Reviews

It is always a pity and unfair for a movie to compare it with others. In the case of "Love's Greek to Me" however, it is difficult to avoid any comparison with "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". The premise and consequently the scenario is very simple and around similar ideas: a foreigner joins through romance a Greek family and has to deal with the different culture, traditions, and Greek hyperbole, with the differences in this movie being that this takes place in Greece, the foreign protagonist is a female and the major "problem-creator" is the mother-in-law.

The depiction of Greek habits and behaviours is a little over the top. But personally, even as a Greek, I didn't find it offensive and rather enjoyed this aspect, since even though it was a little excessive, some of these behaviours are to a much lesser extent present in real-life and in fact Greece is heavily rooted in tradition. But contrary to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the movie appeared less witty and left the characters defined simply as an expression of their caricatures rather than give them some depth. The only character I felt that had a meaningful and healthy arc was Alex (Mike's sister who was getting married).

Without hitting around the bush, let's get to the major flaws of the piece.

First, once again it appears that Greek actors cannot act to the same level as their foreign counterparts. The difference between Torrey DeVitto (Ilana) and even Jo Price (Ilana' mother) who had much less screen time with the rest of the mostly Greek cast was staggering. Especially the performance of Tsimitselis, who is a big name in Greece (we actually feel that he has made a deal and sold his soul to the devil as he appears everywhere), was somewhat blunt and uninspiring and a huge reason why the relationship/chemistry between Mike and Ilana was not believable, despite Torrey DeVitto' great efforts. At least the as always beautiful Santorini and the Greek scenery get a big win for team Greece.

Second, sometimes I felt angry with the screenplay. Obviously, the most interesting character is Ilana which is also played by a much bigger name than the rest of the characters. It is therefore understandable that much of what is happening is centered around Ilana, while the movie is essentially a portrayal from her point of view. But here lies the issue. In their core, the problems faced by our couple are around Illana's fear of commitment and Mike's indecisiveness and poor communication of his life's aspirations and plans (+mommy issues). But throughout the whole movie we see everyone including crucially Mike blaming Ilana like what is happening is primarily her fault, while to the contrary Mike showcased a lot of toxic aspects and manipulative behaviours. Even when Illana raises her concerns, the movie/Mike quickly avoids the tension and then forgets about it. Neither we nor Illana are faced with this admittedly kind of misogynistic reality, and the movie does not provide a resolution to this. Generally, when the recommendation is "Boys don't be like Mike" and "Girls don't put up with so much and accept to be victim blamed as Illana" there is something wrong.

Overall, was it terrible? No? Was it enjoyable? So and so. Would I recommend seeing this? It's less than 90 minutes and if you liked "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" you will get a long distant cousin that can be somewhat enjoyable, you probably won't say that you absolutely wasted an hour and a half, and you support a smaller production effort. Maybe with company, especially if you have a Greek friend (to provide live commentary) this could end up being unexpectedly fun.

Going into a John Wick movie you should probably be aware of what you are about to view and adapt your expectations accordingly. And honestly I really liked the previous movies, and I consider the first one to be one of the greatest action movies. But honestly, this 4th installment is just too much. I was at awe to see that it is now the most high-rated in the franchise and at the time that this review is written has an astonishing 8.2/10.

First, it seemed like the plot went missing. Again, this is a John Wick movie, you don't need something elaborate, but at least you should put a minimum effort. Friendships appeared out of nowhere, and the viewer is supposed to accept that these friendships are so strong that they could influence the events. Sub-plots related to these friendships were built and then left like nothing happened.

Second, one thing that this movie is praised is the almost non-stop action. To many people this seems like a positive. But honestly, the "calm before the storm" concept is something very useful to bring the viewer to the emotional status you want them, even in action movies. Here we didn't have this. Instead, we were bombarded with action scene after action scene, where John Wick should have died but didn't. And this fails to convey a fear. And after a while, all these action scenes appeared to be the same. There was a sequence towards the end which was different and more novel, which is appreciated. But apart from that everything was the same. Same moves, same choreography, people not dying when they should. John Wick is in constant danger and yet you don't fear for him for one second.

Third, contrary to popular belief, the movie was way too long (between 2.5-3 hours), and there were instances that the length could be reduced without losing too much, even within the non-stop action concept adopted by the movie. How many times do we need to climb the stairs in Montmartre?

This is not a bad action movie, but not as good as the 8.2 indicates.

This is an enjoyable action movie. It's not gonna get an Oscar, but as far as action movies are concerned, its up there. Also, I really like the way the movie approached the female characters.

The storyline was not something that we haven't previously seen, actually this whole idea of a "kind of" inter-agency cooperation reminded me of "The Man from UNCLE" combined with typical action movie ideas. The plot keeps moving, although it seemed to lose focus in some cases. This is expected from a movie where we keep chasing a gadget, but these back and forths came at the cost of a smooth flow. Generally, action scenes were good, actors performed really well. Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong'o, Penélope Cruz, Bingbing Fan go get them girls, you were awesome!!

So now let's address the elephant in the room. Why 4.8? Any other movie with the key characteristics of a typical action movie (basic but existent plot, nice action scenes, good acting) would have been 6+. At the lowest it would have been a 5.5 while at the highest possibly around 6.5, where usually most decent action films land. Obviously, a 20% of the viewership felt that that we are spoon-fed feminist propaganda and decided to rate it as 1 which skews the ratings. What's going on people? Do you fear an all female-protagonist cast with ethnic diversity? Or is it a general fear of strong females?

