Tag Archives: Netflix

Stick S1 E1, E2

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Spoilers

“Pilot”

“Grossweiner’s Law”

Owen Wilson starred in a new series on Apple TV + called Stick and it had been on my radar recently. With my TV shows currently lacking, I decided to get a few new ones to watch over the next few weeks or so. Stick was the first one to try.

I really love Owen Wilson. Well, to be fair, I was not that familiar with Wilson until he took on the role as Mobius on Loki, Owen Wilson has been one of my favorite actors. And after watching the first two episodes of this series, you can tell that he has found another awesome role to play.

There is an absolute feel to this series, and, although it is early, I can say that the show Stick gave me Ted Lasso vibes. I really enjoyed the first two episodes. Owen Wilson is utterly charming in the role, again making a comparison to Jason Sudeikis’s Ted Lasso.

The plot is Owen Wilson played Pryce Cahill, a former pro golfer who had a meltdown on a course and sent his life spiraling into chaos. The show has not specifically told us what caused the meltdown, but it certainly implied heavily and I feel as if I have a clear idea of what happened without even going into specifics.

Pryce is on the course to give gold lessons when he hears a 17-year old boy driving the golf ball on the driving range. Pryce was unbelievably impressed with the boy’s swing and tries to convince the boy to allow Pryce to take him on the circuit.

The Boy, Santi, had that natural swing that told Pryce that he was special. Santi was not excited about it and worried that Pryce was simply a stalker. Pryce went to see Santi’s mother, Elena (Mariana Treviño) and tried to convince her to let him take Santi on the road.

The show also featured Marc Maron, as Pryce’s friend ad former caddie, and Judy Greer as Pryce’s ex-wife Amber-Lynn.

I really liked the set up of these characters. There are life details that we will be learning as the show progresses that will make these characters deep and well developed. There is something that happened with Santi’s father. Something happened to Pryce and Amber-Lynn’s child. I’m excited to see more of this show.

Squid Game Season 3

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Squid Game Season Three dropped on Netflix yesterday and I was able to binge it on Saturday and what an emotionally ragged trip this show took us on over the last six episodes of the acclaimed Korean series.

If we are really being truthful, season three of Squid Game really should be considered the second part of season two, as season two left us with a huge cliffhanger and very little to nothing resolved. Season Two Part 2 or Season Three is really semantics, so who cares that much?

Season two had spent a lot of time building the characters participating in the Squid Game up, so we had connections to them and that we cared about them (or despised them, as the case may be). I guess we should have known that they were building up these characters in order to rip our hearts out in the last season… because that is exactly what happened.

Honestly, there were a few characters that I believed would survive this season because I couldn’t believe that the show would be that cold hearted. Unfortunately, the show could be that cold hearted because practically every character that I thought “no way do they kill them off” got killed off.

Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae) was the one I was sure would survive, but the show had a fate for him planned out. He was truly our hero of the show and he showed what an honorable man he actually was. His efforts to save the baby, as well as others along the way, made him the show’s breakout character.

Geum-ja was another character that I thought for sure the show would not kill off, and then she hanged herself, after stabbing her own son to prevent him from killing Kim Jun-hee moments after she had given birth. That round of hide and seek was just horrific and filled with tension and anguish. Hyun-ju was another who I was sure had a great chance of being safe, but she did not make it out of the hide and seek, despite the fact that she found the exit before anyone else. She returned to get Geum-ja and Kim Jun-hee, whom had been together the whole game, only to get killed from behind by Myung-gi, right in front of Jun-hee and his daughter.

The jump rope section was also just rough and showed the worst in the players of this game. In fact, the worst of them kept making it through and the characters that I cared about kept getting killed off. I felt satisfied by the end with the deaths of those rotten players though.

However, the VIPs arrived to watch the games and they all had zero accountability at all. Man, I really wanted those VIPs to pay some kind of price for their cavalier attitude toward the games and their downright cruelty and wickedness. Nope, they see the ending of the games when Seong Gi-hun threw himself off the large pillar to save the baby and the VIPs are just never seen again. I really wanted someone to burst into the room and blast them all with some automatic weapon.

