Reviews

Needless to say, as a 30 something male I'm not in the demographics that the producers and showrunners aimed for.

Let me first start by saying that I gave this show 8 stars, while it was well written and well-acted it left a lot to be desired. First, racism. Yes, I said it, racism. Glee starts with what might have been a comment left unnoticed by fans but is filled with racist overtones. In season one the Glee club is tired of Rachel Berry (played by Lea Michele) who is Jewish and they encourage her to "Go back to Israel." Other instances of racism include one of the most overlooked forms of racism in the US, Asians. Throughout the show comments are made about the two Asian characters on the show (Tina and Mike) and they all seem to be fun in spirit but, as with all Asian racist jokes in this country, they are severely racist.

The second reason for why I gave this show an 8-star rating can hardly be the fault of the casting choices at the outset but certainly bear on the overall show. Mark Salling, who plays Noah Puckerman, was arrested, charged, and convicted of possession of child pornography shortly after the show went off the air. And of course, Cory Monteith died from a heroin overdose in 2013.

So let's get down to the show itself. As with most people, I agree that the first couple of seasons are better than the last few. The jokes are fresh, the songs are eclectic, and the acting is good. But after the original cast of Glee members leave for college, the show suffers like any other show of high schoolers. In many cases shows like this make the mistake of carrying on with the same group of actors into their "college" years. Others simply replace the "graduated" actors for a crop of new talent. Glee does both. High School shows belong in high school. Rarely do they work once the students have graduated and moved on. The teenage, high school mentality doesn't hold on as well in college and the attempt to make the dialogue and plot more complex alienates fans who came to the show for what it was. Bringing in a new crop of talent has its pitfalls, beloved characters are written off and fans are forced to grow accustomed to new faces and talents. Glee would probably have been better off ending after season 3.

The writing on this show became lazy after season 3. The character of Tina who at first was fun and interesting became a caricature of herself. The separate casts, one in New York and the other in Lima felt disjointed. New cast members including Melissa Benoist, Blake Jenner, Vanessa Lengies, Alex Newell, et al. were poorly written and not given their own space to develop since main characters Blaine, Tina, Brittany S. Pierce, and Artie remained on the show as they weren't members of the graduating class of 2012. Cory Monteith, who was at this point using heroin pretty heavily became a fraction of himself.

Finally, in seasons 4 and 5 the show went away from classics and mainstream pop which made the musical seasons hard to watch.

Had this show gone only 3 seasons it would have been a perfect 10, but one cannot overlook how poorly made seasons 4-6 were.

I came across this film through my Amazon Fire TV. The narrative is compelling, though not entirely original except for a couple plot points, the acting is believable. You become engrossed in the characters and their struggles over religion, family and acceptance. The main character, Sahira, is a medical student from a mixed race, devout Muslim family. In keeping with the fact the story takes place in the US, Sahira is given the freedom to go to college and eventually medical school though she is held to strict Muslim rules regarding women. Her struggle to be a "normal" American girl and a "normal" "dutiful" Muslim daughter provide the main struggle for the film. Perhaps my biggest issue with the film is the fact it feels disjointed. Surely the last half of the film is more compelling and certain believable, but it doesn't feel as though it connects with the first half. The father becomes even more controlling, more abusive, the brother goes from being an incestuous perverted unable to live up to his father's impossible standards to becoming a bigger tyrant than the father almost over night. The mother goes from a strong, albeit submissive woman to becoming a meek submissive woman. This is definitely a must watch but I wish they had left the majority of the film in the film rather than on the editing room floor. A less brutal option than Beyond Honor is a German film, When We Leave that focuses on a traditional Turkish Muslim family.

Like so many of the films I watch these days, I came across this gem on my Amazon Fire TV. Let me say from the outset that this film is excellent. It challenges us to accept the most difficult of questions, can someone convicted of sexually assaulting a minor be redeemable as a person. The average American would most assuredly answer in the negative, as would most convicted men and women in prison who often treat these people as the lowest of the low. It also attacks, though indirectly, a second question: can children lie? This, of course, is question that is often left unanswered due to the problems it would create.

That being said, this movie does a great job of showcasing life after prison for a convicted sex offender. The characters are well thought out, their reactions are stereotypical to the reactions most of us would have. The quality of acting is superb and each actor brings their character to life in a very real way. But as is the case with most films covering a controversial topic in American film, the editors often choose a quick, no mess ending rather than playing the film out in its most realistic format. Why not spend more time attacking our perceptions of sex offenders? Instead of having that moment where offender and victim finally come together, why is it that only the victim accepts that she wasn't a victim, but a willing participant? Why does the offender not further attack the position that the victim and her dad lied about what was happening? More importantly, the relationship the offender has with a coworker feels forced, inorganic. They quickly fall in love, she finds out he is a sex offender and has the stereotypical response but in the end she comes to his rescue and the flee the city together. I would rather watch a 2 to 2 1/2 hour film that attempts to answer these questions, as I would imagine the original script did, rather than the editor's version that strives for the typical American film happy ending. For the first half of the movie, I give it a 10, but for the second half I give it a 3 and I believe the strength of the first half, the characters and the acting it the whole film deserves an 8.

This movie is by far one of the best movies I have ever seen. Gegen die Wand takes you through the lives of two individuals living in Germany. Both are of Turkish decent but have arrived at their place in life by different means. Cahit is a older man, probably in his thirties, that has lost all reason to live. His wife has died and he picks up trash at a night club owned by a friend. He crashes his car and must visit a psychologist where he meets Sibel. Sibel is a twenty something woman who lives under what she sees as an oppressive father. She seeks to wed Cahit in order to truly "live". From there the movie shows the audience how Sibel and Cahit come to grips with their lives and understand the proper way of living. This movie holds nothing back. This movie makes anything Hollywood produce look like a child's movie.