Reviews

Straight Outta Oz is amazing! It mixes personal and political, reality and fantasy, as it tells the story of a little boy who grows up in a hostile world and faces its hardships from a very early age.

Through a unique set of songs, all very different from one another, this musical retells Todrick's story by mixing it with The Wizard of Oz, without, however, losing its grip on (a harsh) reality. From bullying and the pressure of societal conformity at an early age to the reality of police brutality, shootings and the toxicity of show- business in adulthood, we see a life unfold before our eyes. It's a biography, it's a story about leaving the safety of a home that wasn't all that welcoming to begin with, it's a love story, it's a political protest, it's heartbreak and, most of all, it's art. And it's art brought to us by a variety of talented people from so many different artistic backgrounds: Todrick Hall, RuPaul, Nicole Scherzinger, GloZell, Jordin Sparks, Bob the Drag Queen, Amber Riley, Raven- Symoné and so many others.

It will make you smile, cry a little and want to dance and, in the end, it will have been an amazing hour you spent listening to incredible songs.

"Meh" is what defines this show to me. It isn't particularly good nor particularly bad, it's not even memorable, to be honest. The characters were boring at best and hateful at worst, the main story lines are just average and I couldn't be bothered about them, the "subplots" (that's what I'm calling the stories that are limited to one episode) were sometimes interesting, but their development was eventually flawed and not at all spectacular... But it's not remarkably bad either, it's just... plain, flat, dull.

It's simply not remarkable or memorable in any way, so I'm left with very little to say about it. It's a forgettable show and I wouldn't advise anyone to waste their time watching it.

Now here's the thing: I've read the book, which means I started the movie knowing what to expect. So the cheesy plot, the seemingly nonexistent background, everything was already inherent to Divergent in my mind. To me, it was simply part of the concept that the movie would develop, so I didn't find it so horrible. In fact, I even thought it was a good adaptation of the book, but then that could have been because I read it over a year (or maybe even a couple of years) ago. I can't say it was objectively good, though.

The romance was awful, there seemed to be no chemistry between the characters in question, they definitely would have been better off as friends. Time seemed to be off too. I mean, I knew quite some time was supposed to have passed between (SPOILER)the choosing ceremony and the final confrontation(/SPOILER), but the director didn't seem to be able to convey the passage of time properly, so hadn't I read the book, I think I'd probably have a sense of timelessness and would see it all as a bunch of things that happened somewhere at some point with some unknown amount of time separating them.

Not only weren't characters really unique or remarkable, but also the film lacked emotion and thrill. Most scenes that could have been intense seemed to be left unexplored in detriment of more fight scenes and, seeing as I'm not really a fan of action (or romance, for that matter), I didn't care much about all that violence.

Despite all that, I did enjoy myself while watching it. I don't know why. Maybe seeing images I'd only had in my mind be put into something real and concrete made it special to me, maybe I already knew how bad it could be, so whatever good thing came of it was surprising enough... In the end, I'd say this is a movie for you to watch when you don't have much to do and you just want to relax.

The thing that struck me the most about this movie is how beautiful it is, and I mean literally, aesthetically. Not only is the scenery gorgeous, but also its camera work is outstanding: Praia do Futuro's shots are absolutely amazing, most scenes could be made into pictures to be hung on the walls of an art gallery - there could probably be a whole exposition just made with screenshots of this movie.

The film's appeal, however, doesn't go much beyond that. Its plot had potential, the trailer made it seem like it would be intense and deeply emotional, yet the whole story is quite dull, with some unclear or poorly explained parts and underdeveloped dialogue. The characters don't lack depth per se, but their personalities were rather shallowly explored, perhaps hindered by the lack of vocal expression or by the stumbling plot.

Contrarily to what a review I read (in another website) suggested, I did not feel like this movie was too cliché-ridden, and the unoriginal moves were fairly understandable, as they could be justified by either the situation in which they were inserted or the characters' psyche. Yet, I feel the innovative elements were obscured by the overall dephtlessness of the whole production and great ideas and quotes were lost in senselessness and barely-existent dialogue.

This is definitely not a bad movie, it was just not enough to touch or affect me in any way.

This series is still in its second episode and I find it quite enjoyable, but I don't know whether I should be outraged by it or not.

On one hand, I feel like it could be an attempt at representing the LGBTQIA community (or at least homosexuals) in a show that feels light and portrays an acceptant society; on the other, I fear it might be just exploiting an under-represented group to create humorous situations.