Who would guess that Cate Blanchett would be involved in the recruiting for more Squid Games in the world? She made a cameo as an American recruiter playing ddakji with some guy in an alleyway.

The last ten-fifteen minutes was spent wrapping stories up, giving us some ideas on what the few surviving characters were doing, specifically those secondary characters, such as Seong Gi-hun’s daughter.

This was a rough final season as so many of the characters that we had bonded with are killed rapidly. As I said, I really wanted more of a final ending that does not make me think that the Squid Games could be brought back or continue on as the show outright implied. The VIPs needed some kind of comeuppance for me to feel completely satisfied. The sacrifice made by Seong Gi-hun was beautiful and packed an emotional wallop.

A powerhouse of a series.

Nonnas

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June 23

For the second film of the day for the June Swoon, I went to my queue at Netflix for a film recently released starring Vince Vaughn. It was a comedy/drama called Nonnas.

After the death of his mother, Joe Scaravella (Vince Vaughn) impulsively decided to open an Italian restaurant on Statin Island, using real life Italian nonnas as the chefs. He wanted their homemade feel of family for the restaurant, warm and loving.

Of course, there are a bunch of troubles that spring up for Joe in his attempt to create his dream restaurant that would honor his mother.

The four women the film cast as the nonnas have a fun chemistry together and their Italian flair truly is the strength of the film. The actors included Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire, and Brenda Vaccaro. They were as real as you could expect, right down to some of the same stereotypical flavors. Still, I think these ladies were the best part of the film.

I did feel like I was watching a sweeter version of The Bear in movie format. Many of the challenges that we saw play out on The Bear were also on display in Nonnas and I am certain that the reason this was made was to play off the success of the FX TV show. That is not a bad thing, but it does limited anything new that we could see.

The sweetness and warmth of the script and cast go a long way here, as some of the moments were very warm-hearted. Vince Vaughn played his role beautifully, holding everything together even when things were never going to work. I do think the ending is a bit predictable, and seemed to come out of nowhere quickly, but it does work for what we get here.

This may not be the greatest film ever made, but it is a very enjoyable watch with some characters that will make you feel good and a menu that might make you hungry.

3.5 stars

Ultraman: Rising

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June 17

The June Swoon film today sees us head back to animation for a fun tryst into the world of the classic superhero character of Ultraman. Ultraman: Rising brings the character back into the present world of Kaiju fighting and worldwide threats.

The original series of Ultraman debuted in 1966 and there have been many versions of the hero over the decades. This co-production between Tsuburaya Productions, who owns the franchise, and Netflix Animation looks to reintroduce the hero to the world. And with this film, they have done a wonderful job of it.

According to IMDB, “Ken Sato, a superstar baseball player who returns to Japan to become the latest hero to carry the mantle of Ultraman. His plans go awry, however, when he is compelled to raise a newborn kaiju monster the offspring of his greatest enemy as his own child. Sato will also have to contend with his relationship with his estranged father and the schemes of the Kaiju Defense Force.“

Tying this new hero Ken Sato to Japanese baseball is a excellent idea. Shohei Ohtani is a huge draw among the MLB baseball stars worldwide and having Ken Sato in that vein should help connect this to other fans around the globe.

The designs of the characters are great, as they are all awesome to look at and engage the creativity of the viewers’ imaginations.

The CGI/animation works very well too. There is the feel of old school Japanese monster flicks as well as the current day look of a big budget animated movie. The colors are flashy and entertaining.

The story does more than the typical fighting Kaiju story as it wraps itself around the idea of fatherhood and the relationship between father and sibling, both with Ken and his father, but also Ken and Emmy, the baby Kaiju that Ultraman rescues. This is a universal theme to which everyone could relate.

The villains of the KDF are a little underdeveloped. There are some interesting things going on with the KDF, but it is really basic and surface level. There are some deeper ideas available had the film chose to develop them.

Overall, I thought Ultraman: Rising was really solid. I enjoyed the superhero action and they developed the character of Ken Sato very well. This is a fun film on Netflix.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #21

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“Dream of a Thousand Cats”; “Calliope”

The second round of Sunday Morning Sidewalk came to an end this morning with the final episode of season one on Netflix. It looks like there will be a second season of the show, despite the word of cancellations over the issues Neil Gaiman has had. Either way, the Sunday Morning Sidewalk comes to the end.

