Reviews

True Detective's first season is one of the absolute most astounding television debuts, and seasons of television ever, in my opinion. Impeccable acting from McConaughey and Harrelson, some of their best in fact. Amazing direction, writing and cinematography as well. This show has such a gritty, distorted look that feels so refreshing compared to how oversaturated and brightly lit most shows often are. Not to mention that one take in episode 4, flawless television if you were to ask me. Completely eerie and atmospheric music too, and simply captivating from beginning to end. I enjoyed this immensely, and it's honestly this rare that I'm left this astounded by a season of TV. Don't get me wrong, TV's great, however rarely do I get such a cinematic experience out of watching one, and season 1 of True Detective is one of those rare cases. Go watch it. It's remarkable.

Midnight In Paris is wonderful. The concept is brilliant, and Woody Allen executes it in such a remarkable way. Owen Wilson is perfect in the lead, and I love the attention-to-period-detail. This is also really funny. Not in a laugh out loud way, but a dry way. Excellent film overall. Would recommend even if your not a huge Woody Allen fan.

I'm excluding those seasons because I barley watched season 4 as it was unbearable, and I didn't even attempt to watch season 5. To me, Arrested Development is 3 incredible seasons of inventive, clever, witty television. This show was so funny. I loved the use of narration, visual gags, running gags, and how they contributed to the storytelling. It was always very well written, and the cast was amazing. They all bought something very distinct to their characters. I particularly liked Gob and Tobias the most, and Will Arnett and David Cross were both brilliant respectively. Loved this show, and it's a shame what it's slowly turned into.

Community is easily one of my favourite shows, even if it did go through a rough period. The writing in this show was amazing. It's sharp, witty, and smart, yet it never felt overly-sophisticated. The characters were all extremely likeable too, and the entire cast managed to bring something distinct and quirky to their role. I especially loved Abed, as I certainly related to him the most. Every episode always felt creative visually as well. In terms of direction and cinematography, Community was always very playful and never felt stale. It was definitely high above many sitcoms and shows in general in terms of visual presentation. Season 1-3 are amazing and flawless in my opinion, but with that being said, there was season 4 (The 'Gas leak year') and admittedly I don't think the show ever recovered after that, despite seasons 5 & 6 being great, it still never felt the same. Seasons 1-3 were so good though that I can actually overlook it. Those seasons alone make me forget about season 4 entirely. Very few shows offer as much comfort and make me as happy as Community does.

Six Feet Under is an amazing show. It's utterly depressing yet extremely funny at the same time. Each episode was incredibly well acted and written, and my favourite character was always Claire. No matter who directed, the episodes always looked great visually too. The cinematography was in fact often on par with the quality of a feature film. I love the opening theme by Thomas Newman too. This show was always good in my eyes, yet as it got towards it the end, it was especially good. Season 5 was in fact my favourite season. Amazing show overall, and one I see myself revisiting several times in years to cone, which is very rare for me.

Flight Of The Conchords comes from the minds of James Bobbin, Jermaine Clement, and Bret McKenzie, and evolves around the daily life of two exaggerated interpretations of Clement and McKenzie, the two of course playing those parts. The show sees the duo, commonly known as the fourth most popular folk parody duo in New Zealand, living and facing the much more different New York life. They are managed by the sometimes foolish, yet often lovable Murray (Rhys Darby), and stalked obsessivley by the often intense, yet sometimes well-meant Mel (Kristen Schaal), meanwhile, many of the duo's events and encounters are accounted through song and dance number, reflecting on the two's musical abilities. Flight Of The Concords is an offbeat show, yet, one that strives in being so. Both Bret and Jermaine give off an uncomfortable, dead-pan sense in their presence, and therefore the offbeat environment is almost transformed into a quirky one. Flight Of The Conchords features very flaired presentation within each episode, the visuals always cleverly flattering the brilliant writing. Both Clement and McKenzie are brilliant, containing such great pacing and brilliant comedic timing, and the songs that the two write for each episode are often genius, Carol Brown, Leggy Blond, Bowie, and Hurt Feelings being some of my personal favourites. Flight Of The Conchords acquires a strong and extremely likeable personality too, and while it might seem odd and unusual from a distance, upfront its very well meant, as while only consisting unfortunately of just 2 seasons and a total of 22 episodes, Flight Of The Conchords was a delightful watch for me from beginning to end.

