the census taker is a 1984 black comedy directed by bruce r. cook .

it stars greg mullavey , meredith macrae , timothy bottoms , and garrett morris .

the film was the residents ' first film soundtrack commission when their participation was suggested by penn jillette to cook .

it was released by trans world entertainment on vhs in 1988 under the title husbands , wives , money & murder .

the census taker

around the year i . . . : this census - taker , by china mieville
to ask other readers questions about this census - taker , please sign up .
finally , late in the book , this census - taker appears , on the boy’s doorstep , while his father is away . the census - taker is a native of the father’s city , and explains :
madison mega - mara . . . : # 74 this census - taker by china miéville
this census - taker by china miéville hardcover , $ 24 . 00 penguin random house , 2016
will the census taker just go away ? yes , but he or she will most certainly be back .
this census - taker : a novel and millions of other books are available for amazon kindle . learn more
a down - on - his luck census taker discovers that he has more control over the population than he thinks when the people he creates on falsified census forms come to life .
exasperated by his intrusions , a family shoots a census taker and tries to hide his body from a detective .
we’d love your help . let us know what’s wrong with this preview of this census - taker by china miéville .
this census - taker is a stunning , uncanny and profoundly moving novella from multiple award - winning author china mieville .
this resulted in what i now describe as census despair , which was heightened by the census office’s lack of transparency about the time commitment of the job .
glassdoor has 6 us census bureau reviews submitted anonymously by us census bureau employees . read employee reviews and ratings on glassdoor to decide if us census bureau is right for you .
many testing for the census taker position had to take the exam and were not dressed properly . also the positions were only for nine to twelve weeks every ten years .
the third act of this sorrowful tale concerns the census - taker . it is here that the book turns to one of the chief terrors of childhood : the inability to distinguish good from evil .
like the strange , spare fairy tales that served as inspiration for glossier disney versions , the morality of the census - taker is hazy ; it’s up to the reader to interpret what’s right .
before the end credits , a final census tally of appleton types itself onto the screen .
program - the census taker , presented by charles leyburne ' s bon - ton stock company , lyceum , november 16 , 1900 - 1901 season . booklet .
what is the work environment and culture like at u . s . census bureau ?
mom ! the census - lady is here ! ” one teenager yelled as i stood on his porch , city of calgary ipad in hand . while working as a civic census taker this april and may , i also got called “sweetie” and “dear , ” mostly by elderly people . one man looked through his window and announced , “that girl - census - taker - person is here ! ”
americans who , for whatever reason , do not complete and return a census bureau questionnaire can expect a personal visit from a census taker or
enumerator .
what do the enumerators - - census takers - - have to do ? according to census bureau director kenneth w . prewitt ' s april 5 , 2000 testimony to the house subcommittee on the census ,
each enumerator is given a binder of addresses in that area that includes all those addresses for which we have not received a completed questionnaire .
“they’re so dishonest in the training , ” said maureen , a census taker for the tuxedo area this year . “they gloss over the amount of time it will take . i only wish i’d been prepared . ”
inevitably , enjoying this book means accepting that many of the questions it invites will go unanswered . though the census - taker himself—whom we don’t even meet until almost three - quarters of the way through—deals in definite numbers and data , the book as a whole is uncertain to a fault , stranding us in the befuddled perspective of its narrator . even the census - taker’s most heroic act—a successful resolution of the book’s central mystery—goes unexplained , except by implication .
if the unit was occupied by a different household on census day , the enumerator completes a questionnaire for the occupants who lived there on census day by interviewing a knowledgeable person , such as a neighbor . if the current occupants were not enumerated elsewhere , the enumerator will also complete a census questionnaire for them for their census day address . if the housing unit was vacant on census day , the enumerator completes appropriate housing questions on the questionnaire by interviewing a knowledgeable person , such as a neighbor or apartment house manager .
the census - taker exhibits every sign of evil . he carries a peculiar gun native to the father’s city , which makes a sound that previously echoed in the hills , which the father has described as coming from “the kind of shot you use to kill a man . ” the census - taker has no good explanation for what he is doing . when challenged , he asserts , “i do have this authority . to make this count . ” he pretty clearly murders the boy’s father , although , although –we do not see it . the boy closes his eyes ; there are only suggestive sounds . even if it happened , though , had the father been a war criminal ? if the boy’s description of his cruel , mechanical killing reflects anything , then the census - taker may represent the reach of justice . unlikely , but possible . the gentle and endlessly shifty census - taker is terrifyingly ambiguous .
how did you get your first interview at u . s . census bureau ?
1 . creeping dread 2 . the census taker 3 . talk 4 . end of home 5 . emotional music 6 . secret seed 7 . easter woman / simple song 8 . hellno 9 . where is she ? 10 . innocence decayed 11 . romanan / nice old man 12 . margaret freeman 13 . light ' s out 14 . where is she 15 . passing the bottle 16 . the census taker returns
if the housing unit was demolished or otherwise nonexistent under census definitions , the enumerator completes a questionnaire that provides the reason why the unit should be deleted from the census address list , by interviewing a knowledgeable respondent such as a neighbor or apartment house manager .
his new book is a novella that stretches the envelope of the description — called this census - taker — about a man looking back on the traumas of his boyhood , a prisoner whose captors call him
guest ,
and the fallibility of memory .
and so it goes until a completed census questionnaire has been completed and turned into the local census office for every housing unit address in america . like all other employees of the census bureau , enumerators are subject by law to severe penalties including imprisonment for divulging information outside of the required scope of their job .
working as a trainer at u . s . census bureau : employee reviews | urltoken
calgary is one of the few municipalities in canada that conducts a yearly census , and city hall uses the collected information to make planning decisions . according to paul denys , leader of election and census at the city of calgary , school boards receive very accurate data from the civic census that allows them to forecast school enrolment . provincial grants for transportation and libraries are also based on either civic or federal census information .
“the census is important for building communities , ” said my friend joann , who worked as a census taker in the past . “how can we know the direction for the city if we don’t know where we are ? we need to know how many elderly people are here , how many kids . how else can we know where to build a school ? ”
zoey duncan , a writer who worked as a census taker last year , agrees : “i wasn’t getting any information about how much time it would take and how much money we would make . ”
[ the census - taker strongly implied that the boy ' s mother was once his assistant . presumably , he found her corpse in the hole and killed her murderer . a …more the census - taker strongly implied that the boy ' s mother was once his assistant . presumably , he found her corpse in the hole and killed her murderer . a bit of philosophical speculation : the census - taker seems to feel responsible for everyone on his list , which would have included the boy ' s father . if you twist your mind a certain way , it almost makes sense to kill the guy , so that you no longer have any obligations towards your colleague ' s killer ( and can recruit his conveniently orphaned kid ) . ( less ) ( hide spoiler ) ]
china miéville is the author of numerous books , including this census - taker , three moments of an explosion , railsea , embassytown , kraken , the city & the city , and perdido street station . his works have won the world fantasy award , the hugo award , and… more about china miéville
with the boy’s remaining parent gone , the census - taker takes him on as an intern , effectively adopting him—a turn of events so odd , and seemingly arbitrary , that it begs for more explanation than is ever offered . the boy is raised to perform a set of tasks that remain unclear , and he arrives at adulthood with this chilling quality : that he recounts his childhood without remarking on the lacunae . what is captivating in a boy , however , becomes subtly horrific in a man : that he has never sought to resolve the gaps in his understanding . that he allows the census - taker to remain suspended in the overlap of good and evil , a moral position the narrator now occupies as well . ultimately , this census - taker takes on the nostalgia of the corrupt for their innocence .
he ' s also been compared to karen russell and george saunders , and rightfully so . anyone who gets excited about language quirks and almost - surreal scenes will feel at home on the hilltop where this census - taker is set .
i also feel like “it was earth all along” is the kind of thing mieville avoids most of the time . however o do think that this census taker being set in bas lag would make sense . it’s location in the world would be vague , but the hints make sense as new crobuzon .
since the figures of the census taken by the democratic state officials in this city have come to be known , those best qualified to judge in such matters have been satisfied that the census as returned was grossly inaccurate in its details , if not in the aggregate population . view full article in timesmachine »
civic duty is an old - fashioned concept , but it’s a good reason to be a census taker . more importantly , it’s a good reason to pick up the phone and call the person who left that little blue slip in your mailbox ( seriously ) .
is the novella this census - taker just a prologue to a longer , more epic work ? will we read more in the future about this world , its history , and the life of the narrator ? if this is indeed the fourth bas - lag book , is it just the prelude to an upcoming fifth one ? i hope we find out soon .
