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Dreambound
Reviews
Divine: The Series (2011)
Intriguing, visually rich, and innovative!
I was a skeptic when I first discovered the premise of Divine -- during its Kickstarter fundraising campaign. It sounded like a pretty generic concept until I watched the fundraising video. By the end of the video, I was hooked.
Genre-wise, the series fits with other scifi and fantasy genre shows I enjoy, it interests me with the unique take on religion as preached and lived, and the acting is compelling and enjoyable.
It's a visually appealing series, to say the least. It reminds me of graphic novels, comic books, and video games, and I really hope they capitalize on this and expand the Divine franchise into these fields. I would love to play the Divine video game someday!
The episodes themselves have only a few weak points, and I think this is a result of only having six episodes out so far. Most North American shows have 22 episodes of ~40 minutes each to establish their characters, plot, background, and so on, so some of the characters can seem confusing or weird because you just don't know who they are and what their motivations are yet. A few rewatches of the episodes can help, and in the meantime, we'll just have to wait patiently for more episodes to find out the rest!
The bite-sized episodes aren't a limitation of the series; instead, I think they make it better, because the producers have had to compress character development and plot arcs into short episodes with no filler or pointless dialogue. Every line is potentially important. It also makes it easier to watch these episodes when you're on the go, because you don't have to dedicate an hour of your life to each episode!
Oh, and this web-series has closed captions or subtitles for each episode -- English, French, German, Italian, Persian, Russian, and Spanish are available for episode 1. That's very unusual for a web-series (unfortunately!), and I hope others take a lesson from this! It really opens up the series to international and hearing impaired audiences.
I'm always interested in projects that break the traditional funding model, and the community-backed support for Divine was inspiring to watch! I was fascinated by how readily people responded to this potential new model and hope other web-series can do the same in the future.
This is a web-series that I'd call very innovative in several ways, visually rich, and from the point of view of a writer, intriguing. Can't wait to see more!
Kinky Boots (2005)
Heartwarming, compelling, and just plain fun!
This is a movie the whole family will like -- assuming your whole family, like mine, likes Rocky Horror and the line "You are making two and a half feet of irresistible, tubular sex" doesn't freak anyone out too much. I showed this movie to my best friend not long ago and she went from a skeptic (because, let's face it, the title doesn't conjure up images of family fun) to a wholehearted believer, too.
The movie takes you on a ride you won't forget. You'll go through surprise, amusement, shock, anger, joy, and even moments of fabulous rage. You'll sing along with Lola. You'll plead with Charlie to man up.
This is one of the few movies that never fails to cheer me up. If you're a fan of heteronormative action movies, it'll probably make you uncomfortable now and again, but like those who meet Lola, you'll fall for her quirks and grace, Charlie's awkward and belated personal growth, Nicola's business smarts, and even the old lady who rents out Lola's room.
I'm not a big fan of musicals or lots of singing in a movie, but every musical number fits in perfectly and there aren't any random outbursts of song, so I was happy.
Every time I watch this movie, I fall in love a little more. Yeah, some people might think it's clichéd, but I'm not watching an earth-shattering documentary... I'm watching a movie that will always make me laugh a little, cry a little, and feel warm inside for days afterwards. Watch it -- you'll like it.