Hollywood loves a remake. Sometimes it’s a successful foreign film recast with English-speaking celebrities. Sometimes it’s a decent story that just didn’t work the first time around. Most of the time, it’s a hollow-minded cash-grab by a studio rejiggering its intellectual property. But now and then, it’s a filmmaker of regard taking a bonafide classic […]
My Year on Screen: 2021
2021. I have missed, as always, missed a lot of amazing cinema this year. But it’s not just my fault this time, it’s down to the pandemic we have all been, and still are, living in. The cinema is my safe space but it took a while for me to feel safe going back. My […]
Film review: C’mon C’mon
Inspired by early interactions with his infant son, writer and director Mike Mills tells a contemplative tale with latest feature C’mon C’mon. The tender drama centres around Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix), a journalist of sorts travelling state to state conducting philosophical interviews with the youth of today about their future. When his sister Viv (Gaby Hoffman) […]
Don’t Look Up (2021) An even disaster comedy
Adam McKay’s new film “Don’t Look Up”, which was released on Netflix on Christmas Eve after being released at theaters early in this month, attempts to laugh about how absurd and incorrigible we can be in front of one big global disaster, but it comes to resort to a series of cheap and superficial laughs […]
Don’t Look Up (2021) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): An uneven disaster comedy
The Forever Prisoner (2021): It was torture indeed
HBO documentary “The Forever Prisoner” is often sobering and chilling in its calm but blistering presentation on what the US government allowed to happen in the name of War on Terror. While it did not surprise or shock you much if you are familiar with its main subjects, the documentary is still captivating as providing […]
The Forever Prisoner (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): It was torture indeed
Money Heist – Season 3 – Overview and Review
And here we are at the final overview and review for Money Heist! It honestly feels kind of emotional since I’ve invested so much time to watch and write about the show! Anyways welcome to another edition of Explore With Me / The Couch Potato! This is an overview post of Season 3 but you […]
Explore With Me : Money Heist – Season 3 – Overview and Review
FX’s ‘Atlanta’ Releases First Trailer for Upcoming Season 3
The third season premieres on FX March 24.
The French Dispatch (2021)
Title – The French Dispatch (2021) Director – Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket) Cast – Bill Murray, Benicio Del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Jeffrey Wright, Timothee Chalamet, Owen Wilson Plot – A collection of stories that form integral parts of an American newspaper set in a French city. “All great beauties withhold their deepest secrets” Review […]
DUNE – A Cinematic and Momentous Sci-Fi Epic
Denis Villeneuve delivers with a rich, dense, and layered adaption—executed with incredible performances throughout. With mythology and world-building on par with The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, Dune is cinematic and momentous. Considered among many circles as one of the hardest stories to adapt, Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic has been attempted in the past. None, however, come […]
DRIVE MY CAR: sublime and powerful
Photo caption: Reika Kirishima and Hidetoshi Nishijima in DRIVE MY CAR. Courtesy of The Match Factory. Drive My Car is director and co-writer Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s engrossing masterpiece about dealing with loss – and it’s the best movie of 2021. Layered with character-driven stories that could each justify their own movie, this is a mesmerizing film […]
Spider-Man: No Way Home – Review
Spider-Man: No Way Home effortlessly combines high-stakes, incredible action sequences, and a darker, emotional core to become the best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The following review is spoiler-free. Spider-Man: Way Home is third and final film of Marvel’s “Home” trilogy, directly following the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home and continuing the […]
The Matrix Resurrections – Review
The Matrix Resurrections is a strong, meta-driven return to the iconic franchise. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss effortlessly return their roles while Lana Wachowski brings a bold artistic vision. The fourth film in the Matrix franchise, The Matrix Resurrections brings back many familiar faces. Reeves and Moss are back as Neo and Trinity, while Yahya […]
Return to Glennascaul
A ghost story for Christmas, and something timeless for your festive viewing; Orson Welles’ Return to Glennascaul is only 23 minutes long, which makes it a pleasure rather than a chore. Shot during a break on his troubled production of Othello, it’s billed as ‘a story told in Dublin’ but takes the form of a […]
The Silent Sea Cast
The Silent Sea (고요의 바다) series is an adaptation from the 2014 short film The Sea of Tranquility. The Silent Sea premiered on Netflix on December 24, 2021, starring Bae Doona, Gong Yoo, Lee Joon, Heo Sung-tae, and Lee Moo-saeng. Gong Yoo as Han Yoon-jae Gong Ji-cheol (공지철), better known by his stage name Gong […]
Billy Wilder’s “Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)”
There’ve been a few attempts, over the decades, to rewrite the history of Billy Wilder’s 1964 clunker “Kiss Me, Stupid.” It’s “underrated” thanks to a winning Dean Martin as “Dino” (Dean Martin) performance, worth re-assessing because of a risque late scene Wilder was forced to edit out, somehow worthy of elevation because of its satiric […]
Classic Film Review: Billy Wilder’s “Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)” reconsidered
“The Tender Bar” Is A Nice, Family-Centered But Ultimately Mundane Film
A boy growing up on Long Island seeks out father figures among the patrons at his uncle’s bar.
Movie Review: “The Tender Bar” Is A Nice, Family-Centered But Ultimately Mundane Film
Dopesick. A Bingeworthy Addiction
Riveting. Provocative. Addictive. Dopesick is Hulu’s newest mini-series, documenting the Opioid crisis through captivating storylines which intersect and send the audience on a brilliant and emotional journey. Based on Beth Macy’s book of the same name, Dopesick follows the Opioid crisis from a multitude of perspectives: patients, abusers, doctors, law enforcement, prosecutors, and pharmaceutical…
Being the Ricardos
While the world seems to be spinning out of control, Hollywood seems to reach further and further back into the past for ideas and inspiration; writer and director Aaron Sorkin feels that comedy icon Lucille Ball is the most urgent subject that he could possibly address in 2021. Ball’s heyday was in the 1950’s, and…
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Paul Thomas Anderson once again returns to the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s — however, unlike his previous film set there, Boogie Nights (1997), his latest effort, Licorice Pizza, is a gentler and hazier movie that rests its heart on its sleeve in numerous ways. The year is 1973, and fifteen-year-old […]
The Dope
Still working our way through season three of Succession, which continues great. Every now and then a sense of burnout looms, what with all the characters being nasty pieces of work/shit, but then it reinvigorates itself miraculously — episode 5 was incredible. And episode 6 implies that the series could eventually get a bit serious. […]