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Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Reservoir Dogs meets The Twilight Zone on Acid.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is many things: Tarantino's final film (allegedly), a love letter to the old Hollywood of 1969, the second time DiCaprio and Brad Pitt have worked together, DiCaprio's first film in four years since winning an Oscar for The Revenant Movie, Luke Perry's final film, an homage to Sergio Leone, spaghetti westerns and TV westerns of the 50's & 60's, a tribute to the talent and beauty of Sharon Tate, a revisionist history of the Manson murders and, possibly, Tarantino's magnum opus (which was his own working title), but for me it's also some of the most entertaining acting, directing and storytelling in recent memory and made me me forget where I was for 241 minutes because I was so entertained by the 179 cast members and Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio's extremely exciting and vital acting.
Tarantino takes his time setting up this timeworn tale of a fading Hollywood western bad guy actor's descent into irrelevance with many intriguing set pieces such a Pitt's stuntman character beating up Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) on the set of the Green Hornet, Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) arriving at the Playboy Mansion with Jay Sebring (Emile Hirsch) and Michelle Phillips (Rebecca Rittenhouse) to meet Mama Cass (Rachel Redleaf) and a wry Steve McQueen, played eerily well by Damian Lewis smoking a joint with Connie Stevens (Dreama Walker), Timothy Olyphant as the fastest gun in the west on the set of actual 60's TV show 'Lancer' as re-envisioned by Tarantino, an interesting group of Manson girls including Dakota Fanning, Lena Dunham, Harley Quinn Smith (Kevin Smith's daughter) and Maya Hawke (Uma Thurman's daughter), Bruce Dern as George Spahn, owner of Charles Manson's Spahn Ranch, Michael Madsen as sheriff on the made-up TV western 'Bounty Hunter' which Matt Damon's character starred in. Also, Al Pacino has a major role as a film director trying to resurrect Rick Dalton's (Matt Damon) career by sending him to Italy to shoot spaghetti westerns and Kurt Russell both acts and narrates.
My final analysis is that this film falls short of Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and Jackie Brown, but is definitely one that you don't want to miss. Think Reservoir Dogs meets The Twilight Zone on acid, and yes Brad Pitt does smoke an "acid-laced cigarette" just before the brutally violent and epic final scene with the Manson family that results in a horrific deaths, injuries and violence that may or may not include a very aggressive pitbull and a flame thrower.
A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012)
Bizarre Surrealistic Fare For Those with a Dark and Twisted Imagination
A Fantastic Fear of Everything, starring Simon Pegg, is a bizarre psychological fairytale about serial killers, hedgehogs and the world's most traumatizing launderette with a very eclectic soundtrack. I am a little surprised that the critics did not enjoy it more because I found fascinating albeit deeply unsettling.
The Jellies!: The Invasion (2017)
Crazy Psychedelic Extravaganza About Gay Whales, Alien Mantises and Strippers
Episode nine, 'The Invasion', which is the final episode of season one of the adult cartoon 'The Jellies' is about a black boy, Cornell, voiced by Phil LaMarr who you may know as the voice of Samurai Jack or as Melvin whose brains are cleaned up out of a car in Pulp Fiction, that is adopted by a pair of jellyfish. Cornell meets his biological parents, but they are alien mantises that turn people into sandwiches and eat them so he enlists the help of his friends and a stripper named Chocolate to uncover the secret to killing the mantises by bringing Prince back from the dead with a below-the-belt kiss that turns him and The New Power Generation into poison dart frogs that destroy the aliens. There are a few more plot twists and turns in this 46-minute episode that I may be leaving out such as the gay shirtless whale Mervin running against the current mayor who later turns out to be an alien mantis. Also, the stripper Chocolate turns out to be Cornell's dad, but had a sex change operation to hide from the aliens after they discovered that he was researching their plot to conquer Earth. This show is the brainchild of Tyler, The Creator and also co-stars Blake Anderson of Workaholics as the voice of Cornel's adopted father Barry Jelly and various other voices.
Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne (2019)
A Nice Finale for the Majority of Casual Fans
I thought S8E6 Game of Thrones 'The Iron Throne' was a suitable ending for the series because I never read the book and realized that the show would deviate from what George R.R. Martin may have intended as soon as the show surpassed where the book ended. Yes, the show was noted for many unusual deaths and sad injustices to major characters and hardcore fans expected similar surprises from the finale, but they did not get them.
The power mad, if not completely mad, former heroine-turned-world-conqueror got her expected comeuppance from an unexpected character and the only shock there was that aforesaid character was not melted down along with the Iron Throne by dragon fire. His co-conspirator gets off much easier than he does, but after all doesn't he really belong in the North anyway? Tyrion's punishment is a prolonged stint of responsibility as Hand to the new King.
Sansa doesn't become queen of the seven kingdoms but she does become queen of the now and formerly independent northern lands and that suits her well. Arya heads to unknown and far off lands and is the character I most envy in spite of her also having a relatively high body count on the show.
Meanwhile Bronn, Brienne, Davos and Samwell, under Tyrion's Handship, settle down to the mundane business of running the six kingdoms with a completely unexpected yet wise new king. Grey Worm sails off into the sunset to settle the lands aforementioned by the counsel assembled immediately and strangely right after the sudden death of the dragon-riding demagogue. All in all I thought the ending was a nice conclusion and I even let a tear or two escape at the very end.
