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Leave the World Behind (2023)
Would easily be 10/10, but it's greatness was lost in it's bloated script
Great premise with some chilling moments, but overall whatever greatness this movie could have aspired to was lost to it's bloated script and forgettable, unlikeable characters.
There was one character who was likeable and interesting - played by Farrah Mackenzie who was an absolute standout in this film. This young actress was the emotional center of the film, and I feel very strongly if the film had been trimmed down to only focus on her actions/reactions this film would have been exceptional.
But it wasn't. At best this move is a slightly above average. It has all of the very best ingredients for an excellent film, but it falls flat which makes it all the more disappointing.
Succession: Connor's Wedding (2023)
Just another Succession Wedding
Just another Succession Wedding, with cake, champagne and canapes. Something happens that effects the stock price of Waystar. There's the usual amount of confusion, drama and difficulties communicating.
Once again with Succession, we have an episode where 90% of the scenes are just people talking. The inciting incident happens off camera, and the confusion and mounting tension in this episode is expressed entirely through dialog.
And it's exquisite. It was the best episode thus far, in a show that has consistently been excellent.
The acting is absolutely remarkable, with impeccable performances from the entire cast. Every single person on screen is pitch perfect; and the ensemble elevates one another.
Triangle of Sadness (2022)
Power and chaos
This film intensely reminded me of the social dynamics I experienced 20+ years ago the year I worked at Outback Steakhouse during grad school. The vast majority of front house people were college students who were simply temporarily working class. The kitchen/prep staff were actually working class. And the management were all working class people who were putting on their very best corporate/middle class faces in the front of the house, and would immediately class-shift once they walked into the kitchen.
One of the kitchen staff was promoted to assistant manager, and took over the schedule. Over the course of a few weeks, she realized how much power she had over the entire staff and became a bully - vindictive, side-dealing and corrupt. I stayed off her radar for a long time, and passively watched it happen. Then one day, she just decided it was my turn, and she changed my schedule laughing about how I would never graduate because I would miss my classes.
So I just quit in the middle of my shift, and she yelled about how I would never be able to use them as a reference. And I said something like "I'm already a college graduate, and pretty soon I'll have an advanced degree and you'll still be here."
I haven't thought about any of that in years, but this film reminded me of how all of that felt. How much of a jerk I was when I quit, and how much a just a little bit of power can make anyone behave terribly.
Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi (2022)
Beautifully explores empathy, kindness and family
Poor little Kotaro, a very little boy who lives alone - and he shouldn't.
We meet his neighbors, and watch as Kotaro's aloneness, and deep need to be cared for, helps tune their empathy. He's so vulnerable, and in helping him his neighbors show their kindness, their empathy and develop as people. And this is wholesome and heartwarming.
However this show has major metaphorical monsters - neglect, isolation and abuse - and explores trauma in very honest way.
The only thing that prevents this show from being a 10, is the very basic animation. This story just deserved better art and production.
Velma (2023)
Crass, unfunny, and unpleasant
The nicest thing I can say about this show is I liked the color palette, and some of the retro-animation. But this show failed for me in it's dialog, plot and characters, which were all indefensibly poorly conceived.
This show comes across as a high budget version of tumblr fan-fiction, and not good fan fiction, but terrible, "edgy" fan fiction written by a hormonal tween. The humor is mean spirited, offensive and crass. It's uncomfortable to watch, it's like someone who is trying so hard to be funny or to make a point - they have the opposite effect.
Often when I see a show that doesn't appeal to me I think, oh, I'm just not the demographic this show is intended for and I move on with my day without comment. As an animation fan, who wants more adult animation in the world, I wanted to like this.... and I wanted to be able to say nice things about it, but I can't.
White Noise (2022)
Potential destroyed by unnatural dialog
Here's what the film did well - we have excellent actors, and the film has a distinct visual aesthetic. Now for the main critique.
The dialog is a nightmare - it's so unnatural it comes across as it was written by Chat GPT, and a bunch of other AI all agreed this is how humans speak. It begs the question, did anyone read the script and think "Hey, maybe we should make it sound like humans are speaking."
The net effect of the unnatural dialog is the characters come across as didactic and pretentious - they speak at the audience, and lecture us. It's so disappointing. With more natural dialog some of the inciting incidents/plot points this could have been a lot of fun to explore, but it's not.