reading china mieville is a little like being kidnapped . you’re not quite sure what’s happening , you’re not sure where you going , and afterwards , you’re not sure where you’ve been . that’s where the analogy ends , because china mieville is a wonderful experience and this census - taker , his latest story , is another great one . one of mieville’s strengths is immersing you in a world that is a surreal yet contains tantalizing elements of familiarity . this census - taker is the story of a boy who lives on
we may be in a post - apocalyptic world ; all we learn is that “there has been trouble . fighting . ” the census - taker does not arrive until a few pages from the end , and is there only because he has to count , to make a record .
and besides , i now understand that people don’t become census takers for the money . “they do it for the exercise , to get some fresh air , ” said the city of calgary employee who chatted with me when i dropped off my ipad at the end of my gig . and they do it , he said , because they care about their city . “it’s my civic duty , ” said one of my neighbours who once worked as a census taker .
though it can shade to purple , miéville’s baroque language—his archaic vocabulary and obtuse phrasings—serves a purpose . in its excess it sketches a kind of engaged bewilderment , underscoring the essential otherness of the worlds he imagines into being . in this census - taker , that’s of a piece with the book’s general commitment to uncertainty , its elaborate phrases amplifying the interrogative demands it makes on the reader .
ask a question about working or interviewing at u . s . census bureau . our community is ready to answer .
his census - taker , a longish novella , dislocates from the first line : “a boy ran down a hill path screaming . the boy was i . he held his hands up and out in front of him . . . ” the plot seems launched ; the boy lives on an isolated hilltop above the town , and has come to report that his mother has killed his father , an outsider to the district .
it’s been out for quite a while , but i just recently got around to reading china miéville’s latest book , the novella this census - taker . it was a really quick read , at just 130 pages , and i very much enjoyed it , although i wish it had been longer and explored the setting a bit more .
i can ' t sit here and sagely type to you the meaning of this census - taker . neither its plot or its deeper , thematic meaning . i am full of confusions and questions and speculations . i do know that i was dazzled by miéville ' s prose - - which i often am - - but in a new way , a foggy , struggling , back tracking , joseph conrad way . i didn ' t realize it until i wrote those words , but the novel i most closely relate to this census - taker has to be conrad ' s heart of darkness . there is colonization at work her
hi hedrigal , i havent read census taker myself yet , but reading this article reminded me of a theory i saw somewhere ( it may even have been this site ) that bas - lag is our world after the reality - breaking / altering cataclysm with the ghosthead empire ( i think the theory was based on new crobuzon being a post - crisis beijing and that the anophelli island ( s ) were australia or new zealand ) . that way the inclusion of modern tech or artifacts that point to our world would still be consistent with the bas - lag theory – it could just mean that census taker’s setting is geographically so far away from new crobuzon that they still have access to pre - crisis tech or they have rediscovered it .
this was the first soundtrack that was commissioned to the residents . but don ' t expect a full or even a partial orchestra here . it ' s about as minimal as the residents gets as far as instruments go . it seems to be all electronic . it ' s as weird as the residents can get too , that weird humor . it ' s only fitting that it was penn jillette ( yes the one from penn and teller ) that recommended the residents as the band to do the soundtrack . i haven ' t seen the movie , so i wouldn ' t know whether it was well done or not , but it is billed as a black comedy . the plot is about a very irritating census taker who keeps asking a certain couple questions that keep getting more abusive and ludicrous to the point that the couple decide to kill the census taker and then have to get a friend to help them hide the body . that ' s all i know about it .
[ is his father killed in the end ? there is only a little mention of him after the boy comes out of the cave .
in my father ' s workroom i looked at the table all mucky with metal dust . the room felt saturated with his presence , felt like he was speaking in it .
there was also some sounds the census taker makes when he comes back to the cave to get the boy and asks him to keep eyes closed . any idea what happened there ? ( hide spoiler ) ]
this census - taker begins , “a boy ran down a hill path screaming . the boy was i . ” the narrative is being told in recollection by the boy , now an adult . as a child , the boy lived with his distant father and stern mother in a rickety house on a semi - arid hill outside a small town . the hill and the town occupy a four - way world , depicted with elements of the age of electricity , the age of steam , the trappings of science fiction , and the trappings of fantasy , though no one element is emphasized or decisive . the opening scene ends :
i applied to be a “girl - census - taker - person” because i imagined it would be the perfect job for a writer : it would get me out of the house and—a writer’s dream come true ! —it would actually pay money . i imagined that i would walk through sunny streets , chat with neighbours , get fit , and meet many adorable cats .
- people are nonresponsive to census at times ; face rejection occasionally - higher management is completely lost ; the orders to count 40 , 000 + residents at penn state were given within the last month of the school semester ; consequently they had no idea what they were doing and didn ' t even know enough to give us the names of people who didn ' t respond to the census . therefore we had to go to every single housing unit to recount every student ( many of whom were rightfully frustrated since they had already completed their census form on time )
i think census should be taken every 5 years instead of 10 as population explodes every year and a 10 year statistic could be incorrect .
for all my frustration with this opaque novel , i came to its end understanding that miéville’s obscurantism serves one of his career - spanning themes—one that is , in fact , more evident here than in many of his more crowd - pleasing books . a political scientist by training , miéville imbues his stories with a deep distaste for state - sponsored power . census - taking is , of course , one mechanism of that power , a power that affirms and stabilizes itself through the elaboration of standards and norms . this census - taker , like the novel in which he appears , doesn’t quite fit the mold . he has , we gradually learn , gone rogue , suggesting that to reject statistical certainty may be to resist power itself . what does this census - taker propose that we put in its place ? it’s possible that we’ll never know .
the filmmakers chose the residents to perform the soundtrack as they were suggested by penn jilette .
basically data collection for the 2010 us census . my role was training people and helping people knock on doors , find people , and ask census questions . i also had to collect the data from all the workers in my team , and turn everything over in a specific package format to my supervisor . it is notable that everything done at that level was done on paper .
' this census - taker ' is a quiet book with a murderous heart china mieville ' s new novella feels like a fairy tale . it ' s set in an isolated hill village , where a young boy witnesses a terrible crime and meets a mysterious stranger who may ( or may not ) help him .
for readers of george saunders , kelly link , and karen russell , this census taker is the poignant and uncanny new novella from award - winning and bestselling author china miéville . after witnessing a profoundly traumatic event , a boy is left alone in a remote house on a hilltop with his increasingly deranged parent . when a stranger knocks on his door , the boy senses that his
what i really want to do in this post is just nerd out a bit , and examine those clues i talked about . i want to see if i can structure an argument to convince myself , let alone anyone else , of my hunch . i really want to ask the question : is this census - taker set in bas - lag ?
he looked like a failed soldier . dirt seemed so worked into him that the lines of his face were like writing . oh china , you coy wretch . promise and no delivery , or at least an awkward variety . the census - taker is an austerity tale , one set after the robots revolt . all skycorp and shit , except matters have settled bronze age . the opening sections reminded me of the wasp factory , but despite shimmering examples of trades being depicted , the tale only introduced its titular character essentially as
that , i think , was the only drawback of the book : miéville revels in describing fantastic worlds — it’s his biggest strength as a writer , in my opinion — so for him to take such a restrained approach with this census - taker means that i’m left feeling the tiniest bit deprived . i wish miéville had expanded the end , and unveiled more and more of this weird world . i wish we could have seen the narrator’s full journey from his childhood to the “present day” from which he tells his story .
the boy escapes , is caught , escapes again , is caught again . his friends , the orphans , hatch a plan to help him but it goes wrong . writing as a much older man , the narrator is sure only of his boyhood terror . his conviction that , sooner or later , his father would kill him , too . that is , until the arrival of the census - taker — the odd man with the glasses and the tie , the books of figures and a gun , who has come to ask questions . to find certain people and record them . to talk , in this case , with the boy ' s father .
denys says it isn’t easy to find 900 people able to work as census takers on casual , limited - term contracts , especially in a city with low unemployment . but organizing and funding the census is worthwhile for the city . according to denys , the data collected each year is “vital to managing ( calgary’s ) continued growth and to ensuring that we are ready and able to address the challenges and needs that are before us . ”
in fact , an undercover detective - posing as a census - taker - introduces us , in a contrived way , to the dreams , secrets , customs and eccentricities of this tight - knit community , over which the disabled former firefighter john edward castle , now a local radio dj , has a bird ' s - eye view . on a long oblong stage , shimmer curtain at one end , castle ' s bedroom castle in the air at the other ,
the tide rises and the tide falls
for the residents of this backwater yorkshire town , jerusalem .
i implore you to read embassytown and the city & the city ! they are two of the best pieces of speculative fiction from the last decade , easily , in my opinion . neither is written in a style similar to this census - taker . the worlds are fully fleshed out , the plots complex and completely followed through , the viewpoints that of adults who more - or - less have an understanding of the world around them . the city & the city does have one mystery in it that i would say only half - resolves , but it feels appropriate , and doesn ' t keep the story from having climax and closure . i think both are really dazzling in their ideas and imaginative scope ! ( less )
but when it was raining and the screen of my ipad was too wet to use , when dogs snarled at me , when doors were literally shut in my face , sometimes civic duty didn’t cut it . so why didn’t i quit ? i kept going due to a heightened sense of obligation and guilt—the same thing that compels me to accompany my mom to costco when she asks me—and because being a census taker is fascinating .