Last week’s episode sure felt like a finale, and when I saw this episode, it makes it even more so. This week, there are two separate stories in the hour of the show that are completely separate from almost everything that happened in that first season.

It started out with an animated section called “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and it brings all the cats in a certain area to come and hear the message of a Siamese cat whose story tells of different time of cats and humans.

The animation was great and it really kind of reminded me of a couple of comic books that I have purchased the last couple of year. One was called Feral and the other Animal Pound. Both of these comics are told from the POV of animals, in many cases specifically cats, in their voices.

“Calliope” is the second part of the episode and it is live action. It has a minor connection to the season as they mentioned how Morpheus had been captured, connecting it to the way that Calliope, a muse, was bonded to humans. Specially humans who are trying to write books.

I wonder if these were also based on a comic issue because it does feel as if it could have been one of those filler issues that turn out so good.

With this episode, The Sandman ends and requires that there will be a new Sunday Morning Sidewalk show next week. So far, we have done HBO’s Band of Brothers and Netflix’s The Sandman. Starting next Sunday, I will be doing Pixar’s Win or Lose on Disney +. These episodes are shorter, so I am doing two episodes a week.

The White Lotus S2 E6, E7

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Spoilers

“Abductions”

“Arrivederci”

Season two of The White Lotus wrapped up with these final two episodes, and I feel kind of empty.

Madame Butterfly died at the end.

The reveal of who the body was in the water was heartbreaking and several of these stories turned out tragic.

I never would have guessed that Tanya would have been the one who drown. Even more so… the plot surrounding her death was crazy, but, seemingly, not just paranoia. The worst part of everything was Greg gets away with all of Tanya’s money, and we never see him again. The whole Tanya and the Gays story was a heavy part of these last two episodes and had such a tragic twist at the end that it hit me like a punch in the gut.

Tanya’s death was not the only story that I thought ended sadly. The whole storyline with our two prostitutes was terrible. Lucia turned out to be scamming poor, naive Albie to get money… in the end 50,000 Euros. Albie thought it was to get her out from under a crazy Italian man, but that guy was just part of the scam, as we see in the final moments of the show. I feel disappointed in myself because I had started to come around on Lucia and Mia after spending the first part of this season disliking them quite a bit. I should have stuck to my opinions, but the show played me good.

There was so much toxicity in the relationships of Ethan and Harper and Daphne and Cameron that I had soured on that story already. Watching these four being so horrid was my least favorite storyline. Did Ethan and Daphne have a sexual encounter on the island? Did Cameron and Harper do more than what Harper confessed to? My one favorite part was Ethan going to nearly murder Cameron in the water. I would never see that guy again if I were Ethan, but that was not the implication that I got. However, Ethan and Harper seem to have gotten past their troubles and are, apparently, happy once again.

These last two episodes were extremely well done, but they did not go out of their way to give us a happy ending. Maybe in the end it will turn out okay for Albie and Portia, who reconnected at the airport (even though Portia had no idea about Tanya’s fate… or at least, only suspected).

There was a lot of things left ambiguous, which does not bother me. I have a good idea what happened. I just would have liked something more positive than the scamming hookers being the big winners.

The first episode of season three of The White Lotus is out and I will get that one done before the next episode Sunday night.

Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 (2016)

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January 23

I found another Academy Award winning film to watch today for the Genre-ary. This won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short in 2018. The title had caught my attention at first as did some of the artwork that went with the promotion for Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405.

The short told the story of Mindy Alper, a 56-year old artist, who had spent years suffering from a variety of mental illnesses including acute anxiety, mental disorder and depression. She had been committed to mental institutions, spending around 10 years institutionalized. During that time, Mindy would receive electro shock therapy in an attempt to get past the mental states she was in.

She spent much of the time unable to speak and scared about everything in life. Much of the struggles could be traced back to a combative relationship with her father. The film does not come out and say it, but there are some implications about the relationship that might be the reason for many of the problems.

