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Reviews
La casa de papel (2017)
Pitch perfect
Great series! Writing, acting, characters are on target. Crooks are both smart and dumb, like real criminals. You get to know the characters and come to like some from the start, like others early and then come to dislike them and two of them (for me) were never likeable (one a weasel, the other a bully). The plot twists and turns and leaves you wondering how this new problem will be resoved. Delightful.
I recommend against binge watching this. Watch an episode a day -- kind of like a wonderful piece of candy once a day -- it's a treat.
La forêt (2017)
Engaging mystery
The Forest is a great miniseries, well paced, well acted, well written. There are just enough red herrings, cliffhangers and ambiguous clues to keep fans of The Killing satisfied. Bingeable factor quite high.
Soupçons (2004)
Like watching paint dry
If film editors have training workshops, they should use this tedious 13 episode mess as a class project. An interesting case -- accomplished wife dead/ famous author husband suspect -- promises so much and delivers so little. The filmmaker spends endless time with the husband as he laments, proclaims, complains and goes on and on about... everything. We watch him walk, drive, talk on phones, review endless details of the case. The pace is agonizingly slow, the prosecutors are given short shrift and ridiculed and at the end, you wonder if the same story could not be tightened up, focused and done in 3 or 4 episodes. Delete, cut, streamline... not a Netflix winner.
The Break with Michelle Wolf (2018)
Yawn
If feeble humor, unleavened by wit or originality, is your cup of tea, this is your show. Self-indulgent, stunningly repetitive, this is a show that appeals to those on the edge of breakdown from unrelenting partisan bile and need just one more push to go over. Wolf is not as intelligent as Maher nor as earnestly eager as Mika. She's just tedious.
Sidney Hall (2017)
Touching and sweet
This is a movie that tells a story of a young man who is a talented writer, possessed by that one abiding talent and one sweet, star crossed love. How these play out over years of fame, horror, loss and search for a dream that has no address is the substance of the story. Told out of sequence, the story requires characters we must care about and all of the main characters deliver. Elle Fanning is particularly moving as a romantic young girl growing up in the unromantic adult world of hard truths and painful realities. The mysteries at the heart of the story telegraph their solutions, but the impact is only slightly lessened as they play out over decades of wounded lives. A well done tale.
Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist (2018)
Another hit from the Netflix stable
Old Hollywood may be dying, with its remakes, reboots and sad, dull outings. But if Hulu, Amazon and Netflix are the new Universal, MGM and Warners, we are in for a treat. Netflix is producing some first rate movies, like Amazon and Hulu, but it has a real dominance in docuseries. Their latest entry, Evil Genius, is cut from that same cloth as other winners such as The Keepers and Wild, Wild Country and keeps you engaged from beginning to end. It starts with the crime touted in the subtitle but then it goes down rabbit hole afer rabbit hole, with some very bright and very dangerous people populating the dark side of Erie. Pennsylvania. There are false leads, missed leads, likeable cops, bizarre histories and just about everything you need for binge watching with friends. It's a winner. Break out the popcorn.
Evil Genius (2017)
Another fascinating Netflix hit
Note to self: form production company and make docuseries for Netflix. Focus on crimes, scandals, riveting mysteries and strange events from two or three decades ago. Characters should be engaging: weird, driven, frightening. Pose mysteries and offer conflicting narratives that force viewer to choose whom to believe or trust. Resolve some puzzles but leave alone those that have no resolution. Provide alternative explanations and perspectives so a covey of home viewers binging together can argue their conclusions. Audiences should say at end: "I can't believe I never heard about that.." For guidance on Netflix signature style, see The Keepers, Wild, Wild Country and the latest:Evil Genius. The latter grabs your interest in the first five minutes, leads you through one bizarre crime and aftermath, a oouple of very smart and very dangerous characters, some very likeable agents and police and your usual cast of low lives and margin dwellers. And in the end, abiding amazement how really smart people can do really evil things.
El bar (2017)
Hollywood calling
This is an engaging little movie. People in small bar, drinking, eating, chatting. One leaves and is killed. Who killed him? What's going on?
Fear becomes terror. Puzzlement becomes hysteria. Ordinary folks turn on each other and show that casual interactions tell you nothing about what people will do when threatened. Soon you pick who is the most annoying and eligible for removal but there is a lot of action and cross talk before the herd is culled.
The movie could stand shortening. It does drag several times and could eliminate some of the predictable elements. It has some good acting but at least one character severely in need of a delousing has way too big a part, especially given his fondness for spouting religious verses at the drop of a tick.
Hollywood could run with this story. Two juicy roles for young male and female. Two for two older guys, one with a past, one with hidden proclivity. And a rarity, two roles for older women, with just enough opportunity for some scene chewing histrionics. Small set, low budget, faster pace, great opportunity for young director. Gotta work on that ending, though.
7 for me, It leaves a bad taste in a way, if you know what I mean.
Mindhunter: Episode #1.10 (2017)
Cracking up is hard to do
Our hero, Holden, possesses the unshakable confidence of the True Believer and the hubris of the Masters of the Universe. Humility? Hardly. Openness to feedback and criticism? Not an iota.
This episode illustrates his flaws, extends them and then let's him fly off the edge. His girlfriend pulls away. His team members (irony alert) choose honesty over lies and convince him they really are as dumb as he thought they were. And he tells Internal Affairs they are idiots. In short he cuts himself off from every anchor in his life. The facade must come down.
And who else to conduct a menacing prelude to dismemberment than that big old teddy bear of a grisly murderer, Ed Kemper? Episode got kind of tense there, as we all all lean forward and whisper "Oh sh*t, he's not tied to the bed! He might rip Holden's head off and use it as a bowling ball! The seasons ends with Holden not so Golden, certainly suspended, reprimanded ,no pay, no girlfriend and his only friends being twisted killers.
Good cliff hanging episode, He's done at the bureau for a while. He could get some humility working on cattle ranch, learn to play the didgeridoo in the mental wards, go to work with Mother Theresa's children or otherwise spend his time on suspension DRINKING in low life bars and showing off his skills. Then he can-emerge as the flawed and newly humbled Quantico guru ready for Manson, i hope he emerges a nicer person, maybe even ask for others' opinions.
Mindhunter (2017)
Unsettling
Charlize Theron is exec producer of this Netflix original and seems to be building on her star turn as Aileen Wournos, highway serial killer. The show is certain to build audience of those who have patience and a strong stomach. Good writing, good cast, compelling monsters.
Starts slow,draws you in and then you move into a strange world of twisted minds and terrors lurking behind affable smiles. The teaser at the start of each episode appears to me to be the BTK killer and shows the ritual of a serial killer.
Holden is a young FBI agent, stiff, slow to flex, bright and determined and drives the search to understand the pathology of these "sequence"(serial) killers. Bill, his seasoned partner, is a great counterpoint and brings street savvy to his partner's drive. The killers they interview are charming, articulate and profoundly frightening.
And then I realized: the world that you are moving into is a world of paranoia and suspicion. Is Holden's girlfriend just a little too off? (And how much do we really know about her past?) And is Bill's adopted child a killer in the making? The offspring of a killer? Beware: This may be a show that should not be binge watched. Pause between episodes. And trust no one.