3 . 5 stars . it ' s not the epic novel china miéville ' s readers have been anxiously awaiting since 2010 ' s embassytown . ( that will come with 2016 ' s the last days of new paris . ) but his novella this census - taker proves that the new weird superstar has not lost the ability to captivate and unnerve . as with all of miéville ' s work , it begins with a city , sprawling incongruously up the slopes of a pair of steep hills ( or perhaps small mountain peaks ) , the gap between spanned by a bridge . near the top of on
the gradual solution of the crime involves the differentiation between the fantastical conspiracy of an entire hidden city , and the squalid , real - life conspiracy of criminal politicians and businessmen who murdered a young woman who became inconvenient . thus the conspiracy comes loose from the lacuna ; the conspiracy is broken up , but the question of the third city remains unresolved .
this is a book about childhood trauma , memory , identity , and the difficulty placed upon kids who begin to suspect that the authority to whom they ' re subservient may be corrupt , and that the world has hostile forces they aren ' t meant to understand . i think the meaning of its ending is less clear than mieville intends for it to be , but for the most part this census - taker is compact and really well - realized , especially in terms of location and atmosphere . he should write more short novels like this
the bareness of the environment harmonises with the stoic bleakness of the book’s emotions . our boy , whatever his name is , however old he is , lives up one of the mountains with a grimly inexpressive mother and a father prone to psychopathic episodes , in which he pounds small animals to death and pitches the carcasses into a bottomless pit in a cave . whether or not his father kills her , his mother disappears , and neither the street kids down below nor the adults of the town can rescue him from the silent , fearful house on the hill – until a census - taker in a stained suit and tie comes to the door . there is bareness , spareness , entropy , everywhere except in the language . that , on the contrary , is elaborate and fastidious and slightly dictionary - drunk , so that the words rendering all this scarcity are “vatic”’ and “pinchbeck” , “scends” and “chevon” .
the boy’s repeated , thwarted attempts to escape are fable - like in their tragicness , until , in keeping with the genre , a fairy godfather appears . a trim and dapper man offers an escape from his fear - filled life - - an escape to the far - away land his father originally comes from . the man is the titular census - taker , and it’s his job to keep track of the far - flung people from his home , the boy’s father included . he seems calm , and potentially manipulative , raising questions about whether he’s to be trusted , and whether the boy’s father is as wretched as he’s made out to be .
he looked like a failed soldier . dirt seemed so worked into him that the lines of his face were like writing . oh china , you coy wretch . promise and no delivery , or at least an awkward variety . the census - taker is an austerity tale , one set after the robots revolt . all skycorp and shit , except matters have settled bronze age . the opening sections reminded me of the wasp factory , but despite shimmering examples of trades being depicted , the tale only introduced its titular character essentially as an epilogue . from my hip one could read this as double indemnity of the next dark age .
this census taker is a small , quiet and gentle book with murder at its center . it ' s a beautiful chocolate that you bite into and find filled with blood . it is miéville at his most sparse , his most controlled and restrained — giving us a world defined by a broken carburetor , the sound of a walk being swept , a pantry full of mushrooms and spiders , the distant flickering of neon . and while the blind spots of the boy at its heart — the things he does not know , the questions he does not ask — may drive you crazy , the questions that miéville leaves itching in your brain at the turn of the final page are almost as interesting as the ( few ) truths that have been uncovered .
the fictional suburban community of appleton is turned upside down thanks to harvey mcgraw , an annoying census taker who ' s in charge of checking the neighborhood ' s population . when harvey visits george and martha dade , they reluctantly invite him in , but when the questionnaire turns too personal for the couple , they accidentally shoot him in the forehead . they are then forced to hide his body from their company , martha ' s sister eva and her husband pete , a former detective . when he discovers harvey ' s body in the kitchen closet , a bright future is very unlikely for george and martha .
in modernity the loss of the bedrock sense of the divine caused , at first , a reverse of the epiphanic quality of the lacuna . while it had once been a gesture toward the mystery , it began to represent instead the maddening absence of god—first , in 1853 , in bartleby , the scrivener :
most importantly , in an interview conducted after the release of this census - taker , miéville was asked if he would ever return to bas - lag , and his answer , while not definitive , seems to lean towards a “maybe one day but not yet” . but , who knows . he could be choosing not to reveal too much in the initial press coverage of the book’s release . if he truly buried these clues in there for fans to find , then it would make sense that he wouldn’t go and spill the beans immediately .
in the most creative of writing , a puzzle is set up which is resolved not as the sum of the established set of parts , but rather through an unexpected image which both resolves the puzzle and introduces a revelatory new element–something which could never have been anticipated . in a sense , miéville performs such a lateral synthesis with this census - taker . it addresses the original lacuna of the divine mystery , and the harrowing lacuna of the modern loss of god ; it addresses the lacuna as psychological phenomenon , and as mechanism of structural interest . it does all these things in an utterly unexpected way : by fusing these elements naturally into the perspective of a boy as recalled by a broken man . the boy is moved by a child’s almost religious sense of wonder and by a child’s terror at the loss of his parents . the book presents lacunae both as lapses in the cognition of a child and as defense mechanisms in the psychopathology of a man . the dense tapestry of overlapping absences dextrously meets the challenge of lacuna as structural peculiarity .
with the headline : a false census . ; a sample of democratic frauds . a plan to give new - york city an undue proportion op senators and assemblymen - - glaring errors in the returns filed by enumerators - - a demand for legislative inquiry .
for readers of george saunders , kelly link , and karen russell , this census taker is the poignant and uncanny new novella from award - winning and bestselling author china miéville . after witnessing a profoundly traumatic event , a boy is left alone in a remote house on a hilltop with his increasingly deranged parent . when a stranger knocks on his door , the boy senses that his days of isolation are over—but by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries ? is he the boy’s friend ? his enemy ? or something altogether other ?
tinker , tailor , soldier . . . lady : unmasking the women who spied for the stuarts after the civil war
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at its most obtuse moments , this census - taker feels as if it had been crafted out of the cast - off fragments of an unfinished samuel beckett novel . and yet occasional images of unusual beauty await the attentive and patient : on the underside of a bridge , a gang of children casts rods out into the air , trawling not for fish but for bats . in his workshop , the narrator’s father dips his fingers into colored powders to shape keys that may unlock strange powers . if these sequences sometimes befuddle they’re no less elegant for it . the very density of miéville’s ideas both contributes to and compensates for our alienation .
let me begin my discussion of this census - taker ( 2016 ) by admitting that i love this book . for me , it stands in relation to all but the best of miéville’s previous work as the thing itself stands in relation to a description of the thing ; not like recounting a dream , but like dreaming it . it treats very little , and yet the things it treats , it plumbs to the marrow . it reveals something precious . in it , the grip of the author’s hand eases at last , so that he scarcely pushes the words ; therefore it is a book of few words , stripped of excess until those words achieve a heartbreaking clarity . this book represents a breakthrough for miéville .
the concept , reduced to a girl ate what was given her , recurs throughout the book ; but the details of the event are never supplied . the lacuna - as - trauma haunts the novel and animates avice’s detachment . what might in a more trivial concealment register as mere euphemism takes on the stature of the lacuna when the key facts of the character are generally stated but specifically unspoken .
a false census . ; a sample of democratic frauds . a plan to give new - york city an undue proportion op senators and assemblymen - - glaring errors in the returns filed by enumerators - - a demand for legislative inquiry . - the new york times
i really hope that i’m right about this census - taker , that it hides a similar setting - based puzzle in its pages . it would be another layer of depth to what’s already such a layered and intoxicating story . an alternative possibility is that miéville put the references in knowingly as a fun , metafictional treat for his fans , but the book just isn’t set in bas - lag . the most disappointing possibility is that i’m totally reading too much into it , and all of the clues i’ve mentioned are coincidences . i really doubt this possibility though .
it’s later revealed that the keys may possess supernatural abilities , but whether these hexes are the result of real magic or simply magical thinking is never made clear . that’s the special power of miéville’s writing : he dives right into the language and conventions of far - off worlds , rather than overburdening the reader with unnaturally related details . like le guin , he has an anthropological approach to fantasy and science - fiction ; unlike many of le guin’s books , this census - taker isn’t narrated by an outsider , but by an uncritical character in the throes of the action . the boy - narrator doesn’t pause to explain his peculiar word choices , resulting in earthy , playful , sonorous sentences that are a pleasure to explore .
