The Quite Nerdy Blog

I have been playing The Last of Us recently, enjoying my newfound freedom from academia by finally indulging in some longer story-based video games. There are problems I'm having with it which I think I'll end up getting into in a longer post in the future, but there's also a lot I'm loving about it. Chief among those points of adoration is the world that the game builds. For those who don't know, The Last of Us takes place twenty years after a huge pandemic event rocks the world and turns many people into what are effectively zombies, leaving only a few survivors to band together and roam the now empty world. Having finished the game just a few days ago, there was one sequence that really stood out to me in a game that has a fair few great sequences. Without delving into too many plot specifics, our lead characters Joel and Ellie arrive at the University of Eastern Colorado on horseback, expecting to find survivors but finding a completely abandoned landscape. It s...

Oscar season is here, slightly delayed in happening because of the whole pandemic thing that we still live in, slightly delayed in me writing about because I have 10,000 words due in the next 7 days! Anyway, Oscars! Because of my aforementioned busyness I'm not covering as many categories as I did last year  but we're going to at least cover the five biggest hitters. We're talking actors in lead and supporting roles and we're talking the best film. I've done my best to see as many of these as I can but time has a habit of getting away from me so I can't promise I'll have seen them all. Still, in this weirdest of weird years, we'll be trying to do the same as every year, predicting who will win as well as getting a couple of opinions in there about who deserves to win. Let's get into it right away, before I waste any more time working out how to write this intro! Best Supporting Actor Will Win: Daniel Kaluuya for Judas and the Black Messiah Should Win...

I don't normally add these to my reviews but I don't normally review films like Promising Young Woman . So, this is a formal trigger warning, the film I'm about to discuss contains details of sexual assault and violence against women as pivotal plot points. I'm going to try and be as sensitive as I can in discussing these themes but if you find them too upsetting, I'd recommend not reading this week. Promising Young Woman is one of this years biggest nominees at the Oscars, up for Best Director, Best Actress and Best Picture, among two other nominations. It's from Emerald Fennell, who's a first time director and it's also really controversial for a whole heap of reasons. As someone who loved it, let me tell you why I think it's worthy of a watch. Much as you may think you know where the film is going, it keeps convincing you that you might in fact be wrong. Three men are at a bar, they're trying to pick up women. They look over and see a very dru...

On the 20th of March 2020, a day I have been anticipating for years finally arrived; the new Animal Crossing game was released. As the poor guys I had to live with in the months leading up to it can tell you, I didn't shut up about it for most of that time. Fair to say, it's been a hell of a year since then, one that we were starting to get into when Animal Crossing: New Horizons  made its unassuming release. Unlike most of the people who spent those first panicked months of the pandemic we now call home playing Animal Crossing with a sense of mania before eventually dropping it, I have been playing it for the last year. Not every day, but I've never missed more than two in a row. This makes me a loser, and means I have some explaining to do. This is me explaining myself. Mum, Dad, I'm sorry that your eldest son ended up like this, but we work with what we have. The slow opening up of the island allowed me to slowly build my routine and even today, I still keep most of ...

Edit: this post has now been edited to reflect how many of my predictions were correct. As it turns out, they all were, but none of my unlikely bets got a single look in. In short, I know exactly what the Academy like and what they like is rarely what I like. It's Oscar season already! It feels like it came around so quick this year but actually, the official ceremony has usually happened by this point of the year and our brains have just been rotted by prolonged exposure to both nothing and events so terrible they warp the mind! Anyway, films! One of the side effects of all the everything this year is that we're staring at a really unpredictable Oscar race, making it pretty exciting (at least at this point). I would love to explore the films that might be getting a look in but unfortunately, I haven't seen many of the films that are predicted to scoop loads of nominations. Partly that's because UK cinemas are closed and distributors are waiting even longer than usual t...

I love Arcade Fire. At this point, I think they might be my favourite band. Their music has this incredible range, where it can be anthemic and euphoric, but also full of anguish and fear. The sounds then get filtered through these lyrics about suburbia, Greek myth or technological paranoia, which are all subjects whose exploration I adore. Over five albums, they've done outstanding work... Except that there's a sixth album, never before given an official release, an album that might be my favourite. That album was their score for the 2013 movie her  and next month, at long last, it is getting a proper release, both in physical form and on streaming platforms. As someone who pre-ordered the vinyl as soon as this news came out, let me explain to you why it is so wonderful. First actually, I should probably set up the film her , in case you are unfamiliar. It's a story set in a near future, about a man named Theodore who falls in love with his sentient operating system. On th...

Writing a review of Malcolm and Marie , even in my amateur capacity, feels like a slightly futile gesture. It's a film constructed around how pointless film critics are and how they'll almost always be more dedicated to showing off to other film critics than in actually giving the film they just watched a fair shake. If you've seen the trailer for Malcolm and Marie , you might be shocked to realise that's what the film is about, which is fair, especially since it also isn't really about that. On a basic level, it's about a couple, who return from the premiere of Malcolm's new movie. Marie is upset because she wasn't mentioned in his speech and so she has a bone to pick with him. That's it. This is a movie about pretty people dealing with petty problems, a subgenre of film I'm pretty fond of. The problem with Malcolm and Marie though is that it isn't just that, it's also trying to be some great thesis statement on film, filmmakers and how ...