The series itself is fun, its fast pace and short episodes are quite successful at catching one's attention and the situations the characters are put in are a mix of uniqueness (due to the alternative setting they find themselves in) and typicality of teenage drama shows.

Considering the girls are neither actively lesbians (at the beginning, at least - Karma is probably bisexual, Amy COULD be a lesbian), nor too familiar with the queer community, the misconceptions seem to be justifiable, but it worries me that people who don't have considerable understanding of queerness might take them as true.

The story has a lot of potential to become an inspiration to teenagers who are struggling with their sexual identities, but it needs to be developed with caution, considering our society isn't as acceptable as the girls' school.

I didn't really enjoy the first episode and kept criticising it, but, after seeing so many positive reviews, I concluded it could only be my love for Les Reventants interfering on my views on Resurrection. So, since I really wanted to like it, I decided to watch the second episode, fully aware of the fact that the two series are separate stories that merely share the same basic concept only to be met with absolute ordinariness. The same patterns I had noticed in the first episode were present in the second one: shallowness of character, clichés and lack of continuity.

Death affects people around it deeply and it could be explored in so many ways involving psychological and emotional issues, but all the show came up with was "I missed you so much", and some of the situations constituted the most implausible representations of reality.

There is no way of saying this without sounding prejudicial or offensive: this show is too American. (I don't mean to say "American = bad", but in this case the typical Hollywood style ruined so much potential...) No emotional complexity whatsoever can be found in the characters and the deepest anyone's got so far was having some sort secret. The story itself is boring, I couldn't care less about it, the characters are far too dull and none have seemed even remotely likable, some of the goofs are incredibly basic and, to capture one's attention, the show recurs to clichés and silly cliffhangers, instead of just, you know, actually trying to be good.

I was craving for something that could soothe my pain of not having any more episodes of Les Revenants for who knows how long, but this was just a gigantic disappointment.

As soon as I finished Anos Rebeldes, I was filled with longing... I knew it was a story that had changed my life.

Having always been a huge fan of History and being fascinated by the dictatorships in Latin America, I was very excited to start watching this mini-series. I remembered having seen some of the episodes when I was much younger and loving it, yet I was a bit worried I would no longer feel the same towards it. I was, however, surprised: I usually criticise fiercely the Brazilian way of acting, for I find it too unnatural, but this series had a cast that embraced the scenes, making them completely believable, natural and human.

Our society is much better represented in this work, set half a century ago, than in nowadays' soap operas, which still neglect our constantly growing middle class, focusing instead on incredibly wealthy families that have servants, and despite having been written 22 years ago, Anos Rebeldes is less misogynistic and sexist than what is currently popular in our media.

In spite of its fictional nature, history is still omnipresent, the political events and deeds of the time always influencing the characters' personal lives, and it seems to be rather accurate in its representation of 1964-1970's Brazil. Very touching and entertaining, the mini-series is also informative and awakens one's interest in the period (or at least it got me obsessed with the Military Dictatorships, stimulating my curiosity, leading me to so many discoveries).

Anos Rebeldes is a masterpiece, a milestone in Brazilian television and one of the best series I've ever watched.

The synopsis caught my interest, but what really made me search for this short movie for about a month was the only other review published here, in 2004: it suggested that Ex Inferis would be a very deep, intriguing production, managing to explore several subjects in a matter of minutes. I thought it would leave me with far too many questions, but not due to loose ends... it would be a result of the work of a genius. But I expected too much and came across too little.

I found this to be a rather plain, dull short movie, with an amazingly interesting concept that wasn't, however, well explored. The script had some inconsistencies and the acting was regular (I don't dare say it was bad because I'm usually displeased by the Brazilian way of acting and this production didn't seem as fake as some others), yet the scenery, simple as it was, seemed to be just perfect: dark, but not in a scary way, with occasional lights embellishing the environment with their colours.

In the end, I found it to be slightly amusing and fairly enjoyable thanks to the filming technique. It's an obviously distinct production and despite its non-used potential of being much more innovative, it wasn't a complete waste.

First of all, this is not a socially aware movie, it's not made to bring any morals, be them of discrimination or acceptance, it's a story that treats everything in it as absolutely normal, no criticism intended. There is alcohol abuse, drug use, recklessness regarding to one's job (and, therefore, to the lives of every passenger on the airplane), non- consensual sex, sex, homosexuality, religion... Many things that conservative parents would never want their children to know or discuss about, but I had a hell of a lot of fun with it, despite my usual preference for meaningfulness or intellectually-stimulating things.