The Favourite is from director Yorgos Lanthimos, and takes place within the backdrop of 18th century England, where we follow an ageing, frail Queen Anne (Olivia Coleman), whose affections are fought for by close friend, Sarah (Rachel Weisz), and Sarah's cousin, Abigail (Emma Stone), whom begins to work under Anne as her servant. The Favourite entails a mixture of different genres, creating great variety. It mostly stands as a dark comedy, however, it never acts afraid to subtly arise itself as an intense thriller neither, nor is it to distinguish itself a romantic tale. Nevertheless, The Favourite is compelling at its core, and completely subverts the stuffy, pretentious nature commonly associated with royal period pieces. The Favourite acquires stunningly rich attention-to-detail in its presentation, as Lanthimos adds great personality to the film, as well as voicing it with a sense of wonder and passion, in addition to having a strong even balance of maintaining the constant shift in tone throughout the film. The Favourite also looks aesthetically great, as the cinematography is wonderful, most of it based solely in the impressive techniques Robbie Ryan used in order to shoot the film largely with the usage of natural or candle lighting. The Favourite features an wide range of talent in its cast, Olivia Coleman being the most scene-stealing, watchable of them all for me, however, Rachel Weisz made a strong turn as the films primary antagonist, and not only did Emma Stone's British accent work near flawlessly, but the progression that both she and the writing showed in her character was highly impressive. The Favourite is also written with marvellous talent, as well as being paced and edited together skilfully, consisting of a soundtrack made up of classical music that complimented the visuals, and featuring very competent production and costume designs that bought the frame of time within the film to life increasingly more. The Favourite was only problematic for me in two areas, as some fish-lens angles that were used didn't exactly work well for me, and the music was used to a repetitive extent, only very occasionally however, and none of this detracted The Favourite's level of brilliance for me in anyway. Its unarguably one of 2018's most well-made films, its often funny, its often intense, its always riveting, it has great things to say about the concept of empowerment and how fighting the obtainment of it can sometimes override our basic human dignity. On the whole, I can strongly recommend it.

Roma is the expertly made family drama, crafted together, piece by piece by the impeccable Alfonso Cúaron. The film serves as an account into a day in the life of Cleo (Yalitza Aparaicio), a maid to a middle-class Mexican family. Roma is crowned by a wonderful sense of passion in the voice of its director, Cúaron. The sense of personality is felt strongly as much of Roma's account is drawn from inspiration of Cúaron's actual life. In addition to directing Roma, Cúaron writes it very unconventionally and innovativley, and shoots it skilfully, beautifully using a wide range of excellent long takes and shots, and filming it entirely in black and white for even greater effect. All around the level of effort is exhibited delightfully by the cast, most notably Yalitza Aparicio who, in a debut acting performance, impresses delightfully with a performance that exhibits a strong sense of emotion without the effort of Aparicio even having to execute much dialogue, she conveys and translates her feelings simply through mannerisms, facial expressions, and body language. Roma also makes beautiful usage of its sound design, cleverly and loudly embracing the most unnoticeable background noises, and features stunning, effort-driven production design too. The progression of time throughout the film isn't shown quite as clearly as it could be, however, Roma worked wonderfully for me, both in its craft and how deeply it effected me on a more personal surface.

The Irishman is directed by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese, and tells the story of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro),a mob hitman who recalls his possible involvement with the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. The Irishman, as of now, has been long awaited by many, including myself, and I personally believe the result of the film is worth the wait. Scorsese is with no doubt a master, and The Irishman is masterfully helmed. His skilful using of the de-aging visual effects is impressive and respectable enough, however, he remains a strong storyteller throughout the entire film, as I found The Irishman thoroughly engaging throughout, despite the 3 hour 30 minute runtime which, thanks to the excellent editing from Thelma Schoonmaker, was never present in my mind. The Irishman is also excellently written, features stunning acting from De Niro, Pacino, and Joe Pesci, and makes excellent usage of the mise en scene, as the period of time, as well as constant progression of this time, was very well conveyed without the needing to explain directly to us. Although riveting, I suppose The Irishman could have been trimmed down slightly, and the relationship Sheeran conveyed with his wife and family could have been better developed. There were also some very minor technical issues, mostly in the visual effects, yet, on the whole, I thought The Irishman was excellent, never resulting or feeling the need to be a challenging piece of art, but instead meeting that perfect balance of being an accesable, crowd-pleasing feature, meanwhile conveying enough flair and unique qualities to cement it as something more different to the typical Hollywood film.