Reviews

The cast is stacked-the great Jeffrey Wright, Erika Alexander (love her from the Living Single days!), Sterling K Brown and everyone else are absolute pros who bring an ease to their performances that make both the satire and the drama shine. The movie is very funny while also spelling out the double binds black creatives face. To make a living, you usually have to appeal to white gatekeepers and audiences. This movie itself does that-there are plenty of laughs at the expense of obliviously offensive white folks, but none that cut to the quick. White liberals can laugh knowingly at this movie without feeling exposed or confronted. Perhaps this non-threatening approach will stimulate more self-reflection and change in the creative industries than something more critical would.

Issa Rae plays sort of a red herring of an antagonist in this movie. She, of course, knows all too well that black creators are pressured to always show black characters navigating white worlds (she specifically fought to stop doing that in Insecure, like by having Molly got to work for a black-owned firm). When American Fiction focusses on Monk and his family and girlfriend, we get to see them away from the pressure of having to react to white society. They're just a family dealing with family drama and their own flaws. The movie contains multiple layers and meta-narratives like this that all speak to the double binds that black folks have to deal with in so many aspects of life in America. It's fun to watch and meaty enough to stick with you.

This show presents two things that are rare on tv: not-rich single moms and their life with their kids, and ride-or-die female friendships. It handles them with so much grace and humor that you can absorb some of the gut punch of seeing situations that hit close to home, like any time we see teenage Beth's disappointment at someone close to her letting her down.

The cast is stellar. I love that Amy Schumer loves all the same funny people I do, including especially Berlanti, Sedaris, and Gulman. I love that the show didn't ditch all the women in Beth's life to focus only on John and other men-it is an infuriating tv trope that a show will start with an awesome female lead and her cool women friends and relatives who disappear as the season goes on in favor of "the obnoxious man at work" and "the patronizing new male boss" and whatever. Because they've kept Beth's relationships intact and written such funny and down to earth characters (incredible to see people on tv who are not rich), season 2 is turning out to be even better than season 1.

I watched Phantom Menace when it came out and was so horrified by the bad acting and relentless bad slapstick that I gave up and skipped almost all Star Wars movies after that. But now my family is watching Clone Wars, and we wanted to fill in some plot lines, so we watched this one. This is two distinct movies: 1) a cringeworthy romance with two youngsters who are incredibly awkward around each other, with the male written as a walking red flag, and 2) a fun action-adventure with some cool, ominous reveals setting up Darth Vader and a lot of future plot lines.

The actors who struggle in this movie--Christensen, Portman, Samuel L Jackson--are good or great in other projects, which makes me think Lucas just dropped the ball on directing them and writing for their characters. They have the stiff mannerisms of actors who are "in their head" from not being able to make sense of what they're being asked to do or say. They are good in the action scenes, probably because their intention there is clear. And there are lots of enjoyable action scenes. This movie leans heavily into the old timey movie serials with the outlandish cliffhangers (literally) that inspired both Lucas and Spielberg. Christopher Lee brings interesting nuance to the villain and clearly has a ball playing him. Obi-Wan/Macgregor also has a blast here and is delightful to watch, and the places and characters he discovers are a great mix of compelling and threatening.

Seeing this with Clone Wars knowledge is especially great because you see the first inklings of many, many cool characters you get to know a lot more about later. The caveats are: you have to sit through many dud scenes; I don't like how sexualized Padme's outfits are since it doesn't match the character (a Senator!) or serve the story at all; and Anakin acts like a disturbed stalker around Padme, which sends bad messages about how to treat people you're attracted to and about how to deal with the bloodthirsty weirdo who keeps mumbling angrily at you. I think you have to be invested in the greater Star Wars storylines to enjoy this movie, but there's a lot to enjoy if you are.

Having loved the original films, I absolutely hated this movie when it came out. Jar Jar and the overall bad acting (which is the director's fault) ruined the movie for me and I blocked most of it out. I didn't see any of the subsequent movies except the third (chronologically), and I hated that one, too.

But in recent years I watched Andor, the Mandalorian, and Ahsoka and loved them. I also got back on board because women and people of color (and those who are both) were finally meaningfully included in the universe. While in the middle of watching the great animated show Clone Wars, my family watched this movie to fill in some of the lore. Clone Wars habituated me to Jar Jar and made this film far more palatable to me. It's neat to see how much world-building happened here and was expanded on so awesomely in Clone Wars.

As a standalone film, this movie still stinks. I blame Lucas-and not the actors!-for the terrible, flat performances, the slapstick "comedy" during the Gungan war scenes, and the overlong edit. It's impossible to care about these dull characters. Neeson and Macgregor do a good job but have very little to work with. The costumes and music are also not great. The trade federation villains having Japanese accents is weirdly xenophobic. It all just shows that even creative geniuses like Lucas stumble sometimes.

