Review: 'Her'
In this day and age, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that people love technology. That people are in love with technology. But why? Why does any person obsess over it, waiting for days outside of any Apple store to get their hands on the latest and greatest technological gadgetry? With his latest technology-obsessed love story Her, director Spike Jonze presents the story of a man (and culture) in love with technology for one simple reason: to connect.
For what you might already know, or not know, of the indie filmmaker Jonze, his palette of past movies has always leaned towards common thematic workings of totally absurd happenings occurring in very real worlds. Whether it's the finding of a portal leading into the head of actor John Malkovich (1999's Being John Malkovich) or discovering the novel-come-to life (2002's Adaptation), Jonze's style and storytelling has always been set in creating wonderfully warm and weird movies that, through all of the odd ball absurdities, speak to the human condition at the heart of it all.
The same commonality, thematically, is seen here. But where Malkovich and Adaptation were birthed from the wacky-meta head of the great screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, Jonze offers up his first feature as both writer and director. Where the previous film's operated in Kaufman's highbrow and lofty headspace, Jonze's more meek and gentle nature makes Her his most accessible, and emotionally yearning and vulnerable, films to date.
Her may end to stand as one of the most well received of Jonze's work, as well as any to be released this year, or any in recent times. The overall "problem," a civilization of cell-phone and computer-devoted individuals existing merely alongside rather than with each other is as cautionary a tale as it is an astute observation about where the Millennial generation is seen to be headed. Where Jonze shines in this depiction is of how he chooses to show this world. Where it might be easy enough to tell a production designer to create sets that are "dark" and "cold" so that the "flickering chance" of real "love" can more easily be contrasted against and seen, the world that has been created is one of pure lushness and impress. The cliché architectural coldness has been exchanged for a warm, impeccably designed world, where smooth corners and tailored pastel garb populates a high-rise infested city that still feels homey. With flourishes in its camerawork, the overall look and design in which its characters participate in is one of applaudable beauty.
The ambition that Jonze sets out to conquer, in writing, directing, and acting, is fully exacted in this philosophically-stirring yet, sure to be commercial/critical hit.
Though, unfortunately, not all of the characters get to see this mesmerizingly attractive world. Not in the literal sense, anyway. For one character, "Samantha" (Scarlett Johansson), the love interest in the film, is merely an Operating System. This poses a self-made problem for one lonesome soul, a simple man who stumbles into falling in love with the code of 1's and 0's. The man in question is Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix). Recently divorced from real life Catherine (Rooney Mara), Theodore spends his days as a hand written letter dictator (at the imaginary Beautiful Handwritten Letters), creating falsely authentic sentiments for real people. When Theodore learns of new OS's (as the operating systems are so casually referred to) that help organize your life, he decides to create one, selecting a "female" voice as a starting place. The ending place, however, results with him developing a real connection with Samantha, going so far as to fall in love with the also devoted and serving OS.
The magic in the film ultimately hangs on the believability and truthfulness felt for the characters and above premise. For all of the entertaining bells and whistles the "Spike Jonze love story" has, the real reason why this movie is simply a winner comes down to how well Theodore and the pocket-sized camera Samantha's relationship is captured onscreen. Phoenix, however off-putting his off-screen persona you find to be, still proves to be one of this generation's greatest actors. The simple (read: amazing) task of acting in a love story where nearly 90% (89.8%, for all you statisticians) of the film's effectiveness relies on the performances of constantly-rolling close-ups in the most emotionally compelling and driving scenes in the film, is one of the most fascinating acting endeavors seen this year. Phoenix steps into more popular leading man shoes, leaving behind both his drugged out turn "as himself" in 2010's negatively received I'm Still Here as well as the mentally-manic drinker Freddy Quell in last year's The Master, as a more relatable looking for love character, and to great effect.
