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…
Movie season is about to start in earnest, so here’s your last chance to call in sick and catch up with those streaming titles before you’ll be back out on the street again giving hj’s for matinee tickets. Start up the old Netflixbox and get to work! Here’s a smattering of films you can find…
One of the interesting side affects of the ongoing remake craze in Hollywood is the fact that purity has become a problem. After a few too many half hearted reboots the audience has gotten wise to the mercenary rebranding of blank scripts. The ongoing arms race has finally brought us round to digging in the…
Before the cerebral no win situations expertly constructed in The Past and A Separation, the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi first cut his teeth on the looser social thriller About Elly. Here you can see many of the ideas that fill his later films, like the nature of shifting perceptions and shifting culpability. Although it is…
