Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer is a tour de force of filmmaking. A three-hour epic that captivates from beginning to end. It should be required viewing in film schools. No obtuse, pretentious camera angles or overwrought, hideous color grading or fast cuts all over the place. It’s wonderfully nuanced with lots of attention paid to the pace of the film. Sometimes you experience art whether it be a film, an album, a drawing, etc. and you feel that what you’re experiencing was created with love and care. You can tell that Christopher Nolan loved every minute of the making this film. It shows on the screen. It’s like his own personal little love letter to cinema. Perhaps even a thank you note, lavishing cinema with his appreciation for making him the person he is.

The credits appeared and I sat in my seat in silence. I slowly got up and exited the theater in awe, pondering what I had just saw. I found myself struggling to find the words to critique it. I couldn’t find a single negative thing to say about the film. I daresay it’s perfect (to me).

It checks every conceivable box for greatness:

• Captivating, nuanced, and emotionally stirring performances from the star-studded cast? Check.

• A well written and an utterly fascinating story? Check.

• Cinematography that’s breathtakingly beautiful yet purposeful? Check.

• Sound design that gives weight, tension, and realism to the action and emotions onscreen? Check.

• Editing that pushes the pace of the film without feeling like whiplash or a slog? Check.

• Living up to the hype? Check. And check.

I really can’t fault the film. Bravo Nolan. Bravo. This is your masterpiece.

Oppenheimer is why I love films. Why I went to film school. Why I love going to the theater even if it’s waned in popularity in the past decade. It’s Best Picture and it’s not even close. My guess is Killers of the Flower Moon will win(for…reasons), but Oppenheimer deserves it most.

I’ll be seeing it a few more times during it’s theatrical window. Partly to study the film from a filmmaking perspective and also to enjoy the story again as a member of the audience.

I can’t recommend it enough.

Bravo.

Revisiting and Returning to Lightroom

Adobe can pat themselves on the back for many of the new features they’ve implemented into Lightroom in recent years. I’m thoroughly impressed, especially with their denoise feature. I’ve switched between Lightroom and Capture One throughout the years for various reasons, but now I really appreciate what Lightroom does in terms of digital asset management. I find it much easier to organize, sort, and rename images.

My images live on a large external drive in a RAID array and for some reason Capture One has a problem renaming them, often taking 15+ minutes to rename a group of about 500 images. This only started around the release of Capture One 20. I’ve searched for years for a fix to the issue to no avail. The same group of images in Lightroom takes mere seconds. I think Adobe has a better understanding of software development so optimization for different setups is generally flawless. Although I do love many of the features Capture One affords.

Between the two of them I think the Capture One image looks slightly better but it’s splitting hairs. I prefer the overall experience of Lightroom and will be switching back. Capture One will mainly be used for tethering which I think is still the superior experience between the two programs.. Now if only Adobe would an ability to set custom shortcut keys.

The Trade-In Scam

If Gamestop has taught us anything, it’s that Trade-Ins are a scam.

Best Buy sent me this wonderful bit of marketing material in regards to trading in some old electronics I may not be using. “Trade In and Trade Up” they say. Pictured in the ad is a Nikon Z7 which I purchased from them years ago which cost about $2700 at the time. Now, only a few years later, the trade-in value is $165. Unless I was extremely hard up for money, I would never consider such an offer. I’d just keep the camera and use it at that point.

Companies prey on the ignorance of their customers, presenting their trade-in values as good deals. You’re much better off selling on eBay, Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, forums, etc. than to be royally screwed by stores offering some sort of trade. The amount they offer you will be insultingly low versus what you initially paid for it, whether the item is a recent release or years old. If the item cost more than $500, it’s best to sell to someone directly or keep the item. If it’s a cheap item, say under $250, trading in may not be the worst scenario.

Also consider trading in if there’s some sort of offer to increase the trade-in value. In the case of photography, manufacturers often have a special offer where if you trade in your old camera, they’ll give you an additional credit on top of the trade-in value towards the purchase of the new camera. Sony currently has such an offer where they’ll give you an extra $500. That could be a sweet deal if the item you’re trading in has very little worth these days.

But in general, avoid trade-ins. They’re a scam.

In Search of Escapism? Look to the Past

In this dreadful time of nearly every form of American media being infected by politics, short-sighted and often malicious agendas, and altruistic posturing, it can be hard to steer clear of it all. Beloved characters and IP’s being rewritten for “modern audiences”, award shows changing their rules, preachy messages that aim to make you feel bad about nearly everything, and the pandering, oh the pandering.

It’s all so tiring. It makes one ask, “What is even counter-culture anymore? Where did it go?”

So what can you do?

I would say vote with your wallet, but it’s not even about profit for companies that peddle this drivel. They’ve chosen the hill they wish to die on, so I say let them.

Now’s a good time to turn to the past. Consume old media. Old tv shows, movies, music, and books. Oh books! Not some politician’s autobiography that was ghost written by someone else and suspiciously is a New York Times Bestseller even before release. I mean fiction. Stories that spark your imagination and take you somewhere else. Neverland, Narnia, Middle Earth, Hogwarts, etc. Heck, Mars or the Moon.

Literature is perhaps the last bastion of free expression. Probably because most people under the age of 40 don’t read.

Of course, you may not stay as hip to the “current thing” as your peers, but they’ll all be mindless zombies once they connect to those new Apple Vision Pro headsets anyway.