In a further showing of acting hoop-leaping, the "performance" of Samantha herself by Johansson is already leaving audiences in a tizzy. As a replacement for the on-set voice of Samantha (Samantha Morton), who read/acted off-screen to Phoenix in the movie, Johansson stepped in to record over her voice in post-production, as a change in direction was decided by Jonze when editing the film. With a role, and film, that hangs so much on just the voice of the actress, arguably needing to act in even greater specificity to properly convey the sentiments in a solely auditory way, Johansson steps up to the plate big. When she vocally exhales at one point in one of her and Theodore's conversations, he asks why she did it. She responds that she thought it was just a cultural communicative quirk and way in which to respond to people, an insightful perception on Jonze's part. With her very feminine, very sexy, very warm rasp of a voice, Johansson creates a Samantha that we want to know, and listen to, and when her own character begins to evolve and transform in new and unexpected ways, we want to keep being there, keep loving, keep connecting with her, even when we ultimately can't.
The ambition that Jonze sets out to conquer, in writing, directing, and acting is fully exacted in this philosophically-stirring yet, sure to be commercial/critical hit. After the screening, it had me jumping right into the conversation of our culture's obsession with technology, what "love" even is, and who "people" even are. Her is a modern day masterpiece, romantic, comedic, and dramatic all at once, and all told at the most perfectly receptive and telling of times. At the very least, watching this film with a friend will make for a shared, communal experience, that at the very end, you might both share an exhale, and signify the uniqueness and specialness of how we still connect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6p6MfLBxc
Review: 'Inside Llewyn Davis'
“If it was never new, and it never gets old, then it’s a folk song," says Llewyn Davis, after opening the movie with a smoky rendition of "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me."
By god, this film is an unapologetic folk song.
Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen may have just offered their most telling of films from their self-made canon with this 60's-set folk ballad, Inside Llewyn Davis. Like the all-too-important line as muttered above, the film's story isn't a new one. Heck, even the title is lifted from the 1963 folk record, Inside Dave Van Ronk, from an American folk singer who (more or less) inspired the film, and whose songs and a half benchmark the film, including the opening number's. The story doesn't offer any cleverness in its plot, which makes it one of the most clever films of the year. It doesn't set out to tell you some new "original" take of a wandering troubadour, even though it's one of the most original films of the year. Simply, you're going to get a film of self-packaged simplicity, and may even walk out of the theater thinking, "That's it?"
Yes. That's it.
The Brothers' latest writing/directing effort whittles out all the excess, whittles out all the frill, all the weight of story itself, making this film as simple and bare-bones as any of their film's have dared to be. It's enough of a self-aware statement to think that the Coen's, masters of storytelling, asked themselves here, what is 'story'? Is it something far-reaching, universally-spanning?, or is it about a vagabond who finds a cat?
Without tripping into postmodern territory, the absences of things here are what give the film its ultimate meaning. The film is comprised wholly of vignetted scenes, in which our hero Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) yields his guitar all around the Greenwich Village, climbing in and out of apartment windows for a couch to sleep on while trying to scrape together royalties from his previous musical-duo act's record. After his partner jumps off the George Washington bridge, Davis is left as a one man band, a one-man world.
There is a sly irony here, so presently felt under the surface of it all. It's the story of a non-story.
Llewyn Davis himself is a man guarded, defensive, and just self-serving. It's not that he has ill-intentioned affections for anyone; it's just that his sense of self-lost makes it that much easier for those around him to be splattered with the mess he leaves wherever he goes. He's seen as selfish, but only through the guise of other characters' classifications. When the hate-harboring Jean (Carey Mulligan) blasts Davis for impregnating her and for his general lack of worldly care, its seen as just another instance of a comedically karmic world coming down hard on him. Isaac as Davis is warm, and plays the humor of each situation with his good senses, making his Davis a wholly watchable and sympathetic one.
Watching this film is both a visual and audible treat in the most cinematic of senses. The lensing, washed out colors, placing of the camera, and editing, are all masterful achievements, for a 'Cohen Brothers' film or any. Each element is married together in such a way that the singularly specific writing and directional cues are felt in every frame of the movie. There is a real language here, and it holds your hand to lead you through the picture in such a rewarding way. And of course, with another lovingly devised score with the aid of music man T. Bone Burnett (who put bluegrass music on the pop music market with 2000's O Brother, Where Art Thou? hit, "Man of Constant Sorrow"), its enough to sit back and see Llewyn Davis play a full length song with minimal coverage at any point in the movie.