But paired with Clone Wars, this is a watchable film that gives valuable context to a lot of storylines and worlds and sets up all the crucial political maneuvering of Palpatine (that actor, Ian McDermid, is a gem here as elsewhere).

This movie hit me in my core, and I don't even realize it until the very last moments. It's beautifully structured and acted, with us learning about the characters as we go along and understanding them more deeply over time, just like in life. You feel for all three main characters and the choices they have to make.

This is a movie about growing up and love and about who we were and could've been, but most of all who we are. If you've ever felt like you had to abandon a part of yourself in order to survive, this film will speak to you and comfort you. I was describing the plot to someone, and much to my surprise, I started crying while explaining the choices some characters had to make. What that showed me is that revelations of the movie work on you over time.

Celine Song made a remarkable film that is deeply observant and compassionate.

I love Emma Stone and was excited for this movie, but I made it an hour into it and still nothing had really happened. The sets and costumes and stylization are fun at first but don't change or evolve, so they also get boring pretty quickly. There's just no emotion in this film. It also isn't intellectual or funny and doesn't challenge our perceptions of anything, so there's no reason to watch. There's really only one woman in the movie (at least in the first hour), which is also very boring. It also creeps me out when male writers and a male director load up a film with constant sex scenes and sex reaction close-ups of the only woman on set.

It's a movie about every man wanting to have sex with the one woman, but also sometimes it's in black and white, uses a fisheye lens, and alludes to Dr Moreau, so it's "artistic," I guess?

The reference to Frankenstein is interesting because Mary Shelley really nailed the horrors and responsibilities of birth and motherhood. This film throws away everything that's interesting and emotionally affective about that story. This story isn't from the monster's point of view, it's from Frankenstein's point of view if he stitched his own girlboss Real Doll. Weird Science did something similar and was a bad movie but at least more watchable.

I was excited to see an original story that embraces style and weirdness, but this movie is just dull.

I've been totally burnt out on superheroes, but this brought something different and totally fun. This is the kind of movie the word "rollicking" was made for. Hilarious, lightly goofy while still having great fight scenes and some real emotional connections. It's right up there with Thor Ragnorak in tone and not taking itself too seriously.

Loved seeing the lighter side of my beloved Captain Marvel and getting a little insight into her galactic adventures. The cast is excellent and they play off each other beautifully. Zawe Ashton makes a charismatic villain, and the three Marvels all pull off the comedy/action/earnestness hat trick. Production design is on point, with some beautiful worlds. Nia Dacosta nailed it-I appreciate that this movie went for some over the top comedy. I thought I was not interested in any more Marvel movies, but now I hope we get to keep seeing these characters.

I am still scarred by seeing my beloved, feisty Leia in that gold bikini back in the 80s. We have so few female characters, and yet here again the awesome woman is presented in haram-fantasy mode. It doesn't speak to the horrors of slavery, it speaks to how easy it is for Hollywood to use the degradation of women as a storyline, even (or especially) in fantasy worlds that can be anything they want.

The xenophobia is also really gross. Somehow in this show the biggest scum societies never have blue eyes and an American or English accent. The history of our world proves there's plenty of scuminess and heroism everywhere.

I love this show but hate having to accept this stuff over and over again. I hope we get new kinds of writers and showrunners, or some who update their ideas, in the future (and I do believe later shows and movies have done a much better job, so credit to the franchise). Seeing a fantasy society where women barely exist in the halls of power is a constant reminder of how grotesque and damaging that same oppressive and crippling imbalance is in real life.

Laugh out loud funny all the way through. Jennifer Lawrence is outstanding, and the rest of the excellent cast is pitch perfect in keeping the tone of the movie consistent. Those of us who grew up with Meatballs and Porkys and Revenge of the Nerds will recognize what they're doing here and get to enjoy a nice update that does clever modern twists on the nasty bigotries underlying lots of those old movies. It's a refreshing and fun take that manages to be sweet without being cloying or dumb.

The two leads are amazing and bring a great sincerity to their portrayals that makes their characters both more real and infinitely funnier. I didn't expect it to be so funny and had a blast watching this film.

Great cast, visually appealing, and cool storylines. My kids lived the books and love what they've done with the show. All the actors are great, but special notice to Aryan Simhadri, who nails the role of Grover. He's a key character because he's basically our representative, and the actor has a fantastic calm and low-key charisma that anchors the show beautifully.

Costumes and sets are a blast, and anyone with at least some familiarity with the myths will have fun seeing who shows up and how they're portrayed.

Really hoping they keep making this show and take us through all the books. It's an important series for Gen Z kids and deserves an adaptation that they'll remember as fondly as the books.

