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Killed by My Debt (2018)
Devastating
When I first saw this programme I felt devastated by it. Based on a true story, it shows how Jerome Rogers's initially small debt ballooned, propelled by a soulless system of computer algorithms, into a debt that literally became life-threatening. The youthful, bewildered innocence of Jerome is ably portrayed by the main actor, and the supporting cast and direction are excellent.
The drama reflects a deep, terrible problem in society we've all become inured to: money, the "root of all evil". Had Jerome been rich he wouldn't have had to deal with all the problems thrown at him. His experience is multiplied over and over across the globe. How many innocent people have lost their lives due a lack of money to buy food, shelter, medical aid or medication? How many will die in the future due to corporations destroying the environment in the headlong rush for profits?
The real-life footage of Jerome at the end of this drama, when he was being ordered to pay up by a debt collector, is all but unbearable. RIP Jerome.
Thanksgiving (2023)
Seen it all before
This film is basically a mishmash of the Halloween movies and the Scream movies and every other slasher movie that's been released over the past 50 years, only done pretty poorly. The characters are all unlikeable. The dialogue is dreadful. The killer is a typical supervillain with superhuman strength and a godlike ability to know everything. The murder scenes are so unrealistic and cartoonish you'll probably laugh at them.
I guessed the killer's identity way before the end. The biggest sin the film commits though is the lack of atmosphere. A horror film has to have an oppressive or claustrophobic atmosphere, and this one simply doesn't.
Requiem for the Dead: American Spring 2014 (2015)
American Insanity
This film made me weep. Not because I've experienced gun crime or I've lost someone I love to it (I don't live in the US fortunately), but because it's so real and sad and horrifying. All the imagery and audio has been taken from material posted online or made available by the police, so there's an authenticity to it fiction can't match.
The film also brought home something I already knew, but maybe hadn't fully appreciated before. There is no rhyme and reason to life. There is no plan. There is no God. There is only insanity, stupidity, wrongdoing, and utter, utter, utter randomness.
If this film doesn't at least make you feel like weeping at the world, there's something wrong with you.
The Devil's Candy (2015)
Not what I expected or wanted at all
This film isn't what I expected or wanted at all. I thought it would be a ghost story about some haunted house or other, one that was fun and fantastical and chilling. What did I get instead? A story about an overweight serial killer who kidnaps, murders, and dismembers innocent kids with a hacksaw. What's fun about that? What's fantastical and escapist about it? Yes the film was chilling, but not in a good way. Human child killers exist in real life. I don't want to be entertained by watching movies about the things they do.
If only they had come up with a script that was more supernatural in nature, as the camerawork, acting and soundtrack, etc were all pretty good.
The Boogeyman (2023)
Hackneyed
Stephen King could write a shopping list and somebody would snatch it off him, hand him $10 million and start turning it into a screenplay. Meanwhile, there's tons of great horror novels out there that will never be movies simply because their writers aren't named Stephen King. This is why we keep getting tired, boring, hackneyed movies like this one over and over. Film-makers keep "playing it safe", knowing a famous writer will guarantee a certain level of interest, rather than taking a chance on more original material.
If you're a real horror fan, don't bother with this one. It's workmanlike and has some merits, but you've already seen it. More than once. By the same writer.
Firestarter (2022)
Repeat ad nauseam
Why on earth do they keep remaking Stephen King novels over and over? Are there no writers any more? Is this what we can look forward to now: Stephen King remakes over and over until the end of time?
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
If a con requires real talent, is it to be admired?
Melissa McCarthy is great as Lee Israel, a lesbian writer who falls on hard times and winds up fabricating letters by famous dead people in order to make ends meet. It's a role Kathy Bates would have excelled in too, but McCarthy's downbeat, abrasive performance is just right. Richard E. Grant is good too as Israel's gay accomplice, who provides her with really her only meaningful human connection.
Israel's letters required research, wit and writing skills in order to pull off, which begs the question: if a con requires real talent, is it to be admired? Israel probably thought so, as she claimed her fake letters were her best work. The fact that so many people were so easily conned, seeing dollar signs every time she presented them with an entertaining or slightly salacious letter, probably added to the attraction of the con for her.
