The Sky Didn’t Load Today and Other Glitches
By Magdalena Nitchi
After attending a special Sip and Social at Saga Bookstore in October which also served as a meet and greet, I couldn’t resist buying a copy of Rich Larson’s latest short story collection, The Sky Wouldn’t Load Today. Consisting entirely of flash fiction (stories of 1000 words or less), Larson’s latest oeuvre is the perfect delight for a reader on the go.
With over 200 short stories under his belt, Larson has honed the form into an art. Only a few words were needed to have me root for a character or immediately despise them. While it’s easy to wish that my favourite stories had a more expanded universe or follow-ups, there’s something wonderful about being suddenly dropped into a character’s life through a short piece. From the cybernoir adventures of grizzled detective Shadrack to a humorous tale about action heroes Lester and Kit, who have an emotional heart-to-heart while mowing down quantum parasites, Larson covers a wide range of the emotional beats in these stories.
My favourite was “Ascension’s Eve,” a delightful story set in a far future after the singularity. Two robots, 88 and the recently created 99, make a pilgrimage to meet their “makers,” a few of whom remain in specially designed habitats after the rest have uploaded themselves. The robots’ perspective is an absolute delight to read, and Larson manages to pack in some interesting meditations on parenthood, connection, creation, and corporeality that have made me return to it more than once after first finishing the book.
The Sky Wouldn’t Load Today is an emotional roller coaster in the best way possible. Each work drops you into a very different world, with its own vocabulary and culture, but the reader is never left struggling to catch up. While quite a few of the stories have been published already in other venues, the curation and the lovely illustrations—exclusive to the collection and drawn by Larson himself—make this book well worth seeking out.
The Substance
By Mounia Tiendrebeogo
The Substance (2024) is a satirical body horror film directed by the French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat. The story unfolds as follows: on her 50th birthday, a once-famous but now-faded Hollywood star (Demi Moore) is abruptly fired from her long-running TV aerobics show. As her world falls apart, she hears about a mysterious substance that promises a “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” version of herself. In a moment of vulnerability, she decides to order━and thus, the madness begins.
The movie is, at first glance, a common commentary on female beauty; the relation between young and old, about our relationship to our bodies, and how the world perceives us. But unlike other films, there is something visceral about how it approaches the subject. Everything is squishy and gross, with an emphasis on the flesh and its inherent disgusting aspect. I could hear, taste, smell and feel this movie in my skin. Everything is enhanced to make you feel physically uncomfortable, with this profound, hypersensual aspect to it.
It’s an interesting way to go about depicting self-hatred. The sheer violence and irrationality in which it is shown makes it more cruel. We are confronted by these usually internal feelings, transposed into the external world, and how they interact with both ours and the world’s expectations. The actors chosen for the film are perfectly on the nose, and embody this sort of maddening desire for more, and how out of touch one can be with himself.
The film is also surprisingly funny. It’s pretty self-aware, sometimes even going as far as caricature (I’m thinking about the director, for example). There are moments I found unnecessary, but overall this over-the-top and somewhat grotesque nature is well-balanced, and although it clashes vividly with the sleek, almost airbrushed style, it gives the violence a certain aesthetic. The saturated colours that contrast vividly with each other remind me of Nicolas Winding Refn’s work. There are some references to big heads of the movie industry like Stanley Kubrick (The Shining) for example, and a specific scene towards the end reminded me of Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria.
Overall, The Substance is one of the weirdest films I have seen in a long time, in the best possible way. It’s hilarious, gross, and downright sickening, and I absolutely love it. Viewer discretion aside, I cannot recommend it enough. Going into it blind is my way to go, but either way, it will certainly not disappoint.
Prey
Par Magdalena Nitchi
Je ne peux pas croire qu’il m’a fallu autant de temps pour découvrir Prey, mais je suis tellement contente de l’avoir visionné! Le dernier ajout à la franchise Predator, sorti en 2022, est un prologue convaincant qui se déroule en 1719 dans les grandes plaines d’Amérique du Nord–un cadre très différent de celui plus contemporain des autres films.
Le film suit Naru (Amber Midthunder), une jeune femme Comanche qui souhaite devenir guerrière plutôt que guérisseuse. Comme dans tout bon film d’horreur, après une attaque meurtrière, elle se convint qu’une menace plus grande se cache dans les bois. Taabe (Dakota Beavers), son frère et l’un des meilleurs guerriers de leur tribu, ne la croit pas. Naru part alors avec sa chienne Sarii afin de faire ses preuves en capturant ce qui s’avère être un Yajuta (Dane DiLiegro), qui s’est récemment écrasé sur Terre. Naru doit non seulement trouver un moyen de déjouer ce chasseur extraterrestre puissant, mais aussi faire face à un groupe de voyageurs français cherchant aussi à mettre la main sur l’extraterrestre.
J’aime absolument tout dans ce film. Le décor, le nouveau design de Yajuta, l’intrigue… tout s’assemble parfaitement dans l’un des meilleurs films que j’ai vu cette année. Bien que certains aspects de la culture Comanche aient une touche hollywoodienne–notamment le Tomahawk que Naru utilise ne serait pas du tout utilisé comme arme de lancer à longue distance–le film reste pour la plupart ancré dans la réalité.
Les meilleures parties sont celles des scènes de combat, exceptionnellement chorégraphiées notamment dans la seconde partie du film. Le Yajuta que Naru affronte est un cousin éloigné de la version plus moderne, et son style de combat est à couper le souffle.
Bien que Prey penche davantage du côté action, il offre de forts éléments d’horreur, avec de nombreux animaux et humains mutilés. Même si le film est disponible sur Disney+, il n’est certainement pas pour toute la famille. Cependant, si vous recherchez une aventure de science-fiction historique et palpitante, ce film est idéal.