rocks - until he was killed by Zada, who took his teachings a little too far.  The idea of a reckless Goblin adventurer getting caught up in a deadly trap is very in the spirit of the Zendikar setting.

Art

Volkan Baga’s orange and red colour palette is lovely, and there’s some nice work with the lighting that draws your attention first to Tuktuk’s face and curiously reaching hand, then across to the intriguing runed surface of the hedron.  The lighting is even diegetic to the illustration, coming from the torch in Tuktuk’s other hand.  There are also lots of nice touches to Tuktuk’s outfit, the background stonework, and so forth.

Seeing as the token exists only for this card, I will consider it lightly.  Franz Vohwinkel’s piece seems to show Tuktuk returning from the same cave - with an orange backlight and some rocks.  Some intimidated goblins crowd around his feet, showing how his experience quickly propelled him to power.  Tuktuk himself is a fairly generic floating rock monster, which we’ve seen many times over, but with some neat hedron markings mixed in.

Place in Magic history

Tuktuk is the namesake of his own clan, seen on a couple of other cards such as Tuktuk Rubblefort.  He appears in some stories but his card and character don’t have any other strong place.

Blim, Comedic Genius

Design

Blim is a bit of an oddball.  He’s a pretty efficient flyer for his cost, with a seriously odd ability.  He must donate your permanents on hitting, and then has a symmetrical trigger based on how many permanents are controlled but not owned by each player.  It’s a clunky wording (necessarily so to make it work), but has some subtle touches - for example, seeing as Blim is designed for Commander Legends limited, his trigger catches each player, not just the one he hits, so that you can continue to punish people for the gifts he’s given on previous attacks even when attacking a different opponent.  There’s also a nice side-effect of punishing anybody playing Mind Control effects on top of the inbuilt donation effect.

Blim is also something that many players wanted for a long while - a black-aligned card similar to Zedruu, allowing you to give away some of black’s many downside cards.  Because of the power of giving away cards like Demonic Pact, he’s not as easy to use as Zedruu, but the power is still there.

Overall, we have a card that’s doing quite a lot on a technical level, but through a bit of an awkward and clunky wording.

Power level

Blim, like many of the 73 new Legends in Commander Legends, has to serve two masters - the needs of the CMR draft format, and taking a swing at the wider Commander format.  Blim manages that reasonably well, unlike many of the others, by taking a unique ability to donate your permanents.  This means he’s done pretty well for popularity as a new card, but more by being unique than by being overpowering - he’s currently at #493 on EDHREC as a Commander, although also in 0% (rounded) of black-red decks.

Flavour

Blim is a brand new character to CMR, and his fairly lengthy rules text means we don’t get any flavour text.  He doesn’t have any other story appearances, just a couple of paragraphs in this infodump article.  He’s flavoured to fit the Rakdos comedy-circus-slash-violence flavour, which has developed over the years since the original Ravnica; the guild started with no clear role in the Ravnican society, but has steadily adopted a sort of “official counter-culture” role.  The name is a bit silly-sounding, if appropriate for an imp, but the design doesn’t really connect to the mechanics especially.  Admittedly this is a difficult text box to find a flavour connection for, but dark / violent comedy isn’t really it.

Art

Jason A Engle’s piece certainly gets the Rakdos feel across, with a terrifying black-red fiery imp character taking up the foreground and a selection of spiky gear, chains, fabrics and more in the background - he’s clearly in the Rakdos performance line.  The “comedian” aspect isn’t really made clear, and the largely flavourless text box of course can’t really be depicted either.  But I am a big fan of the colours and the fade between the reddish orange at the top and the darker, almost black at the bottom.  The funky body proportions of Blim, with his oversized head, is a little funny, but the horns are funky.

Place in Magic history

None to speak of.

Final verdict

Tuktuk the Explorer

Design - 5/10 Power level - 2/5 Flavour - 3/5 Art - 4/5 Place in Magic history - 3/5 TOTAL - 17/30

Blim, Comedic Genius

Design - 6/10 Power level - 3/5 Flavour - 2/5 Art - 3/5 Place in Magic history - 2/5 TOTAL - 16/30

It was close even in the scores, but by an edge I give it to Tuktuk the Explorer!  He will join the Top 256 which will begin on Monday.  Come back tomorrow for some stats and facts!