I’d already seen the original animated series so watching this live-action version might be of dubious value. Still, there’s only going to be more and more of these things so I thought I should watch at least one of them to judge how good they are. The fact is that they threw serious money at it so it looks very good indeed. The sets, the costumes, the bending effects and the scale of the action are all more than satisfactory. The downside is that this is still a kids’ show, with lines of dialogue that is often cringey. The adult actors do alright but the child actors just can’t emote well enough to sell those lines. The show looks so cool that I’m tempted to stay for the next season but I think I’m going to pass.

Most people will never get to eat in a Michelin 3-star restaurant so watching this four hour long documentary may be the next best option. Made by Frederick Wiseman, it conforms to his usual style of not including any narration at all and covers the Troisgros family who have been chefs in the Loire département of France for generations. It focuses on their Michelin-starred Le Bois sans feuilles restaurant, offering an astonishingly complete view of their day-to-day operations. But we also get to see glimpses of their other businesses and follow along as they visit some of their suppliers, all set amidst the beautiful greenery of the region.

The MCU has been on a downward spiral for a while now but there’s some hope that things might be looking up with a new plan building up to the next big Avengers mega crossover. To be honest I don’t really care that much but I still wanted to catch this one in the cinema because of the Malaysia setting and because I knew that the theme here is mental illness. I’m pleased to report that this is one of the better MCU films with decent action scenes and actually does have a story to tell. It could have been better in many ways, such as being more specific about the mental ailments the characters suffer from and it tiptoes around wrongdoing on the part of the US government. But it’s not bad at all and so makes for a worthy entry into the MCU.

I too thought that I’ve had my fill of Clint Eastwood’s Westerns yet here’s a last one. Not only was this the very first time he both acted and directed in a Western himself but it is probably his morally ambiguous role. Indeed the film is notorious for having his character rape a woman soon after he arrives in town. The rest of the film isn’t quite that shocking unfortunately and in the end I liked the concept of it more than the execution. This has a rough and ready gritty feel but I think it would better achieve what it is trying to do with a more polished look.

I’m pretty sure this is the very first film from Bhutan I’ve seen and it’s a good one too that has wowed audiences in international film festivals. It uses the country’s natural beauty to great effect as anyone would expect but more than that, it offers a salient commentary on its politics. It could be argued that this constitutes propaganda and I don’t like how negatively it characterizes democracy. Still it’s a very funny film that keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering how it will end and perhaps it’s not an unfair portrayal of the country so I’d rate it very highly.

We’ve watched Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of King Lear a couple of years back, and now here is his version of Macbeth. Not only was this made nearly 30 years earlier, it’s a much shorter and simpler film. It makes significant changes from the original and eschews the Shakespearean language in favor of Japanese themes. Yet it is arguably faithful to the intent of the play and is widely considered one of the best film adaptations. For us, even though we already know exactly what will happen at every step, Kurosawa’s lavish production and the excellence of the acting ensure that the emotional impact remains potent.

Anora was the big winner at the Oscars and given that we’ve loved Sean Baker’s work so far, I had high hopes for this. With its explicit stripper scenes, it certainly opens with a bang and it’s so much fun to watch the stupid whirlwind romance with the rich kid play out. Yet while it is hilarious to watch the supposed Russian mobsters being so incompetent, I didn’t like how farcical it gets. This feels a bit more risqué than the usual big Oscars winners but it’s still superficial compared to Baker’s earlier films.