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china miéville’s dazzlingly inventive fantasies and sf novels have long broken the bounds of genre ; his new novella this census - taker , a strange , nebulous fable about a traumatised young boy , proved almost impossible to pin down , prompting both admiration and incomprehension . “the power of imprecision has long fascinated miéville , ” declared jacob brogan in slate . “at its most obtuse moments , this census - taker feels as if it had been crafted out of the cast - off fragments of an unfinished samuel beckett novel . ” “longtime miéville readers are going to wonder exactly what they’re reading , ” agreed nk jemisin in the new york times , for whom the book risked being “an exercise in haunting , lovely frustration” . “miéville is justly regarded as one of the most interesting and freakishly gifted writers of his generation , ” declared andrew mckie in the daily telegraph . plot summary is pointless : the novella “is all atmosphere and delivery . the prose is as precise , but it has been chiselled into a realistic depiction of fog . it is eerie , but solid . when i rubbed away at the surface , i found – i think – a story with a meaning and a resolution . it may not be the story you find … it’s well worth reading , though . ”
the book describes the narrator’s life before and after whatever happened , happened . his parents are reticent and distant , from each other and their child . his mother is local , and once worked in a distant city ; now she ekes plants from the stony earth . his father is not local , and is a key - maker : these keys seem to have magical or talismanic properties . his father is prone to sudden outbursts of rage , beating stray animals to death and , the boy suspects , he may have killed one of his customers as well . unlike their few neighbours they do not burn their refuse , but tip it into a chasm inside the mountain . the boy has seen his father jettison the corpses into the hole , and dreams of a mountain of debris and refuse inside the mountain . the only affection he gets is from vagabond children who live on the bridge in the town below . the only justice he might get will come in the form of the kafka - esque census - taker .
the closed circuit game : a hippie noir the end ennobles every act . — honoré de balzac , “the . . .
the next stage of the mysterious city’s history is the great census - taking , which we only hear about in very vague terms in this book . for some reason the city decides that it needs to send agents out into the world to find out where all of its citizens are . sounds like the kind of paranoid reaction new crobuzon’s government might have . could we find out more about this in a future bas - lag book ?
this same trope makes a new appearance in miéville’s latest novel , this census - taker , though by now it’s clear that he’s applied the same techniques to his own work—with sometimes mixed results . when he’s at his most imaginative , his stories are storms of ideas , flurries of concepts that pelt the reader like hailstones . within the weird worlds of his novels , anything that might be is , the strange tangoing with the stranger . nevertheless , more than a decade after the scar , he’s still weaponizing the very idea of inexactitude : late in the new book , the titular civil servant shows off his own armament , a double - barreled rifle that fires buckshot from one of its ports and solid slugs from the other . “it spreads possibilities , ” he tells the story’s young narrator . “like an average . a range and its mean . this is an averaging gun . ”
a false census . ; a sample of democratic frauds . a plan to give new - york city an undue proportion op senators and assemblymen - - glaring errors in the returns filed by enumerators - - a demand for legislative inquiry .
good . creepy . tight . feels wolfe - esque in its studied care with metaphor and peculiar first person narration . that leads me , in turn , to suspect textual trickery ( along with occasional slips in voice like
the boy is i
) , but without the anchoring framework of something like six days and seven nights in america , or the fifth head of cerberus , i lack an angle of attack . what here is the predecessor ' s voice ? vs . current census - taker ? etc . it ' s short and well written . definitely worth a look , like
as an avid fan of the twilight zone , this movie kept my attention with the flowing plot and the great actors which never fall into the melodramatic or wink at the audience . with an unexpected twistful ending , it falls right up there with the rest of the old episodes i love .
not all the stories were sad . my most memorable census moment was when i visited the house i’ve always been curious about . its occupants don’t seem to have the same need for privacy that most suburban calgarians do . on warm evenings , they sit in their front yard to listen to music , talk and laugh .
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here the book offers a key to the unsettling eclipse of its narrative . the boy’s own intuitive sense of these gaps , and his response to them , is captured in the sketch of the fence and the tree . he notes the absence , and relishes its boundaries with that primal sense , touch , as he occupies the space freed up and still defined by the missing object . the anecdote captures the intensity and sense of magic in childhood , and the process of organic completion that comes naturally to children’s minds .
the city where the narrator’s father is from is a mystery in itself . it gets mentioned a lot throughout the story , and we find out eventually that it’s where the census takers are from as well . the city has a specific history that is told by drobe on page 58 : first there was a war with “mechanicals” ( which is supposedly where that creepy wooden head that haunts the narrator is from ) , then “problems on the trains” , then two wars , “one inside , one out” .
2017 hugos nominee for best novella , and i honestly don ' t know what to make of this book . it ' s purposefully cryptic and vague , and there ' s a haziness of identity throughout - -
the boy
vs .
i
vs .
you
, our narrator blurring pronouns in his retelling - - and the chronology see - saws back and forth , and yet that wasn ' t even the problem . i could follow that easily enough . where this census - taker lost me was the meandering prose and a lack of direction , and that it so stubbornly refuses categorisat
over and over again , book after book , miéville’s mature work forces the reader to ask the question that most writers get to prompt once in a literary lifetime if they’re lucky : what is this new thing we are being shown ? repeatedly , as a writer of the fantastic , he forces a redefinition of what fantasy can be . the answer in this census - taker is as different from the one in embassytown as embassytown was from the city & the city . the marvellous , we learn from this marvellous and strange little book , need not even be a question of subject matter at all . it is optic , an angle of vision , a new - ground lens applied to a world that , through it , swims and bleeds and discloses what it would not have done otherwise .
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review from speculative herald : urltoken 4 . 5 / 5 stars this census - taker , in its novella length , provides the reader with a glorious and powerful enigma of a story . it is haunting , chilling , disturbing and touching and mesmerizing and absolutely beautiful . i could not stop reading this as i just craved to understand what was going on . it starts with a young boy running faster than he has ever run . running from some unimaginable horror , and then we find out it involves
this struggle plays out in the evolving role of the intentional lacuna . the stain and the scar are offhanded absences , background detail , deployed mainly for dramatic emphasis in the context of a bewilderingly crowded landscape . by the time he publishes the city and the city ( 2009 ) , though , his attention turns more specifically to the lacunae . in this surreal crime novel , two cities occupy the same geographical space , existing in uneasy overlap through the fine subdivision of territory . the complexity of this subdivision opens the possibility that cartographic errors have left room for a third city , a city in the gaps . the lacuna here is identified with one of its frequent companions , the conspiracy . they are superficially similar : the information content of a conspiracy is concealed , while that of a lacuna is unknowable . for the time being , they appear the same because one does not know the important facts about either one .
if there is a younger version of robinson in the english language , it must be china miéville . more influenced by postmodernists like j . g . ballard but also well within the socialistic literary lineage of science fiction , miéville was born in 1972 and educated in international relations and british left politics as well as what he likes to call “weird literature . ” no summary of his earlier work , ranging widely and twice from fiction to non - fiction ( the latest is october , his own historical account of the russian revolution ) , can simplify it generically . so let us turn to his latest fiction , a little gem entitled this census taker .
although the census questions are relatively impersonal , sometimes they brought out heartbreaking stories . when asked about transportation to work , one woman told me that no one in her house travels anywhere . “my son is too sick to work and my mom has alzheimer’s . ”
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in the steampunkish worlds of miéville’s fictions—and perhaps in this census - taker most of all—the possible and the unknowable meet in the uncertain . for most of his new book’s length , its narrator lives in his ramshackle family home on a rough and uncivilized hill . there are , he sometimes suggests , creatures on that hill at night , dangerous creatures , possibly even monstrous ones . and yet we never quite glimpse them . by day , things larger than birds sweep their shadows over the ground , but they fly so high that we never learn whether they’re dragons or airplanes . indeed , though there’s talk of weather - watchers and hermits and witches elsewhere on the tangled slope , it’s hard to say whether this is a truly magical world or merely one of pervasive superstition .


reincarnated is a documentary film about the musician snoop dogg 's explorations of reggae and rastafari culture , and his transformation into snoop lion .

it premiered at the toronto international film festival on september 7 , 2012 , and was released to theaters march 21 , 2013 .

it is a companion film to his 12th studio album , reincarnated .

the film was shot by andy capper of vice magazine .

reincarnated ( film )

sub . film : vice & snoop lion’s new film reincarnated in theaters march . . .
lasse hallström ' s controversial film about an oft - reincarnated pooch is guilelessly mawkish in its celebration of the canine spirit .
david produced the award - winning film minimal knowledge ( released by york entertainment in january 2004 as murder reincarnated ) . minimal knowledge was screened at several regional and international film festivals , including the prestigious chicago latino film festival , miami latino film festival , and new york latino film festival . the film won eight major awards and honors at the sarasota film festival ( audience award ) , ajijic mexico international film festival ( best director , best drama , audience award , best actor ) , the garden state film festival ( best drama , audience award ) , and the sedona international film festival ( gala opening night feature ) .
reincarnated afterparty friday , september 7 the great hall ( 1087 queen st . west ) 10pm
although religions like buddhism also have heavens / hells that one can be reincarnated into as reward / punishment .
