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Reviews
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017)
"Stupendous." No really, hard to find a word that expresses how good this is.
Amazing - that'd be an understatement. Funny - yes, yes, yes, but not just "funny", more like multiple layers of funny interwoven with other layers of awesome. The actresses and actors, all of them are so good. I'm not American, so I really don't know how any of them is called in real-life or how successful they are in their careers, but it seems like they've casted only the best even for the smallest roles. Each of them is filling their character with life and a visible, rememberable persona, even if some of them just get a few seconds per episode to do so. I'm not talking about Imogene or Zelda or newly-added Martha, who are all delivering amazing performances, but the really short appearances like the people in the record studio. The pacing is superb and it feels like there would be ever more great dialogue if it was humanly possible to speak more words per minute. Thankfully this allow for many characters to have their own stories not just as a side-dish, but fully developed within the show. One could write a review for every single one of these and they'd all deserve it. So much more to say, but let's skip this and come to the point: watch it or you mrs. out.
Everything Must Go (2010)
Fantastic Film
I went for this movie because of Will Ferrell and expected it to be perfect pee-my-pants laugh material and found a film far more impressing. It's a film for you and me. Funny, sad, enraging, lovely, subtely compassionate, without going for any cliché resolution or one or the other kind of stereotypical persona. The strength of the film is that it does deliver on all those levels individually. I'm not a critic, so I'll leave it at that. I found it sweet, bittersweet, heart-warming and if you can do with that, you should watch it, too.
Unbelievable (2019)
If you don't want to grow as a person, better not watch it.
English is not my first language, so please excuse any mistakes. This series is hard to find a single-line header for, it is just that great on so many levels. In times when we let ourselves be entertained by a plethora of superhero and/or doomsday stories, Unbelievable reminds us that we live in a real world, with real human beings and that all it takes for personal doom to enfold is people not caring enough, while all it takes for salvation is someone just actually being a decent person.
Unbelievable sets a gripping example of what film and storytelling can be. Never tacky, not falling into any of the traps one might have expected, it is a series that may very well change you, if you allow it. I can't say more to this aspect, because the entire film in all of its aspects is so well-thought through that any attempt to rate by comment will be a must-fail. If you have a heart, it will touch you. If you think, it will touch you. If you are somehow there, it will be with you.
I have to admit I somehow avoided watching it for a couple of days, because I was a bit afraid of facing it. Take your time, then watch it. Be warned, it is hard to stop. If not for the need of sleep, it would have been a binge. Kaitlyn Dever, Toni Collette, Merritt Wever and Danielle Macdonald are giving an outstanding performance, although saying so feels a bit unfair, since really even the side-roles do an amazing job. So much, that I really found that surprising and it will probably make me more critical of shows that don't care about giving the smaller roles proper impact and place to show. Class A cast for probably the most important series of the year. I want to point out Kaitlyn Dever and Danielle Macdonald though. Their performances are so strong, they can move rocks. Watch and you will see what I mean.
All the people who made this and made it possible: you've done a good thing. Really, thanks for reminding what film can be. It is certainly one of the strongest series I've seen, if not the strongest.
Thanks and remember: it is hard being a decent person, making excuses for yourself is easy, but doing right by someone else, is better than having superpowers and doing wrong, is just like destroying the world.
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
7 as a placeholder
Didn't watch it yet, but most of the positive reviews seem to be written by easy to please dumbos, so I fear for the worst.
Long Shot (2019)
Warnung: Unbearably Funny
Okay, this contains no spoilers, other than that you might find it hard to contain yourself. You might literally piss yourself. Better bring a bottle (or D&G bag) if you're planning to watch this. I knew that the beardy guy can be quite funny, but really it's Charlize Theron who you have to watch out for. It is almost too much to take. It's like post-orgasm in laughing and still rubbing and rubbing.
Game of Thrones: The Bells (2019)
Short version: Nephew doesn't do aunt. Genocide ensues.
Are you seriously kidding us? Daenerys, who had always been strict, passionate but very careful in her judgement, suddenly turns Hitler, forgotten all her reasons to go to war in the first place, simply frustrated that her ex-undead nephew doesn't want to bone her.
I don't buy any of it. Cersey being willing to let her people burn in fire - sure. Daenerys being re-scripted into some kind of lunatic sexually frustrated and heartless mass murderer - nope, not at all. The entire episode just feels like a badly made wrap of stuff that is still laying around.
The thing is, it was expected. Like many great shows, GoT doesn't find a proper end. They feel they need to have either some great revelation, intense happy end or the opposite. I had hoped for something more innovative from GoT.
Clara (2018)
Truly a Moving Image
I was really sceptical before watching it, because I heard it contained some kind of romantic story. From many other movies I have had the experience that romantic stories are often so flat and self-indulgent. There have been lots of films I just stopped watching after witnessing some superficial attempt at making the audience feel connected. Not so CLARA. It ripped all those prejudices apart, being a truly beautiful movie. Certainly one of the best I have seen the past couple of years. It is a great piece of art, without trying to be one.
The clarity of scientific analysis, which is pretty much how the search for exoplanets actually works, is very refreshing. Just like how life can hurt and how simple acts of faith in each other can dismantle the crust of distrust, loneliness and despair.
A gem. Watch it.
Liu lang di qiu (2019)
Love how the Chinese see the world
They actually care about all mankind, which comes through beautifully in this epic movie. Now let's hope they come up with a solution to the climate problem and we could be fine!
The Umbrella Academy (2019)
Yeah sure, people sell their children.
I found the start of Episode one an insult to reason. Sure, guy goes around and buys children, 7 out of 43 agree, so that the series can get started. Meh.
Soul Hunters (2019)
Kind of fun
It's certainly better than the new Stallone movie. Anyhow, of course this is hand-made and not a lot of money for effects or stunts and all of that, but somehow I liked the roughness of it all. It doesn't totally suck you in, it's rather like watching people play out the moral dilemma, with a bit of a 'ploitation here and there. Certainly better than frying your brain with over-financed crap, $150M visual effects that try to make up for the total lack of any story.
At least Soul Hunters has a story to tell. It has loads of edges, but it makes it stand out from all the streamlined junk Hollywood seems to be producing these years.
Legacies (2018)
Just another dreamland for the impotent masses
After you go to school, work off your student loan, buy some products that help you feel close enough to being pretty, before and after you start your daily routine in the rats race that leads to little more than being a prosumer, while you can afford it, a slave to the wage, a biography of big dreams in the economy that promises everything and gives you nothing - you watch this show. And then you can dream of super powers, of effortlessly influencing your surroundings, of once being more than the ever extortable. Sure, watch it and watch all these tons of other movies and series, read the books or graphic novels, talk about it with friends or don't (and believe deep within that you're somehow connected to the powers on screen). Do it and keep being just as impotent and powerless as this economic system makes you, all of us.