Reviews

Because there's so much content out there and I'll never get through everything I want to see in my lifetime, to help me decide, I often segue from one actor, director, or theme to another. Mike Nichols was the bridge this past weekend for Super Saturday Cinema since I watched "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" recently and have seen "Closer", "Charlie Wilson's War", and "Postcards from the Edge" in the past few years.

. This is a movie of its time, still entertaining but also allowing for a bit of anthropological thinking about the 80s. There are many good elements that have survived the test of time (35 years!), including an excellent cast, a good story, a great director, and omigod, the hair! If anyone wonders whether women really wore their hair like that, they only need to look at my 1988 high dchool yearbook where every senior girl worth her salt had her hair Aqua-Netted to the gods.

After a spate of good to great sci-fi shows ("Silo", "Foundation", "Invasion", "Severance"), we happened upon this cotton candy comedy from Apple TV+ starring Kristen Wiig that takes place in Miami Beach in 1969. I've only seen five episodes so far (they drop weekly), and it's pretty good, though I'm frustrated with the waste of Carol Burnett. I want more Carol! The entire cast is fun with a capital F, with Wiig and Burnett and with Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb, Laura Dern, Ricky Martin, and Julia Duffy, who I've long loved (I'll always be a "Designing Women" fan). The set design, costumes, and hair and makeup are all outstanding, evoking the period as well as "Mad Men". I hope there's more to this than simply a tale of a shallow socialite wannabe, as we need to care a least a smidge about the characters. A slew of witty bon mots and snarky asides aren't going cut it to keep my attention.

This isn't so much a review as it is a reflection about how well this show has held up and what a joy it is to rewatch on Netflix. I'd previously seen the first four seasons on HBO in the early aughts, but I missed the fifth and final season. My husband has never seen it and it comes up enough in pop culture and is on many best-ever lists, so we slotted it in for one of our current dramas (we're also watching "3 Body Problem" and "True Blood", another one by Alan Ball).

We just finished S01 and I'm loving it all over again and agree with all the accolades the show has received over the years. After watching Lauren Ambrose as an adult in the recently concluded Apple TV+ series, "Servant", it's nice to be reminded how great an actress she's always been. With David's coming-out storyline in the first season, it's also a good reminder of what life was like in the early 2000s and how things have changed (though not all for the better, definitely). Everybody has probably watched this already, but if not, add it to your queue. It is well worth it.

This new docuseries on Netflix might be the most important show you're not watching. We just finished last night and it's well worth your time; I loved it and learned a lot without much pain at all. It's a good compliment to "Oppenheimer" and the Einstein docuseries I previously posted about.

A gripping documentary with amazing archival footage, this gives a great macro-level presentation of how we ended up with a Russian invasion of a sovereign Ukraine. The documentary lays out a long cycle of events that began with the atomic bombings in Japan in 1945 and how the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the USSR in 1991 signaled a false end to the Cold War, which has led to Putin's attempt to rebuild the Russian Empire in the 21st century.

If you're any kind of history buff like I am, turn on this show. It really helped connect the dots, fill in many missing pieces, and frankly, made the current nightmare we're all currently living in more understandable, though no less tolerable. 😫

I enjoyed this film much more than I thought I would. Before viewing, I skimmed IMDb reviews to see what the chattering classes were saying and it's barely broken a 6.0 here. It seems the original director's version was four hours long and Apple made him cut it to be palatable to audiences with small bladders (like me).

This version isn't too long and is doable in a chunk of afternoon time. The leads are good and it's got the typical Ridley Scott flourish, though definitely not amongst his top five best films. It did seem like there was a lot missing, mainly focusing on elegantly staged battle scenes with short shrift given to examining Napoleon the person, which meant after the movie, I ended up down a Wikipedia black hole to fill in the missing pieces.

The very things about this polarizing film that turned some people off, its weirdness and absurdity, were what made me love it. If you know Yorgos Lanthimos and his movies ("The Lobster", "The Favourite", "Killing of a Sacred Deer"), and you appreciate his unique vision, then this movie is for you (tho I'm not sure it's everyone's cup of chamomile).