Again, the absence of its story is what ultimately sets this one aside from any of the Cohens' others. Some will not care for this style, though I'd argue that this instance was flirted with in 2009's A Serious Man. Where we saw more colorful strides in that film's story of a man beholden to the universe's ultimate plans, we see that same theme even further matured, further experimented, and further rewarded here. Davis certainly stands out as a much welcomed return after 2009's so-so standard True Grit. Though it won't wet the appetite for 2007's sprawling Best Picture Winner fans No Country for Old Men, or even the aforementioned O Brother, Where Art Thou? In O Brother, the literary master work The Odyssey is the story's plot; In Davis, the literary master work Ulysses is the name of a cat.
Now about that cat.
The orange furball is such a lovable part of the film. It's certainly a must-include in all of the reviews that can accurately critique the movie. The cat that comes into his life sets the story in motion. It comes, and it goes, for Llewyn can't take care of any living thing, let alone himself. The cat plays as influential a role as does pop-loof Jim (Justin Timberlake) or mysterious curmudgeon Roland Turner (John Goodman). The feline's illusiveness, its penchant for slipping in and out of open windows, follows the journey, and for that matter, significance, of our own protagonist's.
There is a sly irony here, so presently felt under the surface of it all. It's the story of a non-story. A double sided coin that can be flipped deeming 'importance' or 'non-importance,' of 'never-new' and 'never old,' spun from any current or answer that blows in the wind. It's a coin that should be held onto and cherished for such emotional and thematic pondering and remembrance. Or, simply, spent to catch the next bus to nowhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXMuR-Nsylg
Review: 'Homefront'
Though I will now tread on the following cliché, there's certainly trouble here on the homefront. Both, in the plot of the new "Jason Statham movie," Homefront, as well as in the so-so mechanics of that movie itself. It's not that there's any offensively bad filmmaking going on here- the pegs of the family rivalry storyline all fit nicely in their holes, which makes for easy entertainment (if you call guns a-blazing warfare and smashing heads into cars easy entertainment.)
However, what the movie lacks in creativity are enough interesting pieces at work here. Screenwriter Sylvester Stallone, ever the subtle writer, pens an earnest enough father and daughter story at the heart of this Southern shoot-em-up. Though given points for crafting a story centered with real heart and believable character motivation, these moments of Phil and Maddy Broker (newcomer Izabela Vidovic) are as flagrant and obvious as Statham's fight scenes, which successfully utilize the star and excite the audience, making watching this action flick one of the more likable.
It's a muscle-y, gritty, action thriller, with a protective father and loving daughter story at the center.
Adding to the interesting things in this movie is the inclusion of both James Franco and Winona Ryder, playing their most impressionable southern white trash selves. Franco, as Morgan "Gator" Bodine (as hilariously conceived a villain name I've heard), plays the local badass who finds himself needing to scare off the newly-in-town badass Broker, and Ryder as Sheryl Marie Mott, his devoted girlfriend. What's interesting about Franco's antagonist here is that he might be the most reluctant bad guy ever, as we see that his appetite for destruction only comes out when his junkie sister Cassie Bodine Klum (played by a convincing and well-acted Kate Bosworth) asks him for favors, either selling her drugs or "scaring" off the Broker family after a run-in Maddy and Cassie's son had at school. Instead of hot and fiery, Gator comes off as a simple guy who's just plain inconvenienced to be a bad guy instead of thriving it it, which no doubt stems from Franco's signature apathetic showmanship. An interesting casting choice, the inclusion of Franco is just confusing and actually highlights the incredulity of the movie.
Statham plays well here (even if he doesn't play well with others). As Phil Broker, a former undercover field cop newly moved into a small town for his protection from a biker gang, you don't have to imagine how well trained in combat this normal civilian and father is. There is enough action and bad guys that come his way, with Gator's gang and the former bike gang, who both have an investment in the meth trafficking game that Broker disrupts. I would argue that the entire drug dealing storyline is unnecessary as if Stallone decided to front-load the story with even more cliché dealings, which, if left out of the movie, would have really strengthened the element of the rivalry.
