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Alpha (2018)
Started off with some action but turned into a snooze fest
I got tickets to an advanced screening of the movie Alpha through Sony and to sum things up, it is a complete snooze fest. Alpha is one of those movies where the trailer is better than the actual film. At first, glance, watching the trailer, I was initially interested in this film because it seemed like there was a lot of action and who doesn't love a cute canine? The movie is about a young boy, Keda and his family of nomads who live 20,000 years ago in Europe. During a hunting trip, Keda is separated from his family and spends the remainder of the film trying to get reunited with his family with the help of his newly acquired wolf that he names Alpha.
The pacing was very, very slow. Things don't start to "pick up" until about halfway into the movie when Keda is separated and has to fend for himself. The first half is about his interactions with his family, but even those interactions, didn't captivate me. I thought that the dialogue didn't add anything to the plot or make me like any of the characters. Every scene just felt like things happening and not scenes building towards something.
One thing that I did hate was the cinematography and the direction. So often there were shots where the camera was constantly moving. The camera would pan so much that sometimes I had to close my eyes because I was getting motion sickness. The movie does have very beautiful shots of scenery and neat special effects, but to me, these shots felt like the director's way of making up for a poorly written script.
Overall it was an okay, movie. I'd give it a 4/10. You can probably wait for this one to come onto Netflix.
Searching (2018)
Very original filming and suspensful movie!
I got the opportunity to see an advanced screening of Searching through the Atlanta Film Society and I really enjoyed it! A quick summary, it's about a father, David Kim (John Cho) whose teenage daughter, Margot suddenly disappears and goes missing. David desperately tries to find his daughter by going through her social media and her text messages, and he discovers there was a lot about his daughter that he never knew.
The entire movie is filmed in a unique way, by it being presented through computer screens and POV shots. At first, when I saw the trailer, I thought it was going to be another one of those shaky camera, first person type filming (think Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield) and I was pleasantly surprised that it was nothing like that at all.
I thought that the film was great. I like who-done-its and this one was done very well. It was excellently written and acted. Aneesh Chaganty does a fantastic job building suspense. What was good about the movie is that there are a lot of surprise twists that keep appearing as the movie progresses. When you watch the film, pay attention to all the little details, because they all build to something and serve a purpose in the film.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie tremendously. It was sad, it was funny, and it was suspenseful. I hope this movie does well at the box office.
This Is Us (2016)
What a nightmare, every single stereotype possible exist in this show
I had always heard about this show, This is Us, and how great it was. It had won multiple awards so I decided, why not give it a shot? So after enjoying the first episode, I then decided to watch the next 4 episodes. However, This is Us didn't do it for me because too much of the storylines are based on cliche stereotypes, unlikeable characters, and easily predictable episodes that made the show feel very cringe-worthy.
The show follows three siblings as they live out their adult lives with flashbacks of themselves as children. Kate and Kevin are twins and Randall is their adopted black brother.
Starting with Randall's storyline, every single episode thus far is about Randall sticking out from his white family because he is black. His brother Kevin doesn't like him, his mother has no idea how to properly take care of him and Randall's biological dad is a former crackhead (of course). To me, Randall's storyline comes across as very stereotypical. An infant baby given is up and adopted by a meaningful white family because his father was a no good druggie from "the hood." It also feels like the only reason that his character was written was to have a "token" black character for the show and for diversity.
I just finished watching "The Pool" episode and some of the dialogue surrounding Randall's character made me cringe. There was a scene where Randall is at the pool and plays with the other black kids, Rebecca (Randall's mom) goes over there to get him, as she is leaving one of the black moms says, "Don't forget to put lotion on him when he leaves the pool or else he'll get ashy." Ugh. That line felt like a white writer trying to write from a black person's point of view. That line was painful, because, let's be real, who puts on lotion when they leave the pool, regardless of race? No one! Yikes.
Then there is the obese sister, Kate, and like Randall's character, every episode is about her being overweight. She goes to some type of Overeaters Anonymous group, she complains about how she can't find clothes that fit and how she's not losing any weight. It again feels like the show couldn't just have an overweight character on it, without mentioning her weight somehow.
Then I find the brother Kevin and the mother Rebecca to be the most unlikeable characters on the show. Kevin is very conceited and full of himself and his mother seems like she knows it all and is opposed to any kind of help. She tells Randall's biological dad to never contact him, she gives the black woman at the pool who is trying to help her and attitude.
Overall, this show reminds me of a trainwreck. It's like it's so bad, you want to keep watching for more cringe-worthy moments. I do think that there should be more diversity in Hollywood, but it doesn't have to be at the expense of portraying that character in every stereotypical image possible.
