Change Your Image
pjghmwdd
Reviews
The Unforgivable (2021)
Is a twist a twist
The reveals were so lazy, predictable within 5 minutes. Similar to when you see some bad acting, and all you see is acting, in this movie you can almost "see" the script being written, and hear the nods of approval from those sat around the writing table. Conversely the acting is great and the mood is very tactile. The fairly emotionless hardened bullock is a little unrealistic in her uniformly depressive approach, people are much more diverse in reality, even if they are faking laughs and happiness to fit in with the world.
The Man Who Bought Cricket (2022)
Engaging and deserving of being told.
As a lover of documentaries It's easy to see a huge decline in quality recently. Netflix has been capitalising on documentary success by pumping out limited series docs with very little substance and a lot of pomp. They house a lot of fantastic drama series however.
On the other hand sky has been producing some abysmal dramas and comedies the past few years. (Look them up, most sit at under 5 on imdb). So it was quite shocking to see a seemingly sky original documentary come out so well. It was engaging and told a chronological and digestible story. There were no interviews with internet sleuths (Looking at you Netflix). Each interviewee was a relevant person who was part of the story, and their did not seem to be any cases of dramatic editing with their words. They spoke at a reasonable length in full conversation and narrated some of the audio-less video footage.
The pinnacle of enjoyment however, considering the disgrace the English cricket team and their members have been in recently, was how they come off in this show. For such a non-inclusive entity with emerging racism and entitlement stories in the news It plots a thread that the English Cricket Board would be the ones to fall for this greedy and ridiculous contest. They were willing to look the other way as their national team, and their wives were played with. This story is nowhere in cricket coverage today in media, and this doc adds flavour to the reputation they are battling with currently.
Stay Close (2021)
British Cop Mystery cliche.
After the first episode or two you quickly realise what type of show this is. Every character will become involved in the crime or cover up in some way, usually signified by them suddenly acting shifty or a panning to their face when you expect somebody else's POV.
80-90% of this type of show consists of very forced red herrings, the final episodes always try to justify why the non guilty characters were dangled in front of us as suspicious.
Most frustratingly though (I'm still 2 episodes from the end), I know how it will end. These characters know much more than the show allows us to know, and they only allow the mystery to materialise when they are alone. If any of them would just speak to each other, or the police we could wrap up in a 3 episode season.
It is also quite weak footing for a drama for personal relationships to be all based out of having a few drinks at a bar. After a night out how much do you think about the people there? 10 minutes the morning after? These people dwell on the lads playing snooker, the girls on a hen night and the lady at the bar for 17 years. Move on.... Very weak interpersonal relationships which really lowers the stakes of the show. Who cares!