Set on a big enough and visually interesting stage, with brutal action scenes and A-list Hollywood stars, Homefront works. It's a muscle-y, gritty, action thriller, with a protective father and loving daughter story at the center. But it's also a movie so obvious and heavy handed that the characters that get socked by Statham are sometimes not the only ones left groaning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjSOj8b804U
'White House Down' Blu-Ray DVD
Cinemacy is the site that keeps on giving! Rounding out our "Thanksgiv-away" series, we have one Blu-Ray DVD of White House Down (Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx) to give away to one lucky fan. Here's how to enter:
1) Follow CINEMACY on twitter at @cinemacyspeaks, and
2) Answer the following question: If you lived in the White House, what one room would you make sure was in it? i.e. There is already a bowling alley in the basement!
3) Tag your answer with both @cinemacyspeaks and #cinemacy
All tweets must be sent by 6:59 p.m. on Friday, November 29th, 2013. One lucky person will be selected! And, go!
https://twitter.com/cinemacyspeaks/status/405176559029346304
OFFICIAL RULES
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN: WHITE HOUSE DOWN_BLU-RAY giveaway. Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states and Canada, age 18 or older at time of entry. Void outside the US and Canada where prohibited by law. Sweepstakes begins at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (“PST”) on 11/26/2013 and ends at 6:59 p.m. (“PST”) on 11/29/2013. All entries must be made via Twitter. Winners must respond with their mailing address within 72 hours of being notified or an alternate winner will be selected. All federal, state and local regulations apply.
'After Earth' Blu-ray Combo Pack
Congratulations to Sarah, you're the winner of the "After Earth" contest! Check your email for further instructions. Thanks to all who entered, and keep your eyes peeled for our next contest!
Just in time for Thanksgiving, Cinemacy wants to show you how grateful we are for your continued support by offering you a chance to win a Blu-ray™ Combo Pack (Including Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD UltraViolet™) of this summer's sci-fi thriller, After Earth (starring Will Smith and Jaden Smith), with Bonus Features of an Alternate Opening & All-New Featurettes! What better way to bond with family over this Thanksgiving break than watch Father and Son Smith's fight for survival after eating your coma-inducing Thanksgiving meal?
Here's how to enter!
In the comments section below, answer this question:
"What would you do if you survived a planet-ending disaster? For bonus points, who would be the one person you would want to live After Earth with?"
And be sure to follow CINEMACY on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for future contests, giveaways, and movie news!
Contest ends Sunday, November 24th, at 6:59 p.m. Winner will be announced Monday, November 25th, at 12:00 p.m.
Good luck!
Synopsis:
A crash landing leaves teenager Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his legendary father Cypher (Will Smith) stranded on Earth, 1,000 years after cataclysmic events forced humanity’s escape. With Cypher critically injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help, facing uncharted terrain, evolved animal species that now rule the planet, and an unstoppable alien creature that escaped during the crash. Father and son must learn to work together and trust one another, if they want any chance of returning home.
Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Special Features:
• “A Father’s Legacy” featurette – Will and Jaden Smith on and off screen
• “1,000 Years in 300 Seconds” featurette – On Location with the Cast
• “The Nature of the Future” featurette – A look at the landscapes and creatures of the film
• XPRIZE After Earth Robotics Challenge winning video – The reveal of the winning team's video, with an introduction by Jaden Smith as Kitai Raige
Blu-ray Exclusives:
All the added value on the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack, plus:
· A Never-Before-Seen Version of the Film’s Opening Sequence
· “Building a World” featurette – A glimpse into the creation of the After Earth universe
· “Pre-Visualizing the Future” featurette – A next-generation approach to action sequences
· “The Animatics of After Earth” featurette – Never-before-seen storyboards and animatics
OFFICIAL RULES
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN: AFTER EARTH_BLU-RAY giveaway. Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states and Canada, age 18 or older at time of entry. Void outside the US and Canada where prohibited by law. Sweepstakes begins at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (“PST”) on 11/21/2013 and ends at 6:59 p.m. (“PST”) on 11/24/2013. All entries must be made via the comments section on this page. Winners must respond with their mailing address within 72 hours of being notified or an alternate winner will be selected. All federal, state and local regulations apply.