Sr. Pig (2016)
A surprisingly great film
I had Mr. Pig saved on my Netflix list for a long time and finally finished watching it. I thought the film was very good as it touches upon family relationships, animal cruelty, and our unconditional desire to help others.
Danny Glover plays Ambrose, an ailing father who is losing his farm and goes on a journey to Mexico to sell his prized pig, Howard. Midway on his journey, his health beings to take a toll and his daughter Eunice (Maya Rudolph) joins him on his trip. What I liked so much about the film was how simple it was but yet examines so many aspects of human emotion.
You first see how much love Ambrose has for his pig Howard. On the trip, Ambrose regularly stops to feed and bathe Howard, even casually talking to him. Once Howard gets to his friend, Payo's farm, he discovers the horrid living conditions of the pigs. The pigs live in cramped cages and are regularly fed antibiotics. Ambrose becomes upset at the living conditions and Payo says that is how pig farming is done now. Discovering that this would be the life for Howard, Ambrose quickly decides to find Howard a better home.
Eunice arrives to help her father sell his pig and return home. Once she arrives Ambrose's health begins to deteriorate which seems to draw the pair closer together. With Eunice's arrival, you see the complicated relationship between her and her father. Eunice cares so much for him even when at times he becomes stubborn and Ambrose expresses the things he regrets about her upbringing.
I found myself going through all kinds of emotions as I was watching Mr. Pig. I was feeling sorry for the pig, Howard. I felt worried about Ambrose. I even felt Eunice's frustrations as she was dealing with her dad. But more importantly, I really wanted to keep watching to see what would happen to them on their journey. I really recommend this movie if you need something to watch on Netflix as this movie has terrific acting and writing.
Greenleaf (2016)
An interesting look at the behind the scenes of a megachurch family
In my never ending quest of finding new shows with diverse casts, I came across Greenleaf on Netflix and was hooked after the first episode. It offers excellent acting, dialogue, character plots and a unique perspective of behind the scenes of a megachurch family.
What I like most about this show is the drama! Just when you think things can't get more dramatic, they somehow always do. There is sibling rivalry, church rivalry, family secrets, mistresses! This show borders on being a soap opera, but I think what makes it different is in the excellent writing and the cast performance.
Like many shows, this series comes with a few drawbacks such as predictability and repeated plot lines. Although the series does have excellent writing, I find a lot of the plot lines to be very predictable. Often when I'm watching Greenleaf, I can predict what's going to happen with accuracy which is a little disappointing. The plot has many scenarios that are not new to television. A secretly gay husband, the pedophile uncle, the affair with the secretary. Come on; I've seen every one of these before in other shows.
Although I do love drama, some of the scenes are so dramatic that they make me laugh. For example, there was a scene when the gay husband (Kevin) is secretly looking at half naked men on his cell phone as his wife (Charity) talks to him. I was like really?
I recently started watching season two and discovered that there were some major story lines from season one that received little to no attention in season two, leaving a few plot holes.
For example, Gigi's ex tries to get full custody of their daughter Sophia. It's a huge problem, and Gigi takes him to court. The father gets custody for 90 days and takes Sophia with him to Phoenix. Gigi is distraught and contemplates moving back to Phoenix to be with her daughter. Season one ends with Sophia being driven off by her dad and Gigi distraught. In season two Sophia is back with Gigi, and there is no mention at all about the custody battle which surprised me.
Also, Charity was pregnant in season one with twins. Once season two starts, we discover that she lost one of the babies, but it is mentioned very casually in conversation. Last time I checked, losing a child is a BIG deal, and that should have gotten more attention in the show.
All in all, I do enjoy watching Greenleaf and tune in each week for the drama! I recommend Greenleaf if you are looking for a new show to watch on Netflix that has the privilege of being written by a team of black writers and has an all black cast too.
Luther (2010)
Not bad, but not the best
I love watching shows where black actors are in lead roles and was excited when I came across Luther on Netflix. Luther is your typical bad detective/cop show; the genius detective whose able to always be one step ahead of the criminals.
For the most part, I enjoyed Luther. I think that Neil Cross does an excellent job creating scenes that are not predictable and keeping them exciting. Although I liked Luther, the show has many drawbacks that were hard for me to look past.
There is very little (if any) character development with our protagonist Luther. We never find out why he is a crooked cop or anything outside of his life away from his job; it's always Luther solving case after case. We also never find out any back story to any of the other main characters on the show, which I found a bit odd. Overall, the show doesn't have any likable characters.
