8 A.M. Sunday, 12th of January, 2014. HAL'S birthday. I'm tired as fuck.

HAL.

IBM.

HAL/IBM. HAL=IBM. IBM=HAL.

H+1 = I
A+1 = B
L+1 = M

So HAL is indisputably IBM. Just go one letter on in the alphabet from H, A and L and you get I, B and M. 

But what is IBM? A computer company Kubrick had a grudge against? Or are we just missing a "T" in the greatest riddle known to mankind? Confused? Allow me to demonstrate.

IBM
I= 9th letter of the alphabet.
B= 2nd letter of the alphabet.
M= 13th letter of the alphabet.

9+2+13= 24.

X= 24th letter of the alphabet.

X= 10 in Roman numerals, so IBM= 10.

HAL
H=…

Ever since I joined Letterboxd, nothing has scared me more than the idea of trying to write about 2001: A Space Odyssey. The fact that everything has "already been said" about this masterpiece has itself already been said so many times that there's not even an original means of expressing my lack of originality left at my disposal. So with the knowledge that I will probably never be able to fully encapsulate what makes this my favorite movie of all time—let alone say something truly unique about it—here is a small list of a few things I love about it.

I love that the monolith has remained an enigmatic symbol capable of being read in any number of different ways…

I've had this movie on Blu-Ray for maybe 4 years now and I've always been worried to watch it because it seemed like something I had to be in "the right mood" for. When a friend told me it was playing at the Arclight in 70mm, I said "fuck the mood" and bought myself a ticket, presuming that a 70mm theater screening is the best way to see this thing.

Honestly? I still don't know if that's true. It felt like a huge experience. But this is the second time I've seen a 70mm movie in theaters (the first time being The Hateful Eight) and both times I came away thinking: it doesn't really look better to me. And with…

“I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.”

In the beginning was the Monolith, and the Monolith was with God, and the Monolith was God.

From where had the Monolith derived? It scarcely mattered. If it had always been there, then it had come from nowhere. It simply was. The nothing from which everything sprang. The animating stimulus that drove the amoeba to split in two. The force of nature that extinguished the great lizards not inclined toward avian salvation. The spark of ingenuity that made the ape stand upright and realize its potential for violent innovation.

The Monolith was not “natural” in any traditional…

I don't wanna blow minds, but, I've never sat through this movie before today. This is indeed the year that I saw Close Encounters and 2001 for the first times on the big screen.
I don't wanna blow minds, but my mind was not blown.
Let me say this. I just put together a video running through 4 days I spent in New York City in about 2.5 minutes. Every shot is 1 second long. The lesson learned is that you can identify a shot, process it, and have an emotional reaction to it in just 1 second. 2001 goes the exact opposite route. It finds an admittedly beautiful, iconic shot, and then puts it up on screen and leaves…

There’s watching this on DVD in a modestly sized television screen and then there’s watching this in a 70mm screening in a theater, where the prelude of Atmospheres ending as the curtains pull back to reveal the full screen and the speakers drench you in Also Sprach Zarathustra. Despite having seen “the ultimate trip” before, I felt just like Bowman at the end - with the brain firing off so many thoughts that it stifles any verbal expression. By far one of the finest theatrical experiences I’ve been blessed to undergo.

Also, I have noticed an interesting detail with the use of color I didn’t notice as of now. In a lot of cases, Kubrick contrasts warm colors with cool…