'Before Midnight' Blu-ray + Soundtrack Combo Pack
Congratulations to Bernie, you're the winner of the "Before Midnight" contest! Check your email for further instructions. Thanks to all who entered, and keep your eyes peeled for our next contest!
Continuing our "Thanksgiv-away" series, Cinemacy is offering one lucky winner a Before Midnight Blu-Ray DVD and Soundtrack Combo Pack! Director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, School of Rock) completes the trilogy that started with 1994's Before Sunrise, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy with this acclaimed love story of a film. Win this Blu-Ray DVD, along with a 15 song soundtrack composed by Graham Reynolds, whose wonderful strumming score would be a treat to have in any car CD player while you battle that bumper to bumper freeway traffic!
Here’s how to enter!
In the comments section below, answer this question:
What is your favorite memory that you have in your life that has happened at Midnight?
And be sure to follow CINEMACY on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for future contests, giveaways, and movie news!
Contest ends Sunday, November 24th, at 6:59 p.m. Winner will be announced Monday, November 25th, at 12:00 p.m.
Good luck!
Synopsis:
It has been nine years since we last met Jesse and Celine, the French-American couple who once met on a train in Vienna. They now live in Paris with twin daughters, but have spent a summer in Greece on the invitation of an author colleague of Jesse's. When the vacation is over and Jesse must send his teenage son off to the States, he begins to question his life decisions, and his relationship with Celine is at risk.
OFFICIAL RULES
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN: BEFORE MIDNIGHT_BLU-RAY giveaway. Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states and Canada, age 18 or older at time of entry. Void outside the US and Canada where prohibited by law. Sweepstakes begins at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (“PST”) on 11/21/2013 and ends at 6:59 p.m. (“PST”) on 11/24/2013. All entries must be made via the comments section on this page. Winners must respond with their mailing address within 72 hours of being notified or an alternate winner will be selected. All federal, state and local regulations apply.
Review: 'Big Bad Wolves'
This is one fairy tale you wouldn't want to tell your kids before tucking them into bed at night. In fact, that motivation served as the inspiration behind the conceiving of this horror story from acclaimed Israeli filmmakers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, Big Bad Wolves. As Keshales noted before introducing the film, screening in the Midnight series at this year's AFI Film Festival, they decided to "write a revenge film against their parents, a very grim fairy tale to teach them all a lesson." What transpires onscreen is just that, in this twisted horror story where pedophilia is the evil of the movie.
Marrying torture porn elements with darkly funny moments (in which the filmmakers encouraged the audience to laugh), this story of a young girl's brutal murder, and of the rogue detective and mad father who attempt to bring a suspect to justice, is a wild, if not altogether too tame, outing for the unnerving.
Wolves achieves its balance of brutal blows, along with the many moments of humor, which add to the film's absurdity.
Perhaps most interesting about Big Bad Wolves is its combination of tonal elements, altogether unseen in mainstream American horror films, and saved for B-rated gross-out Midnight flicks. And while watching such a horrifying moment as the tracking shot of gummy candy trail in a forest, leading to a chair of a tied up and lifeless young girl, is as unsettling to see as are the scenes of a suspicious schoolteacher being savagely tortured for information of the girl's, let's say, further remains, the film as a whole could have benefited from even more consistently disturbing action, in the vein of unsparing Grindhouse fashion.