“it would be glamorous to be reincarnated as a great big ring on liz taylor ' s finger . ”
snoop said that while in jamaica , he connected with bob marley’s spirit and is now “bob marley reincarnated . ”
ben kingsley is reincarnated as ryan reynolds in this thriller about a sinister organization that provides new identities to the wealthy and powerful .
the trailer’s youtube page has now been flooded with negative comments from viewers decrying the film .
according to a press release from vice , reincarnated is a feature film that traces the life and career of snoop lion , as he embarks on a “journey of reincarnation of self” that is equal parts career reinvention and spiritual reawakening .
“reincarnated” is rated r ( under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian ) for strong language and , of course , ubiquitous pot smoke .
confused by the film ? even just a bit ? read our character - by - character explainer .
up to date as of july 7th , 2018 ( give or take a film or three ) .
film festival 4rd annual film miami fest , miami widescreenfest , cine miami fest latino . august 3 - 5 . best shorts worldwide . full weekend of screening , fashion , music , pageant and awards .
in its simplest moments . . .
reincarnated
presents an honesty that is its own reward . it shows us an old dogg with no tricks .
in the end , chris and annie are reincarnated and meet as little kids in a scene that the makers of those precious moments figurines would kill for .
which brings us to snoop dogg . the long beach , ca native has been reincarnated , deciding to switch up his musical styling after a spiritual awakening while visiting jamaica . he’s now known as snoop lion , a change that will culminate with a new reggae album called reincarnated set to be released in the fall .
david most recently produced the feature film a dangerous place , starring kristen dalton ( the departed , dead zone ) , sal rendino ( er ) and kevin interdonato ( the sopranos ) . the film was released by screen media / netflix this past january . in march 2012 at the garden state film festival , a dangerous place won the festival’s top honor , best feature audience award , as well as the best homegrown feature film award .
the film’s producers , amblin partners and universal pictures , issued a joint statement saying they are investigating the incident .
an official selection of the critically acclaimed toronto international film festival , the highly anticipated film chronicles snoop dogg’s spiritual journey to snoop lion that grew from his recent trip to jamaica – where the jamaican people and culture positively affected him .
the press release said reincarnated is an official selection of the critically acclaimed toronto international film festival and it chronicles snoop dogg’s spiritual journey to snoop lion that grew from his recent trip to jamaica – where the jamaican people and culture positively affected him . presented by vice films and snoopadelic films , reincarnated delves into the legacy of rastafari music culture as snoop visits trench town , the birthplace of reggae and one - time stomping grounds of luminaries peter tosh , bob marley and the still living bunny wailer . the film gives viewers unprecedented access as snoop reflects on his turbulent and rapid rise from long beach to international icon to his rechristening as snoop lion . reincarnated is produced by suroosh alvi of vice media and ted chung of stampede management .
snoop dogg ' s dalliance with reggae was documented in the film reincarnated and this is the companion album . snoop ' s leaden vocalizing and dreadful fake patois are occasionally saved by the strong production from major lazer , vybz kartel collaborator dre skull , and producer / songwriter ariel rechtshaid .
subscribe to trailers : urltoken subscribe to coming soon : urltoken like us on facebook : urltoken reincarnated official trailer # 1 ( 2013 ) - snoop lion documentary hd reincarnated follows snoop dogg on a spiritual journey as he immerses himself in rastafari , explores musical and religious histories deeply rooted in jamaica , and reemerges from his experience as
snoop lion .
abu dhabi - - vice media , which most recently made waves with snoop lion documentary reincarnated , is looking to expand its film business . for 2013 , the company targets more film releases , ceo and co - founder shane smith tells the hollywood reporter .
one of the things we learned was we were doing all this film marketing for the major studios very successfully ,
he says .
but why are we pushing these films for studios when we can push out own films ? so that ' s what we are doing .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
reincarnated , presented by vice films and snoopadelic films , delves into the legacy of rastafari music culture as snoop visits trench town , the birthplace of reggae and one - time stomping grounds of luminaries peter tosh , bob marley and the still living bunny wailer . the film gives viewers unprecedented access as snoop reflects on his turbulent and rapid rise from long beach to international icon to his rechristening as “snoop lion . ” reincarnated is produced by suroosh alvi of vice media and ted chung of stampede management .
snoop ' s involvement as a producer does a disservice to the film . was there anyone behind the scenes with veto power ?
all told - and this film knows exactly who its audience is - a reminder of what famously enriching company habitual stoners are .
nfs : you got a lot of attention on the film pretty quickly . did you have any kind of plan in place ?
about snoopadelic films snoopadelic films ( formerly known as doggfather ent . ) is an american film production company , founded by entertainment icon , snoop dogg . the company has produced a variety of titles for film and television , including reincarnated ( spring 2013 ) , mac & devin go to high school ( starring snoop dogg and wiz khalifa ) , e ! network’s first hip hop reality show , snoop dogg’s father hood , boss’n up and more .
time will tell , of course , if the conversion sticks : none of the songs featured in the film matches the intensity of snoop ' s big hits . in its simplest moments , though ,
reincarnated
presents an honesty that is its own reward . it shows us an old dogg with no tricks .
almost the entire time snoop is on screen in the new documentary reincarnated , he’s grinning ear - to - ear . and it’s not just the weed . the man is truly happy .
snoopadelic films ( formerly known as doggfather entertainment ) is an american film production company , founded by entertainment icon , snoop lion . the company has produced a variety of titles for film and television , including reincarnated ( spring 2013 ) , mac & devin go to high school ( starring snoop dogg and wiz khalifa ) , e ! network’s first hip - hop reality show , “snoop dogg’s father hood , boss’n up” and more , the release said .
reincarnated was directed by filmmaker and vice editor andy capper , but also executive produced by snoop and his wife shante broadus , so it’s no surprise that the film paints an especially positive portrait of snoop . i asked capper if he was at all concerned that people would view the movie as nothing but a puff piece .
: said almost word - for - word in the original novel . in the film , both heaven and hell work this way in
annie and chris decide to be reincarnated . they are and meet again as small children . it ' s pretty much a given that the soul mates will be each others ' victorious childhood friend .
reincarnated ( vice films and snoopadelic films ) comes out march 15 in select u . s . theaters ( austin , los angeles , miami , new york , san francisco , chicago and atlanta ) . for listings , visit urltoken . the film will hit dvd , itunes and amazon in april 2013 . the album comes out april 23rd .
universal pictures faces animal cruelty allegations after disturbing footage leaked from the set of a new animal - themed family film . warning : confronting video .
the film was shot largely on fuji velvia film and is one of the few films to be done so . the fuji velvia film is known among landscape photographers for its vivid color reproduction and it shows . the film was not particularly successful at the box office . it earned $ 55 , 382 , 927 at the united states market , only the 40th most successful film of its year . it was released to mixed reviews , on one hand praised for the visuals of the overall film and strong performances from the two leading actors . on the other hand , it was criticized for significant deviations from its source novel , a sense of
morose sentimentality
and lack of genuine drama and / or conflict . it won an academy award for its visual effects and was nominated for the academy award for best art direction ( lost to shakespeare in love ) .
a popular film actress of the 1940s and 1950s , betty hutton starred in such films as annie get your gun and greatest show on earth .
scm colloquium series presents : paths to success in media : a discussion with david schoner on indie film production and careers in the media industry .
hell is war : parts of it , anyway . given the nature of the afterlife in this film , it likely doubles as a warrior heaven .
this doggo - driven film is a genuinely heartwarming tale about the enriching gifts these relationships bring . it ' s guaranteed to make your heart swell .
the close - up documentary , directed by andy capper , seamlessly showcases his journey and controversial transformation from hip - hop star to reggae singer while he was recording his forthcoming album “reincarnated” , executive produced by major lazer .
as befits a multi - platform media star such as snoop , cameras accompanied the mc to jamaica , documenting the experience for a new film also titled
reincarnated .
the movie , directed by andy capper , was produced by vice , the brooklyn - based company that recently organized dennis rodman ' s controversial excursion to north korea . call this latest project dancehall diplomacy .
after escaping hell , chris and annie have an opportunity to spend eternity in a literal house of their dreams in heaven , but choose to be reincarnated in order to get a second chance at a successful childhood friend romance .
capper’s upcoming vice documentary is much more light - hearted . it’s called lil bub & friendz and is about lil bub , the world’s cutest cat , and his pal , grumpy cat , but also examines the entire internet - cat phenomenon . the film will make its premiere at the 2013 tribeca film festival .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
so far so good . there is a neat twist halfway through the film , when damian discovers some startling answers at a farm in missouri . this exciting sequence is the high point of the film . after that , the remaining twists become increasingly far - fetched , and the intriguing story degenerates into a flat - out action movie with car chases and violent shoot - outs that are competently filmed by singh but seem to come from a far more conventional film .
