2017 was a pretty killer year for movies, pervaded as it was by a haunting tone. Legitimately, the top 5 of this year are all time classics, and the next 10 are watch-whenever-its-on bangers across the board. Usually there are films that I love but make me wince, or pretty puzzle boxes that lose their…
As we move into the back half of the decade, it seems that a lot of the innovation in gaming is coming from unified experiences. Games are offering a higher level of style to service their mechanics, and in this way have avoided the trap of simply aping film. Many games are sequels or iterations…
The best album of the year is Damn. If you go by any metric – popularity, importance, influence- Kendrick Lamar’s Damn is this year’s champion. So go have a listen. However, here on the highway to hell some of us lost souls still need the guitar to haunt us. This year, it feels like everyone…
Hello Gentle Reader, wherever you are. To make up for lost time never regained, we have exploded the top albums list this year to include WTMFA (way too many fucking albums). To prevent the reader from slipping into a catatonic state, descriptions for many of these albums in the lower ranks has been left brief,…
We’re back dear reader, Synthetic Error abides. This one goes out to all the space cats riding the cosmic rails, and what’s out there with them, blasting like x-rays from man in the moon marigolds? Television! Jesus there is a lot of it to watch. 2017 saw the world hitch into a slightly more depressing…
2016 was filled with stunning, particularly emotional movies this year. After 2015, the year of the “concept album” film, we enjoyed some well crafted respite with films somewhat less complicated, but which often struck strong tones. Here are some asides to fill in the landscape; movies like Jungle Book, Fantastic Beasts and Where To…
Video games have a very different critical cycle compared to other forms of media. Movies, which can be consumed during a night out, tend to trigger a wide variety of opinions thereafter. Mostly lauded films will still earn bipolar, unpredictable opinions (that last Meryl Streep was good despite the reviews, or that Paul T Anderson…
Greetings Errorer, Another year has come and gone for rock and roll. Although the conversation at large remains centered on egotists who rely on synthetics, under the city’s surface thousands of rockers toil in the sewers and abandoned warehouses of the not quite hip part of town. In a way it is sort of a…
Here we go, another year in peak TV. The well continues to broaden and deepen, with great directors and movie stars dropping into the once quaint suburb to stir some shit up. This year seemed to be about vulnerability, about trying to understand who we are from a place that’s not always quite safe. Here…
Without further ado, the final part of Synthetic Error’s Best of 2015 series. Here are the best movies of 2015: 1. Son of Saul 2015 wasn’t much for drama, but this Hungarian film about the Holocaust dropped in at the last minute and punched me in the stomach. At least that’s how I felt. Son…
The nature of the game industry is changing. As a product, video games stabilized in the post crash 90’s behind four or five major console makers with standardized products. I bet you can’t remember a PacMan 2. In contrast, what about Megaman 1 through 10? Sequels are a sign of an industry figuring out what…
Maybe it was a little too soon to proudly proclaim rock not dead- this year dragged its blue suede shoes pretty bad and left its electro shit all over the carpet. Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but even in the minor leagues it seems that interest has faded for guitar-lick based music and metal…
Dear Gentle Reader, So much has happened to us this year. Is God angry with us? He seems to be angry. But remember that, like beer, he provides millions of hours of stories to mollify us, to soothe us, and brush our hair out of our eyes. Perhaps a new fear tingles just behind your…
Sicario has one of those rare trailers that absolutely nail the the tone without giving anything in particular away. It communicates the lurking violence and confusion of the drug war by taking pieces from No Country for Old Men and Miss Bala, displaying a film that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border to illustrate people on either…
One of the most enduring mysteries of our time is whether Ridley Scott is any good. Often cited as a visionary director, he has pounded out classic after classic. On the other hand, he has shredded some of our monomyths into forgettable pulp, practically eliminating stories that had survived in the public imagination for eons…
