henrycoles9 Reviews

The Leftovers (2014–2017)

No closure - at the end of the world

[10/10 · 30 January 2023]

The greatest drama series of all time, and I doubt anything I'm going to see down the line for the rest of my life will ever unseat "The Leftovers."

You go into this show, having read the brief description, thinking it's going to be just another, run-of-the-mill Twilight Zone-ish fantasy/sci-fi thing of which countless many have been churned out before. Then the actual story dawns on you like the apocalyptic thunderbolt it promises to deliver.

2% of the population anywhere on earth have vanished into thin air, and the remaining 98% are left behind to pick up the pieces. It doesn't sound like such a big deal, but the Sudden Departure touches everyone, even those who haven't lost anyone.

Cults, messianic figure leaders, delusional patients, inexplicable event after inexplicable event, absurd concepts - the absurdity sometimes reminds you of a Stephen King story, but here it's actually fun to watch.

The apocalypse. It's riveting.

It's a story about mental illness and suicide. Loss and grief. Pain and suffering. But above all, it's a story of love. Love, compassion, friendship and brotherhood - and faith.

Deeply felt, raw, unsullied faith.

It goes without saying that Justin Theroux (Chief Kevin Garvey) and Carrie Coon (Nora Durst) provided us with an absolutely divine performance, and a romance that was as complicated as it was seismically intense, that will be seared on everyone's mind for eternity. Just watching Justin cry those handsome eyes of his out, his sweet voice breaking with every tear - it's beyond words. I couldn't give him justice.

But my favorite episode was season 2, episode 5. Reverend Matt Jamison, magnificently played by Christopher Eccleston, leaves no stone unturned to protect his paralyzed, locked-in wife Mary, and the lengths he went to, that was just something else. I've never seen a performance so solid, so profoundly heartrending, of a love that is so strong, of a selfless heart that knows no bounds when it comes to sacrifice.

At the end of the day, closure is a luxury we can't afford, not even at the end of the world.

The Last of Us (2023– )

HBO's best of all time

[10/10 · 16 January 2023]

The best of video games meets the best of TV. What a time to be alive! I can still remember that wonderful summer ten years ago when I watched a walkthrough of The Last of Us for the first time and I could not believe how astoundingly real and genuine it felt. And now watching Joel carry his Sarah out on the streets while surrounded by Infected all over again, that was a sight for a sore eye. Naughty Dog set a precedent, probably created a whole new genre in its own right when it made The Last of Us. Now it seems the sky is the limit for how video games can guide show business, magnificent art inspiring art.

The Northman (2022)

Two-bit adaptation of Hamlet

[5/10 · 14 October 2022]

They didn't even bother to make the resemblance any less obvious in the protagonist's name "Amleth."

It is with quite a heavy heart that I have to say this, given how much I admire Alexander Skarsgaard and the Viking genre. "The Northman" starts out as a decidedly Shakespearean tale and quickly segues into a long-winded, cheesy, unnerving two-hour show of the macabre, little more than a screen adaptation of the video game "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla."

The vendetta-driven prince remembers his lost family and kingdom while on a Viking raid in Russia, takes off to Iceland under the guise of a slave and tries to go for his uncle's head. Instead, Amleth spends the whole movie skulking about and keeping his head low while playing cat-and-mouse mind games with his captors, which are not entertaining to watch in the slightest.

Meanwhile, we are treated to scene after boring scene of men with an unsavory excess of macho and bravado slugging it out, rattling sabers and bashing each other's heads in. To say nothing of the asinine, esoteric script full of obnoxious medieval speak and unsettling religious and superstitious rituals.

I had definitely expected better, and I'm delighted that I have waited for the movie to land on a streaming service.

And if you were hoping for a longboatload of beautiful Scandinavian scenery, that's sadly yet another disappointment you'll be in for.

Wanderlust (2012)

Of course it's Judd Apatow!

[10/10 · 26 August 2022]

I went into this movie without knowing who the director was, then at the end the credits started rolling and Judd Apatow's glorious name turned up, and I screamed to myself "Of course, it's Judd!"

This was seriously one of the most uproariously hilarious movies I've ever seen in my life, if not the single most such movie. If you want just one reason to see it, it would be this unbelievable scene where Paul Rudd, having agreed with his wife Jennifer Aniston to practice free love in the commune, keeps rehearsing in the mirror what he's going to do to Malin Akerman in the sack and he spends perhaps a whopping two minutes, nonstop, saying the most outrageously explicit things in the most outrageously hilarious accents. Suffice it to say, I got afflicted with an unnatural bout of hysterical laughter for a whole minute because of it.