The show's main characters also don't seem to be incorporated into the show that well. A character from one season will not appear in the next, and there is no explanation for where that character went or if they are coming back. Also, main characters will die, and to me, it felt like there was no real reason for their character to die.
****Spoilers below***
After watching all 18 episodes, just about every character that John Luther cares about dies. They die so much that it becomes cliché as if the writer doesn't know what to do next, so he just kills off a character to make John Luther angry.
Each season/episode felt like one in the same. Luther solving a case with a deranged killer and Luther having to protect and rescue some woman.
Season 1: Luther tries to protect and rescue his ex-wife Zoe
Season 2: Luther tries to protect and rescue this teen girl, Jenny
Season 3: Luther tries to protect and save his new girlfriend, Mary
Season 4: Luther tries to avenge Alice Morgan's death
Another pet peeve of mine throughout the series was how stupid the victims of these serial killers were. They were all laughably stupid, as in anyone with common sense would escape from these criminals. 80% of the episodes happen when the killer just knocks on their door, and the woman opens it and lets them in. Most people look out the peephole first before just answering the door blindly.
I found it interesting that all of the serial killers in this series were men; more specifically men, killing and torturing women. That whole scenario feels like lazy, cliché writing. (Let's have a man kill a woman because they're easy to overpower and kill!). It would have been more intriguing if the killers were people you wouldn't suspect like teens, children or women. The show also promotes the idea that women are incapable of saving themselves and they need to be rescued by a man (John Luther).
Luther isn't a bad show. It has its moments of suspense and great acting. Feel free to binge watch it on Netflix if you can suspend your disbelief.
Being Mary Jane (2013)
Much better then I expected
I decided on a whim to watch Being Mary Jane. I was a little reluctant at first since this is not typically the kind of TV drama that I watch, (I watch a lot of crime and historical dramas) but I decided to give it a shot anyways since it got pretty good reviews on Netflix. I just finished watching Season 3 and can say that I really like this show.
The show follows Mary Jane Paul, respected news anchor for SNC network, and the trials and tribulations associated with her highly profiled life. The endless pursuit of love + sex, family drama and the advancement of Mary Jane's career are tackled each episode. More importantly, each episode addresses an issue that affects the black community, especially relating to black women.
Being an African American woman, I find myself being able to relate to a lot of topics discussed in Being Mary Jane. Are black women beautiful? What does a beautiful black woman look like? There was a noteworthy episode where Mary Jane's niece, Niecy, got pregnant with her then Filipino boyfriend. Niecy was days away from giving birth and confesses to Mary Jane that her daughter is going to be beautiful because she will be biracial. Niecy then talks about how she is not pretty because she is dark skinned and overweight.
There was another episode where Mary Jane takes out her weave and her hairstylist is not available to give her a new weave. She becomes frantic because she does not want to wear her natural hair on camera and as a last resort calls Niecy to do her hair. Niecy's comments and Mary Jane's confliction with her hair represent the discomfort a lot of black women feel about their appearance and their disguised hatred for their blackness.
More than anything I like Mary Jane's confidence. She is confident in her sexuality, frequently having casual sex and masturbating. She is also not afraid to speak her mind or give her opinion even if it wasn't asked for. There was an episode in which the news anchor for primetime was unavailable and Mary Jane was selected as the replacement. This was a huge opportunity for Mary Jane as prime time has more viewers and the overall tempo is much faster than her afternoon show, Talk Back.
The guest for the show was Elizabeth Foy, a conservative white author. Elizabeth goes on to talk about her bestselling book about charter schools and at this point Mary Jane decides to stop listening to her producers and decides to ask Elizabeth her own questions. Like how Elizabeth's book publisher supports neo-racists authors. Elizabeth gets flustered by the barrage of Mary Jane's questions and calls her a 'race baiter' and how she thinks black people are always the victim, always misunderstood. Mary Jane then responds back by saying that they both have a lot in common and that Elizabeth Foy is a ugly black woman too.
Mary Jane can be bold and vocal but also she is compassionate and willing to expose her vulnerabilities. There was a series of episodes in which Mary Jane tries to freeze her eggs on air with the assistance of fertility treatments. She then discovers from her doctor on air that she has a below average egg count and may not be able to bear children in the future.
The show is not afraid to tackle serious issues. It challenges the existing stereotype that black people do not commit suicide or suffer from mental illness. Mary Jane's longtime friend Lisa has struggled with mental illness throughout the course of the show after having attempted suicide in season one. She finally took her own life in season 3.