It's hard to fault Can You Ever Forgive Me? The film is intelligent, compelling, affecting, but never tips over into melodrama.
'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (2021)
Thank God I don't live next to him
It's an interesting documentary. The residents of West Hayden Estates come across as sane, likeable people who just don't want their peaceful community spoilt by a horde of people gawping at a tacky, OTT Xmas display. Jeremy Morris, on the other hand, comes across as an arrogant, selfish, obsessed dictator, who was probably indulged too much as a kid and hasn't grown up since. He's also delusional, actually comparing his tacky Xmas display to the Berlin Wall, and himself to a surrounded US Commander in the Battle of the Bulge, and he seems to think that being a lawyer makes him God. Wanna know why people hate lawyers so much? I give you one Jeremy R. Morris.
Universe (2021)
Another Brian Cox global-warming travel show
I was hoping this series wouldn't be like all the other ones featuring Professor Brian Cox, but no. The first episode: there's Cox in some desert. Then he's on some sun-kissed beach. Then he's in an ice cave.
For God's sake BBC, stop sending Cox all over the world with a whole film crew. It's not necessary when it comes to explaining the workings of the universe. Just how many times have you flown him all over the globe for the sake of a series? Cox must have clocked up more air miles than Santa Claus by now. And on my licence fee money too! Who needs fossil fuel companies destroying the future of life on Earth when you've got the BBC and Brian Cox accelerating climate change?
I can't bear this series anymore. It's like watching a gormless, grinning tourist extolling the beauty and wonders of the world, totally unaware that he's needlessly contributing to their destruction.
The White Lotus (2021)
All about real-life lotus eaters
In mythology lotus eaters are people who drugged themselves by eating lotus flowers, which rendered them incapable of doing anything but indulging in pleasure and luxury. In this world who are those people? The idle rich, of course.
The characters are well-drawn and acted. The use of music is excellent. The writing and direction are great. It'll probably be too subtle for many people, especially those who need to be spoon-fed everything the makers are trying to get across, but everyone else will appreciate its subtlety.
Normally when I love something I binge-watch it, but with this I had to limit myself to one episode a week. There's only six episodes, and I just had to draw the experience out it's so good.
The Tomorrow War (2021)
Brain not required
This film caused me to feel like my intelligence, my faith in humanity and my will to live were all ebbing away from me, threatening never to return unless I switched it off. The plot is stupid and nonsensical. Chris Pratt can't shine because the role isn't comedic enough. Some of the dialogue - especially the "emotional" moments - is cringeworthy. The CGI aliens - as in so many movies - move too fast, making them lose any impression of realness. No physical, organic creature could move that fast, for God's sake! Bring back the Queen in Aliens. That was created without CGI and it's much better than these fast-mo abominations.
The movie is probably OK if you're 12 and all you want is action, but otherwise steer clear.
Murder on Middle Beach (2020)
Stunningly brilliant
They say you should never get too close to your subject matter, but Zac Efron lookalike Madison Hamburg had no choice, since the subject of his documentary is the unsolved murder of his own mother. Being so close to what happened, Hamburg could have turned this documentary into a complete mess for an outside audience. The fact he hasn't, and instead barely puts a foot wrong, is a testament to his directorial skills.
The prime suspect in the case is obvious, but the documentary surprises you by coming up with alternatives that come from out of left field. I found the series to be engaging, frustrating (the type of frustration that's inherent in unsolved cases) and ultimately very moving. I watched all four episodes in one go, which hardly ever happens. It's almost as good as Andrew Jarecki's The Jinx.
I really hope Madison, his family and his mother get the truth, and the justice, they deserve, and which is already so long overdue.
Tales from the Loop (2020)
Weird and wonderful
This series won't be for everyone. It's science fiction, but there's no laser guns, no explosions, no chase sequences - nor even any bad guys. Instead each episode is slow, thoughtful and haunting, three adjectives that can't be used to describe a lot of sci-fi these days. The weirdness of the Loop is never explained and it doesn't need to be. Rather than holding the audience's hand the whole way through, the series assumes we have a certain level of intelligence. It simply presents each story and leaves us to work out the possible message - or messages.