The doc short showed the progress Mindy had made and how her struggles with mental illness was something she would have to overcome on a daily basis. It showed how she used her art to really get some of the emotions out, giving them a place to go.

Some of the papier mache statues she had made, in particular one of her favorite psychiatrist, were absolutely stunning. I could not take my eyes off of these pieces of art. Her drawings were used to illustrate much of the doc as well. This art truly told a powerful story.

Mindy was a complete inspiration and, despite her life’s downfalls, she has found something that has allowed her to express her feelings.

I can see the reason why this was an Oscar winner.

Will & Harper (2024)

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January 13

I have not been a fan of Will Ferrell. He has some movies that I absolutely hate. Yet, this Netflix documentary may just make me want to reconsider that opinion.

Will Ferrell and his friend of thirty years, Harper Steele, went on a buddy road trip across America. The hook? Harper Steele had just completed gender transition and was out as a trans woman.

Ferrell met Steele when Farrell joined SNL and they quickly became close friends. When they decided to take this trip across the country, Harper had given Will the right to ask any question about the transition. The openness of the friendship and the kind, sensitive manner in which they spoke to one another gave a real insight into the friendship they had built over the years.

Seeing how Will was protective and, at times, fearful for Harper was so sweet. The places that they traveled to were shown on the doc and the people that they came across spoke with respect and kindness.

But how many actually meant it? They came across the governor of Indiana, Eric Holcomb, at a basketball game and Holcomb dropped his rhetoric to get a picture with Ferrell. Holcomb has been an outspoken anti-trans proponent, passing severe anti-trans laws in his state.

When Farrell, dressed as Sherlock Holmes, took Steele to a steak house in Texas, the crowd at the restaurant was pretty taken aback. The social media response to the dinner was off the charts, with a ton of hatred spewing across the platforms. Of course, these people were all taking their outrage and vitriol to the safety of the internet where they can post their hatred with a certain amount of anonymousness.

However, much of the doc played against the caricature of the ignorant American and showed people who were very supportive and kind. Will Farrell was amazing with Harper, supporting her and treating her with such respect and acceptance that you could see how intimate and special their years long friendship had become.

The film was not just a powerful doc, but it was hilarious as well. Some of the scenes were just outright funny, which I guess you should expect with two funny people at the front of the film.

Will & Harper was a really enjoyable film that showed the power of friendship, the humor of a buddy road trip and the capacity of dialogue and communication.

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024)

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January 1

It is January 1st, which means that I start the new Genre-ary event at EYG. This year, EYG will be doing the Genre-ary with documentaries. I will watch a new documentary, one that I have never seen before, every day for the whole month.

The first documentary I watched was one I saw on YouTube pundit Dan Murrell’s video of the Best Films of the Year. It was called The Remarkable Life of Ibelin and it sounded like an emotional film. I decided that I would use 2024 documentaries in the Genre-ary instead of waiting on them until the June Swoon.

With the set-up out of the way, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin was truly a beautiful documentary about a young man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who was able to find friendship, love and hope inside the gaming world of World of Warcraft.

Mats Steen, a young Norwegian boy, was diagnosed with the muscular disorder as a child and had to spend most of his life confined to a wheelchair as the disorder slowly restricted his motor skills.

One of the few things Mats was able to do was be on his computer. He found a community or guild, inside World of Warcraft, called Starlight, where he was able to meet others. Mats did not reveal anything about his condition to the people playing the game with him even after they had formed a close online relationship.

The doc uses the actual online dialogue used in the game to create an animated model of the online game. It uses this animation, in the World of Warcraft style, to show how important Mats, as the avatar called Ibelin, would become to the Starlight guild. The doc also used interviews with other guild members and family members of Mats as well as some home movies to build this picture of the young man.

Mats wrote an online blog near the end of his life that the doc used to illustrate more about the thoughts Mats was having. They had an actor read the blog entries in a voice close to Mats. Mats’ family did not know anything of this blog and, after his death, Mats had left the password to his family. This is where they started to understand how much their son had impacted the world through the video game. They posted on the blog that Mats had died and dozens of people responded to them, one of the more powerful moments for me during this doc.

