Wow, watching this felt like trauma therapy, in a good way.
It reminded me a little of Umma (2022) because of the transgenerational trauma as a common theme, only this is a family drama, not a horror film.
I think anyone who is mixed race, especially of far east Asian descent, will find aspects of the film relatable. Judith and Steve felt very similar to how my mom and dad were. Excellent performances from both girls, especially Remy Marthaller who played Emmy.
I found the subtle signs that Emmy may be neurodivergent very well done.
Major props to writer/director Meredith Hama-Brown for her first feature film. Looking forward to her future work.
Such a pointless episode. Once again, Elena betrays Herbert and saves her ass.
What a wasted opportunity to explore some morally questionable interrogation/negotiation tactics. Instead, we got a half-assed "prisoner's dilemma". Chickenshits.
And that was the worst, most uninteresting ending they could've picked. They essentially just turned back the clock to the beginning of the season.
The only scene that was worth a damn was Paul's speech at the Circle; the rest of the movie felt like watching a trailer for a graphic novel adaptation of the book. The dialogue for the most part was atrocious, especially for the Harkonnens. Zendaya's line delivery and mannerisms were too "American", compared to the other Fremen, breaking the Middle Eastern-inspired atmosphere.
In 2024, conflating the terms "psychotic" and "psychopathic" is inexcusable. How the fuck did none of the story editors/producers pick that one up?
Beautiful cinematography. Some iconic scenes, gunfights, stunts, and one-liners.
It seemed that they wanted to have nuanced characters, but most of their storylines were handled sloppily or were underdeveloped by today's standards.
The 3rd act was all over the place, with excitement constantly ramping up & down, like it couldn't decide when to end.
That was brilliant!
I wish it was a TV series. Now, I have to watch The Thick of It .
Not fond of the huge time skips. "Six months later" should be the start of a new season, not the penultimate episode.
Feels very rushed, like they can't write anything new story-wise or character-wise, so they just skip ahead to move the plot along.
An amusing, light-hearted show that reminded me of a mix of White Collar and The Diplomat .
Absurd and cynical, but also empathic and relatable at times.
However, the Season 1 finale was a serious letdown.
Lester and Violet have been incompetent idiots and completely useless the entire season. Violet, especially, has been so one-note and borderline retarded. How the f*ck do those people still work for the CIA? I get that they're written that way just to make Owen's life more difficult, but c'mon, at least have them do something useful for once! They didn't even make sure both Terrence and Hannah left for the airport.
Which brings me to the next-stupidest character, Hannah. What the fuck do you not get about OWEN WORKS FOR THE CIA, GTFO!?! Even after realizing that she got Jeff fired by leaking information, she asks her mom to leak information about Owen?!? She doesn't even question a text message saying "Owen's going to Prague", instead of "I'm going to Prague. Owen." And Terrence just leaves her there, instead of dragging her ass to a plane home, like a friend should have. I understand that Owen was too sleep-deprived, tired and traumatized to recognize the trap, but c'mon.
Best buddy-cop show ever.
Miami Vice for the millennials.
The clothes, the music, the cinematography, the stunts, the practical effects, the witty dialogue, everything is peak '00s.
Too bad it didn't even get a Bluray release.
A refreshing and cynical take on the clusterfuck that is the "clandestine services".
As a procedural or spy thriller, it's kinda shit because Owen does nothing by the book and takes no precautions, but that's explained by his character's pathological need to prove himself to others. The actor reminds me of a young Mark Ruffalo.
Jesus fucking Christ (mate)...
American History X is like a Disney movie by comparison.
Astounding performances by everyone, most notably Pittaway (Jamie) and Henshall (John). Direction and cinematography were masterful. The editing lost me in a couple of scenes. The score and sound design really amplified the tension and dread.
Damn, this show goes hard.
Much better than the first episode, and a lot heavier.
Way too much violence, aggression and conflict. It feels like this adaptation has cranked them up to 11 for shock value. It just feels off.
The direction and editing are too fast and modern, with scenes ending very abruptly. The CG vistas and townscapes stick out like a sore thumb.
The use of vintage lenses with lots of barrel distortion and chromatic aberrations is too distracting, to the point of causing motion sickness. If their use had been limited to just Blackthorne's scenes, it would've actually been a useful artistic choice.
What a (f0cking) bore.
The protagonist is blander than a piece of white bread. No character, no personality, no charisma, no agency, he's simply there to go along.