this is a work of fiction : disclaimer after the end credits :
the persons and events in this production are fictitious . no similarity to actual persons , living , dead or reincarnated is intended or should be inferred .
diego : we follow the comic book a little bit , but we also added our personal input . we wanted to try and make a true fan film .
in “reincarnated” calvin broadus jr . — better known as the rapper snoop dogg , or more recently as snoop lion — has a family and speaks longingly of a life and values beyond the los angeles gang milieu that spawned his success . but his longtime appetite for marijuana persists , so he heads to jamaica for a monthlong spiritual pilgrimage of sorts , documented in this competent film from andy capper .
the shining ( 1980 ) is an interesting film . at first , it feels like a traditional horror set - up - a guy gets hired to spend the winter in an enormous hotel , secluded from civilization , where obviously something will go very wrong . as the film develops , it becomes more mysterious , ambiguous , threatening , and hallucinatory . by the climax , you’re left wondering exactly what just happened . nothing brings out that feeling more than the film’s final shot - a zoom in on an overlook staff party from 1921 , where it appears jack torrance ( jack nicholson ) , the film’s lovely central character , is standing front and center .
but all the talk of spirituality and rebirth in the film comes across as sincere and truthful . there seems to be no question that snoop is working through some serious issues in reincarnated , or that he has truly hit a turning point in his life . so either this is some astonishingly masterful propaganda , or it really is a joyous portrait of a man seeking — and finding — spiritual redemption .
it will arrive as a surprise to nobody , stoned or not , that reincarnated is a essentially 90 - minute promo video carefully orchestrated by the artist formerly known as snoop dogg and his handlers . snoop’s life - changing trip to jamaica is demonstrated by the film’s director , vice magazine editor andy capper , as an unbroken stream of spontaneous encounters with reggae legends , ghetto thugs , and music producers , as if snoop snapped his fingers on some airport tarmac and all of jamaica answered magnanimously . he goes on to describe the untimely death of his contemporary nate dogg as the necessary spur for both the voyage and the new album . as snoop explains portentously more than once , “it’s called reincarnated , ” and by the film’s final minutes , both the man and the musician will be redubbed “snoop lion . ”
the film strikes an impressive balance between serious concerns and several hilarious episodes - usually involving snoop and his entourage enthusiastically partaking of jamaica ' s bountiful crops of marijuana .
the film also highlights the increasing influence of the far right in europe . “we’re highlighting that the danger of a resurgence is very much alive , ” said wnendt .
look who’s back is the second homegrown hit this year for germany’s constantin film , which also released suck me shakespeer 2 , a comedy that has made over £42m .
a new film detailing the life and career of hip - hop / rap artist snoop lion ( formerly snoop dogg ) is set to be released on march 15 .
questions about this particular film’s on - set safety standards – not to mention the further - reaching debates about the ethics of using animals in film – are far beyond the purview of this review , but it’s hard to deny that the scandal colors the viewing of what is otherwise a guilelessly mawkish celebration of the canine will to power .
“a dog’s purpose” is directed by lasse hallstrom and based on w . bruce cameron’s 2010 novel about a dog who learns his purpose as he is reincarnated into several dogs over the course of several lifetimes . it is slated to be released jan . 27 .
scm colloquium series presents : paths to success in media : a discussion with david schoner on indie film production and careers in the media industry . - university calendar - montclair state university
a dog ' s purpose
left me cherishing my borderline - venerable skeezix ; longing to see scamp and fluff and sukoshi and sally , the dear departed dogs of my life ; and wishing i could have been reincarnated as a better master than i was .
to create the
reincarnated
album , snoop hires producer diplo and songwriter angela hunte . he meets reggae singer cutty corn on the block where peter tosh used to live , and when corn sings him an original composition , snoop asks if he can record the song with him . corn brings the
struggle part
to the
reincarnated
album ' s mission statement of
songs of peace , love and the struggle .
snoop also records with his own daughter , who sings a catchy hook that he wrote for her . ( thankfully , she ' s not t - pained into oblivion by the producers . ) songs like
no guns allowed
deliver snoop lion ' s new message , and while
reincarnated
includes recording session scenes , we ' re deprived of full versions of any of the songs .
universal pictures is investigating allegations of animal cruelty after confronting footage leaked from the set of the upcoming family film a dog’s purpose , showing a terrified german shepherd being forced into a raging torrent .
“peta is calling on dog lovers to boycott the film in order to send the message that dogs and other animals should be treated humanely , not as movie props , ” the group said .
reincarnated is the sport of superstars : the rest of us setlle for a new haircut or a facebook status update . calvin broadus jr . once transformed himself into the rapper known as snoop dogg ; now the artist known as snoop dogg is rattling his cages to let us know that he’s adopted a new moniker : snoop lion . he’s introducing fans to his new identity with the release of a new album next month and the current theatrical run of the movie reincarnated , which follows him to jamaica where he records a reggae album and immerses himself in rastafarian culture .
the call for the boycott came on wednesday , when tmz released a leaked video from november , 2015 , footage of a german shepherd being forced into turbulent water during the making of the film .
unfortunately , these moments of reflection and comparison are few .
reincarnated
seems more interested in showing us countless scenes of people smoking herb than in giving us details about the making of the album it purports to be documenting . granted , snoop is immersing himself in a culture where this is a customary process , but it gets old and tired very quickly . a ceremony scene involving the rastafarian equivalent of baptism fascinated me , but
reincarnated
neither explains it nor shows it in full . in the ritual , snoop is officially christened and renamed
the light .
i saw this film at the toronto film festival , and after the 20 , 000th shot of somebody leisurely toking , i thought to myself ,
i could have seen this for free at my ' boy ' s house in jersey city . and in odorama .
watching
reincarnated
again for this review , i still found sitting through it to be a chore . it clearly caters to the smokers in the audience . other folks will most likely be as disappointed as i was . if you ' re in the former category , please don ' t let me dissuade you from buying a ticket . like the man says : smoke ' em if you got ' em .
matt holmes is the co - founder of what culture , formerly known as obsessed with film . he has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10 , 000 articles .
reincarnated
has a built - in audience , most of whom will watch it while partaking in snoop ' s favorite lung filler . they will find much to enjoy here , 80 percent of which will be due to the fact they ' re high as hell . but if you ' re a sober fan of snoop dogg ' s rap songs , as i am , you ' re in trouble .
reincarnated
comes not to praise snoop doggy dogg but to bury him , documenting calvin broadus ' tossing of the snoop dogg moniker and the rap career that came with it .
the film is most convincing as a musical travelogue , drifting through clouds of weed smoke toward some form of doggy - lion enlightenment . if not taken too seriously , it ' s kind of a blast .
the final shot of the shining , it ' s ambiguity forever helping stanley kubrick ' s most popular film carry on it ' s enduring legacy for nearly thirty years . but what does it actually mean ?
since 1985 , david schoner has worked for the new jersey motion picture and television commission . he is currently the commission’ ' s statewide associate director . under david’s guidance as production coordinator at the film commission , variety ranked new jersey fourth in the country in the amount of production work . new jersey monthly magazine ranked david as having the fourth best job in state of new jersey for his work at the film commission .
there is no need to re - litigate the controversy that sprang up around the alleged mistreatment of a dog actor in this film . a dog ' s purpose is lame enough that you should stay away regardless .
“fostering a safe environment and ensuring the ethical treatment of our animal actors was of the utmost importance to those involved in making this film and we will look into the circumstances surrounding this video , ” the companies said .
“that was one hundred percent at the forefront of my mind , ” capper says . “it needs to be legit . because if he’s going to go out there and say he’s full - on rasta and that he’s bob marley reincarnated , people are going to say , ‘well , that’s a bit fucking rich . ' ”
yet however righteous the indignation of journalism ' s old guard , the vice model is emerging triumphant . by wading into topics usually reserved for
serious
journalism , it has transformed from an independent canadian style mag into a multimedia empire . now even carr ' s daughter , erin lee carr , works at vice as an associate producer . if reincarnated is to be the inaugural film in a new hip - hop - bio - doc - meets - marketing - exercise subgenre ( a doggumentary ? ) snoop and vice are the ideal collaborators .
a manipulative script about dog reincarnation that whacks your emotions like a piñata - that ' s forgivable . but no mercy for a film charged with canine abuse behind the scenes . it shouldn ' t happen to a dog .
the pre - release discussion of “a dog’s purpose” has largely revolved around a brief , disturbing video clip , provided to tmz by the people for the ethical treatment of animals , in which a german shepherd performing on the film appears to be forced unwillingly into a raging water tank . the video stirred outrage and calls for a boycott , prompting hallström and screenwriter w . bruce cameron ( on whose novel the film is based ) to issue statements in the film’s defense , as well as a thorough response from producer gavin polone , who acknowledged that the incident never should have happened , while also claiming that full , unedited footage from that shooting day reveals a much less objectionable picture .