The doc was not about a man who was slowly dying. This doc showed the power of life, friendship and of connections to others, even if it is not in the typical way. Mats had a short life, but his presence was felt by many different people in extremely powerful ways.

This was available to stream on Netflix. It is well worth your time. You may give a second thought to the viability of those kids spending time on their computers.

2024 Year in Review: The Hermione Granger/Furiosa/Rita Moreno Award for Best Supporting Actress

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The Hermione Granger/Furiosa/Rita Moreno Award for Best  Supporting Actress

Previous Winners:  Dafne Keene (Logan), Tilda Swinton (Dr. Strange), Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Emma Stone (Birdman), Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle), Sally Field (Lincoln), Jennifer Aniston (Horrible Bosses), Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place), Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit), Margo Martindale (Blow the Man Down), Rita Moreno (West Side Story), Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)

Supporting Actress is up first among the acting awards here at EYG Year in Review. This is the top ten recipients for Best Supporting Actress. Honestly, a bunch of these potential Oscar roles are from movies that I have yet to see, so they will not appear on my list. Maybe the June Swoon will be really good this year.

#10. Isabella Rossellini, Conclave.

#9. Joan Chen, Didi.

#8. Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown

#7. Karla Sofia Gascon, Emilia Perez.

#6. Zendaya, Dune: Part Two

#5. Emma Corrin, Nosferatu

#4. Danielle Deadwyler, Piano Lessons

#3. Selena Gomez, Emilia Perez

#2. Zoe Saldana, Emilia Perez

#1. Ariana Grande, Wicked

Ariana Grande was a revelation in Wicked. No one expected her to steal the movie, but she nearly did in almost every scene she was in. Of course, her voice was amazing as she blasted out her songs. The trio of actresses from Emilia Perez were powerful in the film and all of them made a spot on this list. Danielle Deadwyler is showing herself to be a master actor as she gives tremendous performances every time.

2024 Year in Review: TV

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2024 saw me watch a lot of TV. Not only did I watch the active shows, I was doing rewatches or first time watches of classics such as The X-Files, Battlestar Galactica, Bates Motel, The Greatest American Hero, Moonlighting, Yellowjackets, and Picket Fences.

But we are not looking at those series. These are lists of the best series of the year. I decided to split them into four categories: Drama, Comedy, Genre, Animated.

Some of the categories were really difficult to rank and, of course, only feature those series that I watch. There is so much on TV these days that it is impossible to watch everything.

Let’s kick it off with:

Drama.

Drama had a top six list and featured some of the best shows of the year.

6. Bodkin (Netflix)

5. True Detective: Night Country (MAX)

4. Baby Reindeer (Netflix)

3. Squid Game 2 (Netflix)

2. The Penguin (MAX)

  1. Shogun (Hulu)

Shogun was so good that it just out distanced The Penguin, which had an amazing run on HBO Max. I just finished Squid Game 2 in time for this list.

Comedy

4. The Bear (Hulu)

3. Shrinking (Apple TV +)

2. Agatha All Along (Disney +)

  1. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)

This was probably the hardest one to judge. When I split these categories apart, I thought that Agatha All Along would be a shoo-in for Comedy winner, because I loved that show so much. However, Looking over the list of comedies, Only Murders in the Building jumped out at me and regulated Agatha into the second slot. This was an outstanding season of OMitB too with Steve Martin doing some excellent work with his grief over the death of his friend and stunt double Sazz. Number three is Shrinking and that is a genius show too. Harrison Ford is perhaps the biggest scene stealer on this list. The Bear is here because the Emmys list it as a comedy, but it is a stretch to call it that in my opinion.

Genre

#6. Walking Dead: The Ones Who Lived (AMC +)

#5. Echo (Disney +)

#4. Silo (Apple TV +)

#3. Fallout (Prime)

#2. Skeleton Crew (Disney +)

#1. The Boys (Prime)

The Boys had another great season with Butcher on the edge of death, Homelander in full revenge mode and everyone else trying to survive. Skeleton Crew has been extremely fun so far giving us some of the best Star Wars TV we have had in years. Fallout was a fantastic video game adaptation and Silo is top notch sci-fi on Apple TV +. Echo was better than a lot of people gave it credit for and it was nice seeing Rick and Michonne reunite.

