Blog Archives

The Mandalorian [season one]

23/10/2020

THE MANDALORIAN [season one] ★★★★☆
This is what STAR WARS VII-IX should’ve been. The aftermath of imperialism. Even though the concern is the fate of one being, the stakes feel massive. An ace cast, the storytelling impresses, the music is brill, the episode titles are evocative, but the direction needed pizzazz.

Borat Subsequent MovieFilm

23/10/2020

BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM ★★★★☆
D: Jason Woliner.
S: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova.

Perfect timing. The focus is the upcoming United States election. Excruciatingly hilarious, but also dispiriting that a film like this is needed. I spent the runtime watching through my fingers. I don’t know how Sacha Baron Cohen keeps a straight face.

Gender Inequality Documentaries

23/10/2020

I recommend these three documentaries looking at gender inequality:

- MISS REPRESENTATION [2011]
- HALF THE PICTURE [2018]
- THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING [2018]

The Boys [season two]

22/10/2020

THE BOYS [season two] ★★★★★
Kapow! What a superhero show! A genre dogged by mediocrity and formula now has a champion. This season it skewers a variety of political targets. Irreverent, savage, and compelling. (And is not above a supervillain called “Love Sausage”.)

Lovecraft Country [season one]

22/10/2020

LOVECRAFT COUNTRY [season one] ★★★★☆
Executive produced by Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams. History and popular fiction interweave to deliver a vitriolic analysis of racial inequality. Science-fiction. Fantasy. Politics. Unnerving and breakneck pacing. Would have benefitted from grabbing a breath.

Awkwafina is Nora from Queens [season one]

22/10/2020

AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS [season one] ★★★★★
A hoot. A myriad of jokes. I binged this over two days. Shows how much I love this. I could spend hours more in the company of Awkwafina and her on-screen family.

Favourite Japanese Movies

13/10/2020

My top 10 favourite Japanese films of all time:

The Walking Dead [season 10]

6/10/2020

THE WALKING DEAD [season ten] ★★★☆☆
I know how good this show can be when cinema can’t compete in the zombie genre (bar the occasional outlier). However, culling the ginormous cast and benching some of its big names has hindered enjoyment. Plus, an anticlimactic ending to this season.

(Side note: Dialogue, storytelling, characterisation, etc. are atrocious in the first episode of new spin-off series THE WALKING DEAD: WORLD BEYOND.)

The Decline

6/10/2020

THE DECLINE ★★★½☆
D: Patrice Laliberté.
S: Guillaume Laurin, Marie-Evelyne Lessard, Réal Bossé, Marc Beaupré, Marilyn Castonguay, Guillaume Cyr, Marc-André Grondin.

An agile Canadian chase flick. Too often genre casts are easily picked off cannon fodder. Here, watching capable survivalists divide and turn on each other is refreshing. Plus we are given commentary on gender, race and societal collapse.

Hollywood [mini-series]

6/10/2020

HOLLYWOOD [mini-series] ★★★★☆
An alternate history of Tinseltown. A call for diversity in front of and behind the camera. One wondered what paths the show would opt for. A dream of what might have been, and what is possible.

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