“you know , i was invited to the white house to play for obama , ” he says in the film after discussing some of the less positive aspects of his back catalog . “but what the fuck am i gonna perform ? ”
cursed with awesome : the film implies that this is what soulmates have . they meet and fall in love quickly and are very happy with each other . but without each other , the other can ' t function and lives miserably .
hallstrom released a statement wednesday : “i am very disturbed by the video released today from the set of my film ‘a dog’s purpose . ’ i did not witness these actions , which are unacceptable and would never happen with my knowledge . we were all committed to providing a loving , respectful and safe environment for all the animals in the film . i have been promised that a thorough investigation into this situation is underway and that any wrongdoing will be reported and punished . ”
cover story : snoop on pot , the music biz and his movie ' reincarnated ' smith says vice ' s film activities have been growing
exponentially .
the company didn ' t commit to a specific number of releases , but smith said he is eyeing several features for next year .
i don ' t know if that ' s going to stay static or double in 2014 ,
he says .
you want to do it in such a way that you keep quality control and have enough people who are excited about it to make it work .
the vice rockumentary heavy metal in baghdad , which followed two vice filmmakers as they track down an iraqi heavy metal band during the iraq war , helped get the snoop project started , and smith expects that to help keep the company in the spotlight .
snoop saw heavy metal in baghdad and said , ' i want that , '
smith explains .
now people are seeing reincarnated and saying , ' we want that . ' so we are doing a lot more features - - not just in america but all around the world . we ' re doing some stuff in india right now , stuff in germany and england .
vice films produced reincarnated with snoop ' s snoopadelic films .
a scrappy roughneck from just outside liverpool , the 40 - year - old , flat cap–wearing filmmaker is at sxsw , where he’s screening his first feature - length documentary , reincarnated . the film chronicles the gangster rapper snoop dogg’s transformation into the rastafarian reggae artist snoop lion and follows him during his trip to jamaica , where snoop spent 3 1 / 2 weeks recording his new reggae album with super - producer diplo . snoop had been a fan of capper’s work , including the vice guide to liberia , and his team said he wanted to team up with vice to tell his story .
seeing the film should be your first priority , and all the showtime info for the remaining screenings during tiff is right up there and you can buy your tickets here . after that you should head over here and rsvp for the afterparty .
eninem ' s alter - ego , rabbit triumphs against the odds in urban america . and with curtis hanson of la confidential in the director ' s chair , the real eminem triumphed too ; this one pleased film critics as much as fans .
julio : it started in november of 2015 and it took us about 4 months to finish everything , but we had to put post production on hold in march because diego and i went to kentucky to shoot a feature sci - fi film called curvature .
the subsequent years proved to be an up - and - down affair for taylor . there were more marriages , more divorces , health obstacles , and a struggling film career , with movies that gained little traction with critics or the movie - going public .
after years of turmoil and transformation — from calvin broadus to the d - o - double - g , from gangster to pimp — the rapper we all know as snoop dogg has now officially been reborn as snoop lion , and turned from rapper to reggae singer with a new record ( also titled reincarnated ) coming on april 23 and based in jamaican roots and dancehall music .
he adds , “i figured i’d make a film about his life story as well , since i had him in the corner and i wasn’t going to let him get away , so i just thought , i’m going to fucking go to town on this . ”
een observers of the former snoop dogg ' s career may note that reincarnated – on which he reinvents himself as snoop lion , rastafarian purveyor of spiritual reggae – is not the first time the rapper has expressed dissatisfaction with hip - hop and attempted to change musical direction . we can but speculate what became of the band he announced in 2006 , enticingly described as r & b
with a twist … we ' re basically a male chauvinist group
. but his new move has certainly proved his most controversial ; no mean feat given that that r & b group was called nine inch dicks . no sooner was reincarnated in the can than word came from jamaica that his commitment to rastafarianism was being questioned . bunny wailer , who was slated to appear on the album , described it as
largely retired from the world of acting , taylor received numerous awards for her body of work . in 1993 she received the american film institute & apos ; s life achievement award . in 2000 she was made dame commander of the order of the british empire ( dbe ) .
are there more interpretations to the final shot of the shining ? i would love to hear them and add them to this entry , the more the better , no matter how outlandish they may seem . what have you always made out the end of the film to mean ?
snoop dogg is quite an interesting character in his own right , and if or when hollywood decides to give him the biopic he so thoroughly deserves , it should be hugely entertaining . unfortunately , reincarnated is not that movie , instead focusing on snoop ' s travels to jamaica to immerse himself in the local culture , record his first ever reggae record , and smoke weed . lots and lots of weed .
tenzin sets off on this unforgettable quest on foot , mule , and even helicopter , through breathtaking landscapes and remote traditional tibetan villages . along the way , tenzin listens to stories about young children with special characteristics , and performs rarely seen ritualistic tests designed to determine the likelihood of reincarnation . he eventually presents the child he believes to be his reincarnated master for the dalai lama to make the final decision .
capper captures plenty of diverting adventures in and around kingston , as snoop jams with a band of sweet - faced school kids and visits a marijuana field deep in the foggy recesses of jamaica ' s lush blue mountains . ( there may be more weed smoked in
reincarnated
— in blunts , bongs , even the occasional hollowed - out carrot — than in the collected works of cheech & chong . )
reincarnated
opens with a huge puff of marijuana smoke , an appropriate image for a documentary starring the artist formerly known as snoop dogg . the newly christened snoop lion appeared on hbo ' s
real time with bill maher
a few weeks ago , and throughout his segment , maher kept smelling his guest . you can bet your last money that snoop didn ' t smell like april fresh downy .
in the original ending , chris and annie are reincarnated as a white man and an indian woman and get married , but annie dies young - as dictated by the laws of karma because of her suicide in her previous life . chris spends decades , the rest of his life , mourning her . chris sees their future selves enjoying heaven off in the distance , and they decide it ' s worth it .
so what’s jack doing in 1921 ? in a film full of ambiguities , the photograph is something director stanley kubrick actually discussed in interviews . his answer not only explains the concept behind the photo , but serves to counter some other theories as to what’s going on overall at the overlook hotel .
a dog’s purpose is not a good movie . its characters , both human and canine , are two - dimensional . its narrative structure , which jumps from one unrelated dog owner to the next , is lumpy . its premise , that dogs are reincarnated and retain memories and habits from their past lives , is highly dubious . if you are an even mildly discriminating filmgoer , you will roll your eyes throughout a dog’s purpose .
and so , to jamaica , where it is reported that snoop dogg became
snoop lion
, converted to rastafari and recorded reincarnated , an album of reggae - tinged tracks , which eschews
guns ' n ' bitches
in favour of
peace ' n ' love
. is this a spiritual reawakening ? an elaborate marketing stunt ? or just your everyday , risible midlife crisis – albeit
doggy - style
?
somewhere between inhales , maher told snoop
you smoke too much weed in this movie !
snoop agreed , and boy , he was not kidding . if the mpaa were remotely creative , their rating description for
reincarnated
would be
rated r for rampant reefer , pervasive pot , some shizznit and constant kutchie passing .
this is the first movie that would benefit from being released in smell - o - vision .
her breakout role , however , came in 1944 with national velvet , in a role elizabeth taylor spent four months working to get . the film subsequently turned out to be a huge hit that pulled in more than $ 4 million and made the 12 - year - old actress a huge star .
what does it take to get vice behind a film ?
we think that passion breeds success ,
smith says .
you need passion - - not just from me and the executive team but also the kids in the trenches who do the events , magazine and advertising . of course , film expands what we do . everything builds on everything else . when you have a good film , everybody gets behind it , and you push it into the magazine . so you have great content in the magazine , and the magazine gets more popular , and the film gets more popular and your online stuff gets more popular . but you have to pick and choose very wisely . you have to get behind them because they are good , not because you want to make money or something else . obviously , you want to make money , and that only comes when something is successful .
vice focused on original web video years before such online giants as google / youtube and aol , and it has started crossing over and working with media giants like time warner . it also has another tie to the traditional media world : former viacom ceo tom freston is an adviser for the firm .
i enjoy behind the scenes stuff and this interview was no exception . i found it fascinating to read about how these two filmmaking brothers made low budget film short magic . i especially loved reading the two brothers talking about what it’s like to work together . you can definitely sense the comradery between them .
anyway , now to the point . reincarnated is a documentary that i ' ve seen twice now , and i ' ve noticed that it gets a lot of hate from the letterboxd community . don ' t get me wrong , it ' s nothing incredibly special as documentaries go , and it ' s certainly nowhere near the quality of films such as the act of killing . but it ' s a competently made film , it ' s shot quite nicely , and it ' s interesting for anyone who is a snoop dogg ( or lion ) fan or anyone who just enjoys rastafarian culture or reggae music in general . it definitely drags at times and sometimes comes off as sensationalist , but there ' s also plenty of good material here . there…
the gangster flick – with its rise - and - fall narrative – has long been the go - to genre for these hip - hop hagiographies , and for obvious reasons , but reincarnated takes a different tack . the scene where snoop and his entourage stumble around a jamaican hillside , in search of – you guessed it – some marijuana to smoke , has more in common with cheech and chong ' s stoner comedies than mid - period scorsese .
reincarnated
shines when it focuses on comparisons between the birthplaces of the two sides of calvin broadus . the kids who play instruments for snoop lion are from a school for troubled boys run by sister shirley chung . as rewards for good behavior , the boys are taught to play musical instruments .
had something like this been in long beach ,
snoop tells sister shirley ,
i would have been here instead of the street .