Let's get some things straight. First of all, there were only two scenes, that I grasped in the first view of the movie, which presented some messages ("don't blame yourself", "I am not alone"), other than that the movie just had some female protagonists (meaning that the movie didn't rely on that). First, even these two scenes, why is it bad to present some ideas? Movies do it all the time. Second, the messages were pretty basic, who doesn't agree with these? I do believe that movies should at last reflect societal transformations and highlight what women truly feel, instead of the typical "damsel in distress". If anything, we need more movies with female protagonists, but not just put a woman instead of a man and keep the rest intact. This is something that the movie does well to a certain extend, we felt the agonies of Mace and the rest of the crew, who were not just a female James Bond but had their own substance (strengths, weaknesses). I applaud the movie for this (even if the movie was far from perfect), and please let's keep working towards that direction and enhance the portrayal of women in movies. Last scene awesome!

This is definitely not worthy of anything less than a 6.

Let's get "boring" for a second like our favourites Amy and Captain Holt and talk about statistics.

This episode is rated with 7.1 and is currently the second lowest episode of the series at the time this review is written (before season 8 aired). But it is very interesting to observe how this is shaped.

The series averages a rate of 8.4 with most episodes being around this value (85 episodes out of 143 are rated between 8 and 9). Usually the ratings of individual episodes get it right. The top episodes are HalloVeen and The box with 9.5 which means that episodes with a rating above 9 are in most cases the best ( depending of course on personal taste). Similarly, the fluctuation around 8 and 9 gives an indication of how good an episode is and if the rating is below 8 usually we are talking about a less engaging episode. And apart from two outliers the lowest thresholds seems to be 7.4.

In most episodes, the majority of the ratings are concentrated around the average value and usually the amount of the rest of the votes and where they are leaning forms the final value. For example in "The Negotiation" most ratings are 8 and then we have a lot of 9s and 10s while there is a decent amount of 7s causing the episode to be rated with 8.3. Even the episode with the lowest review "Return of the King" follows a similar trend with most ratings being 7 although there where a lot of 1s that led to the final 6.4 (I have not yet seen that episode so I am not able to further discuss about that).

However, this is not the case with this episode where most ratings are either 10 or 1. In fact 15.7% of the ratings are 1s. I know this episode can be divisive but seriously, just rate it fairly. Of course there are good ways to deal with gender equality issues (e.g. The Morning Show) and then there can be some less good attempts (e.g. the 2019 Batwoman series). For my personal taste this is neither (e.g. Moo Moo was indeed very good covering different social issues) but as an episode in general it was not nearly as bad as Four Movements (again personal taste). Especially Jake's awkwardness and ignorance in some cases is very interesting and funny, showing perhaps that the issue is more serious and not addressed even by people who have the tendency to be just.

Don't forget that this is a 20 minute episode, it is not easy to cover nearly all the angles in a such complex issue. A lot of reviewers cite Gina's harassments to Terry. First of all let's not forget that the series start with Charles harassing Rosa. Secondly, although I hear your argument, we can't just pretend that the amount of harassment men receive is equal to the amount women have to endure (which in many times is far more dangerous). The sequence where Amy is harassed or fell victim of sexism (even when buying a cup of coffee) was intriguing and actually accurate. It is amazing how even the smallest tasks can be more difficult for women (let alone the more serious ones like promotions etc.). People would argue that we don't need to be force fed these ideas. Judging by the amount of "radical feminist propaganda" comments and the 1s in the ratings, I am not so sure that is the case. Maybe the depiction is so blatant because the issue is so blatant and we just refuse to perceive the extent of it.

And let's not forget that there is also a secondary storyline, which was not bad.

Bottom line if this episode was not to your liking rate it like any other episode that you did not enjoy as much as the others. But there is no way this was as bad as being the second worst episode of a series suggests.

Even though there are some movies about schizophrenia, the issue is not examined as much as other mental illnesses in films. Horse girl manages to distinguish itself from these other movies providing a somewhat novel approach that has something to offer to the viewer, which is a unique trait in recent years.

This novelty lies upon the fact that the story is kept on a very basic level with the movie just following Sarah's life, while placing significant importance in visually depicting the different reality experienced by someone suffering from schizophrenia. The basic story was part of many negative reviews, however movies with interesting stories involving schizophrenia already exist in a variety of categories. For example "Shutter island" was a breathtaking mystery that only involved schizophrenia in the final stages, "The voices" with Ryan Reynolds showcased the issue from a slightly more comedic approach, while the most notable film about schizophrenia, "A beautiful mind" followed the amazing life of the mathematician Nash but with some exaggerations (to name some).

On the other hand, the added value of Horse Girl is perfectly summarized in Sarah's discussion with her social worker where the idea that the reality experienced by someone with schizophrenia is what they understand as real without exaggeration or lies is a very important message on the difficulties surrounding the issue (living with it, diagnosing, treatment etc). The movie does an amazing job in visually presenting these different realities.

Alison Brie performs really well in a different role than we are used to see from her. I understand that personal family experiences that inspired her to co-write the script allowed her to give a very authentic performance.

It's not an easy film but it provides some food for thought and please don't worry about the ending; asking the question of what is real (especially from the perspective of someone with schizophrenia) is probably more important than the answer itself.