The chick is just an exposition machine. And Freddy is just the cock-up that fucks everything up, to create drama.
Guy Ritchie is finished.
I find it hard to believe that it was possible to open a bank account and buy stocks without showing any kind of ID back in 1990.
Mattie calling Urquhart "daddy" on BBC One must've been scandalous back in 1990! :sweat_smile:
Quite tame and pedestrian by today's standards of both television and politics, but I assume it was sensational back in 1990.
Making the most hated part of corporate culture - middle management - your protagonist is the stupidest, most insidious idea. Are we supposed to root for the corporate hype man?
Absolutely terrible.
Stop trying to make middle management appear useful, they're not. Emily is completely useless so far.
Decent movie, but I think it ultimately fails to deliver because of Main Character Syndrome.
If you want to show an American being the foreigner, then have the balls to not make him the main character. Imagine if whenever he was in France, the POV was not his own. Maybe that would've helped American audiences experience what it's like to be on the "other" side.
It had all the hallmarks of an amateur film: boring script, poor direction, bad editing, stilted acting.
So far, I love the overall tone. It's nothing like The Death of Stalin, The Dictator or Tropico, as I've seen people commenting.
Here, the satire is played straight and dead serious, which is why it manages to humanize the Madame Chancellor.
It's a lot more similar in tone to Succession, The Sopranos and Breaking Bad than an outright satire.
Some may say that it's riding a very thin line, and risks being perceived as glorifying totalitarian dictators.
I think it's a very important perspective to have, because this is how corrupting and dangerous the slippery slope of authoritarianism is.
I didn't understand the point it was trying to make with Lennon's arc.
So, according to the delusion, if you save a missing person, you eventually become psychotic and go missing yourself, because "a body is owed". So, rangers "learned" to become apathetic towards missing person reports, in fear of getting lost themselves? Is that why Lennon left the last missing person alone? Kind of a depressing end, without any payoff, after all of her psychological traumas that were surfaced.
Is the movie supposed to be a call for help, to raise awareness on the mental issues caused by social isolation that rangers have to deal with?
Some scenes at the 1-hour mark felt like they were ripped right out of Hideo Kojima's P.T. :sweat_smile:
I think it over-relied on the hallucinations/flashbacks to show her backstory, over her acting. IMO the wrong way to do "show; don't tell".
Finally, a funny episode!
Took them long enough to realize that making fun of only Dazzle and Rad gets old quickly, so you have to satirize the entire premise of law enforcement at some point.
Utter dog cat shit.
What a colossal waste of time.
The first 30-40 minutes bloated up the runtime, and wasted precious time that could've been used to flesh out the characters.
When Silvia's backstory is finally revealed, while tragic, it couldn't have been more clichéd.
The movie presents so many issues (child abuse, sexual assault, teen alcoholism, AA meetings, dementia, controlling relatives etc.), but it doesn't unpack or explore the characters. It just hits you with them for shock value, but it's not like it's anything we haven't seen a million times before.
There are so many conflicts between characters, but we never see any meaningful development. We just catch the beginning of the conflict, and then it cuts to the aftermath. It's like the filmmaker is purposefully treating the audience, like Silvia treated her daughter.
Silvia (and Olivia) needed therapy, not a freaking cult like AA.
And the ending was abrupt and naive.
If you liked this, go watch Bates Motel (2013) and Help (2021).
Amusing satire but never quite "haha funny".
I liked how the characters were like parodies of characters out of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, as a way to address the pervasive misogyny, narcissism, and overall toxicity among yuppies in the '80s-90s.
I wish I had watched it when it came out. Quite ahead of its time.
Cute rom-com but clearly written/directed by (nice) guys, for (nice) guys... It's their ultimate wish-fulfillment fantasy.
I wish the story wasn't so predictable and safe, like by having Wallace ending up with Chantry's sister, Dalia, in a healthy, mutually-supportive relationship, instead of how movies mistake witty banter for romance.
Marriage Story but better.
The first hour was a bit unfocused, but I think that was by choice, in order to be as objective as possible, so the audience can form their own presumptions of the events. While in the second half, we get to discover more and more the subjective nuances of the family's relationships. I empathized with the relatable issues it explored, regarding Samuel's character, like guilt, shame, self-loathing, self-sacrifice, fragile narcissism, perfectionism, fear of failure, procrastination etc.