It's the first film by Almodóvar I watch, and although I've seen some comments on Los Amantes Pasajeros saying it's full of jokes the director had already put in previous productions, I can't say much on that matter. However, I don't even think the jokes were what made me enjoy the movie, it simply had a light-hearted (yet slightly complex in some aspects) plot with amusing characters and nice development. It's a comedy, but it doesn't depend on mere silliness, it actually has an interesting background story.

I could criticise a lot about the movie, how the flight attendants (all gay men) treat each other with feminine pronouns without ever officially declaring themselves transgender, for example, but I also appreciate some other things, such as the fact that not all of the gay men are effeminate, showing the diversity that actually exists in the LGBTQIA community, but, as I said before, not a socially aware production, so this is not the place to discuss these questions.

Well, this was lovely!

I only started this series because of Billie Piper (and the fact that Matt Smith would be in one episode), but I ended up actually enjoying it... So much I spent every free second of my last three days watching Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

It's a light-hearted, funny production with interesting characters that allowed me to understand better the world of (high-class) escorts while getting attached to the protagonist and everyone around her. Surely, the series is faulty at some points; there are some loose ends, characters come and go without ever being mentioned again, but all in all, I enjoyed myself a lot and actually felt like I had finally found something I could watch for hours, non-stop, without getting bored.

Four seasons, 42 episodes, 22 minutes per episode and much more fun than I was expecting.

This is one of the few shows that I regret deeply being done with and even think about watching all over again. The lower rating is only due to series 4, which I struggled to get past. The two new characters that are introduced aren't Torchwood at all and I couldn't develop any feelings beyond annoyance towards them. While I wish the series would come back, I'm not sure if it would be as good as it used to be, with all that happened in the three previous seasons.

But let's talk about the real deal and just pretend Miracle Day doesn't exist: the first episodes aren't the best, but as the characters develop and you get to know more about the world around them, it becomes more and more interesting.

I, personally, find it better than Doctor Who for the simple reason that I see a deeper development in many points. While the Doctor is the only one who has very substantial changes in his personality (apart from some of his companions), each and every character has their own space to improve as time goes by in Torchwood. Ianto was my absolute favourite, because he starts as a coffee boy and develops into an essential member of the team, conquering his space and voicing his opinions. And he has some of the best lines.

I also see more diversity in the personalities (mainly in the women) of Torchwood's characters and I find it very interesting that Davies explored matters that aren't explored in Doctor Who, such as homosexuality. It is amazing how there are two women kissing or two men in a relationship and everyone there just treats it as natural - and eventually finds it rather sexy. It's just a "background" romance as any other, it comes in various types and it doesn't necessarily enforce or contradict any stereotypes - considering Queer As Folk, you can see a huge development in Davies' way of expressing the matter.

The plot is rather different from Doctor Who; it's set on Earth, and it's not only about saving the day, it's preventing humanity from knowing of the existence of alien dangers while they save everyone. Torchwood is packed with action, but it also has drama, so that you watch it to see what's happening in the corporation and what's going on in the characters' lives.

It is very curious that the series showed how some types of work simply consume one's life, yet some people are still capable of coping and living healthily in the outside world. It also explores the dependency some have, and how work becomes more than merely a part of someone.

The most amazing part, in my opinion, is that Torchwood overcomes fiction, something I don't see Doctor Who doing. The latter shows aliens in situations we know could never be real, but the former manages to show how aliens could be influencing our everyday lives without us even knowing. While in Doctor Who there are spaceships in the sky of London that can only be explained as aliens, a Weevil appears and Torchwood convinces the world that it was just a criminal. It's manipulation "for the people's good".

It is hard to believe that Doctor Who is real, but it's not impossible to wonder if Torchwood is.

It makes me sad to give this show such a low rating, for when I started it, it seemed really appealing. The first episode was thrilling, full of events, very dynamic, but then the magic dissipated and it simply became another boring show I force myself to watch.

It is not historically accurate and you can see it from the first 10 minutes, but nothing is perfect, so I decided to go on, after all this isn't a documentary, it's a series. But the main character is not Da Vinci. I'm not saying I expected him to be the perfect impersonation of the genius, but he has so little of the artist. Some details are true - such as him being ambidextrous and a vegetarian -, but that's what they are, details. I hoped that this would be a slightly modified Da Vinci, just like BBC Sherlock is a different Sherlock Holmes, yet with traits of Conan Doyle's version, but they simply used the name to create a whole new character.