Animated

#5. Masters of the Universe: Revolution (Netflix)

#4. Creature Commandos (MAX)

#3. What If…? (Disney +)

#2. Batman: Caped Crusader (Prime)

#1. X-Men’97 (Disney +)

X-Men ’97 was an amazing surprise. It had no right to be as good as it was. The old X-Men series was okay, but this took everything great about it and mixed it with amazing characterization and storytelling. And “Remember It” is one of the best episodes of TV this year, not just animated TV. Batman: Caped Crusader was another great series on Amazon with a new take on Batman and his rogue’s gallery. What If was a bit of a step down but still fairly entertaining and had a great Agatha/Kingo episode. Creature Commandos has been okay for me as some of the humor does not work for me. Masters was a good follow up from Kevin Smith.

Squid Game S2 E6, E7

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“O X”

“Friend or Foe”

I finished up the second season of Squid Games on Netflix late last night and I have thoughts.

First, it sure ended at a strange place. It almost felt like this was a first part of a season like they did for Stranger Things and Cobra Kai. I have not heard any info on a second part to season two though. Perhaps it is just setting up for season three instead. If so, then season two would absolutely be the Empire Strikes Back of the Squid Games as things went oh so wrong for our heroes (PS… just looked at the end of the episode and it says season three will be back in 2025 so there is that.)

Gi-hun’s whole plan to take it to the people running the show by hijacking guns from the guards was wild and was never going to work. The pink suits had such a huge number of people that the handful of rebels were just not going to get through. However, it got fairly far and might have had a chance if they did not have a rat inside their team. Of course, that is In-ho, 001, who had been inside the game manipulating the situation. His eventual betrayal ended the uprising and led to the unfortunate death of Jung-bae. I had seen a spoiler about a death in the final episode that was shocking and this was the one. For a minute, I actually thought it was going to be Gi-hun instead. That would have been a shocker.

Defying all odds, Geum-ja has survived. I was sure she was going down after her son Yong-sik had changed his vote from X to O. I thought he was going to have to pay for his choice with his mother, but she continues to fight on. It did look like she was a goner during Mingle, but she was thankfully saved.

Speaking of Mingle, that was another game that was intense and very difficult to watch at times. The way alliances were tossed aside by some compared to those that were going out of their way to try and help the others.

Seeing Thanos get his final payment at the end of season six was very satisfying, and of course, brutal. Fork to the neck is not something I expected to see.

For a season that I was not sure was needed, this was a very tense and exciting seven episodes.

Squid Game S2 E3, E4, E5

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“001”

“Six Legs”

“One More Game”

The first two episodes of the season were character beats, setting up the characters we would be following in the Squid Game and developing them some. I found those episodes to be of great importance because we jump full into the games in episodes 3, 4, & 5.

The games themselves are always the most intense, stressful parts of this show. Even the Red Light, Green Light, which we saw in the first season and we know what to expect, was just insanity when it comes to execution. The show did a great job of giving us something different for us to stress over. In this case, Gi-hun taking the lead and almost directing traffic, despite several of the contestants not believing him or wanting to follow what he said. When Gi-hun ran back out to save the guy who had been shot in the leg, we saw what a heroic figure he had become from his days of season one.

The other characters all elicited some emotion from us as viewers, both positively and negatively. I hate Thanos, even if he does some funny things. I love Geum-ja. She is the ultimate mother figure in the games and she must be protected. There will be a time, I am sure, that the show will want to rip out hearts out and it will kill her. I do not want that to happen.

Player 001 turned out to be In-ho aka the Front Man (Captain). Much like last season, number 001 is a traitor, a man from behind the scenes inserting himself into the game. In this case, we are aware of the treachery unlike last year. In this case, In-ho is also a former winner of the Squid Game and his presence is curious. He sure seemed as if he was working with the group during the six-legged pentathlon.

By the way, that six-legged pentathlon was both the most invigorating and exciting game and the most stressful and horrendous game played. Watching the group of five try to make it through five children’s games in five minutes was unbelievably tense and suspenseful. It was also hard for the second game.

