Staff Picks: Point-and-click fall vibes and Devo restored

For this week's Staff Picks, film editor Jacob Oller suggests a melancholic gaming experience in Norco, an indie point-and-click game set in dystopian Louisiana. Oller enjoys the game's autumnal aesthetic and unsettling storyline, which centers on a protagonist returning home after her mother dies of cancer. The game delves into themes of conglomerates, community pain, and cultists, all while immersing the player in its location-specific melancholy.

Senior TV editor Erik Adams shares his appreciation for Devo: Restorations And Revelations (Collected Film Works 1976-1984), a screening of Devo's music videos and other ephemera from the new wave act's 1970s and 1980s heyday. Adams was initially expecting a repeat of familiar sights and sounds, but was pleasantly surprised by the restoration and reconstruction of Devo's groundbreaking videos. The project, a labor of love by musician-artist-archivist Peter Conheim, offers a fresh perspective on the band's iconic visuals.

Conheim's work brings Devo's videos out of the muck of generations of videotape dubbing, allowing the audience to see the tasteless clip art featured in "Love Without Anger" and the black-and-white irony of "Beautiful World" for the first time. The restored footage, with all the artifacts of aging filmstock intact, adds an extra twist-of-the-knife to the band's message about de-evolution and dystopia.

Adams finds the presentation inspiring, especially when considering the band's mounting frustration with how their music and message were being misinterpreted by the masses.