Gudetama: Haha o tazunete donkusai (2022)
Existential, bizarre and visually stunning
The production value in this show is incredible - the baby chick and egg - have stunning live action sequences. The visuals and effects are superb.
But it's just so very very weird - on one hand I admire it for being genuinely different, and I was very put off by most of the characters and the inciting incidents of each episode.
The lead is a vaguely suicidal, resigned/dour - raw egg, who is being forced to search for his mommy with his carton-mate/sister a happy-go-lucky goal-oriented baby chick. The egg is utterly convinced his death is a forgone conclusion, and he's ready for it. The chick is plucky.
Their adventures are existential nightmare fuel, being trapped in a sushi bar, being flung out a window.... it's all very grim, yet manic and hopeful all at once.
Strongly recommended for fans of animation - there are scenes in this weird little show that are artful.
Wednesday (2022)
Delightful - subverted every negative expectation I had
This show has gory horror elements to it, and it deserves an R rating - but it was also the most wholesome and charming show I've seen on Netflix in years.
The plot is a straightforward who-done-it set in a high school, with a bunch of characters that were walking clichés - but every single character was multi-dimensional, well acted, and the mystery was carefully constructed. The ensemble worked well together, and had on screen chemistry. The characters were age appropriate - the teenagers acted and looked like teenagers.
Now what made this show utterly delightful, was the whip smart dialog, the primacy of friendships and the way the actors interacted with the fantasy elements of the world. As an example the character "thing" was treated so warmly by the actors, it gave it personality and became one of the more important supporting characters of the series as a whole.
The Lost Daughter (2021)
Often lovely, overly long, meandering then nothing
What the film did exceptionally well is build intrigue, the cinematography is lovely and the acting was pitch perfect. But none of these achievements can make up for how none of the narrative threads pay off.
The problem with this film was pacing and plot. As an example an inciting incident takes place 30 minutes into the movie, at which point the main character becomes slightly more interesting. But just not enough.
There are crumbs of interconnection between the characters but they never land - this film meanders and accomplishes nothing. It's not a conversation, it's not a slice of life, it tries so hard to be more than it is. In the end there simply was not enough plot or character development to merit the effect the ending intended.
The People We Hate at the Wedding (2022)
Lovely locations, otherwise relentlessly insufferable
I'll start by saying something nice, it had high production value, and very lovely locations. It's a shame the plot, characters, dialog and other essential elements of a good movie were missing.
This is a poorly written, unfunny film. It was so awful I have to assume it was written by an AI, who took the elements of a funny movie but simply didn't understand how to write for a human audience. I've seen 3/10 star Hallmark movies with better developed plots and characters.
I genuinely like the actors in this film, but given the script there's no amount of talent that could have saved this movie.
I turned it off roughly 1 hour in, because I didn't care how it ended.
Bread Barbershop (2020)
Wonderful and weird
This is a delightfully weird and wonderful cartoon that has an infectious pace.
It's about anthropomorphic bakery items who aspire to have beautiful frosting, aka hair-dos, and they are magically transformed by Bread, the best barber in Bakery town. Bread is assisted by Wilk, an adorable hardworking carton of milk, his sassy receptionist Choco the muffin, and their bodega cat, Sausage who is a sausage but also a dog. They interact with a menagerie of side characters, including Butter, a stick of butter, who is the most beautiful person in town, and a host of others including body building croissants, mean pies and more than could possibly be described here.
This is a fast, fun watch, with strong attention to detail. I'm looking forward to the next season, and plan to re-watch the first two seasons when it comes out.
The Great (2020)
Gratuitous, Inaccurate and Marvelous
This show is bitingly funny, and completely self-aware of it's ridiculousness. Paired with wonderful acting and gorgeous sets, this show is simply delightful.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
exhausting 2+ hour run time, otherwise lovely
This is a beautiful, well acted film with too little plot or character development for it's exhausting 2+ hour run time. IMO a better editor could have made this film easily a 10/10 - but it's not. It's slow, plodding and boring for the first half of the film.
And Just Like That... (2021)
I tried it and after 5 episodes I give up.
This new show perplexingly talks at the audience as if we are far too stupid to understand the world is changing. I have no issue with injecting social issues into entertainment - however I do have a a major issue when instead of telling a story, the writers are delivering a sermon.
This is no longer a comedy, it's a lecture from a professor who thinks the audience is not qualified to be in their classroom.