Free Solo (2018)
White-knuckled Fear-filled Ropeless Ascent of El Capitan With Stunning Cinematography
Free Solo is the greatest climbing film of them all and Alex Honnold's ropeless ascent of the 3000-foot-tall sheer stone face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park is one of the greatest athletic feats of all time and certainly the greatest climbing feat since Sir Edmund Hillary scaled Mt Everest in 1953.
This film starts slowly but builds to a white-knuckled fear-filled climax as Alex uses sheer willpower to defeat the odds. You are not human if you are able to watch this film with dry palms and many will not be able to watch it all. I am still shaking and my heart's still pounding from having watched it 20 minutes before writing this review!
Game of Thrones: The Bells (2019)
The Bells Tolled For No One
There was not enough of a character arc for Daenerys to become so mad as to use a weapon of mass destruction against tens of thousands of innocent civilians even after she had won the battle, the war and the Iron Throne.
Cersei Lannister went out with a whimper instead of bang, which was highly uncharacteristic of her. I really thought that Jaime Lannister had the cajones to become a redeemed hero after all of the bad deeds that he had done, but he was content to die in the arms of the worst villain on the show up until Daenerys went mad.
Tyrion Lannister, the most intelligent and ethical character on the show, gives up his best friend Varys too easily and doesn't do enough to stop Daenerys even though he sees it coming before almost anyone else, but then again who can stop a mad woman on a dragon after the bells have rung and she's off to the races? Euron has a great fight scene but does very little after having appeared to be almost a Bond villain in previous episodes by taking out a dragon and destroying Yara's fleet. Also, Yara should have killed him, not Jaime.
Arya Stark, the hero of episode three that kills the Night King, does absolutely nothing to extract revenge on anyone left on her list giving all of the glory to The Hound who defeats his brother at the cost of his own life. That epic battle was the only real highlight of the episode for me because I thik Cersei got away very easy for all of er crimes. I can only speculate that the show having to carry on before the final books had been completed by George R.R. Martin is what led to the rather lackluster writing of this episode.
Game of Thrones: The Long Night (2019)
The Best Episode in the History of TV
That was the single greatest episode of television that I have ever witnessed! Castle Winterfell steeled itself against a horde of living dead zombies and even after Melisandre lights up an army of Dothraki swords with a magic incantation they meet a catastrophic end against the seemingly unstoppable march of the white walkers even as the greatest warriors of all-time, The Unsullied, stand their ground to cover the retreat.
Sandor, "The Hound", even loses his nerve at one point after the castle walls are breached and the palace is running amuck with the undead. Despite the best efforts of the greatest fighters: Brienne, Jaime Lannister and, especially, the ninja queen of all assassins, Arya Stark, the battle seems completely lost.
Although Dany and Jon command the dragons to soar in to scorch the undead with gales of fire they are of no avail and their wildly acrobatic dogfight against the Night King and his White Walker dragon becomes a true clash of the titans with no decisive victory. All hope seems lost when the Night King incants every dead soldier to rise again in his defense and even Jon Snow is at a lost to combat the thousands upon thousands of newly-wakened white walkers.
Euron proves to be the bravest and most loyal of champions in his defense of Dany after she is knocked off her dragon and falls to the ground, surrounded by dozens of white walkers eager to kill her.
The Lady of Bear Island Lyanna Mormont, although only ten, challenges the zombie giant only to be brutally crushed to death seconds after she takes out his single blue eye with a dragon glass blade.
Meanwhile, Theon Greyjoy, finally finding his nerve, leaves dozens of dead bodies surrounding Bran Stark as he fights to the bitter end to protect him from the Night King, and his two lieutenants, as he strides in like a fearless and seemingly omnipotent satanic god only to be defeated in the biggest surprise of the night by the only person who could ever have the nerve, the stealth and the skill to defeat him in hand-to-hand combat!
I cried for 20 minutes after this unexpected death and my heart is still pounding. Even if you never watched another episode of Game of Thrones you could view this 82-minute episode and come away impressed and deeply moved.
Hesher (2010)
Sad, Weird & Disturbing, but Powerful, Intense and Memorable
Wow. The movie Hesher is authentic and gritty story-telling and is the best kind of film-making. This is about causes and consequences and the nature of life and death. If I had to boil it down into a single word, it would be: impermanence. You will not regret the 106 minutes spent watching this film. There is not a hint of Dwight Schrute in Rainn Wilson's acting, though he is mostly depressed or angry until the end.
Devin Brochu is great as TJ, a 10-year-old kid left stunned by the death of his mother and frustrated and angry by his seeming inability to combat a bully at school.
Natalie Portman does a wonderful job portraying the hapless cashier who wonders if her boss hates her for her lack of salesmanship at the Super Dollar. While she does show TJ a positive side of life, she also demonstrates that everyone has their own weaknesses, and that it is up to the individual to decide how best to cope.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is nothing less than mind-shattering in his pivotal role as Hesher, the mysterious seemingly homeless young long-haired rebel that doesn't know what he is looking for until he reaches a revelation smoking medical marijuana with the ten-year-old protagonists' grandmother, played beautifully by Piper Laurie, the night before she passes away. The end is gripping and surreal, but leaves you feeling victorious and relieved that life does, somehow, have a greater meaning. See this movie now!