nwdean-862-186903 Reviews

The New Look (2024– )

Parlez-vous Francais?

[1/10 · 3 May 2024]

Well, said the producer, these characters are French. Shouldn't they be speaking French?

No, said the executive producer, Apple TV's subscribers mostly speak English, they don't speak French. So we need the characters to speak English.

But then, said the producer, how will the audience know they are French? We can't expect them to figure that out all by themselves! We have to do something to show the audience that the characters are French and the story is set in France.

A puzzled silence settled over the room.

I've got it! Said the producer. I met a man from France once, and he spoke with a French accent. Let's have all these characters speak English but with a French accent! That way the audience won't forget that they are French.

Brilliant, said the crowd of executive producers. Problem solved.

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

The cyanide bit is not credible which casts doubt on the rest

[1/10 · 21 February 2024]

The movie lost all credibility for me with the cyanide story. Oppenheimer was a post-doctoral researcher at Cambridge; to have him - and others like him - taking an undergraduate chemistry lab is preposterous. I was a graduate student at Cambridge and got my PhD without ever having to take such a course, and neither did any other student I ever heard of. Oppenheimer was a postdoctoral researcher, not a student; he would have spent his time entirely on research with a mentor.

The would cyanide episode is Hollywood hokum. After that, I had no reason to believe any of the rest. Cillian Murphy did a great job and deserved the Oscar, but the movie should be labeled fiction, not biography.

The Crown: Queen Victoria Syndrome (2022) Season 5, Episode 1

Terrible casting

[1/10 · 12 December 2022]

After really enjoying previous seasons, we were astonished by the completely wrong casting in Season 5.

Actors have basic personas; their skill is in credibly projecting a character and a plot onto that persona. Michael Kitchen, for example, makes us believe he is a detective named Foyle, but that detective has Kitchen's persona, as does every other character he plays. Dominic West makes us believe he is having an affair with a waitress in The Affair but the character's smiles, responses, attitudes are still those of Dominic West. And that's okay because we don't know the guy so we don't expect a different persona; there's no reason to doubt him.

The problem arises when he plays a real person that we know. That person's persona has to fit onto Dominic's if we are to believe him. Prince (now King) Charles is subtle and reserved, qualities Dominic West doesn't project. If I had never seen Prince Charles, I might imagine him acting and reacting as Dominic West does; but I have seen him, and the two can't be reconciled. It's like a Rolls-Royce being played by a Corvette.

Likewise Jonathan Pryce, whose persona is far too humane for Prince Phillip, and even Imelda Staunton, who is too much like a favorite aunt to be the queen.

It only took twenty minutes for us to realize that this season's cast is simply not credible. So we left. What a shame.

Quirke: Christine Falls (2014) Season 1, Episode 1

Basically a long cigarette commercial

[1/10 · 12 November 2022]

Every character in every scene lights up a cigarette! Nothing to do with the plot line ( which is fairly intriguing) so the production must have been paid lots of money by the tobacco companies. The program is intended to show how great it is to have a cigarette on any occasion - stressful, happy, sad, whatever. By doing that they expect to sell more cigarettes to more people. And that means more people will die of cancer. The people behind this should be ashamed!

Don't tell me people smoked more ine the fifties, when this is set. They also ate, urinated, cursed, farted - but the writers didn't have those activities in every scene. The production is simply a cancer- causing cigarette commercial, nothing more.

The Last Movie Stars (2022)

Spoiled by Ethan's ego

[4/10 · 14 August 2022]

This is a biography of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, starring Ethan Hawke. Like a small child wanting attention, he interrupts every conversation to say "Look at me!" Sometimes it's even a one-second clip just to remind us he's the real star of the show. Other times he brings in his buddies for their insightful comments, such as "I didn't know he was a boozer - wooowwww!"

The series relies on clips from Woodward and Newman movies and transcripts of interviews with family and colleagues, read by various actors and buddies while the screen shows an audiocassette spinning - and spinning - and spinning. Boring, but better than Ethan's grimacing face.

The interviews, especially, contain a lot of interesting information giving insight into the couple's relationship and how it progressed, as well as their philosophy of acting. This material merits a series of its own, done by somebody less egotistically driven. Woodward and Newman deserve better than this self-indulgent travesty.

Hollywood (2020)

The Emmy for Artificiality

[1/10 · 21 July 2022]

Episode One started with a sophomoric script and went downhill from there. To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, it probed every subtlety from A to B. No, wait, it didn't get that far. We bailed out in record time.

Angels in America (2003)

Crazy treatment of catastrophic disease

[1/10 · 20 July 2022]

We had a friend who died of AIDS in those terrible early days. I was prepared to go through the pain of remembering him and his suffering. Instead I got sillier and sillier fantasies which were gross self-indulgence. Mike Nichols was wrong - this is a calamity, not a triumph. After the too-long too-silly sex with the angel I gave up. Don't waste your time on this.

Stay Close (2021)

Frustrating and silly

[1/10 · 11 July 2022]

After four episodes I have no clue who's doing what to whom or why. All I'm sure of is that the Barbie and Ken characters are silly, unbelievable, and disgusting. This is a total mess of a production that doesn't seem to care at all about getting the viewer involved. Enough already!