The only thing I found was that the first episode didn't grab me like the rest of the series did. I could have given up after watching only the first one, but I'm so glad I didn't, as episodes 2 to 8 are almost flawlessly brilliant.
Sharp Objects (2018)
Wish I hadn't bothered
Amy Adams plays scarred supervictim and slightly glamorous alcoholic Camille Preaker, who's sent to report on the murder of two young girls in her former hometown of Crazyville, USA, apparently as "therapy" prescribed by an unwittingly sadistic editor. She's such a victim her time would have been better spent writing a misery memoir, which surely would have caused more of a stir than a few newspaper articles. I haven't read the novel of this bleak story - and I doubt I ever will.
The series is simply frustrating. It has some good elements, but the story isn't strong enough. It's glacially slow. The constant flashbacks become irritating. Amy Adams mumbles her way through the script, in between flicking the hair out of her eyes (her thick, crimped hair has more character than she does). It's predictable, especially when it comes to who Adams will end up bedding. The twists at the end are ridiculous.
I slogged through to the last episode, so the series isn't awful, but it's not great either. It could have been so much better with fewer episodes and a less predictable script.
Interstellar (2014)
Daddy's in the bookcase!
I like the film, but the whole "Daddy's in the bookcase!" bit at the end just makes me wanna smash the screen every time.
Hunters (2020)
Trashy and disturbing
The first feature-length episode is well-made and effortlessly kept me watching, but it was also disturbing. World War II is too important to be turned into trashy faux-superhero comic book entertainment like this.
If this subject matter was going to be used, it should have had a much more serious, respectful tone.
1917 (2019)
A technical achievement, but a glamorisation of WWI
You have to admire the technical achievement and the art direction. It really looks like the actors are moving through endless trenches and battlefields. Some of it must have been CGI-ed, though you can't tell what. You soon forget you're watching "one shot". Of course it isn't one shot. It's just made to look like it.
What lets the film down is an implausible, paper-thin storyline (the upper echelons of the British military were inept, but even they wouldn't have sent only two soldiers to relay a vital message calling off a doomed advance) that unavoidably glamorises WWI. It's as if the film-makers were still in James Bond fantasy land, and were primarily concerned with one question: what's exciting? Ooh, I know! A bunker collapsing! A plane crashing right on to the main characters! A chase through a ruined town spookily lit by swinging flares! A fall into a raging river! A ridiculous run along the front line just as the soldiers are going over the top, making such a thing more difficult to negotiate than the trenches themselves. Realistic this film is not. At least with a movie like Saving Private Ryan the action sequences were in service of an interesting plot that had some basis in fact. Here they're just shoved in for no good reason.
To me, it's a shame. There must be a million actual, real-life WWI stories that haven't been told on film. Why didn't Sam Mendes tell one of them instead of going for this fiction?
Portals to Hell (2019)
Not great
It's less "Portals to Hell" and more "Portals to Nothing". Nothing really convincing or interesting, at any rate. Jack and Katrina are doing a great job of proving that ghosts don't exist.
Ghost Chasers (2016)
Irritating
This show gets several black marks against it. Firstly, there's a "medium" on the team. That immediately puts me off; they're all frauds, who either know it or are so delusional they actually believe in their own "abilities". Unlike the superior Ghost Adventures, it's humourless. Lastly, the makers' grasp of science is laughable. Here's how their captions describe electromagnetism, one of the four basic forces of nature:
"Phenomenon on how atoms interact. AKA 'The Force' in Star Wars. Scientists believe it can alter space and time."
These captions had me alternately laughing with derision and frowning in incredulity.
The best thing about this show is the hot main presenter, Kay Nambiar. I'd gladly see more of him on any type of show.
It Chapter Two (2019)
I've seen episodes of Sesame Street that are scarier
The start of this film is okay, but it descends into farce. It becomes such a CGI-ed, laughable mess I had to switch it off before the end.
The best thing about it is Stephen King playing the role of a shopkeeper opposite James McAvoy. It's more than a cameo; the role is quite lengthy for a non-actor. Sadly, it serves as a reminder of how King's novel is much more bearable than this turkey of a movie.
IT ends? Thank God for that.
