What are we watching now?

[mbenigni]

IRL has been shit lately, so I've been self-medicating with Netflix. (Etc.)

Mo: A little uneven, but overall I really liked it. Jumps a couple of sharks, but it has a lot of heart IMO. Helps that the lead reminds a lot of a dear friend (best friend, in fact) who passed away many years ago. It gets a little heavy-handed with its politics - if you're squeamish about the Israel/ Palestine thing you might get your feathers ruffled somewhat. Anyway, I liked it.

Radioactive Emergency: OK, so the absurdly on-the-nose title should have been a giveaway, but I figured something must have been lost in the translation. Turns out there wasn't much to lose in the first place. Disclaimer: I only endured about one episode of this stinker. I got sucked in by the aesthetics, honestly. Parts of South America have that gritty 1970's look to this very day - old Datsun-alikes and buildings that look like there's film grain painted right on them - and I'm a sucker for all that. Unfortunately, the script is a turd, immediately revealing itself as a cynical, low-budget cash-in on the success of Chernobyl - even more so once characters started dropping the name "Chernobyl" into every other line of their dialog. (And I don't know whether this makes matters better or worse, but there is a major character named Evendildo LOL.)

 

[mbenigni]

Netflix instead of real life part deux: SISU Road to Revenge.

This movie hit me completely out of left field. I was just looking for something to fall asleep to, and this popped up on my home screen. My expectations, based on the description and the general anonymity, were very low, but I could immediately recognize that there was serious film craft going on. (Some shots are so amazing, they must surely be CGI - but they look so authentic.) By about a half an hour in, I'm thinking, "This movie is a gem... a masterpiece even!"

It's your basic revenge flick, but instead of the typical oversaturated Hollywood treatment, it's all period-perfect WWII vibes: pastoral European landscapes, orchestral soundtrack, flawless lighting and camera work. The only "flash" comes in the form of Kill Bill-style title cards announcing the chapters. (I could have done without them.) Otherwise, there is zero fat on this movie: a couple of characters, a time and a place; and then it just goes ham on the superman revenge thing for all of 90 minutes. The movie is shorter than a Sex Pistols single LOL. It's surely not for everyone; it's definitely not for your kids. The action starts out just on the far side of implausible and gets crazier and crazier with each scene. (It gets into that "live action Warner Brothers cartoons" territory - if you've ever seen Kung Fu Hustle, for instance, you'll know what I'm talking about.) The violence starts out intense and plows right past uncomfortable without even slowing down. But it's got a couple of emotional beats, too, which I thought were effective.

YMMV, but I loved this movie.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Has Paradise been mentioned? REALLY loving Season 2