I hadn't seen this before Emma Stone won the Best Actress Oscar, and now that I've seen her performance, that award is well deserved. She's at the top of her game, so entrancing and embodying this strange creature's journey from ignorance to self-awareness. The rest of the cast is great; the production design and cinematography are amazing; and generally, the discordant score works, although in some places it nearly drove me crazy (a short drive I know). YMMV, but I definitely think this is worth checking out. Maybe you'll be surprised (or maybe you'll hate me for pushing this on you), but at least you're supporting quirky and original movies. 🙌🏼

For some reason, I began watching this film oddly lacking any sense of excitement. I'd heard great word-of-mouth and I've been avidly watching gay cinema since I saw "Torch Song Trilogy" in December 1988, my freshman year at OSU (I'd just come out a few months before, ha!). It began preciously enough, but within the first 20 minutes, it won me over and I was totally entranced to the very end, where I then sat and wondered WTH I'd just seen and recalled the movie in a new light. (Trying not to give away spoilers...) f you've seen Andrew Haigh's "Weekend", "Looking", or "45 Years" (all great), then you're familiar with his work. This is a tender study in grief and while melancholy, it's never morose. I'm relatively new to the Paul Mescal party, but he's a magnetic screen presence and Andrew Scott, Jamie Bell, and Claire Foy were all excellent. This is a thought-provoking film and definitely worth a watch. (7.7/10)

We don't have kids, so I can't truly put myself in the place of a parent, but I was absolutely stunned watching this latest docuseries from Netflix. It boggles the mind that parents could be so easily duped and willingly turn their teenagers, no matter how troubled, over to these grifters and malcontents. Compelling and riveting, the 3-episode series describes the psychological and physiological torture teenagers were put under in the name of helping them straighten out at a "behavioral modification" boarding school. But it's not just one school and it's still happening. I'm thinking about the show days after finishing and horrified that this type of child abuse happens way too frequently.

This is a simple and short review: 'Go see this movie, in the theatre if possible and on a very big screen. We both loved it.'

We spent the last week in Khao Lak (heaven), but the week before, we watched "Dune Part 1" and then saw "Part 2" in the theatre on the day it opened. It was grand and epic storytelling on a scale I've not seen in ages. Both "Dune" movies are transportive like "Titanic" in 1998 and the original "Avatar" in 2009 (which I saw four times, including once at the Chinese Theatre). I've not read any of the "Dune" books, but I was able to grok what was going on (mainly), and while I haven't always been a Timothée Chalamet fan, he was excellent here, as was Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, and many others. Everything about the movie is epic and it's well worth a cinema visit.

In a recent episode of the brilliant (and super long-running) "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul appear as themselves in a typical and hilarious sketchy scheme hatched by the gang. Soon thereafter, we started watching "Breaking Bad" and we both loved it from the first frame to the last. Our admiration of Aaron Paul then led us to this series, "Bojack Horseman", which we've been working on for the past six months, fitting in an episode here and there.

This show was one of the most unexpected delights I've encountered in a long time, and undoubtedly one of the greatest animated series ever. It's a meta comedy about actors and agents and writers and hangers-on and all of Hollywoo and its brilliance and insanity. But this world of humans and talking animals is so much more than just a droll and sardonic take on the entertainment industry. The writing is brilliant and the voice cast superb, including Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Allison Brie, and Aaron Paul, joined by countless other actors, many playing themselves, including a recurring role for the hilarious Margo Martindale. If you're a fan of "Family Guy"' and shows of that ilk, you'll love this, and even if nothing I've said in praise of the show makes you think you'd like it, still give it a chance and you might be surprised.

Have you seen "Oppenheimer" yet? It helps to have seen it before this docuseries. It's a commitment of time (3 hours), but worth it, with amazing performances all around and a whole bunch of new knowledge learned.

