The Afterparty
When last we saw Aniq (Sam Richardson) and Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) in The Afterparty, both were doing great. Aniq had exonerated himself for the murder of classmate Xavier (Dave Franco)—albeit at the cost of sending his friend Yasper (Ben Schwartz) to jail—and had a date with his high school crush Zoe (Zoë Chao). Danner had solved the crime of her career and put her rival Detective Germain (Reid Scott) to do it. Continue Reading →
You
SimilarAround the World in 80 Days, My Holo Love, The Summer I Turned Pretty,
StarringEd Speleers,
You Season 4 Part 1 depicted its antihero protagonist, Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), at his most straightforwardly heroic. He was teaching classes, avoiding romance, and trying not to commit any more murders. At least, that’s what Joe told himself and the audience in his omnipresent narration. It was a notable and perplexing turn for a character who viewers first met stalking, kidnapping, and murdering the object of his demented affections. Continue Reading →
Top of the Lake
Trigger Warning: assault, sexual assault, date rape Continue Reading →
Selena + Chef
Season one of Selena + Chef found Selena Gomez picking up the basic skills of cooking during quarantine. Season two followed Gomez as she looked to advance her skills. Season three of Selena + Chef shows us a confident Gomez in the kitchen, exclaiming in episode one “We’re not playing on season three - we’re doing it!” Continue Reading →
愛のむきだし 最長版 THE TV-SHOW
Created byAriel Schulman, Max Joseph, Nev Schulman, Sion Sono,
NetworkMTV,
Watch after13 Reasons Why, American Dad!, American Gods, Bates Motel,
Breaking Bad Bright Future,
Game of Thrones It,
Mr. Robot Sherlock Star Trek: Discovery Stargate Universe,
Stranger Things The Haunting of Hill House, The Resident,
The Umbrella Academy Unorthodox,
StarringAtsuro Watabe, Hikari Mitsushima, Makiko Watanabe, Sakura Ando, Takahiro Nishijima,
Directed bySion Sono,
StudioMTV Entertainment Studios, Omega Project,
Sports and sports-related entertainment is not a topic I’m especially well versed in, so color me surprised that I enjoyed Apple TV’s Swagger as much as I did. Produced by NBA superstar Kevin Durant, the series is loosely based on his own life and struggles coming up in the sport. Swagger spends as much time off the court as on, as we follow the life lessons of young Jace Carson (newcomer Isaiah R. Hill). Continue Reading →
Baby
KinoKultur is a thematic exploration of the queer, camp, weird, and radical releases Kino Lorber has to offer.
Dinosaurs are the ultimate symbols of The Past. They represent deep time, natural history, and the chaos of the wild. It's no wonder that cinema has always been fascinated by them. One of the first exhibitions of what we might now call "cinema" was presented in 1922 by Sherlock Holmes' own Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “footage of moving dinosaurs” from the exhibition at the center of his 1912 novella, The Lost World. From the very beginning of the medium, creatives have sought to reanimate the awesome creatures on the silver screen.
When dinosaurs appear on film, they frequently bring with them a host of cultural and ideological anxieties. Dinosaurs threaten humanity's imperial dominance on the planet. When they appear, we become prey. And they remind us that even the mightiest powers can be reduced to dust. Continue Reading →
The Handmaid's Tale
SimilarCigarette Girl, Millennium, Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King,
Roswell Soul Land 2: The Peerless Tang Clan,
In the spirit of full disclosure, I need to say this: I’m not a big fan of The Handmaid’s Tale. There’s something about a show that is so unrelentingly grim—without even the occasional glimmers of light—that just makes me feel like I’ve been ground down into a salty meat paste. This is why I checked out of Game of Thrones before I even knew the words “Red Wedding,” because I couldn’t bear to watch Sansa Stark beaten, humiliated, and tortured anymore. So while I can say that Handmaid’s has strong writing and still boasts some of the most gorgeous photography of any show out there, I still don’t enjoy it. Can anyone say they actually enjoy it? And when did the incessant castigation of women become primetime entertainment? Continue Reading →
I Am Not Okay with This
Netflix’s latest sci-fi/drama/comedy/thriller features realistic characters, but lifts heavily from “Stranger Things,” “Carrie,” & just about everything else in the same genre.
Say what you will about Netflix’s baffling business model, particularly when it comes to its practice of releasing hundreds of original programs and promoting perhaps 10% of them. It understands winning formulas, however, none so much as teenagers + supernatural powers=a guaranteed fan base. Filling the gap between seasons of Stranger Things and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (though season three of the latter only just premiered last month) is I Am Not Okay With This, yet another comedy/drama/thriller/etc. in which a teenage girl struggles with both burgeoning mystical powers, and the slings and arrows of growing up. Based on Charles Forsman’s graphic novel, it brings absolutely nothing new to the table (other than a “Dear Diary” narrative device), but features a believable, complicated, often realistically frustrating protagonist.
Sophia Lillis, late of Gretel & Hansel and the IT movies, is Sydney “Syd” Novak, a lonely high school student given to outbursts of anger ever since her father committed suicide. On top of grieving, a strained relationship with her mother, new responsibilities at home, and acne in unfortunate places, Syd harbors a terrible crush on her best friend, Dina (Sofia Bryant), who is blissfully unaware of her feelings. Much to Syd’s dismay, Dina begins dating not just any jock douchebag, but the biggest douchebag of them all, football player Brad Lewis (Richard Ellis), who can’t get through a class on the reproductive system without making a snide joke.
Insincerity all but oozes from Brad’s pores, but Dina is inexplicably over the moon for him, calling him “babe” and wearing his letterman’s jacket. A heartbroken Syd stares at Brad with hate in her eyes, and it’s only when Brad’s nose spontaneously starts to bleed that she realizes she possesses some sort of telekinetic power beyond her understanding. This power only seems to exhibit itself when Syd is angry, which is unfortunate, because she’s angry just about all the time. Syd is propelled by anger, stomping around her drab little Pennsylvania town and scowling at anyone who isn’t Dina or her younger brother, Liam (Aidan Wojtak-Hissong). She’s a prickly heroine, which is the lifeline I Am Not Okay With This clings to to keep from drowning in cliches. Continue Reading →