Though it should be noted that, like Wolves, the filmmakers' previous horror success Kalevet (Rabies, in English) stood alone as a groundbreaking movie in Israeli horror, previously unseen in its own much more conservative culture. In this regard, Wolves achieves its balance of brutal blows, along with the many moments of humor, which add to the film's absurdity. What results is a film whose net is cast wide, covering, ultimately, enjoyable ground. But when you make a horror fairy tale of a film about the twisted nature of pedophilia, it would certainly benefit the film to fall a little further down the rabbit's hole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsfzhiW5l8c
Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, and Michael C. Hall on 'Kill Your Darlings'
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As beat poets, Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, and David Cammerer were set on destroying the old, formulaic, rules of the then-traditional literary world, and create a "New Vision" of expansive, free form, truthful language. In the 60's counter-culture set biography/murder mystery, Kill Your Darlings, Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, and Michael C. Hall play the aforementioned roles, respectively, and bring a commanding life to each of the real-life characters. At a Four Seasons press conference, I learned how each actor prepared for their roles, and how the famous literary icons' writing inspired them.
DANIEL, WHAT HAS THE JOURNEY BEEN FOR YOU, FROM CHILDHOOD ACTOR TO MORE ADULT ROLES?
DANIEL RADCLIFFE: Since finishing [“Harry Potter”] there’s been a huge journey for me, like, I had never worked with different crews before or different actors before… doing Kill Your Darlings was a huge thing for me because I wasn’t going to be working with anybody I knew. It was like starting fresh in a way, and that was really exciting.
LIKE THE BEAT POETS YOU PORTRAY, DID YOU HAVE ANY ANGSTY WRITING AND THOUGHTS THAT YOU PUT DOWN?
MICHAEL C. HALL: I definitely have some journal entries…
[LAUGHTER]
MH: They’re ultimately just run-on sentences.
DR: Yeah I definitely wrote my fair share of real bad poetry from when I was about 13-18… Some of mine were actually published under a fake name when I was 17. Don’t look them up.
[LAUGHTER]
DANE DeHANN: Yeah, also guilty of teenage poems of trying to achieve naked self-expression.
WHY DO YOU THINK THE BEAT POETS HAVE THAT "STAYING POWER?"
DD: I think their affect on today’s society is kind of amazing. Their books are still celebrated and read, they were the original hipsters. In where I live in Williamsburg/Brooklyn, I can’t walk down the street without seeing at least 10 people dressed exactly like Jack Kerouac.
[LAUGHTER]
DD: It’s insane. Their books obviously have this huge impact and also what they stood for, how they dressed, all of that still resonates today.
IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE IN PLAYING CHARACTERS IN THE 1940'S AS OPPOSED TO CONTEMPORARY CHARACTERS?
MH: Yeah, the script is so well rendered that a lot of it could be unconscious, you could [easily] give over to living in a world that is contextualized in a totally different way… I was excited more specifically, about the opportunity to humanize and sympathize [with] this guy who’s sort of a footnote of the beat generation and was, if anything, characterized as a bit of a 2 dimensional villain/stalker. I liked that the movie aspired to round him out a bit, and that was appealing.
DR: Allen [Ginsberg] is one of the characters that is probably easiest to find empathy or compassion with. There are moments where he’s so easily manipulated by Lucien where there’s a part of you that wants to shake him. Also John [Krokidas, Director] took the pressure off by telling us not to really research our characters too much past the point where we find them in the movie, so there wasn’t really a sense that we were having to live up to the icons they became.
DD: Yeah Lucien’s a tricky one because Lucien worked so hard to make sure this story was never told. My responsibility is to honor this person by trying to figure out truthfully who they were at this point in their life, not necessarily how Lucien would want himself to be portrayed in the film.
WAS THERE ANY SORT OF RESEARCH YOU DID INTO THE TIME PERIOD?
DR: The thing I found really helpful was [listening] to music of the period. I listened to a lot of Jo Stafford, who I had never come across before, and his songs “No Other Love” and “You Belong to Me.”
AS ACTORS, ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY THAT YOU CAN TAKE TO CHALLENGE THE RIGID, MORE FORMULAIC PARTS OF THE FILM INDUSTRY WITH SOME OF THESE ROLES YOU'RE TAKING?
DR: I’d like to think that if the choices I make are slightly unexpected or challenging people then that is good. I don’t know if it’s like we’re railing against the industry but I also do think that that we [Dane & Michael] are fairly right-minded people in terms of what we value in scripts and storytelling.