“a dog’s purpose” is the type of movie that lives or dies entirely on its audience’s goodwill . with it , the lasse hallström film could serve as a cinematic warm blanket in this moment of national fractiousness and fear : full of adorable pooches , gentle breezes of hallmark card philosophy , and nonpartisan rah - rah americana . without it , it veers dangerously close to kitsch , shamelessly exploiting one of the most reliable tear - jerking devices in fiction – the death of a dog – over and over again . given the undesirable press that has surrounded this film over the past week , goodwill may be in short supply .
onscreen connections to other characters / story lines : his grand mansion in 1936 is his nursing home in 2012 ; the film of his
ghastly ordeal
in 2012 is watched by a clone slave in 2144 ; his 1936 character has a dream of the papa song café in which sonmi - 451 works .
once damian has been reincarnated , he adjusts slowly but eagerly to his healthy new body , satisfying his hedonistic appetites . soon , however , damian begins to be troubled by mental visions that his handlers assure him are merely hallucinations . but damian begins to suspect that they are images of events that really happened . whose past is he remembering ? as he searches for answers to the mystery , the organization is desperate to keep him from learning the truth .
people for the ethical treatment of animals have called for a boycott of universal’s upcoming movie “a dog’s purpose” in the wake of the release of video showing a dog being forced into churning water on the set . “peta is calling on dog lovers to boycott the film in order to send the message that [ … ]
more honest than you might expect a promotional piece such as this to be , but less self - investigative than you might like , you come away thinking there are much greater depths for snoop lion to plumb . the musician never adds to our general knowledge of rastafarianism either . but , if nothing else , the making of reincarnated is going to be a hell of an ingenious way to write off a hell of a lot of ganja as a business expense .
coming three years after eminem ' s far superior 8 mile , this similar film suffered by comparison . there ' s no getting around the fact that 50 cent has little acting talent , and why jim sheridan of in the name of the father was signed up to direct is one of cinema ' s enduring mysteries .
snoop dogg goes to jamaica and reinvents himself as reggae performer snoop lion in this documentary film . reincarnated comes from two camps vice films and snoop - a - delic productions . vice is known for it ' s youtube videos and more . they mainly cover the news as they see fit which is some hard hitting journalism that other news isn ' t showing ( see hbo ' s vice tv series for more of that ) , but they also cover the weird and interesting side of life as well . snoop ' s snoop - a - delic production line , on the other hand , promises an inside look and the real deal close up look at his travels in jamaica . what transpires could be derided by some as a puffed up vanity piece but that ' s not a deep…
subscribe to trailers : urltoken subscribe to coming soon : urltoken like us on facebook : urltoken follow us on twitter : urltoken reincarnated trailer 1 ( 2012 ) - snoop lion documentary hd hip hop artist snoop dogg changes his name to snoop lion , travels to jamaica , emerges himself in rastafarian culture and produces his first reggae record . cast : snoop dogg : urltoken director : producer : snoop dogg suroosh alvi writer : editor : bernardo loyola cinematographer : composer : snoop dogg
in the villain role , matt dillon is perhaps the film’s most enjoyable character . clearly aware of how ridiculous the material is , he chomps the scenery and appears to be having a good time . it’s quite the change of pace after his work in this year’s powerful crash , perhaps his best dramatic work since drugstore cowboy .
reincarnated
digs deeper when the director cuts to excerpts from a series of disarmingly intimate interviews with snoop in which the rapper ponders the violence in his past , including the unsolved killing of his friend tupac shakur and snoop ' s arrest in 2006 on weapons - related charges . speaking with the kind of forthrightness he rarely summons , snoop describes his transition to reggae as an effort to outrun those demons , to access the music ' s ability to transform pain into power .
, so we had to put everything on hold for three months . we already had a composer and our sound design / mixer signed on , so as soon as we got back , we dove in and finished everything while we started prepping to edit our feature film . we were working 20 - hour days for a while .
substream magazine is a forward thinking lifestyle and media outlet that focuses on discovering and sharing the best in new music , film , pop culture , and entertainment . since 2007 , substream has helped break artists and launch cutting edge content our writers and staff are located all over the world and are passionate about music and pop culture .
peta also said that the dogs used to film “a dog’s purpose” were provided by birds & animals unlimited . the group complained to the u . s . department of agriculture recently about bau , alleging that peta’s investigation showed that the animals were denied veterinary care , forced to sleep outdoors in the cold and living in unsanitary conditions .
while her love life continued to make international headlines , taylor continued to shine showed as an actress . she delivered a riveting performance in the drama a place in the sun , and turned things up even more in 1956 with the film adaptation of the edna ferber novel , giant that co - starred james dean . two years later , she sizzled on the big screen in the film adaptation of tennessee williams & apos ; cat on a hot tin roof . the following year , she starred in another williams classic , suddenly last summer . taylor earned her first oscar , capturing the coveted best actress award for her role as call girl in butterfield 8 ( 1960 ) .
reincarnated ’s strong suit is its production , which was handled in large part by diplo ’s major lazer braintrust with help from vybz kartel collaborator dre skull and producer / songwriter ariel rechtshaid . the album’s sonic architects ease off their trademark futuristic dance floor bedlam here , opting instead for what sounds like a lovingly cultivated genre - bending mixtape . reincarnated flits from the rock - reggae fusion of “rebel way” to the old school dancehall of “here comes the king” to the lumbering boom bap of “lighters up” early on . and then it makes stops at roots reggae for “so long” and spectral dub on “ no guns allowed ” , which cleverly lays a mellotron line reminiscent of gorillaz ’ “clint eastwood” over a loop of beirut ’s “nantes” . things get hairy with “get away” , which rehashes elements of “pon de floor” in spots , and “the good good” , a drab acoustic jingle better suited to pad out the back end of a matisyahu album , but missteps on the production front are mercifully scant .
during an intimate moment in reincarnated , snoop gazes at the floor as recounts the deaths of tupac shakur ( the rapper was shot dead in 1996 ) and nate dogg ( who succumbed to multiple strokes in 2011 ) , and also recounts about his own numerous run - ins with the law for possession of drugs and guns . he’s seen too much of that world , he says , and wants to create a more positive message with his music after years of songs that focused on the negative .
not to be confused with the 1946 hitchcock film , notorious chronicles the life and violent death of rapper biggie smalls ( aka the notorious b . i . g ) in gangster - flick style . acting unknown jamal woolard is great in the lead , but nick broomfield ' s 2002 doc , biggie & tupac , tells the story better .
elizabeth rosemond taylor was born on february 27 , 1932 , in london , england . one of film & apos ; s most celebrated stars , elizabeth taylor has fashioned a career that & apos ; s covered more than six decades , accepting roles that have not only showcased her beauty , but her ability to take on emotionally charged characters .
the borat - style film , based on the bestselling novel by timur vermes , puts adolf hitler back into german society and utilises the reactions of real people for humour . over the weekend , it knocked pixar’s hit adventure inside out off the top spot and became the country’s no 1 release . it has already made around £8 . 5m .
if you ' ve watched cloud atlas and you ' re still a bit confused , it’s easy to see why . each of the six intertwined stories takes place in a different era and assumes the tropes of completely different genres . actors play multiple roles across the film , switching ages , races , and even genders from tale to tale . tracking those actors is somewhat key to understanding the connective plot , in which various souls are reincarnated or migrate over time — crossing the ages like clouds cross the skies . ( in the book , you could track the reincarnation by the bodies that shared a comet - shaped birthmark ; in the film , the birthmark just signals our protagonists , and the actor triggers the reincarnation . ) see hugo weaving ? then you ' ve got the bad soul who will only get worse over time . see tom hanks ? then you ' ve got the recovering soul who starts off bad but will become ( mostly ) good over the course of his journey . here is a guide to the karmic chameleons of cloud atlas . ( note : to avoid confusion we will mostly refer to the characters by the names of the actors who play them . )