This new docudrama on Netflix is a good complement to the movie, and in a trim 1h15m, dives into more detail about Einstein and his place in the firmament of history with regard to the invention of the atomic bomb. Of course, it's not going to paint the entire picture in a short time, but does add some good color about Einstein's conflicted conscience on what he helped unleash, however small his role may have been.

This is #6 of the 10 Best Picture nominees that we've seen so far, and it's a warm, authentic, and bittersweet film, set in late 1970 with everything about the production seemingly from that year, aside from actually using old filmstock. From the opening credits and title cards to the gorgeous set design, costumes, and other ephemera from Christmas 1970, it's a little mini-trip into movie-making of the era, with a tender story and an excellent cast. I had forgotten how much I like Alexander Payne's films and now am left wondering which of his other films should we queue up...? I've seen them all, so I need to decide which to queue up so the husband can get to see a(nother) great director at work.

I read in The Ankler, an entertainment newsletter, that this new movie on Netflix was atop the most watched films around the world, so we decided it would make a good choice for our super Saturday cinema this past weekend. Even though I live in a nexus of K-pop, we aren't huge K-pop stans, but do watch the occasional excellent movie ("Parasite", "Snowpiercer", "Train to Busan") or TV series ("Dr. Brain", "Pachinko"). This latest from the creative minds of Korea is a fun mindless romp. It's well paced, thrilling, pretty violent (though cartoonishly so), and with an excellent ass-kicking performance by the great Ma Dong-seok. It's supposedly a sequel to another movie, but we hadn't seen it and it didn't diminish our enjoyment. Check this out and add to your queue if you want entertaining dystopian entertainment to take your mind off our current dystopia. 😵

TBH, this had been in our queue for quite some time, at least since it won the 2022 Oscar for Best Documentary. However, as a diehard supporter of Ukraine and its fight for independence, I was put off by Navalny's earlier comments about nationalism and Crimea.

In light of his recent tragic death, we slotted this in for this past weekend's mini-film festival. I'm so glad I didn't pre-judge because this was an excellent documentary and I learned a lot. It's a taut and riveting portrait of a very brave man, and it was especially sad to see the final scene, when the horror of what an authoritarian despot can do became clear with the news of Alexei Navalny's assassination. This is on HBO here in Thailand, but watch it however you can. It's totally worth it.

I liked this film much more than I thought I would, and watching it made me think fondly of a friend and fellow cinephile who passed away recently and who was a huge Martin Scorsese fan. We used to have lively discussions about whether his long-time editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, ever really edited anything from their films, since they're always sooooo long.

This latest from Scorsese, DiCaprio, and De Niro was no exception at 3.5 hours, but we divided it into two chunks and conquered it on Sunday. The first section was excellent and portrayed a complete inversion of what white people in America had come to expect as their birthright. The Osage with oil money, in their finery and jewels, with white maids and butlers, had to have driven white society nearly mad. It's no wonder they were sitting ducks, waiting for the voracious appetite of settlers and grifters to steal what hadn't already been stolen.

The second part starts once the (newly formed) FBI steps in, and is more familiar (and less interesting). There were definitely some issues with structure and narrative, and it could have been an hour shorter, yet it's still an excellent Scorsese outing and an exemplar of vision, mood, and technical precision, though not brevity. Alas.

Hubby was out with friends this past Saturday night, so I pulled this one up from the depths of the queue where it had been moldering for months. I should start by saying that I'm a huge Dan Levy fan and think "Schitt's Creek" is one of the top five most brilliantly written shows I've ever seen.

That said, this film, which he wrote and directed, was kind of a disappointment. In his directorial debut (and maybe because I still have Barbra's autobiography and her deep dive into how she works), I found some of his choices odd and occasionally off-putting. The audio and score in general was also inconsistent and clumsily used. There are several very nice turns-of-phrase and some snappy and witty dialogue, but in its entirety, as a meditation or thought-exercise on grief, it left me unmoved. The cast was very good, especially Ruth Negga who is fantastic and magnetic as always, but the movie overall was flat and surprisingly lifeless.