We all deserve a divinely earth-shattering minute like that!

Under the Banner of Heaven (2022)

Libertarianism FTW!

[10/10 · 25 August 2022]

Andrew Garfield absolutely shines as the good Mormon detective who comes to grip with the bloody origins of his faith as he investigates a brutal double murder at the heart of an eminent Utah Mormon family.

The true story paints an immaculate picture of how religious fundamentalism can turn frustrated, ordinary people into wanton murderers. But it also had the unintended effect of showing that anti-government fundamentalism will continue to exist as long as government exists, that libertarianism is the best form of government and would be the only effective remedy against such radical sentiments.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (2021 Video Game)

80s music hype meets distant future

[10/10 · 19 August 2022]

This was one of the best RPG games I've ever played. It takes time to get the hang of combat gameplay in particular, since it's not always very intuitive, but once you do, it's one hell of a thrill ride! And aside from all that, put 80s music into anything and I'd be down for it, come rain or high water. Gear up for the wildest, most riotous blast from the past and into the farthest reaches of the universe!

CODA (2021)

Powerful celebration of family, music and disability

[10/10 · 28 March 2022]

What a heartwarming tearjerker. It's as much pure fun as it is a faithful portrayal of the life of a deaf family. Sometimes it made me imagine how liberating being a deaf person might be. Surely there are the heartless bigots and insolent wretches to deal with, but there's also a certain freedom in not having to talk, not being expected to speak your mind, make conversation and just keep droning on and on with people you can't stand. Not to mention how amazingly expressive sign language is. It's akin to an everyday testament to the old adage "a picture speaks a thousands words."

Being able to pour your heart out using all these gestures that just look like a palette of a thousand scintillating colors thrown onto a wall to create a masterpiece of emotions, thoughts and utterly unadulterated and sincere human connection - it's incredible.

That is, quite frankly, possibly the greatest Ode to Joy ever sung.

Big Little Lies (2017–2019)

A genius new level of drama and tragedy

[10/10 · 4 November 2021]

First of all, "Big Little Lies" is an utterly glorious celebration of womanhood and motherhood, in all its forms - married moms, single moms, widowed moms, young moms, older moms, working moms, stay-at-home moms - and it deserves enormous praise for that. The depiction of marriages, the flaws, the heartbreaks, the dirty little secrets that threaten the very fabric of a family or a whole community, was right on the mark, devoid of overly mawkish cliches. But most important of all, the show truly hammered it home with the handling of rape and domestic abuse and the extremely complicated relationships that ensued from these tragedies, including the puzzling phenomenon of Celeste's (Nicole Kidman) enduring love for her abusive husband.

I just love to watch these hard-hitting, thought-provoking, intriguing shows about marriage, love, family, friendship, infidelity and betrayal, and "Big Little Lies" truly and thoroughly knocked it out of the park for me.

And let's not forget that the little ones were totally the heroes of this show. Just sheer, pure angels, all of them.

Enter Nowhere (2011)

Genre-bending lost-in-the-woods story

[9/10 · 12 October 2021]

Three strangers find themselves lost in the woods with nowhere to stay but an old wooden cabin with one bed and a busted ham radio. Each has got a story of how they ended up there. Most alarmingly, they don't agree on the place or the time they're in. The mystery builds up perfectly as they try to leave that place, only to find themselves back right where they started. The mystery unfolds only toward the end and in the most unimaginable way I've ever seen in a movie.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Probably the best of all 11 Star Wars movies

[10/10 · 8 October 2021]

After five largely odious episodes, "Revenge of the Sith" was rewarding enough to redeem the franchise for me. There was no theatricals, no overacting, no brinkmanship, no obnoxious teasing and taunting between the male and female protagonists and, above all, no more garish protracted scenes of ugly sentient alien beings that had driven me berserk in the previous episodes. (CGI really did the trick, I guess.) The lightsaber duel scenes were also much livelier and more fun to watch.

Not to mention that the cast are actually a lot more likable! Call me a blasphemer, but there was just something terribly wrong with Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill in the first trilogy. Here you could actually feel the chemistry and love between Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen, and the two of them, along with Ewan McGregor, gave a truly natural, entertaining and coherent performance together.

And then the epic story of how the Jedi warrior Anakin Skywalker, believed to be the Chosen One who would bring balance to the Force and defeat the Sith once and for all, became the Dark Lord Darth Vader, that was a whole different level of drama. The idea of good versus evil, that good always wins the war no matter how many battles it's lost, takes the backseat as Anakin becomes conflicted between his Jedi mentors' rules and expectations and his love for his secret wife Senator Padmé. The movie is a masterpiece at playing out the agonizing moral ambiguity that descends upon a human when they're faced with threats to their loved ones, when they stand to lose what makes their life worth living. Here the concept of good and evil is blurred in Anakin's eyes and, quite simply, the ends begin to justify the means.

