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Atiye (2019)
Seasons 1-2 were great! Then down the rabbit hole
Sadly true of most of Netflix's shows, there is a horrible model of thinking through only 1 or 2 seasons, and then getting greedy and trying to milk a 3rd or 4th season that become nothing but wild, poorly written, rabbit holes that sometime have zero coherence with previously established plotlines. Such was the case for Atiye. Gripping, interesting first season, lots of interesting plot threads. Second season follows up on them, but by the third season, it goes completely off the rails. Do better, Netflix, and stop wasting our time!
Kördügüm (2016)
From 10 stars to 2 stars--what happened?!
This series had the potential to be a damn masterpiece. For the first and most of the second season, it was an engrossing drama about tragic characters with stories we cared about, superbly and subtly acted, well-paced, with moving moving and thoughtful cinematography. The central conflicts and questions in the characters' lives were interesting but not far-fetched. What happened between the second and the third season was beyond comprehension. It felt like another set of writers and directors took over and completely ruined it, made it like a cheap version of Game of Thrones, with story twists that were completely out of place and character revisions that were also completely out of step with what they had spent 40 hours building. At the end, we are just left with exasperation. I'm so disappointed!!! The first and second seasons were brilliant but they ruined it trying to go for a cheap thrill. Still, the acting, especially by Murat (
Teoman Kumbaracibasi),Umut (Alican Yücesoy) Tarik (
Tugrul Cetiner) and others was top notch. Shame on the writers/ producers who mangled the last season.
Paterson (2016)
Contrived, self-conscious, and boring
Every line of every scene of this pretentious movie was hopelessly contrived, self-consciously striving to be profound or whimsical or ironic by turn. The director desperately wants to let you know he "sees" Paterson, a once-might city known right now for a high crime rate. You could see the actors struggling to find anything natural about their lines. The attempts to anthropomorphize the dog through cheesily cut shots were intolerable. Attention hollywood: just because you make a film about a place like Paterson that is riddled with social problems doesn't mean that it's a well done film. Paterson the real city and real people actually deserves a better movie!
Fittest on Earth: The Story of the 2015 Reebok CrossFit Games (2016)
Very limited
This documentary could have been so much more illuminating and interesting. It just plods along following about 10 athletes during the cross fit games, with each of them spitting out cliche after cliche, nothing remotely insightful. Situating this type of sport in the context of other sports, documenting the athletes lifestyles/injuries/how they support themselves, their training, talking about controversies, talking about its relationship to the military, discussing the business aspect, etcetc. Could have been a much richer profile. Also, the crossfit staff/organizers like Pat Sherwood came across as complete narcissistic, selinflated jerks and were hard to take seriously. .
Corporate (2018)
Completely nihilistic, cynical, and hilarious. A show for the current historical moment
I can see how this show wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but if you've worked corporate jobs or even most professional jobs with their soulless bureaucracy and boot-licking culture of "face time," this show captures the hollowness of such work with accuracy and very dark humor. It is like a bleak version of the Office, but a lot wittier. Think Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" applied to the white collar world. It picks on all the weird hallmarks of corporate culture, from the corporate retreat, to "casual Friday," to reporting bad behavior to HR. The characters are so perfectly cast, from the corporate tools like John, the evil CEO Christian, the bitter HR director...love this show!
Spirit of the Marathon (2007)
Marathoning is less painful than watching this
As a serious marathoner, I was seriously disappointed in this film. Its target audience is clearly those who have never run a marathon, or novice marathoners. Following the stories of 2 first-time marathoners, one senior, one injured runner, and two elites as they prepare for the Chicago marathon, the film dedicates the majority of its attention to one female beginner whose story is, for lack of a better word, boring. While I did enjoy the brief glimpses into the training sessions of Deena Kastor, the brief history of the Boston marathon and marathoning in general, let me emphasize: These were brief!! Watching some Joe Runners prepare for a Saturday run with their water bottles and talking about how they view the marathon is not inspiring, and the nonstop clichés about achievement and feel-good grinning runners will make you wish the film were about an hour shorter. If you are a first-time marathoner, this film may give you a feeling of "I can do it." For anyone else, run away.
Bobby (2006)
Contrived, Unidimensional Characters, RFK Deserves better
With a contrived script that creates wooden and unidimensional characters, even all the acting talent present in "Bobby" couldn't save the film from sounding like a recitation of hollow lines. The shallow attempts at probing issues of racism, sexism, classism, drugs, and consumerism fall deadeningly flat. "Bobby" uses every heart-wrenching/profound/"Aha" moment line one could possibly devise to elicit responses from the audience, and yet the only factor, in my mind, that elicited a response from the audience was the actual footage of RFK, his speeches, and Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence." Not "about" RFK in the least, it is ostensibly "about" society at the time, but it is a poor attempt that smacks of Hollywood falseness.
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Cliché, cliché and ...
more cliché! Within five minutes, a blacksmith whose wife has tragically died finds out he is the son of a lord and is knighted johnny-on-the-spot when his father felicitously kicks the bucket. Within another ten minutes he is the sole survivor of a shipwreck that happens to leave him within miles of Jerusalem, along with a beautiful Arabian horse who also very conveniently survives. Another ten minutes and he has spared the life of a Saracen "peasant" who later turns out to be the Muslim army's second in command. Another twenty and he has turned barren lands into an agricultural paradise. Wins the heart of the king, sleeps with the bad guy's wife, expounds on an ecumenical vision of humanity, saves the lives of all the Christians in Jerusalem single-handedly, returns safely and with bad guy's wife in hand. Rides into the distance.
As with Gladiator, this is definitely an "epic" film with an epic feel--lots of beautiful landscapes, battle scenes, guts and glory. But no emotion, no character development: Valorous lines are recited just for the sake of having valorous lines. What is a knight without a soul, an ideal without feeling behind it? There are character types, but not humans. This is not the fault of Orlando Bloom or Jeremy Irons or Liam Neeson. They have no script. "Kingdom of Heaven" will not have a long afterlife.