Paul Levinson
Bio
Novels The Silk Code & The Plot To Save Socrates; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Best-known short story: The Chronology Protection Case; Prof, Fordham Univ.
Stories (696/0)
Review of 'Jacob's Paradox'
I figured I would expand my reviews of time-travel feature movies and TV series on Netflix to time-travel shorts on Amazon Prime (Netflix doesn't have many if any time-travel shorts). First up is Jacob's Paradox from 2015, a 36-minute narrative, written, directed, and starring Michael Peake (this is a common configuration in shorts—Jay Kensinger wrote, directed, and starred in The Chronology Protection Case, based on my novelette of the same name).
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Counterpart' 1.2
Counterpart was back last night with episode 1.2—on Amazon Prime, for me, because Starz is no longer on Cablevision in my area, which I suspect is not Starz's fault, at least in this reality. As for the episode, it was quite good, and moved the story forward in at least one big way.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'
Well, Tina and I finally got around seeing Star Wars: The Last Jedi—in a very comfortable new iPic theater right next to a new, delicious restaurant—City Perch, in Dobbs Ferry. The movie had birds and was very enjoyable, too.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
'Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams' 1.10 Kill All Others
The tenth and last episode of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams — which I've been reviewing here episode-by-episode (because each one is standalone), and which I hope will be the first ten of very many — is "Kill All Others." Although each story is different, they're deeply connected and intertwined by the central, galvanizing themes of all of Dick's work: it is real or an illusion, with the struggle to decide which is which always laced with paranoia.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
'Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams' 1.9 The Commuter
I said somewhere in my ongoing one-by-one reviews of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams 10-episode standalone anthology on Amazon Prime that I thought the series was "right up there with The Twilight Zone." I just checked—that was in my review of the third episode. I make quick judgments—but I still feel that way. I even entitled my review of Electric Dreams 1.8 Impossible Planet "Eye of the Beholder," which was the title of one of the best Twilight Zone episodes. Of course, there were 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone, in contrast to only ten so far of Electric Dreams, so when I say "right up there" I mean only that the episodes I've seen in Electric Dreams rank with any random fraction of a season of The Twilight Zone. If and when Electric Dreams gets to exceed 150 episodes—which it actually could, given that Dick wrote 44 novels and 121 short stories—I'll get back to you with a more definitive comparison.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
'Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams' 1.8 Impossible Planet
I've been saying throughout my episode-by-episode reviews of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, the 10-part anthology of standalone episodes streaming on Amazon Prime, that this anthology has been attracting some top-draw stars. I mean, we're talking Bryan Cranston, Steve Buscemi, Anna Paquin, Terrence Howard, Maura Tierney, Mireille Enos, and the like. But episode 1.8, "Impossible Planet," brings us Geraldine Chaplin (Charlie Chaplin's daughter, first big appearance in Dr. Zhivago) as a woman in her hundreds wanting to visit Planet Earth before she dies.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams' 1.7 The Father Thing
The 1950s were invaded with science fiction in which entities from outer space arrived here and took over the bodies of human beings. Invasion of the Body Snatchers — made into a movie at least three times (1956 and 1978 by that name, and again in 1996 as just Body Snatchers) and many more times as riffs on the same story with different names — is the best-known iconic template for that tale. It was good to see it back again in "The Father Thing," episode 1.7 of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, standalone stories all streaming on Amazon Prime, which I've been reviewing here one at a time.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams' 1.6 Safe & Sound
Safe & Sound — episode 1.6 in Philip K. Dick's standalone 10-episode anthology series on Amazon Prime which I've been reviewing here one episode at a time (with minimal spoilers and no or scant comparison to the original Philip K. Dick stories) — returns to the familiar but always exquisite Dick territory of is it real or illusion, in this case the real being an ear gel through which Foster Lee hears the voice of a digital assistant, the illusion being the possibility that the voice is literally in her head, given some credence since her father was a psycho who heard voices.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams' 1.5 The Hood Maker
Telepathy is another favorite but not-as-well-known-as-some-other themes of Philip K. Dick - appearing in the aforementioned (i..e, mentioned in my review of episode 1.3 of Electric Dreams) "Beyond Lies the Wub" in 1952. Its combination with police procedural in Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams episode 1.5, The Hood Maker, makes for a classic Dick amalgam.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams' 1.4 Crazy Diamond
The fourth episode in Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, the 10-part anthology of standalone stories streaming on Amazon Prime, returns us to familiar territory: a man in a dangerous relationship with a female, well, not android, precisely, but she's a "Jill" and is some kind of DNA-engineered, with an organic battery, that runs down and needs to be replaced. That's what makes this relationship especially dangerous—Jill needs Ed, a thoroughly human programmer, to get her a new battery, and maybe some others, so the two can sell them, makes lots of money, and run away together. And one more piece of this: Ed is married.
By Paul Levinson6 years ago in Futurism