Fear of loss is what leads to anger, the Jedi masters insist, and anger leads to hatred, hatred to the Dark Side. Loyalty to the Jedi Order is another tenet that the young Jedi struggles with as he realizes what his masters seem to have holding back from him about the nature of the Force.

I'm thankful they made this movie the way they did. I loved it. And it's woefully underrated compared to the original 1980s trilogy.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Boring mess

[4/10 · 7 October 2021]

Lame, garish, gimmicky, unedifying, meandering, unexciting, forced, completely and utterly unentertaining.

And all the more odious because of that stupid, incessantly growling beast Chewbacca and the cacophonous beeping and buzzing of R2-D2.

That's what comes to mind when I think of "Star Wars," in particular the first trilogy. Maybe it's an early-1980s-movies thing. Maybe it was great because that's what the cutting edge of sci-fi looked like back then. But movies like "Back to the Future" weren't that bad. It was just a couple bitter pills I had to swallow, so I could say I've watched that so-called cultural monument, the phenomenal epic franchise revered by most everyone, when asked.

Loki (2021–2023)

Amazing absurdity!

[10/10 · 5 October 2021]

The mind-boggling spectacles of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are back! Loki wasn't my favorite character but Tom Hiddleston definitely was my favorite actor among them all. He's got this outstanding charisma and charm. His sense of humor is unrivaled. And to see him reprise Loki with all his complexities, turning from a perfidious, egocentric, megalomaniacal demigod into a being full of emotions, weakness and uncertainty, was such a powerful experience. Can't wait for season 2.

Black Widow (2021)

How the mighty have fallen

[4/10 · 3 October 2021]

This can't be a Marvel movie. It was such an underwhelming, meandering, lame bore it can't possibly be of the same franchise as "Avengers: Endgame" or "Iron Man." Just Scarlett and Florence groaning and moaning about their horrible, lost childhood in a post-Soviet Russian evil organization.

No Time to Die (2021)

This can't be it, right?

[9/10 · 30 September 2021]

Awesome movie and all. But how could anyone in their right mind make an ending like this? It's outrageous. Last time I checked, James Bond has been alive for sixty years. How could they put an end to him just like that? He couldn't just go the way of the Marvel Cinematic Universe which ran for just 11 years before killing off many of its iconic heroes. Any other ending would have earned a 10/10.

Cassandra's Dream (2007)

Amazing drama

[10/10 · 29 September 2021]

At first I was taken aback that the movie had a somewhat B-rated/TV-movie feel to it but I stuck with it because I knew Woody Allen, Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell together surely meant something truly great and unexpected was afoot. And they absolutely delivered with a magnificent, complex, thrilling story of what happens when people make the choice of throwing away their moral compass when under pressure. The main theme is how committing one murder made the two brothers "cross the line," such that they would have no qualms about murdering again to keep a lid on their first crime. One brother manages to silence his conscience, keeps on rationalizing and ensures they're both committed to the act when push comes to shove, while the other can't help the guilt of taking a life. I wouldn't want to spoil it but the ending is classic poetic justice.

Spanglish (2004)

Beautifully crazy!

[10/10 · 22 September 2021]

It's always stunningly refreshing to watch Adam Sandler in a drama movie. Everything in the story was unpredictable. Nothing was straightforward. People would just start screaming and shouting and then all of a sudden start saying sorry and patting one another on the back. The incessant conflict between the Mexican housekeeper Flor (Paz Vega) and her American employer Deborah (Téa Leoni) was so well done, as was the uneasy attraction between the latter and John (Adam Sandler) across language barriers. You could feel the drama is just so tremendously realistic, not the least bit contrived, forced or even out of a script.

Stay (I) (2005)

So much better than David Lynch

[8/10 · 27 August 2021]

I saw some people comparing this to David Lynch's work. Lynch's movies that are supposed to be ultra-mystery thrillers would actually make an excellent cure for insomnia (to quote Ewan McGregor's character in another movie I'd just watched before this one, "The Ghost Writer"). This movie is one of those you'd need to watch twice (or watch an explanation video on YouTube of it) to wrap your head around it, but at least it never let up, never bored me to death even as I had no clue what on earth was going on to the very end.