Dopesick (2021)
Nearly Perfect Narrative Arc about Addiction and Recovery
What this show gets right is addiction, addicts and recovery - and it does it extremely well. For the vast majority addiction is a gradual process. It starts subtly, not only for the addict but for the people in the addict's life. No one knows to ask for or offer help, at that first sign of a problem - so people descend irrevocably into addiction before anyone offers them a way out. Dopesick shows this brilliantly.
Headspace Guide to Sleep (2021)
Wonderfully chill and helped me sleep
First things first - This geniunely helped me get much needed sleep. Thank you to all of the people at headspace for putting this together.
I am currently at week 4 of acute insomnia. Most nights I'm sleeping less than 2 hours, and often fall asleep and wake up in under 10 minutes. It's frustrating beyond measure; I've done all of the "right" things to help fix this - sleep hygene, diet, exercise.... all of it. What I haven't done is really take the time to try to really relax my mind before sleep. And that's exactly what this little series did.
The narrator has a lovely calming voice. The animations are very soothing, and vaguely remind me of the vintage 60's and 70's cartoons from sesame street. I started the 1st episode with an open mind, relaxed, and woke up 4.5 hours later. It was wonderful.
Thank you.
Moment of Truth (2021)
Unsatisfying... Sanctimonious and unfocused
This series suffers from it's lack of focus on the victim and a very poorly presented timeline of the crime or the evidence. I wanted to know more about the victim, the police investigation and the trial. From episode 2, but the docuseries fails to present a cogent telling of what happened, or present a timeline of the crime as well as the corruption in the community.
At it's heart, the series attempts to tell a more important story about justice reform, but does so in a way that's very insulting to the viewer. I expect socially minded documentaries to tell a factual story that leads the viewer to the same high minded conclusions as the directors/editors. This documentary fails to do this, from Epsiode 2 on they tell us what to think, and as a critical viewer it feels preachy. Justice reform is an obvious conclusion, however the constant, repetitive heavy handedness takes away from the impact and importance of the message.
This could have been smart and thought provoking, but instead it comes off as sanctimonious, uncaring about the victim, unfocused and unsatisfying.
Murder Among the Mormons (2021)
Effective documentary of a complicated true crime story
The pacing and editing in this true crime documentary is what made it interesting and compelling. Intertwining the archival footage with present day interviews was done well. However I particularly enjoyed the discovery and science of the motive, and appreciated the series took the time to explain how it was accomplished.
Fascinating story, well told.
I Care a Lot (2020)
Predators never make for sympathetic protagonists...
The main problem with this well acted movie is that it tried so darn hard to make a sadistic predator a sympathetic protagonist. The POV needed to be on her victims and the pain/suffering she caused. But it wasn't. The third act of the film was this convoluted success arc.
I can forgive the unrealistic aspects of the film but the lack of emphasis on the victims made the film as a whole unpalatable.
Episodes (2011)
Excellent Comedy
It's nearing month 5 of social distancing - and I've become more discerning in my television watching. I start series and walk a way quickly; or I simply watch entire series by only watching the highest rated episodes. (I thoroughly enjoyed the 40-odd episodes I watched of The Middle, probably because I skipped the other less charming 180ish episodes.)
The pilot of Episodes was clunky. It felt disjointed. The characters felt flat, gimmicky, grating, and I wasn't entirely sure I cared enough to see what happened next. I was ready to shut it down, then the ensemble from the network showed up, and Myra's vocal fry made me laugh.
I'm so happy I stuck it out; the series is witty, delightful and I enjoyed every single episode after the pilot. Matt Leblanc playing Matt Leblanc is brilliantly executed and his character is equal parts smarmy, un-redeemable and charming. Excellent cast and writing - Highly recommend.
The Monuments Men (2014)
It's a good movie, but it should have been much better.
What a wonderful movie this could have been; the subject is exceptional - but this script is watered-down, sanitized to a point where it's neither a docu-drama, mystery, a heist or even much of a war movie. I've seen documentaries on the subject that were far more engaging.
It's a fairly good movie for a Sunday afternoon, but overall it's forgettable which is an injustice to the source material.
Avenue 5: Eight Arms But No Hands (2020)
Laughed so hard, I scared the cats
This episode contains a scene involving an air lock and existentialism that was brilliantly executed - perfect comedy. The entire season up to this point made for a middling comedy with some bright spots, and this was the payoff.