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Cuando los ángeles duermen (2018)
Dumb and Dumber, Thriller Version
This movie is like watching Dumb and Dumber, but in a dark, suspenseful environment. Instead of two charismatically, funny and dumb characters you just get dumb this time. The decisions both make are always the worst possible, and there isn't much more of the movie than that. The ending is already predicable midway through, and something that felt inspired back in the 90's.
A man once told me the best way to insult a movie is to say: "the cinematography was good". This movie indeed had some pretty nice shots here and there.
Stranger Things: Chapter One: MADMAX (2017)
Nothing special
Let me start by saying that I wasn't really impressed with season 1 of Stranger Things. To me it was basically a copy of the Twin Peaks seasons 1 and 2 story condensed in fewer episodes with a ton of references from other movies and series blended in as well. The debate on the use of references and appropriation is very dense and often left out to personal taste, so I'll leave that to you. Personally, I think that Stranger Things lacked on creating a mood (or having a "soul") of it's own from the very beginning, relying on using media from the 80's and the nostalgia associated to it. If you take that out, there's little left.
Now on to S2E1, "Madmax". I was curious to see how it'd follow up the season 1 finale. Many of the Netflix Originals Series' first seasons tend to end somewhat self-contained, with a few cliffhangers that won't have a great impact if the series is not renewed. Stranger Things had this happen on season 1, and the direct result is that it gives you a lot of freedom on what to do next, which can be both a good or a bad thing. Generally, there's less time to write episodes of a follow-up season than to write the ones for the first season, which in the case of Stranger Things is a test of the writers capability, that previously mostly relied on repurposing other works. Meanwhile, the third season of Twin Peaks (The Return), object of my comparison, aired in between both seasons of ST and proved to be a carefully crafted masterpiece.
So, after all that, how the episode turned out to be? Not great. It starts with a random action scene. I can't help but think there's more effective ways of introducing a new character, but since we as an audience are so used to shallow adrenaline-filled scenes, it goes unnoticed. Most of what happens with the main characters in this episode is a step backward to what happened in the last one. Almost a year has passed with apparently no particular reason other than maybe to soften the growing of the kid actors between seasons. The character development is so bland that it never felt like so much time has passed, it feels like the events happened yesterday and everyone just had some sort of short term memory loss. The only plus side was that Winona Ryder didn't act as a complete one-dimensional terrified-all- the-time mother this time.
What annoyed me the most in this episode was the number of scenes used to build up useless suspense. Hopper in the cornfield, Dustin and the trashcan, Will staring at the skies. All done with the most obvious, over used sound design choices. OK, we get it. Framing and camera operation also seemed to not have any concept to follow, as each composition style changed from scene-to-scene to "what looks good here" instead, so characteristic of commercial advertisement media. No wonder the show can sometimes feel like it's just a fashion trend.
4/10. Good for nostalgia, terrible in artistic value.
Friends from College (2017)
The series that should not be
The first three episodes of this series is probably the worst start I've ever seen. I'm okay with main characters not being relatable but this one goes with it to a far less tolerable extent. You end rooting for them to lose every time.
Ethan Turner (Keegan-Michael Key) is the worst offender on this. During several moments of the season his character made me think that the series was written by a high school bully who grew up and never realized he was a douchebag. He's a total man-child. I cannot imagine the scene where he and Max stay up all-night brainstorming ideas for a new book being fully appreciated, on a comedy standpoint, by any spectator that's slightly mature.
There's also Marianne (Jae Suh Park), who I presume is supposed to be a likable character, but its composition is so overfilled with clichés that you know exactly what to expect from her from the get go. Her presence doesn't add up to anything in the series, she might as well not even be there. As a matter of fact, I had the impression she did not appear on one of the later episodes.
One of the main issues I had with the series is that it's advertised as a comedy, yet, apart from all the high school bits, it creates very few comedic situations for the characters. It's way more focused on personal dramas and nostalgia, but why would you care about that when you don't respect any of these people? It would be good if they did anything to cherish and explore the unlikeableness of the characters, but the way it's written and executed gave me the impression that the creators believe the audience will relate to these people as they are. The end result is an eight episode run that it's not good comedy and it's not good drama. It's a total mess.