I’m always interested in science-fiction shows with a unique premise so this series seemed like it would be a good fit. It’s an episodic collection of stories about a small town where strange things keep happening because of the research facility in it. Unfortunately this wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. It uses simple and predictable elements like time travel and alternate realities to tell emotional stories about the characters without caring about how the strange phenomena work at all. As my wife notes, it’s a very sentimental show that only uses the sci-fi phenomena as plot devices. It’s not bad at what it does but it really annoys me as a fan of science-fiction.
The story goes that this was originally supposed to be developed by Disney who then backed out due to its LBGT themes and so it eventually made its way to Netflix. Unfortunately this also meant that it lost Disney-quality production standards and any kind of quality control because the end result is a drab looking, mediocre film. The antihero theme is all played out by now and there is nothing at all original about a cute sidekick who is actually overpowered. The only interesting part is the worldbuilding as it’s set in a kingdom that is culturally attached to knights and swords but actually has advanced technology.
This is probably one of the great Malaysian films, being a historical epic that was at its time the most expensive production yet made. Pretty much every Malaysian will have learned the story which should be considered one of the country’s founding myths. This cinematic version has the great Malay hero Hang Tuah being forced to choose between loyalty to his ruler, the Sultan of Malacca and his love for the titular princess. I was skeptical of this being any good as I don’t have high hopes for Malaysian films but it actually exceeded my expectations. Director Saw Teong Hin leveraged the limited resources at his disposal to create a film that isn’t a literal representation but a stylized, mythic one that is perfectly suited to the legend.
Federico Fellini is of course one of the grandmasters of cinema and we’ve pretty much watched all of his greatest films already. This was one of the holdouts, being quite famous yet is not as highly regarded. It was his film feature film shot in color and the director sure went all out with it. There’s very little plot in it and almost every frame is a dream vision of surreal images, eccentric characters and fantastical sets. It’s exactly like an animated film except that it’s all real life. At first, I didn’t care for how random and spurious everything in it is, but the film grew on me when I realized how much thought and care went into every aspect of the production. In the end, I loved it and I applaud its theme of a not very attractive middle-aged woman seeking to liberate herself.
Even if it weren’t important enough before, this documentary became practically required watching after the full-blown Russian invasion of Ukraine beginning last year. I kept putting it off because I felt that I’d already read up enough on the events. Finally watching it really helped establish in my mind just how long the entire Euromaidan protests lasted and how difficult it must have been to sustain that level of commitment in the face of every obstacle the government put in their way. At the same time, this documentary feels insufficient and incomplete. It strictly restricts itself to the protests centered around Maidan Nezalezhnosti and to the perspective of the protesters. There’s nothing at all about what was happening elsewhere in Ukraine at the time or of about the politicking behind the scenes so when the protesters finally win, it’s an abrupt and almost inexplicable shock.
Agnès Varda’s films never disappoint and even though this was one of her later works, it’s still amazingly good and brutally unflinching in its portrayal of a wandering vagabond. The title in French is far better and really captures the spirit of the main character. I love how she is defiant and rebellious to the end, even towards the people who are trying to be kind to her. Yet this is far from being any kind of romantic ideal as Varda shows right from the beginning as the corpse of the main character is discovered, having frozen to death in a ditch.
Tár is widely considered a film that was badly overlooked in this year’s Academy Awards with Everything Everywhere All at Once sweeping all of the categories that it should have won instead. This is of course the much more sophisticated film and it’s brimming with subtleties and masterful performances. Yet it’s also such an ambiguous work, and so unevenly paced and full of odd details in a way that I can hardly believe is intentional. I really wanted to like this but I’m not sure that I actually do.
