Tag: Netflix
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We Have a Ghost: Going Beyond Spooky
Plot via IMDB: Seeking a fresh start in Chicago, the Presley family moves into a dusty fixer-upper they soon realize comes with a catch: a ghost in the attic named Ernest (David Harbour). Despite Ernest’s attempts at scaring teenage son Kevin (Jahi Winston), the detached, music-obsessed teen soon finds a kindred spirit in this trapped…
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Blonde: Going too Far Up the Skirt of the Blonde Dream
Plot via IMDB: From director Andrew Dominik, and based on the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates, ‘Blonde’ boldly reimagines the life of one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons, Marilyn Monroe. From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, ‘Blonde’ blurs the lines of fact and fiction to…
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America: The Motion Picture- Doesn’t Let Alternate Facts Get in the Way of Its Own Inane History Lesson.
When filmmakers fall asleep and flunk high school American History, America: The Motion Picture is what’s created years later- an animated, anarchic, free association lunacy that mixes up the American Revolution with the Civil War and shows that it respects America by disregarding its truth and hyping its memes. In this alternate America, George-Bon Jovi-Washington…
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The Hand
Every cut is a bleeding thorn, every breath is a spread of fingers. The ear records all its silences. – Lose a hand and it goes to the trash heap, lose an ear and everyone will think of Van Gogh. – In the landfill the hand discovers fire, it discovers how to conquer the rats,…
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“Paddleton”: Settling into the Gentle Comedy That Is Friendship and Death.
Comedies usually begin with a funeral and end with a wedding. Tragedies begin with weddings and end with death. Paddleton (on Netflix) starts with bosom buddies bonding and ends with bereavement. The film never hides what it is, a gentle comedy stuck in the twilight moments between light and dark, life and death, love and…
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“Velvet Buzzsaw”: An Average Painting in an Average Movie Does Not Equal Greatness
Art has the potential to be great but most of it is mediocre. That is why there are no great film satires about art— the unrelenting tedium of seeing cliches and recycled themes is just a bore. It is like watching an endless strip of recycled black and white frames with one color one, a…
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“Black Mirror: Bandersnatch”: Where You Decide If Netflix Is the Villain or Not?
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Netflix’s interactive full length Black Mirror episode prides itself on its game-ability and meta-ness that stays steps ahead of the average viewer. Binary on screen choices can lead to different outcomes in this sci-fi cautionary tale of a game programmer caught up in both deadlines and fate that is in the hands…
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“Outlaw King” Mucks Its Way Thru Scottish History
For those expecting Outlaw King (on Netflix) to be a sequel to Braveheart will be sorely disappointed. The only appearance of William Wallace in David Mackenzie’s telling of Robert the Bruce (Chris Pine), is his quartered (judging by the outward curve) left hand nailed to a Scottish cross in a public square- and that is…
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“The Christmas Chronicles” Kurt Russell’s Santa Doesn’t Ho-Ho-Ho But He Is Definitely Holly Jolly
Kurt Russell can make you believe he is Santa Claus, although be it one that doesn’t ho-ho-ho, who is not happy with the fatter oft advertised fatter version, and can belt out an Elvis style rendition of any holiday song. Russell’s Santa in The Christmas Chronicles (a Netflix movie) exists between Billy Bob Thornton bad…
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“The Other Side of the Wind”: Orson Welles Own Serious Parody of Himself and Cinema
Orson Welles last film The Other Side of the Wind (on Netflix) reconstituted from footage and assembled by a master team of film editors, directors and Welles scholars, establishes some lofty goals, mainly how to have both a serious film enshrouded in the shell of an intentionally bad one. Wind uses different film styles (black…
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“Apostle”: Getting to the Gore Via Perverted Paradise
Apostle makes you accept or reject its essential contradictions. Accepting it will lead one to discovering one of the better horror films of the year, while rejecting it will make one think it is a mess.
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“Hold the Dark”: Pursuing the Motiveless Malignancy
Hold the Dark is a difficult film to understand and watch because it attempts to explain what the rational mind can only see and understand as evil and motiveless.
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“The After Party” Is at Its Best In Between the Parties
At its heart, The After Party is a clever hybrid of Martin Scorsese’s After Hours and Hal Ashly’s the last detail, two films about finding identity and true friendship in the distractions of life.
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“Flavors of Youth” Explores the Essentials of Identity
Flavors of Youth points out how memory is essential to all identity. How it is the source of all art and creativity.
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“To All The Boys I Loved Before” Is Another 16 Candles
To All the Boys I Loved Before (based on the semi autobiographical novel by Jenny Han) creates lead characters with unusual depth for the genre.
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“The Package” Surprisingly Isn’t a Dick
The Package knows that all teen comedies are about overcoming and being comfortable with the dick.
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Can Even Overcome Being Stranded In Netflix Mediocrity
Guernsey is the perfect choice for those seeking a Netflix and chill night that is gentle, gentile and very British.
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“Brij Mohan Amar Rahe” Is Too Squalid for Bollywood
Brij Mohan tries to give its audience something more substantial than the usual light Bollywood fare. It ends up to squalid for that audience to watch.
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“Like Father” Is A Grand Enough Voyage
Kelsey Grammer and Kristen Bell as the workaholic father and daughter who missed out on the joys of family, keep it believable and poignant by delivering constant nuance performances.
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“The Bleeding Edge”: Shows How the Medical Device Industry Is Bleeding Us Out
The Bleeding Edge is a cry for caution for patients not to accept the latest and greatest unless it has been thoroughly tried and true.
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“Extinction” Gets a Reprieve
Extinction is wry enough to avoid its title.
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“The Warning” Is a Memento of a Beautiful Mind
It’s a Memento meets A Beautiful Mind thriller about a Basque man who discovers that there is a mathematical correlation between a convenience store shooting tragedy and the same spot’s past, present and future.
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“Father of the Year” Is a Bad Dad Every Other Time
Adam Sandler produced Netflix movies aren’t about the quality. They are about how much stuff they can get away with, the more sexual the better. The plots are just setups for the gags. Father of the Year excuse is about an idiot long haired alcoholic father (David Spade) attempts to impress his valedictorian son that…
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“The Skin of the Wolf” Is Beneath Just Barely a Man
There is no explanation, no backstory just observation enshrouded in mythic layers of beautiful cinematography. Everything is left to interpretation, which is both besides the point and probably is the point.
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“White Fang” Is a Good Wolf Movie Not So Much a Good Dog One
The latest adaptation of White Fang, now streaming on Netflix, tries to maintain a balance between London’s naturalism and family dog domestication.
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Sunday’s Illness: Healing a Broken Mother-Daughter Bond
It is all so emotionally and nakedly obvious. And that not only makes Sunday’s Illness good but near great.