As Good as It Gets (1997)

90s gold

[10/10 · 27 July 2021]

What a massive transformation Jack Nicholson's character went through, from being the most obnoxious and offensive neighbor and restaurant customer possible, to a sweet, romantic man who helps those in need. And it all started out with his selfish need to keep those people in his obsessively ordered life, of course, but it doesn't matter as long as it led him to healing, redemption and love in the end. What a wonderful movie!

Waitress (2007)

Poignant inspiration

[10/10 · 19 July 2021]

This is the perfect kind of poignant drama, complex romance and sheer, endearing humanity that I keep looking for in every movie I watch. Jenna is a hard-up waitress stuck with her abusive, loutish jerk of a husband in a backwater town and, to cap it all, he just got her knocked up. She hates her life, hates her baby and the only thing that takes her mind off things is baking scrumptious pies, which she gives names inspired by her daily predicaments. Jenna runs into a dapper obstetrician, Dr. Pomatter, who is new in town with his wife and an extremely complicated albeit quite hilarious affair ensues. This is what's so exceptionally good about this movie. It doesn't portray Dr. Pomatter as the knight in shining armor riding in to save the damsel in distress. The affair isn't made to look like the ultimate deliverance from the evil husband. It's just something that happens along the way as the vivacious Jenna threads her way through her dismal life and the pregnancy she couldn't hate more. There's loads of profound discussions between Jenna and her coworkers Dawn and Becky as they, too, explore love and relationships and try to find their place in the world, while dealing with a cranky boss here and a creepy customer there. I won't spoil the ending, but rest assured it's as good as you can imagine. In a nutshell, it's a woman who is powerless but not helpless. She gets slapped, she gets beaten down and she pulls herself up by her bootstraps as she envisions the next pie to bake and cooks up a deeply creative and personal name to give it. And there's also the kindness of strangers - you can always count on the kindness of strangers and the ineffable ways fate can mend your heart and get you back up on your feet.

And Keri Russel rocks, of course!

The Man from Earth (2007)

Must-watch

[10/10 · 15 July 2021]

I've never been so entertained by a bunch of people chatting and arguing in a cabin. No visual effects, no action. The plot lies in the dialogue and there are no twists and turns, just a constant barrage of questions and answers that beg more questions and just overwhelm you with a raw sense of how tiny and vain human life is in contrast to how grand the universe is. If you need a fresh break from mindless violence and useless comedy, this is one of the most intellectual movies you can watch.

Trying: I'm Scared (2021) Season 2, Episode 8

Heartrending!

[10/10 · 2 July 2021]

I had to fight back the tears this whole episode. I haven't felt this emotional in a long time. The plight of orphan kids is too much to bear let alone siblings who have to part ways in order to find a home and begin a new, normal life. Jason (Rafe Spall) is such a wonderful, loving, supportive partner and I'm sure he would make a great husband and dad, too!

Exterminate All the Brutes (2021)

Oh god, how sickening

[10/10 · 5 May 2021]

What an utterly scathing and damning account. Just think about it. In a thousand years, children will still go to school and have to learn for the first time about the history of colonialism, racism and slavery, and the shock and disgust will be no less painful. It's 2021. What are we supposed to do about it now? Should we talk about it more? Should we mark it with a holiday every year? How could we bring closure to crimes like these? In a way, the pain and shame besetting us might be more severe than the pain inflicted upon the races who were exterminated. We have to live with the legacy forever.

Anyway, Raoul Peck is a genius. Josh Hartnett's occasional appearances in the cinematic interludes were really good.

Tenet (2020)

Not as expected

[7/10 · 4 May 2021]

This was probably the first Christopher Nolan movie that I couldn't love outright straight away. It was too complex to be as fun as it ought to. Nolan should get credit for this new innovation, however. The story, time travel of the well-known infinity loop kind, is not new, but what's new is that there are multiple infinity loops within the big loop as well as inversion of time. That is, time travel doesn't occur as simply as it used to in previous time travel movies. Rather, it's based on time-inverting people and objects onto the past and then reverting them back so they could act normally. I think that's why it's not as fun as I'd expected. It's our first encounter with this kind of time travel stories.

Hala (2019)

Great movie

[10/10 · 4 May 2021]

Accurate, poignant, not the usual caricature. Geraldine Viswanathan is exceptionally talented.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)

Extremely moving and incredibly close to heart

[10/10 · 12 April 2021]

This story is the heartrending struggle for closure everybody who didn't get to say their goodbyes stays mired in for the rest of their life. I didn't get to say goodbye to my father, too, who died abroad, and I had gotten a call from him on the morning of his death which I hadn't imagined would be the last words between us, the last time he'd be checking up on me. I wasn't there for his funeral. It's a painful existence and none of us can do anything about it. Thanks to the filmmakers for capturing this story so beautifully.