Do you know the British actor and comedian Jack Whitehall? We watched a few seasons of his show, "Travels with My Father", with Season 1 in SE Asia (S01E02 in Bangkok) and S02 in Europe. We didn't watch the rest, because while sweet and touching, Jack came off as a typical smug British toff and the novelty wore thin.

However, he was recently in the second season of the Apple TV+ show "The Afterparty" (now since cancelled) and he was funny and very memorable. We had a few hours to kill this past Saturday afternoon and so we watched his new Netflix special, "Settle Down". I swear I haven't laughed so hard in a while; it's absolutely hilarious. He's a very funny physical comedian and does spot-on American accents. He's also older and more mature now with great hair and a touch of the gay. I leaned over to Shane and commented how he seemed like a gay man trapped in a straight man's body and then he did a funny bit on that. Definitely give this a shot if you want something to tickle your funny bone.

After seeing a friend's post raving about this, we watched it this weekend (and because neither of us could handle a 3.5 hour movie, "Killers of the Flower Moon", which has been postponed to next weekend).

This was an excellent documentary, everything you want a doc to be: surprising, authentic, and absolutely captivating. Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, and Quincy Jones, all musical talents extraordinaire, corralled nearly 50 stars on one night and produced an epic anthem that helped focus the world's attention on famine. It was also as much about successful event planning as anything else and was surprisingly free of drama (except for one singer walking out). I love documentaries about the making of art and this did not disappoint. Definitely watch this on Netflix, especially if you're a GenXer like me; it'll bring all the feels.

It caused a bit of whiplash that after I posted about "American Symphony" last week, we should turn to "American Nightmare" on Netflix, but we started it on Friday afternoon and ended up bingeing all three episodes at once. It is an insane story. I'd read a bit about it beforehand, but mainly still watched with my mouth agape. It's such a travesty of justice by the supremely incompetent Vallejo Police Department and how they were so blinded by their own preconceived notions, the entire series was a lesson in confirmation bias and how destructive it can be.

After the show, we threw our previous plan for Friday night to the wind and decided to watch "Gone Girl", which Shane hadn't seen and which I hated with a particularly vehement passion (both book and movie) the first time around. However, on this viewing, I didn't have such a visceral reaction, though I still think it's overly long and the dialogue is plodding and artificial. Anyway, do watch this short true crime series on Netflix.

This film was our pick for a recent Sunday matinee and was a good choice for a sunny afternoon with bad air quality. It was a documentary about the super-talented Jon Batiste and his creation of a symphony to be performed at Carnegie Hall. But it was also about the unexpected recurrence of his partner's (and now wife's) cancer from a decade ago. I love movies about the artistic process and how artists and musicians create their work, and this didn't disappoint in any regard. Batiste is a joyful, uplifting person no matter what they're going through and the love and compassion they have for each other is truly inspiring.

This is from the Obamas' production company, Higher Ground, and you can see their spirit if not their hand in the finished product. We weren't sure if we were going to enjoy this as we thought it would be sad, but it was ultimately beautiful, touching, and insightful. It's a bummer it didn't get a Best Documentary Oscar nom but I definitely recommend it, playing on Netflix.

A big problem with TV today is the proliferation of streaming services (we subscribe to six!) and the constantly changing libraries around the world. (One example is Todd Haynes' latest film, "May December", which is only on Netflix in the U. S. and no clue when we'll have it here or in whose library it will appear.)

But I digress. "Superstore" was originally on Prime here, and we watched the first four seasons during the pandemic, but then it disappeared. A few years went by, and then the show magically re-appeared on Netflix. We finally watched the last two seasons and absolutely loved it (I was happy to see America Ferrera get an Oscar nom for "Barbie").

It's a workplace show about the staff at a Wal-Mart-esque store outside St. Louis, but it (usually) doesn't rely on easy stereotypes. They have a really diverse cast, which feels organic and not contrived. The writing is clever with hilarious short scenes with no dialogue showing an absurd tableau you might find down any aisle of a big box store today (except during pandemic, which they get to in the latest season, to pretty hilarious effect). We chortled multiple times in each 22-minute episode.