The soundtrack is really great, it actually thrilled me when I was bored, but the soundtrack should make the scene more exciting, not provide all the excitement.

Although the plot could be really interesting, it is far too fantastic - baring deliriousness - and it just stopped capturing my attention. There are some anachronisms and mistakes that I really couldn't let go unnoticed and that was one of the things that ruined the series for me. Want an example? "Medici". Seriously, they couldn't get the family name right? Just go to Wikipedia and see the pronunciation! It made me cringe every time they said "Me'dici" instead of "'Medici", and I'm not asking them to speak perfect Renaissance Italian, it is a simple word that everyone heard at least once in their lives.

Firenze, however, is beautiful. When I first saw the scenery, I was dumbstruck: it is gorgeous! The clothing is, overall, pretty accurate, and I didn't find the acting as bad as some reviews suggested; it is actually rather good. But Da Vinci's hair... Oh my. I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. It is so out of place, even though it looks good in the actor.

I don't want to discourage everyone from watching Da Vinci's Demons. If you're up to fantasy and action, go ahead and watch it, but if you cringe at historical mistakes, run, run as fast as you can from this series.

In The Flesh did something most series or movies can't do to me: it actually caught my attention, it motivated me to stay with my eyes glued to the screen and even go back when I didn't pay attention for a minute.

The thing I like most about this series is that it doesn't portray "zombies" as other productions. They're not the cruel creatures that come to kill you, even though they can be like that in their most primitive stages. Those who have the so called PDS are as rational or emotional as anyone who hasn't died before.

The fact that the protagonist is one of the "zombies" makes it more interesting, for we see their suffering from their own point of view, we feel their struggles to overcome the prejudice that targets them and to deal with the bad they involuntarily did.

With its moral questions, innovative plot and entertaining production, In The Flesh is definitely a must see. The only reason I didn't give it a higher rating is that it hasn't yet answered many questions I have, but I trust that new seasons will come and bring the required information.

This is definitely one of my favourite movies, with its catchy plot and extremely deep characters that can entertain anyone.

We all know that the prequel was extremely successful and highly rated, so I was obviously hoping for a dignifying sequel, but more than that, I was afraid. Monsters Inc was my childhood along with Bug Life, and with this wave of making a second or third movie that is only successful because of the first one, I feared Monsters University might ruin all that Mike and Sully meant for me, because maybe it would be just a commercial film. I am so glad to have been surprised.

While the idea of a movie being set in a university is no big news, the fact that these are monsters and their differences go far beyond personality makes it a whole new story. Yet, more than that, the movie shows how one's personality can affect their appearance or vice-versa. Obviously, there are the bullies and the bullied, but instead of merely portraying a reality, it brings a message: don't change to be successful or to be accepted, your uniqueness is what will lead you to happiness. Embrace what you have in you that makes you different and turn it into your strength.

I admit to not remembering Monsters Inc. in detail, for I haven't watched it in a long, long time, but I still had notions of what their futures would be, so their past... Well, it was simply deduction, right? No.

Characters who hated each other in the first movie were, at the beginning of Monsters University, portrayed as, if not friends, in amicable terms, but also mutatis mutandis. So we would obviously expect some big deed from them that would completely change the other's opinion, but it's not in that direct attack fashion that relationships flow. The feelings each character develops for the other is subtly incited, something I don't remember noticing in many productions; relations go smoothly and accompany each character's development.

Talking about development, it is great to see that Monsters University also shows how two completely different past realities can converge in the same present or future one, because coming from success doesn't mean you'll succeed and having all the odds against you doesn't mean you will fail, it only depends on your capacity of adaptation; it makes us see beyond mere titles and believe we can overcome expectations when we least expect it. But I'm not going much more into this, otherwise I will fail in avoiding spoilers.

However, what I liked best is the lack of predictability in crucial moments. While there are some typical moves such as "rejecting the popular boys because they rejected you", at some points the movie made you believe that it would follow a course of action that would be the only logical one considering its prequel, but then it gave you a completely different solution. (This refers mainly to the end, which was such a plot twist even though the fact that Monsters Inc had already established some facts gave it so little space to surprise the watchers.)

Monsters University made me laugh and brought tears to my eyes, it made me angry and hopeful, but more than anything, it reminded me of the little tips on how to be happy that we so often forget.