The reason I gave this series a 8/10 is because there are a lot of episodes where it feels like things are just happening and there is no context or backstory as to why. For example, one of Mary Jane's "sex buddies" has a seizure after they are finished having sex. There is no explanation as to what caused him to have a seizure. He just says, "I started having these 2 weeks ago." That could have been an opportunity to address health issues. There are a lot of little instances like this that plague the series.
Overall I really like Being Mary Jane. I think that the show is tactfully done to challenge what it means to be a black woman in America and the struggles that we continually face.
Annabelle (2014)
Annabelle: You're in for a scary ride
I just got finished watching Annabelle, the prequel to The Conjuring. My only fault with this movie was that there didn't seem to be an actual plot; it felt like a lot of scary stuff was just happening. However, I found the overall movie to be very scary and I thought it did a great job of building suspense through sound, imagery and lighting.
Not knowing much about the movie before I saw it (aside from the fact that it was about a doll), I didn't know what to expect from this film. I thought that it might be slightly reminiscent of Chuckie, where a doll goes around terrorizing people, but Annabelle is much more than that.
The first 30 minutes of the movie nothing scary really happens. We just get introduced to the characters and learn how the doll gets possessed. The main characters Mia and John live in Santa Monica and are expecting their first child, but after they are attacked in their home, they relocate to an apartment in Pasadena after John gets offered a new job.
It is after they start living in their new apartment that the paranormal occurrences start to occur. What I liked most about Annabelle was that it used a lot of different 'monsters' and 'scares' throughout the film as opposed to it solely relying on the menacing looking doll.
There are a few occurrences of invisible things pulling Mia. Doors repeatedly open and close on their own. Electronics start turning on by themselves. We see a dead woman walking around haunting Mia. And perhaps the scariest monster was the Demon/Devil that we see repeatedly midway through the film. An interesting thing to note is that although the movie is titled Annabelle, we never actually see the doll 'move' and that these paranormal occurrences seem to only effect Mia, her husband John never experiences anything.
I also liked how the film used lighting, sound and imagery to scare the audience. Annabelle is filled with a lot of long, dark corridors. Lights flicker on and off. There are a lot of footsteps and thuds. And of course the classic which is loud fast paced music, followed by silence, then a screamer. I also really liked how the monsters actually looked scary and not just silly (like the monster from Insidious).
Overall I really enjoyed this movie. It made me and my boyfriend jump several times, so I found it to be pretty scary. The actor that plays John (Ward Horton), I found his acting to be pretty mediocre to terrible, but that didn't ruin the movie for me. Also, the ending is not the best but, I would watch this movie again.
Sinister (2012)
This is supposed to be a horror film?
Originally when I got this movie in the mail from Netflix, I had high hopes after reading a lot of positive reviews, but this movie ultimately falls short as a horror film for many reasons.
First, the pacing of the Sinister is dreadfully slow and we don't see anything 'scary' until about 40 minutes in. Almost the whole movie, I was waiting for something to jump out and scare me and those moments never came. The few 'fright' scenes are 100% predictable, unoriginal and often didn't make sense.
For example, there is a scene in the movie where Ellison's son is sleepwalking and is found in the backyard. When Ellison goes outside to retrieve him, there is a Rottweiler randomly in his backyard along with a bunch of dead kids. What was the point of the dog? And why are there a bunch of dead kids in your backyard?
Those dead kids. I'm sure they were supposed to be scary, but their makeup made them look laughable and ridiculous. They were running all over Ellison's house and dashing into rooms in slow motion and Ellison is oblivious to this the whole time. Then there was the main monster, who looked more like a member from Insane Clown Posse. His name is the Bughuul and there is no back story at all as to who this guy/demon is; we don't see him enough to fully understand his character.
Another thing that bothered me was the majority of the movie was filmed in the house; there were very few scenes that didn't take place in their home. It would have even been nice if Ellison left his house to do some research or if there were different shot locations. Ellison's family also experiences problems in town due to the unpopularity of Ellison's current crime novel. The mom says people give her dirty looks at the grocery store and their son gets teased at school. It would have been nice if we had seen some of these scenes because they would have added more to the story.
The last thing that I will say about Sinister is that during the whole movie Ellison is wearing a woman's sweater. I could not get over this. His sweater literally looks like something you would find at Forever 21. Sinister loses a lot of points because of that woman sweater. Over all Sinister wasn't that bad. It had a lot of potential with the cinematography and the shot compositions, but failed to use that to properly scare the viewer. It's presented more as a mystery than a horror flick. If you want to see a better movie with a bunch of dead kids running around, watch The Orphanage (El Orfanato).