The show has done a tremendous job of building mood during the two votes we have had to try and end the games. The first vote coming down to the final player, 001, who voted to continue, and the second vote being more weighed toward the stay and do one more game.

I am afraid a bunch of the characters whom stated that they will play one more game and then leave are going to find their votes a tragic mistake.

I really thought doing a second season of this show was going to be a mistake, especially since the creators of the show had not intended on continuing the show past season one. However, this has been exceptional so far and it has taken an extra step in its exploration into human nature. It does not feel like a repeat of what happened in season one, and even when something similar happens, it is done in a totally different manner. The writing has been great so far as they have created a bunch of characters that I really want to see survive, even though I know they will not.

There are only two episodes left in this season, which I have heard ends in a cliffhanger, so I am excited about wrapping it up.

The Piano Lesson

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Netflix does release several Oscar-worthy films this time of the year as they give out films that they have agreed to back on their platform. While many of the films that are made expressly for Netflix come up short, these releases are usually fairly high quality.

That is the case for the new film The Piano Lesson, which came out this past Friday on the streamer. It had appeared at TIFF this year to soundly positive reviews and now can be seen by the nation as a whole.

According to IMDB, “[The Piano Lesson] Follows the lives of the Charles family as they deal with themes of family legacy and more, in deciding what to do with an heirloom, the family piano.”

There is much more than that simplistic summary gives, including an air of supernatural in the house where the piano is being stored. There were some really creepy moments in this movie that were weirdly out of place, or at least felt that way. However, these moments do work for the film, you just do not expect them to arrive in this type of movie.

The conflict between Boy Willie (John David Washington) and Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) is remarkable. They have an amazing chemistry with each other as brother and sister, but they were both determined that they knew what was best with this piano and it was clear that this conflict was not about to be resolved through discussion. Both Washington and Deadwyler brought their best work and presented powerful characters that each had an understandable argument.

Samuel L. Jackson is great in the film as well are Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Corey Hawkins, and Malik J. Ali.

The film definitely felt like a stage play turned into a movie, and, after watching it, I did find out that it was based on a stage play by August Wilson and that Jackson, Washington, Potts and Fisher all starred in it. You could see how they all felt very comfortable in their roles.

Danielle Deadwyler was the standout. Coming off her amazing Oscar snubbed performance in Till, she is once again exceptional. Her emotions are on the edge through the whole film and her dogged determination that the piano with the faces of her family carved upon it was going nowhere.

This is available to stream on Netflix.

4 stars

Emilia Pérez

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I had heard this was an Oscar favorite. With it now on Netflix, I was excited to give it a chance. I was not expecting what I saw.

First, this was mostly in Spanish. I guess I should have guessed that from the title, but I did not.

Second, it was a musical. Simply did not see that coming.

According to IMDB, “Mexico, today. Overqualified and exploited, lawyer Rita is wasting her talents working for a large firm far better at whitewashing criminal garbage than serving justice. But an unexpected way out appears, the sort of offers you can’t refuse : to help feared cartel boss Juan “Little Hands” Del Monte – aka Manitas – retire from his business and disappear forever. Manitas has a plan he’s been fine-tuning in secret for years : to become, at last, the woman he’s always dreamed of becoming.”

The performers were spectacular in this movie. Zoe Saldana was Rita, the lawyer who was brought in as a way to help Manitas, played by Karla Sofía Gascón. Selena Gomez played Manitas’ wife, Jessi. All three of these performers were sensational. And they all did a tremendous job with the music/songs.

The movie was 2 and a 1/2 hours long, but it absolutely did not feel like it. The film flew by. In fact, when it came to its dramatic conclusion, I was looking at the clock wondering how this could be over already. That means this long film was paced brilliantly or else you are going to feel that passage of time.

French director Jacques Audiard creates a wonderful film, bringing out some of the best performances of the year while handling a topic that can be divisive with a deft touch. The story is not the controversy. The story is the emotions and feelings that it elicits. Emilia Pérez is top notch work that caught me off guard.

4.4 stars