Hacker Cinema
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
2023 · Film · short · 39 min
Directed by Wes Anderson
A rich man learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes. He sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.
2 positive1 neutralfrom 3 commenters
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3 comments on Hacker News
A lot of this stuff is just designers imitating each other. You see this a lot in web design where every website uses similar colors, fonts, visual language etc. I've worked with a few good designers that do actual original design where the point is to be different in a tasteful way. Standing out from the grey masses. If you get a lot of people copying each other, it all averages out to the same bland/boring stuff.
A lot of Hollywood productions these days are sequels, re-runs, and endless variations of successful movies. Down to copying stylistic elements, color grading, etc.
I love Tim Burton and Wes Anderson as directors. Both use vibrant, saturated colors and have a very recognizable style. Tim Burton uses lush, saturated colors to portray suburbs (many of his movies feature lush green lawns white picket fences, etc.).
And Wes Anderson has his famous style of exactly centered subjects,using a lot of surrealist visuals, and elaborate sets and models. I loved the little Roald Dahl thing he did on Netflix two years ago or so (The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar) where all of this was on display. If you haven't seen that, worth a watch.
Many of the responses mention meditation, which I think is exactly what this is. With meditation we usually think of certain ways of managing our thoughts or breath or using some sort of mantra (I've never tried that last one), but I think any exercise that is challenging our ability to focus is functioning as mediation.
It also reminded me of "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" which is one of four Roald Dahl stories that Wes Anderson made into short films for Netflix.
I have great nostalgia for physical media beyond the current reemergence of vinyl records. Compact cassette, minidisc, CD, reel to reel, and digital audio tape are in my hifi system.
I also love blu-ray and DVD. I just bought “Mank” on Blu-ray despite being easily seen on Netflix.
Obviously I’m an outlier. Yet my 26 year-old daughter has become enamored with cassette tapes and CD’s when the used car she bought had a head unit capable of playing both.
So it’s not just me being old and nostalgic. Beyond the familiar arguments about the art and extras that come with physical media - I do have a problem paying monthly for access to music or movies. Or having digital purchases disappear when formats become obsolete. I still pay for these services, but I like the idea that I can stop paying and I lose nothing I love.
I’ll probably buy a copy of Wes Anderson’s Netflix short “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”. It’s utterly delightful and will look spectacular on my 12 foot projection screen - much better than the Netflix compression allows.
I’m familiar with all the streaming and digital purchase arguments. But I’m curious if my daughter and her friends are a precursor to a fatigue with the ephemeral nature of digital purchases.