Cringe satire at its most confrontational. At a time when remakes and predictable and recycled plots rule, it's refreshing to see a show that insists on being original, hard to watch, meandering, and chock full of unlikeable people. It repeatedly fails to pay off plotlines in predictable ways. It's a welcome change of pace for those of us conditioned by blockbusters and reality TV to expect standard character development, heroes and villains, and satisfying payoffs to clearly defined dilemmas.

Ultimately it ends up as a grand, bizarro White People Problems story, with Native and Latinx folks playing one-dimensional side parts. That's both meta and kind of disappointing, essentially using serious social problems as mere backdrop. It's like the filmmakers can afford to toy with these ideas because they don't really affect their insulated lives and it doesn't matter to them whether or not they improve.

But I still appreciate this show for daring to be difficult. Emma Stone is brilliant and compulsively watchable-I hope she chooses more bold and weird projects like this.

This is a slight movie but a fun watch thanks to a strong cast-especially Ayo Edibiri!-and a sweet story. I really liked that the kids, though obviously actual "theatre kids," were just talented, dorky kids putting on a show, not mini-adults trying too hard to be precocious or sarcastic or sexualized. Lots of funny stuff that will appeal to anyone with performance experience of any kind, though I'm not sure it would interest anyone else. It's not on the level of Best in Show and doesn't have a bigger message or a satiric edge. It's just a sweet love letter to theatre camp from successful adult performers who obviously know it well. The filmmakers do a good job of gently making fun of the silliest excesses of the musical theater performer personality.

The cast is generally great (except for the kids, who are far too cutesy, but even that works as making you a bit sympathetic to Scrooge's misanthropy). Finney is fantastic, making Scrooge very believable at every stage. Mrs Cratchit and the Ghost of Christmas Present are standouts. Guinness is strange and unforgettable, which is a great twist on Marley. This version fits the tone of the brilliant novella really well, with all the pathos and humor and dread and longing all mixed in.

The songs are generally bad and the singing is also pretty bad (maybe due more to the clunky songs than to the singers). Do not expect great bursts of gorgeous trained singing as promised by most musicals. But there are a couple of good numbers at the end and a great payoff to the story overall. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Check out the first half hour or so, but bail when you realize you haven't laughed out loud in a while. It won't get any better. This is an interesting time for this very skilled comic because he has spent most of his career avoiding any but the mildest "my wife" type of social commentary. He tries it here and starts strong but then his obvious discomfort takes over, so he resorts to lots of generic and painfully old-fashioned wife jokes and groups-of-men-are-gay stuff. "Friendship is gay" is just a weird way to go in the 2020s.

This is such a hard time for many due to really awful disagreements about what society should be like and who gets to be a fully recognized part of it. This special is like a time capsule of one guy trying-mostly unsuccessfully-to get along more or less as usual in the middle of all that change.

The first film was fun because it was about human relationships. This one is boring because it's about guns, torture, and violence. It's a survivalist, anti-government fantasy that has nothing to offer except "scientist=bad" and the bizarre scenario of a post-apocalypse somehow run by a scientist with an elite military at her disposal, who keeps putting the sources of her cure in deadly traps. There's an interesting (though highly unrealistic) dilemma here about how to fight a deadly virus that can only be continually harvested from the blood of the young (?), but the film isn't interested in exploring that. It's never explained how building these elaborate tests, like the mazes, benefits anyone. Thomas and Friends have no plan except "run away." A great action film for the paranoid, I guess, but especially after the pandemic, i know I'm over of these kind of aimless, violent, dystopias. The Last of Us showed how lazy The Maze Runner ultimately was.

Really enjoyed the last two episodes and the addition of Luminaria and Bariis. The different approaches to the Jedi teachings and the responsibilities to their Padawans are the crux of this series, and these two episodes bring out those ideas and dilemmas in interesting ways. It's also really cool to see how Ani and Obi approach problems so differently, and to see the foreshadowing of the tragic end of their time together. The whole sequence on this planet also highlights disturbing truths about the wholesale destruction of life, cultures, entire peoples, and massive ecosystems in the pursuit of war.

The expendability of the clones and anyone deemed an enemy, even while defending their homes, and the constant dehumanization of the native enemies and the helmeted clones while the quip-ready, blue-eyed Jedi survive every time is hitting hard, whether or not it was intentional at the time the series was written. I assume it was since we are seeing how righteous Anakin becomes Vader, but as a more casual Star Wars viewer, I'm appreciating this unexpected complexity in an animated series I'd barely heard about before.

