THE LAST ARTISAN (PG, 2018)
80 minutes/streaming on Vimeo
The Haw Par Villa theme park is a rite of passage for Singaporeans who were taken there as children and possibly left warped for life by its dioramas depicting tortures awaiting sinners in Hell.
This documentary by Singapore-based American film-maker and lecturer Craig McTurk chronicles the work of Mr Teo Veoh Seng, who is responsible for keeping exhibits fresh and under pressure to pass skills on to two trainees from China before he retires.
The film premiered at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2018 and is now available online through indie cinema The Projector.
WHEN: Till mid-June
ADMISSION: US$9.99 for a 24-hour rental
INFO: The Last Artisan
THE PLATFORM WATCH PARTY
The Platform (R21, 2019, 94 minutes, Netflix) is set in a future in which the metaphorical tiers of society become literal: Inside a colossal structure, the rich dine first with the leftovers sent down a shaft to the unfortunates living below.
This Spanish thriller raises questions about social justice, an issue which will also be explored in a post-viewing chat with film writers Joellene of @thebacklight and Jian Wei of Film Journals.
WHEN: May 29, 8pm, folllowed by a post-movie Zoom discussion
ADMISSION: Free, but the viewing requires a Netflix subscription. The watch party requires the installation of the netflixparty.com browser plug-in.
INFO: Links to the watch party and Zoom discussion will be shown on the Telegram group and Facebook page
UPLOAD
Amazon Prime Video/3.5 stars
The bingeable new Amazon sci-fi comedy series Upload has plenty within its premise: a future where people can have their minds uploaded to a virtual afterlife when they die.
But the retirement home you end up in depends on what you can afford, as a penniless app developer named Nathan (Robbie Amell from The Flash) learns when he gets in a car accident. Andy Allo plays Nora, his customer-service "angel", a living person interacting with him using virtual-reality goggles.
The show invites comparisons to The Good Place (2016 to 2020), another comedy set in the afterlife, albeit a metaphysical and not a digital one.
The letdowns are the leads. You never buy Amell as a nice-guy-slash-narcissist, while Allo toggles among such a limited range of expressions, you wonder if the actress might be an avatar herself.
Yet the 10 punchy episodes make for perfect popcorn TV. And there is something to be said for a show that does not take up too much of your own bandwidth.