I was happy I got to see this in the theatre, since it's the only Studio Ghibli film I've watched on the big screen. We've seen four others since the library appeared on Netflix: "Howl's Moving Castle", "Castle in the Sky", "My Neighbor Tortoro", and my favorite, "Spirited Away".

This latest by Hayao Miyazaki was a fantastical journey of a young boy whose mother died in a fire during WWII in Tokyo and the adventures he goes on while coming to terms with the new hole in his heart. It affected me quite deeply since I also lost my mother when I was young (young-ish; I was 17) and I intimately understand how it affects the rest of your life.

This may not be amongst my top three Ghibli movies, but the always excellent animation and how the different worlds are portrayed were enough to carry me away on a cloud of disbelief and happiness for two hours. What more can we ask for from a movie other than to get out of your head and see the world differently when you leave the cinema? Highly recommended (and suggestions welcome on other excellent Ghibli films).

During a 4-day pandemic weekend, forced to stay home the entire time, we watched eight films including one by Christopher Guest ("Waiting for Guffman"); a favorite Elizabeth Taylor film ("Suddenly, Last Summer"); some Diana Ross and Michael Jackson ("The Wiz"); a visual documentary ("Baraka"); a classic thriller ("The Talented Mr. Ripley"); and a film ("A League of Their Own") inspired by an amazing documentary we watched ("A Secret Love").

But the highlight, or really lowlight, was one we'd both been looking forward to, "The Assistant", with Julia Garner. We both loved her in "Ozark" (and in "Dirty John", "Maniac", and "Modern Love"), and she was good here, but overall the film was a big letdown. Tracking one day in the life of a harassed and put-upon assistant to a powerful film mogul, it's obvious the executive is a monster (and probably based on Harvey Weinstein), but it's so ponderously boring, the greater lesson about the insidiousness of the power imbalance in most modern workplaces was lost to my fight to stay awake and care about the character. I am a long-time feminist (I marched for abortion rights in 1988!) and I want to see women in charge of everything, but this felt like a student film with a point to make and done in the most tedious way possible.

We just finished Chapter 100, the last episode of "Jane the Virgin" and we both absolutely loved it. It aired in the U. S. from 2014-2019, and I'd noticed it on Netflix but didn't pay it much mind, until a friend highly recommended it. Over five and a half pandemic months, we watched one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. It was warm, hilarious, well acted, and well written. I loved the meta use of telenovela tropes so that even those who wouldn't be into that type of show could enjoy it. It was the perfect program to enjoy slowly, so we let it unfold over the past months and now that it's over, we both miss it.

If you haven't seen the show, you should definitely check it out. The center of gravity in the show is Jane, her mum, and her abuela. Seeing strong, independent Latina women on the screen is long overdue, especially when shows like the superb remake of "One Day at a Time" get cancelled, which featured Justina Machado, also in "Jane" and so good in the Prime series "The Horror of Dolores Roach".

We braved the cineplex during a waning period in the pandemic and the first one we saw was the latest from Christopher Nolan, "Tenet", which was our first time in a cinema since "The Invisible Man" in March, which is probably the longest stretch that I didn't step foot into a cinema for a very long time. I had high hopes for this, since I've loved so many of Nolan's films. But...it was underwhelming. I enjoyed it, but I think my ears are still ringing since it was so LOUD. It was more confusing than it needed to be, so rather than think about the interesting ideas he raises, I was just trying to stay caught up by what was happening on the screen. The cast was great, with John David Washington (good in "BlacKkKlansmen"), Robert Pattison, and Elizabeth Debecki (who really is very tall and will be the new Diana in "The Crown") all very good. I realized I still love going to the cinema, and I hope it survives, but I don't know if my enjoyment of "Tenet" is related to the format. I think I may have enjoyed it more had I watched it at home.