The Music Man (1962)

Wonderful

[10/10 · 4 July 2022]

Great movie, almost flawless! Perfect casting - Robert Presto IS Harold Hill, Paul Ford also exactly right - except for Amaryllis. Why Why in the world would they give a little Iowa girl an English accent????

Grace and Frankie (2015–2022)

Good start, then downhill, season 7 the bottom

[1/10 · 5 May 2022]

This had an interesting premise, and who could resist the stars? But they didn't have the good sense to stop when the interesting premise was resolved. The last two or three seasons got weaker and weaker and Season 7 is just plain silly. There's no plot, no character development, just Frankie and Sol being stupid.

Spencer (2021)

Big disappointment

[2/10 · 30 March 2022]

Another dreary trip through the misery of the rich and famous. Might have been better with better sound; the whispering was mostly unintelligible. Add to that a distracting invasive score. We watched twenty minutes and even though we love British drama this wasn't worth the effort.

Inventing Anna (2022)

Great except when it's awful

[6/10 · 17 February 2022]

The only thing phonier than Anna Delvey is the ridiculous accent invented by Julia Garner. She's supposed to be German or Russian but sounds more like Patrick Dennis's "really top drawah" fiancée in Auntie Mame trying to sound English. Her accent in Ozark was overboard but believable; this one is just an awful distraction.

If you can put up with that, and an equally horrid "soundtrack" made of noise withot sense or melody, the story is fascinating and the rest of the cast is superb.

The Gilded Age (2022– )

A waste of time and talent

[1/10 · 8 February 2022]

Julian Fellows doesn't realize that American "royalty" bears no resemblance to Downton Abbey. He has created a set of cardboard characters and made them a script that is sophomoric. Even Christine Baranski's vitriolic overacting can't rescue this pretentious trash.

The Lost Daughter (2021)

Two hours too long

[4/10 · 1 February 2022]

Excellent acting, and it's a good thing - that's the only reason I kept watching. It's a character study but the character is neither likeable nor interesting, and any hope of time not having been wasted disappears with an ending that neither resolves nor absolves.

The Undoing (2020)

Totally overcooked

[1/10 · 6 November 2021]

Might have made a good two-hour movie but they not only left no stone unturned, they heaped psychological meaning onto whatever was under it. But it was nice to see Hugh Grant in a role where I'm not supposed to like him, rather than one where im supposed to like him but don't. Kidman, beneath that godawful mop of hair, gives no clue why her character is schitzy. Only Sutherland is coherent. I'm in episode 5 so I'm going to finish it but I could quit now and not care.

The White Lotus (2021–2025)

Trivial and artificial

[4 October 2021]

Supercilious host. Cardboard guests. Sophomoric script would have failed intro screenwriting course. Watched till the boredom overtook us. Enough was by then more than enough.

Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014)

Excellent

[10/10 · 4 October 2021]

Painful, but the pain is worth it! Defining performances by Buscemi and Williams.

Band of Brothers (2001)

Wow!!!!!!

[10/10 · 4 October 2021]

It doesn't get much better than this! Superb storytelling , fantastic acting. Not to be missed!

The Many Saints of Newark (2021)

Waste of talent & time

[2/10 · 4 October 2021]

We loved the series and looked forward to the prequel. Alas, it was incoherent and ugly. We hung up aftr an hour.

Behind Her Eyes: Behind Her Eyes (2021) Season 1, Episode 6

Hogwash

[1/10 · 17 April 2021]

What an absolute load of crap! You think you're watching a mystery/drama for five episodes and int the final hour it turns into stupid silliness. Don't waste you time as I wasted mine!

Mystery Road (2018– )

Worst actor performance in history

[2/10 · 17 February 2021]

Dorothy Parker described Joan Crawford's acting as "running the gamut of human emotion from A to B." Aaron Petersen's performance doesn't get that far. His great stone face's expression never changes. Anger, happiness, puzzlement all are identical. Why they cast him is a bigger mystery than anything else in the series. The rest of the cast do a good job with a pair of pretty pedestrian plotlines set in amazing natural scenery, which is all that justifies any stars at all.

Roadkill (2020)

Laboriously dense

[2/10 · 16 November 2020]

There may have been a good story here but it got lost in a script that seems intentionally dense. Add to that bad casting, with too many indistinguishable brunettes, so that you can't tell which is who - although Hugh Laurie is good as ever. Top it off with a distracting and obnoxious music score. I have made it through three episodes and will probably see it to the end but it's really more work than it's worth.

Striking Out (2017–2018)

They pulled the plug

[2/10 · 12 September 2020]

Season 2 was not a conclusion, but apparently somebody realized this series wasn't working and didn't renew it. That was no great loss. The characters were artificial and the plots more so. But I enjoyed seeing Dublin and the Irish countryside.....

Great American Railroad Journeys (2016– )

Personal hygiene?

[9/10 · 23 August 2020]

His wardrobe is idiosyncratic, to say the least - eg coral blazer, grass-green pants, lavender shirt. Fine, except that he seems to wear them da after day! But I can watch without smelling him and enjoy that.

John Adams: Independence (2008) Season 1, Episode 2

Terrible camerawork!

[7/10 · 17 March 2020]

A tolerably good bio spoiled by a cinematographer whose camera is never level. Fujimoto seems to abhor a horizontal horizon. That may seem creative to him but it is terribly distracting to me.