Stray Dog (1949)

An entry in the contemporary crime genre of the Kurosawa-Mifune output, as opposed to the classic samurai. Mifune is strikingly young in this film, and it didn’t occur to me until later that this was one of his earliest collaborations with Kurosawa, and in fact, one of his first roles ever. Audiences at the time would not yet have made the connection between the two. The character’s lack of experience and his naivety makes the film. The emotional connection with the tired veteran, who almost loses his life in the process due to Murakami’s carelessness, adds to the stakes. Nearly every single scene reminded the viewer how this particular summer in Japan is oppressively hot. Rather than become repetitive, however, it only served to increase the pressure felt by the main detective with each passing hour he did not recover his gun. All of that culminates in a brilliant and satisfying ending.

Poetic Justice (1993)

What an emotional departure from the first film in Singleton’s loosely connected trilogy. Whereas Boyz is bleak and tense, this film is a lighthearted and tender love story between two young people. Not without its tragedy—there is yet another murder in the climax of the film—the characters transcend this in a happy way. There is a sense of hope the first film never had. The real-life tragic irony is that Tupac would be murdered only a few years after this film. His acting is strong in this, and it’s terrible that we never were able to see his full range. In general, the acting is also consistent with the first film in that it features a cast of both actors who would go on to have enormous careers and musicians not known for acting but turn out to be quite good at it. Singleton and his casting team really knew how to build an ensemble.

Mad Dash Racing (Xbox)

This year, I’ve fallen into the 25th anniversary nostalgia of the original Xbox, and I’ve felt the desire to play some more games from that system. I picked up this game chiefly because it has the unique distinction of being, as far as I can tell, the only game released two weeks before the console itself. I don’t know if that’s true, but the novelty of it made it worth a try. This one turned out to be surprisingly fun! It’s a cart racer, even if the characters are technically on foot. The gameplay is not enough that anyone is going to give up Double Dash!! or Crash Team Racing (picturing college dorm rooms of that era), but it’s definitely good enough to hold your attention. I didn’t play any multiplayer, only the solo adventure mode which is actually quite deep. The levels are branching and intricate, and because they are only one lap, you are not redoing them constantly. But because there are multiple paths, it does inspire a want to go back and run some of the levels again. Speaking of replay-ability, there are medals to earn for finishing levels with each character, finding hidden medals (of which I found zero), and doing attacks and stunts, which gives plenty of satisfying reasons to want to go back. It’s also worth mentioning this game has insane rubber-banding, meaning no one is truly ever out of a race. There were plenty of times where I had a comfortable lead the entire race and lost at the end. Frustrating. But there were just as many times where I would get stuck in a wall for several seconds at a time (this is a launch game, after all), turn the wrong way after exiting, only to be in 1st place within a minute. Exhilarating. As such, there is not much reason to restart in the middle of a race. Fully competent racer, well worth playing again and again.

Boyz n the Hood (1991)

This is an affecting film 35 years later, because it deals with subject matter we've heard on the news and seen portrayed in media ever since. The commentary from the opening scene as well as the final message taken away could be just as true today, that violence among young, Black men is devastating to the community. What this movie did so well was to create that community, make it feel lived in, and then demonstrate how commonplace and standard violence can be. It also illustrates how pointless it is, as lives are lost over escalated squabbles. It opens a window into a world that feels very real. Also, the only thing I really knew about this movie before I watched it, because it's on the poster, was that Ice Cube wears a Tigers hat. Despite the facts, Cube is from LA, director John Singleton is from LA, and the entire film takes place in a five block radius in South Central LA. A frivolous thing given the heaviness of the rest of the film, but it will never not be distracting to me.

Ringworld – Larry Niven

I picked this up firstly because it’s a classic in the sci-fi genre, but also partially because I’ve been exploring more Halo content this year, and I was always told this loosely inspired the game franchise. The connection is obvious—gigantic ring floating in space capable of supporting life—though the similarities mostly end with the structure. This book was a product of its time; the main character was a bland old, human, male who was pretty much inconsequential to the plot of the story. The aliens are portrayed in a range from curious beings to savages. The female characters serve only to captivate and adore men while remaining otherwise clueless. So, while the character work was uninspiring, I did appreciate the science fiction rules of the world. I was also a sucker for the revelation that the largest mountain was actually an inverted tear from a passing asteroid. Functioning purely as a travel guide to this strange world was entertaining, even if the events along the way were lacking.