The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire (2017)
A damning documentary
An eye-opening documentary about just how corrupt the City of London and its offshore tax havens are, how a system of secret trusts and shell companies allows the wealthy and businesses to evade tax, and how their banks and accountancy firms have infiltrated British government, subverting democracy so it works against the interests of the people.
The final narration of the doc sums it up:
"The City of London was the beating financial heart of the British Empire. As Britain's Empire declined, the City transformed itself from a hub operating the financial machinery of Empire into a global financial centre. Former insignificant outposts of Empire became the basis for a spider's web of offshore secrecy jurisdictions that captured wealth from across the globe and funnelled it to the City of London.
Today 25% of international finance is conducted on British territory. Almost half of all the world's secrecy jurisdictions are under British protection. Up to half of all offshore wealth may be hidden in Britain's offshore havens.
Financial services are how Britain's elites make their money, and also where former government ministers, senior civil servants and retired spooks from MI5 and MI6 receive lucrative consulting positions after their time in public service. Together they have transformed Britain and its dependencies into the world's largest tax haven, harming development throughout the world, and turning Britain itself into a country that serves, above all, the interests of its elites."
It's a damning documentary. You pay your fair share of taxes. The rich do not. That is the society Britain has created.
They Look Like People (2015)
A gripping film about paranoia and schizophrenia
I enjoyed this film, thanks largely to a script that doesn't drag things out too much and two excellent performances by the male leads. They have real chemistry together, which is important for the final act, during which one of them gives himself over to an incredible act of trust. Only the actors' performances make the ending believable.
There are lots of themes involved. Paranoia. Schizophrenia. Friendship. Belief. It's more of a psychological film than a horror film. As long as you're not expecting an out-and-out horror/action film with endless explosions and special effects, you'll probably find that it's a taut, impressive movie that effortlessly keeps you watching and guessing.
The Boys (2019)
Superpowers corrupt
What a great antidote to the never-ending kiddie-friendly cavalcade of Marvel and DC movies this series is. It isn't for kids. Karl Urban, who is brilliant as the foul-mouthed Brit Butcher, emphasises this in the first episode, during which he utters the C word at least three times.
The Boys is perfect for anyone who's sick and tired of having to sit through yet another awful Avengers movie.
Midsommar (2019)
Middling Midsommar
As a fan of the director's previous feature film, Hereditary, I perhaps expected too much. Basically, the film is too long, too pretentious and too predictable. Before I saw the film I guessed the visiting students would be used by the commune either as human sacrifices or for reproduction, to add to the commune's gene pool. In fact, both of these things happen, with the boyfriend of the main character - in what amounts to a rape scene - being drugged into sex, and everyone else except the main character being killed and burnt in a ceremonial sacrifice.
But the film takes too long to get there. I found my attention wandering quite a few times. What's great about Ari Aster is that he knows horror films made today need to concentrate on atmosphere, and creating striking, disturbing visuals that stay with you. All horror tropes have been done to death by now, so you have to go this way, though it's something plenty of directors don't seem to know. I'm all for slowing things down and not turning a movie into a trashy slasher film, but there's a limit. The foreboding atmosphere in Midsommar isn't strong enough, and the disturbing visuals get lost amid so much padding.
Midsommar isn't a bad film - I get the feeling Aster doesn't have a bad film in him - but it's not overly special. It's just middling.
Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019)
For Alien aficionados
If you believe some of the reviews on IMDb, you'll think the second half of this documentary is some kind of feminist rant. It's not. Some of the documentary's interviewees merely mention misogyny and feminism, which isn't so unusual considering the themes of Alien include rape and pregnancy, and considering the movie gave us one of the most famous female action heroines in cinema history in the form of Ellen Ripley. Why do some reviewers believe the second half of this doc is a feminist rant? Because that's when they switched it off. That's how sad and pathetic those reviewers are. Clearly they have no females in their lives they feel inclined to stand up for.
If you love Ridley Scott's Alien as much as I do, you'll undoubtedly enjoy this documentary, though more casual fans might find it too in-depth. You might want to steer clear of it if you can't bear hearing mention of the word "misogyny" too.
Real men support feminism. They don't feel threatened by it and frightened of it like some of the snivelling incel reviewers on IMDb obviously do.