Padme is a Senator. Others, like, say, Palpatine, are also politicians, but Palpatine does not wear halter tops and backless, strapless outfits. It is bizarre and gross to see how Padme is sexualized and how even female-coded drones are sexualized, with tiny waists and massive breasts (on a drone?!). It's beyond weird to see Padme's lower ribs jutting out on her bare midriff while she's strategizing with a fully clothed Anakin. This was the best they could do for a show released in the early 21st century? It's disturbing to see how girls and women were only allowed to exist as characters in 2008-2009 or so if their bare bodies were on display as much as possible. I had hoped that alienating attitude had gone out of style in the Star Wars world with George Lucas's awful and demeaning gold bikini decision back in the 1980s.

I stopped watching Star Wars for 25? 30? Years because Jar Jar was so unbearable the first time we met him. I keep waiting for Clone Wars to redeem him, but it ain't happening yet. Here's another episode where he's a mission-threatening hazard and no one seems to mind or do anything to mitigate his foolishness. No shade on any Jar Jar actor-I simply do not understand what the showrunners are doing with this character.

The villain is Scooby Doo-level silly.

The worst thing, as overall in the series so far, is that the female characters are drawn in a ridiculous, voluptuous manner and wear bandeau tops and low-rider bottoms showing their belly buttons. Even Peppi is sexualized like this. It's weird and off-putting, especially in a show for kids. The tiny waists of Obi and Ani are similarly icky but at least they're fully dressed.

The redeeming factor in this one is that the Jedi are fun to watch in action mode, their banter is fun, and Ahsoka is great character. I also like Padme and C-3PO.

Finally settled back to watch this supposed romantic comedy classic and, while I understand that times have changed and some jokes won't land anymore, I was pretty surprised that NONE of the jokes landed because they were all based on leering at and stalking women. The reputation of this movie as a Christmas classic is bizarre, like saying Porky's is the most romantic movie ever made. The difference is, back in the day I did think Porky's was funny, but it was unabashedly a movie about hormon-ravaged teen boys lusting after sex object women. This is ALSO a movie about a hormone-ravaged man lusting after women, but that man is Richard Curtis and the sex object women are all the actresses he cast to play subservient characters preyed on by their bosses-but it's ok because the women love it! They love it as much as they love stripping down to their underwear!

Curtis was 47 when he made this movie, with a long list of credits behind him. It's depressing to see that his view of women was, after all his experience and his big age, limited to giggling over bare female breasts, ogling women in underpants, fantasizing about gorgeous women dependent on him for their livelihood not-so-secretly lusting after him, and debasing plainer women, who don't rate as meaningful players in a man's life. Keira Knightly was only 18 or so here, a teen actress made the object of a truly creepy storyline. Seeing how normalized and embraced as "romantic" these crap attitudes were and are is a real bummer.

The fatphobic misogyny, the classism, the cloying use of pop music, sexualizing young kids, the insipid porn and Wisconsin scenes that must be truly hilarious to young teens watching their first "naughty" movie...just skip it and, this Christmas, watch Porky's instead. It's possible to make a sexy, funny movie that isn't sexist, and Curtis failed here.

Extra stars only for "Both Sides Now" and for Bill Nighy. And Emma Thompson.

Love the cast, miss the creative team of Michael Waldron and Kate Herron. I'll watch season 2 because of the characters, tone, and incredible look and style they established in season 1, but the first three episodes of season 2 are a mess. Each episode has the high stakes of the last movie of a long series, but with no build up, no clear objectives, and no real reason to care who lives or dies or what does or does not happen. There's both too much and not enough going on. Kang is a terrible, boring villain, and Loki and Sylvie have such strong powers, it seems like the only thing holding them back from solving everything with their magic is...feelings. There's no tension because there are no consequences to what happens. There's an interesting idea here about possible alternate lives and the grief anyone can feel for missed chances to change their lives, but the show doesn't seem to know how to explore it in a way that slowly builds suspense.

I had enjoyed Catherine Tate's sketch work in the past but was not prepared for the level of brilliance she brought to this show. Her characters here are, as always, incredibly realized, but the depth and subtlety and compassion she brings to them has really ramped up. She's surrounded here by an outstandingly funny and talented cast that brings real joy to the screen. I think having real issues to work with raised the bar here, as well as the excellent writing and amazing makeup and set design. The comedy comes out of the tragedy and pain of many women's lives-and the comedy from this cast is so deft and playful that it makes the ending hit much harder than it would've if the writing or acting had had a heavy hand. Comedy with a message can be gratingly self-conscious, but Hard Cell avoids that by having the characters have real needs, wants, and resentments. It felt like a play but in the best way, where we all know we're watching a show and the actors are performing out for us, but the emotion is so honest it hits you in the back row. I cared about these characters, I laughed out loud constantly, and I really hope they do a second season.